Schooling

Blue.....again! Much to Erin's
disgust but good for me - no colour
changes.  4 schools - all blue.

Both the girls have started school here in Katherine and it is amazing how different the experience can be despite the education system now being under the national curriculum criteria.  For the last two years for Erin and one year for Becca, they have been attending a combined kindy, primary and high school which was one of the biggest in regional Western Australia.  This was one of only two schools in the Kununurra district, the other being St Josephs primary school which was a self funded private school.  There were close to 1000 students at Kununurra District High School and despite that huge number, the school ran very well with separate faculty staff for the two levels of primary and high school.  The percentage of indigenous students in Kununurra was about 40% and there were programs in place to encourage attendance of those indigenous students.  If kids didn't live in town, they would be picked up and dropped home by bus.  Save the Children charity would also run a bus which would pick indigenous kids up in town so they would at least get to school.
Since moving to Katherine, our choice of schools has increased to five primary and one high school.  Of those primary schools, only one is private also being called St Josephs.  Katherine is divided into regions or suburbs if you like, those being Katherine north, south and east with the majority of those primary schools, and the high school, being in Katherine east.  We have settled in Katherine north and so the girls are going to Clyde Fenton Primary School named after the first man to become a flying doctor in the NT.  Thankfully again we are within walking distance to school which is only a couple of blocks from Knotts Crossing Resort.  The school has only 270 students and is a major change from a school with 1000 students. 
During morning assembly the entire school fits into a small undercover area and after school, the grounds are deserted within minutes after the bell goes.  In Kununurra it was chaos for at least 20 minutes after the siren with kids, cars and bikes going everywhere.  The design of the school classrooms is open space simply because the school was built in the 70's when that style of teaching was encouraged.  The class structure is peculiar with all the classes being split over two year levels.  There are a number of 1/2 classes, 3/4 classes and 5/6 classes but no single class levels.  The procedures within the school are quite similar to those in Ingham North Queensland when we were there and the starting and finishing times are slightly different to Kununurra.  School starts with an assembly at 8.15am and classes finish at 2.45pm which is about 30 minutes longer than Kununurra.  The school has a biweekly all school assembly with a smaller year level assembly on the opposing Friday which is the same as Kununurra.  The rewards system is similar with 'thumbs up' cards being handed out for positive behaviour and good choices which is similar to the 'faction card' system in Kununurra.  Attendance and reading awards are also distributed at the assemblies as they were in Kununurra.  I attended the all school assembly last week and saw a very different award being handed out called the honours merit award.  Kids at CFS collect the 'thumbs up' cards and when they have ten, they receive a merit award.  Once they have achieved 100 'thumbs up' cards equating to 10 merit awards they receive the honours award.  The child sits at the front of the assembly on a chair with a robe over their shoulder.  In the lead up to their award they answer some questions asked by the deputy principal about personal likes, dislikes and achievements which are read out during the ceremony.  Then friends of the award recipient are asked to come up and tell the school some positive comments about their friend.  Then the parents and siblings, who stand behind their child while they receive the award, are also asked to contribute some comments about their child/brother/sister.  Last weeks award winners sister decided to tell the school that her brother liked to sing in the shower.........very embarrassing!  I'm pretty sure that Steve and I will never have to do that as Erin would do anything not to be put up in front of the school like that.  Becca would be full of embarrassing feedback about her older sister.
The girls have again been placed in sporting colours to represent the school which is something all the schools have done.  The names for these sports teams however, is different across the schools the girls have attended.  In Ingham the sports teams were named after famous explorers of the area, Erin being in the blue team called Dalrymple.  The red team was Scott and the yellow team was Hunter.  In Kununurra, the sports teams (or factions as they were called) were named after plants of the area.  Erin and Becca were in the red team called Poinciana, while there was green called boab and white called Whitegum.  Many families complained in Kununurra about having the boring colour of white in a sporting team.  The blue sports team was named Ord after the Ord River.  Here in Katherine, the sports teams are named after birds of the area.  Erin and Becca are in the green team called Jabiru, while there is blue called Kingfisher, yellow called Brolga and an orange team called Pelican.  I've never seen orange in sports colours before but the kids seem to love wearing them.   In fact many of the kids wear their sports colours more often than the blue school uniform as they love the colours.
The sirens in each school that Erin has attended have been markedly different.  In Mapleton, the bell was actually a bell which was rung by older students during the day.  Every morning and afternoon the bell would be rung to let students know what time it was whether it be recess, lunch or hometime.  In Ingham the siren sounded like a horn at a football match.  In Kununurra, the siren sounded like an air-raid siren as those people in WW2 would have heard.  It was very harsh and used to scare Becca when we would go and pick Erin up from school before she started herself.   The siren at school here in Katherine is the 'bing bong bong bong' type like one hears in airports before an announcement is made.  I'm still waiting for the announcement when I hear that sound.  Clyde Fenton Primary has a PA system which can be heard all over the school grounds and in the classrooms so any announcements from the front office are relayed to everyone at once.  It is a bit distracting in class though.  The school has an open class policy whereby parents can sit in on classes and watch their kids performances in class.  I have already sat in on a class where Erin had to read in front of her class for marks.  She did very well.
Meeting parents in school has always been achievable for me because many parents will, at some stage, pick up or drop off their kids at school.  I am finding, however, that Katherine is different especially with Erin's friends because most of her age group now walk themselves to and from class to parents' waiting in cars.  Even Becca's class in which parents have to physically pick them up are not producing many opportunities for meeting parents as many of the littlies catch the bus to either another suburb in town or to rural areas.  I have met a couple of parents through Erin's friendships at school so that might have to be the case with Becca although Becca's age group don't seem to bug for playovers and are just happy to catch up at school.  We'll see.
Schools in Katherine, Ingham and Mapleton all have inter school swimming programs which are state subsidised and run as part of the school curriculum in terms 1 and 4 during the wet/hot season.  Kununurra was the only school not to run such a program which was a huge omission on the states' part.  Queensland and the NT governments realise and understand that children residing in these states experience almost year round warm weather and so the need for a swimming program is paramount.   I did feel that in Western Australia, such programs were omitted because the southern part of the state influenced the bulk of the decisions and Perth doesn't experience year round warm weather.  I felt that the northern districts were somewhat overlooked in this regard which is a pity.  WA is the only state where the climate stretches from temperate to tropical but sadly the temperate seems to dominate the decision making and the tropical part of the state, which is more affiliated with NT and North Queensland misses out on vital programs such as this.
Lunchtime at school in these northern tropical regions is always a balancing act between giving your kids a healthy lunch and not giving them food poisoning.  Keeping lunches cool has always been a challenge for me where-ever we have lived and Katherine is no different although I have had to change my packing strategy.  I always have an ample supply of ice bricks for the girls' lunchboxes and freeze yoghurts so that they are still cool and edible once lunch or recess comes around.  Due to some weird procedure during the girls' upbringing for which I must be totally responsible, neither of them like a whole piece of fruit but prefer it cut up......as I said, that must be my fault somewhere along their upbringing.  Anyway, as a result, the girls get an orange, apple or carrot cut up and I usually place it in a Tupperware container.  Fruit such as pineapple and strawberries have always been stored in plastic containers that are easy to use at recess or lunch.  In Katherine however, the lunchtime or fruit time procedure is such that the kids eat outside and cannot gain access to the classroom or their bags to put plastic containers back in lunchboxes.  I have had to pack cut up fruit into glad wrap and alfoil so that this can be thrown away by the girls while they are out in the school yard.  I suppose the good thing is that their lunchboxes come home empty so there are no containers to wash up however lunch items that are better kept in containers are now packed in wrap.  The classrooms at Clyde Fenton School do have fridges specifically for lunchboxes which is a real bonus whereas Kununurra's classrooms relied on the airconditioning to keep lunchboxes cool which didn't always work.  Erin would quite often come home and say that her lunch had been less than cool.  Ingham and Mapleton had no airconditioning where the kids school bags were kept and no fridges for lunchboxes so I'm surprised that Erin survived her time there without food poisoning.  In Mapleton's defence, the temperature in the hinterland was nearly always much cooler with the exception of some extremely hot days which couldn't have been that hot because I always walked to school pushing Becca in the pram to pick Erin up.
Anyway this blog has not been a whinge on my part but just a self reminder that nothing is set in stone as far as daily routines go and that there is always need for a rethink when one shifts to somewhere different.  Something as simple as school lunch and recess can require some rearranging of routines because each school does it differently.  In some respects though, the similarities make it easy when one starts somewhere different.  As our family was being shown around Clyde Fenton School a few weeks back and the school routine was being explained, at least I could think.....'yes that is similar to here or there' or if not, then we had something to work on and become familiar with.  The ongoing learning curve continues.

Wildlife

One might say that there would not be a lot of difference between the wildlife around us in Katherine as compared to Kununurra but there are subtle differences which we are noticing about the animals themselves and people's reactions to them.  The cane toad, which is just as much of a pest here as across the border in WA does stir different reactions in the community.  Cane toads have been in the NT since the mid 80's and people are less reactive to them here in Katherine although there are still programs in place to control them.  They have become more of a sport as locals dream up new ways of eradicating them although welfare groups are quick to deter such behaviour.  In WA however, there was almost panic about cane toads being in Kununurra.  In some respects it was a natural reaction as their migration across the border was something that WA had been trying hard to prevent and so their appearance in Kununurra was seen as a disaster.  There are signs up everywhere in WA for travellers to keep watch for 'stow away' cane toads in their vans or vehicles.  In reality, the numbers of cane toads that have crossed the border via vehicles is minimal compared to those that have just migrated under their own steam over that invisible line in the bush.  As a newcomer to the state, cane toads have instilled a totally different reaction in the community of Kununurra as compared to Katherine's more low key reaction due to the cane toads long term habitation of NT. 
Size was another interesting factor.  Some toads we have seen around our caravan park have been of a size which we rarely saw in Kununurra.  There are some monstrous examples of 'dinner plate' sized toads but the numbers of toads visible around the area are less than what we saw in Kununurra.  At night, if we walked around the caravan park in Kununurra, toads would be moving around and be quite visible but smaller in size.  In Katherine we see less toads in general but their sizes are markedly bigger.

Little frog on a 2kg gas bottle

Our toilet frog on a towel rail

The effects of cane toads on another amphibian of the Top End are also different.  Green tree frog sightings around us here in Katherine are greater than in Kununurra.  During our first wet season in WA, we saw green tree frogs around our site and over at the toilet block but once the cane toads had established themselves, the green tree frogs virtually disappeared.  They were still around but their numbers seemed much less than the previous year.  Here in Katherine it is almost as if the cycle of frogs versus toads over 30 years has come full circle and they now cohabit without one or the other being affected.  Our ensuite building has a regular green tree frog resident sitting on our towel rail or on the bench and they frequent our undercover gazebo at night catching the bugs which are attracted to our lighting.  When it rains, a male GTF calls to anyone who's listening from on top of our annex and makes a raucous noise.  Many people of the Top End consider GTF's a pest themselves because they clog up drainpipes and toilets and poop everywhere.  This is true of the little green critters but as a relative newcomer to life in the tropics, I still like having them around.

Our gazebo insect catcher

The next little critter to have impacted on our lives again is the ant.  In Kununurra, our site under three massive trees meant that it was inevitable that ants were going to be around.  We were most affected by green ants which built huge nests in the tree branches from dead leaves and their own sticky concoction of glue.  They eventually used our caravan as an ant highway travelling from one tree to another along the roof, ropes, tarps and whatever else was available.  There were times when I would go out to hang washing on the line only to be swarmed by them on the ground as they searched for new leaves to add to their nests.  One time Steve put and empty dog food tin in the outside rubbish bag we had hanging in the gazebo.  By the next morning we had been overrun by green ants which had swarmed our entire bbq area seeking out the meaty treat in a tin.  It took days for them to finally get the message that there was no food available anymore during which time we could barely use our cooking area due to the swarm.  We had been warned about the dreaded green ant and it's nasty bite but in all honesty, it wasn't as bad as it was portrayed.  The green ants we cohabitated with didn't have a sting but instead would bite and then squirt formic acid from its abdomen into the bite which would cause some discomfort but not the excruciating pain that everyone talked about.  These ants however, would rarely come into the van.   They were not ants that sought human food as their main diet was other insects and grubs. 
Here in Katherine however, we have discovered a new ant to cohabit with.  Ginger ants (or the tropical fire ant) are tiny little brown ants which have become quite hard to live with since we arrived on our site.  Whenever we have stayed in the cabins at Knotts Crossing in the past, there have been signs placed in the cabins asking guests to put all food in the fridge or in airtight containers to prevent ginger ants contaminating food.  Now I understand what they meant.  My pantry has become a little treasure trove for these annoying pests.  In the past, I have put any half opened packets into a sealable glad bag to stop ants and keep the food reasonably fresh.  Potato chips, biscuits, coconut and sugar products kept fairly well in these bags until I had room in my containers.  I have only a limited amount of space for plastic containers to hold food so sometimes the bags were the best alternative.  Ginger ants are the 'houdinis' of the ant world and have managed to breach my sealed bags and spoil the food inside.   Now I will have to use airtight containers to store items I never really had to separate before.  This means that the jigsaw puzzle that is my pantry will go to a whole new level.
I had another rather unpleasant experience recently with ginger ants which I wasn't expecting.  I grabbed my towel after a shower and started to dry off before feeling like acid was burning my skin.  When I looked in the mirror, I was covered in ginger ants which were on my towel.  They had been attracted to something on my towel and were lurking in the pile so I didn't see them.  I brushed them off quickly but then came up in huge lumps where they had bitten me.  My neck, face and under my arms were red, itchy lumps within minutes and today I am covered with noticeable bites.  Not only is this annoying little ant a human food scavenger but it seems to have a nasty bite which causes a severe reaction.  I can only imagine that there must have been something sweet like toothpaste on my towel which attracted them but the experience was not nice.  I'm just grateful that they weren't on the girls towels when they used them after showering because it would have been nasty for them.  So it has become apparent to me that size definitely does not mean savagery in the ant world.  Small and mighty seems to be more appropriate in this case with the tiny ginger ant being far more nasty in bite and habits than the green ant.  It's going to be a continual war with these little critters I'm sure until we can find some way to live together without them annoying me or causing harm.

Mean green prickly critter

Recently, Becca was investigating another little critter when she received a nasty and painful sting.  There is a little grub or maybe a caterpillar which can be found around our site with all the armoury to demonstrate danger but also the stinging punch to back it up.  In nature, caterpillars tend to look fierce and threatening to keep predators away but in reality it's just a bluff.  Not this little green critter though.  It looks nasty and it feels nasty too.  Becca and I have come up in swollen whelts where this critter has touched our skin and caused a painful sting as well.

Not a grasshopper but a large dive
bomber nonetheless

Insect life here seems to take on either a miniature form or gigantic proportions.  Grasshoppers which congregate under the gazebo at night are huge.  Big enough to knock one senseless if they come your way as they do so frequently while I'm sitting outside at night.  I must have a target on me somewhere.  Brindle takes great pleasure in trying to chase one down while Karki regularly makes a meal of one.  It's far more acceptable finding a half eaten grasshopper on the annex doorstep as opposed to geckoes which have been unfortunately preyed on by our little tiger cat. 
Speaking of reptiles, we have not seen many lizards at all since settling here but Steve did come across an 8 foot brown snake one night just outside the park's boundary fence while walking the dog.  It had a girth of about 10 cm in diameter and it wasn't a python.  It was laying across the grass path outside the fence in the pitch darkness.  It was lucky that Steve was carrying a torch so he skirted around the large critter especially making sure that the dog didn't attempt to investigate. The snake wasn't interested in moving either.  Steve said that Brindle didn't appear to be overly interested in it which was lucky.  This experience just demonstrates that snakes are likely to be out at night in the tropics because it is still warm enough for them to be active.
The birdlife doesn't seem to be as prolific around our site in Katherine but then we were living near a national park in Kununurra so that's a no brainer really.  We are lucky enough though to have a nice outlook again from our site in Katherine.  Over the back fence of the caravan park is a massive open space which was once Katherine's airstrip.  From 1945 to 1975 air traffic landed behind our site and the once busy terminal is now the site of the towns' aviation museum.  All air traffic shifted to Tindal Air Force base when that was established in the 70's.  Having a great open space behind us allows us the opportunity to watch a different bird which we regularly heard but seldom saw in Kununurra.  The rainbird or pheasant coucal flits around in the long grass during the morning and evenings calling the rain.  It isn't a very good flyer because it has a very long tail but can fly in short bursts between low trees and shrubs.  It is reputed to bring rain when it calls which sometimes feels true but it's not consistent.  Little finches and wrens perch in the boundary fence wire at the back of our site and parrots frequent the trees around the caravan park.  The greater bowerbird also can be seen and heard around the park although I haven't found a bower yet.  I think it would probably be on the ground of the open space over the fence.  I did however find a very interestingly placed bower on a recent drive out to Edith Falls national park where a bowerbird had built his bower under a picnic bench.

A clever Edith Falls NP
bowerbird

No shortage of macropods

Having such a lot of open land behind us attracts wallabies by the dozens.  In the evenings they are everywhere around the old airstrip and graze during the night on the grass that surrounds the caravan park.  I wouldn't know what they are doing in the morning as I am up before the sun and bleary eyed for at least an hour by which time the wallabies would be all in the shade.  I know that they graze close to the boundary fence behind us because while I was sitting outside one night reading I heard the thump, thumping sound of them hopping nearby although it was too dark to see anything.
Perhaps our most fascinating encounter with wildlife since arriving in Katherine has been with fireflies.  We took the dog for a walk one Friday night after dark and did a circuit down the airstrip and across Gorge road then behind the cemetery and hospital.  There was no lighting on this path and the lightning was the only light flashing around us from a distant storm.  As we walked along I noticed what looked like escaping embers from a fire.  Our walking along the path was disturbing the fireflies and sending them flying into the air and glowing as they went.  Neither myself or the girls had ever seen them before and it was fantastic to watch these little glows of light flitting around us as we walked.  Becca decided that they were little 'Tinkerbells' flying around us.  Again we have experienced some new wildlife but also seen the usual suspects of the tropics but with different antics and habits as compared to our last home in Kununurra.  Let it continue.

Moving On......Again!

The time has come to leave Kununurra, to deconstruct our home of the last 18 months and move onto other pastures....not necessarily greener but different.  Whatever the situation,  we had made the best of our site and so it was comfortable for us and not unpleasant.  One problem......we have again accumulated stuff due to different circumstances surrounding our living arrangements.  Our site in Hidden Valley caravan park was certainly different and we tended to follow the lead of others already settled in the park who knew the weather conditions better than us.  Our dirt annex floor became a raised wooden platform made from shipping pallets and ply board to prevent flooding.   An airconditioner which had been essential during our time in the tropics to keep the annex (and kids area) cool was purchased.  Tarps were erected over the van and annex structure for several reasons.  Firstly to divert some of the wet season rainfall off our caravan roof and also to lessen the fallout from overhead tree branches, falling mango fruit and bad fruit bat table manners.  Some fake turf was laid to give us a dirt free area to enter the annex and give us clean extra undercover space during rain.   We erected a fence around the whole site to keep cats and dogs in while giving us some privacy. All these projects required a funding input to wipe out the national debt and as a result could not be left behind.  Star pickets, rolls of wire, fake turf, ply board (those which hadn't been eaten by termites) and tarps (expensive and well made) were all dismantled and packed away.
Steve had purchased a cheap 6x4 box trailer to tow our new additions so we added my washing machine to the list which we never usually carry to our next destination.  It has become our little garden shed on wheels.  It would be an ideal way to keep Steve's tools and our camping equipment stored securely and without being weather affected.  Up until this time, all these items had been stored on pallets under the van to keep them out of the weather.  Our main headache with dismantling everything was where to start.  Being January and the middle of the wet season meant some strategic decisions had to be made in case of torrential downpours of minutes, hours or days.  Thankfully the wet season in the top end of Australia this year has been quite disappointing in regards to rain, thunderstorms and cyclones.  Little of this meteorological activity has graced our countryside this year or if it has, it hasn't been around where we have been living.  We must have had our big meteorological event last year with the Kununurra floods.  We were grateful for small mercies.  Packing up in the rain would have been fairly uncomfortable.

Steve ripping up annex floor

Our life in piles under the awning

I tended to want to be systematic about our packing but Steve's understanding of systematic was different to mine.  I wanted to clear out the annex and pack all the boxes into their appropriate vehicle before dismantling the structure itself but Steve dismantled the annex and the floor first leaving plastic tubs, boxes, mats, beanbags, tables and anything else in the annex balancing on kids stools, bits of timber and whatever waterproof tubs were around to keep them out of the dirt.  It was quite stressful especially when on the afternoon of his pull down it decided to rain and so some serious water mitigation had to be undertaken to stop the rainwater flowing into the annex area.

Termite damage to pallets

Termite damage to ply board

My next strategy was to dismantle the perimeter fence later rather than sooner so that the pets had free rein for as long as possible before chains, harnesses and leads needed to be applied.  With all the stuff lying everywhere and knowing how Pirie is around shifting, it would have been a constant game of cross-stitch with us having to unhook, weave and pull her out of every nook and cranny as she loves to explore.  Again Steve's system took priority and so that was the next job that was done.  I didn't see the point in tying myself to the fence like some over eager 'greenie' to try and stop the early destruction so just went with it.  So we had animals on leads and chains in amongst boxes, tubs, mats, camping gear and beanbags and no perimeter fence to keep animals in and looters out should our trash look like treasure to someone else.  I wasn't so worried about the residents in the caravan park but there had been sightings and reports of indigenous men wandering around the caravan park in the middle of the night going through people's stuff.  Great timing.  This coincided with the male manager being evicted from his job and the caravan park for improper use of caravan park property.......namely using the work ute to go fishing in Wyndham amongst other things.

Dismantling gazebos

Unfenced and exposed

Our older neighbour, who doesn't sleep well, disturbed a couple of black fellas walking through his annex on the night before our fence went down and other residents had drinks and food stolen out of their fridges in their annexes.  A chocolate bar even went missing.  If nothing else, at least these people only seemed to be after 'grog' and food.  We didn't find out about this until after we had pulled down the fence. 
As we pulled things down and brought things outside, we made piles of what to keep and what to throw away.  A quite substantial mound of rubbish started piling up on the edge of the site.  Nearby residents approached and asked what was available to scab for their own site structures.  Some of our most useful items have been scabbed from piles of stuff left by backpackers over the past couple of seasons.  Backpackers are excellent scabbers and manage to obtain second hand lounges and cupboards for their sites while they work in the district although we didn't scab items that large.  Steve's main treasure from backpacker trash are things like milk crates, plastic shopping baskets and he even scored a collapsible delivery crate used to deliver Coles or Woolies groceries.  This would have been brought in from out of town as Kununurra has no home delivery system.  All handy items for holding tools and other stuff.  By the time we finished, we had a pile for people to take and a pile of rubbish.
In the past, especially with the backpackers, they have just vacated their site early and left the rubbish which was usually cleaned up by the caravan park managers.  Being the conscience person that Steve is, he was going to get lumbered with a fee for the caravan park to dump the rubbish because we are never organised enough to sneak out early.  Instead, Steve negotiated with the owner to fix the clutch on his small tractor in exchange for leaving the rubbish for the park to dispose of.  A good deal considering the time and financial cost of dumping the rubbish out of town at the dump which charges a small fortune.  Late one afternoon therefore, Steve and Erin went down to the workshop and fixed the tractor which took less than an hour.  I did have reservations about the 'clutch fixing' deal as sometimes what seems like a simple task can turn into a monolithic nightmare which takes hours or days to rectify.  Thankfully Steve managed to get the tractor moving again but did inform the owner that the clutch was on it's last legs and would need replacing in the near future.  Not bad for a tractor that has been running for 20+ years without major mechanical faults.

Back to where we started

There is something quite satisfying about bringing a site back to it's virginal appearance especially when so many structures had been built on it, but it's a lot of hard work.  Once the caravan, two vehicles and a trailer were the only things left standing, we drove off with the Subaru and the Landrover towing the trailer to take our first load of supplies to Katherine.  It might sound ridiculous to do two trips to Katherine but when we priced a tow bar for the Subaru, it was actually cheaper to drive two vehicles the 500 kilometres to Katherine, stay the night in Katherine and drive the Landrover back to Kununurra to pick up the caravan.  A gold plated Subaru tow bar or fuel, food and accommodation over two days.  A no brainer really one would think but who would expect a piece of vehicle hardware to be so expensive.  It was probably more about the postage/shipping costs for one to be sent from Melbourne via Brisbane then over to Perth and then up to Kununurra via the Canning Stock Route etc etc.  Oh well.....we Arseoels love to drive.
Once in Katherine we hired a cabin for the night at Knotts Crossing Resort which was where we would set up the caravan.  Strangely enough, when I googled 'caravan parks in Katherine' 18 months ago, this place did not come up and it was only after talking to other travellers that we knew it existed.  It is an amazing place in that it has motel rooms, cabins, workers quarters, powered caravan sites and allows pets in a resort like garden setting with massive mahogany trees and palms.  We have been using Knotts Crossing as our half way point whenever we ventured to Darwin so was familiar with its surroundings.  There are also two pools and a restaurant.  All of the powered caravan sites have their own ensuite toilet and shower building nearby and long term or permanent stays are allowed.  We have found that the cost of accommodation and rent in the top end of Australia is so expensive that many people live in caravan parks on a permanent basis because it is cheaper.
We walked around the caravan park with a map from the office to investigate where we might put down roots for a while.  There are lots of things to consider.  Shade, space around the site, neighbours, aspect to the sun, distance to the pool etc etc.  Then one looks at the finer details like walking around the caravan to the ensuite as opposed to having the ensuite on the 'door side' of the van or will I break my neck or stub my toe on that piece of lifted concrete slab where the annex goes.  These may sound like trifles but when you are going to spend an extended amount of time in one place, it has to be weighed up what one will tolerate and what one won't.  Such are the finer things about caravan life.  After careful consideration and approaches from several residents about the pros and cons of the site nearest to them (some of which, I swear, were to put us off shifting next to them) we had a couple of finalists.  One site had everything in our favour but limited shade while another site had shade but not many other aspects in its' favour.  So to shade or not to shade, that was the question.  We decided on 'little shade' and parked the trailer and Subaru on site to reserve our position and paid the first week's rent at the office.  Shade did cover the site but not until 3pm so it was a question of whether we could tolerate the full sun or not for most of the day.
We zipped back to Kununurra the next day and pulled down the last few items such as the satellite tv (a necessity in a town surrounded by ranges).  Steve dug up the water hoses and electrical cords which had been buried under the gravel road for the extent of our stay in Kununurra because the power and water points were across the road from our site.  He then hooked up the caravan and moved it off the site so that he could rake it and make it neat and tidy.  The next morning, after some last minute goodbyes, we drove out of Kununurra (for hopefully not the last time) to head for Katherine.  The Landrover was untested towing our 3.5 tonne monstrosity but it did so really well.  We arrived at Victoria River roadhouse in Gregory National Park later that afternoon and stopped for the night knowing that Steve was really tired after not sleeping properly for days.  We set up in the campground on a powered site and had the entire place to ourselves (apart from the wallabies grazing all over the lawn areas).  It was early enough for some down time.  We sat on a piece of carpet dragged out of the van because our camp chairs were packed in the trailer in Katherine.  Oh well......travel is always a learning curve no matter how often you have done it before and we must have been out of practise.  The girls played while Steve and I sat and watched while throwing a ball to the dog and untangling cats from where-ever they were tied up.  There was no phone service and no tv so after dinner and showers, it was straight to bed......yay!, an early night for a change.
With only 180 kilometres to travel the next morning, it was a relaxed departure from Victoria River where, for the first time, I had managed to see the escarpment country in full reddy orange glory due to the morning sun.  Usually we have driven through this part of the country in the afternoon or at night and so I have only ever seen afternoon shadows on this part of the Gregory National Park.  There were a couple of tense moments where the caravan did a Mexican wave due to nasty 'tram tracks' in the road.  Tram tracks are where the bitumen softens and gets pushed up by traffic during extremely hot weather to form mounds in the road.  Once our dual axle caravan got over those mounds, it became quite messy and had our full attention for a few seconds.  We stopped further down the road when the adrenalin settled to check the inside of the van.  As we opened the door, cat litter snowed onto our feet and a further glance saw two drawers popped out on the floor with plates, bowls and saucepans everywhere.  Thank goodness for melamine and stainless steel.  A quick cleanup had us on the move in no time. 
Within sniffing distance of Katherine, but not quite in phone service, the car started overheating which lead to a hasty stop on the roadside.  We then crawled along the edge of the highway until we found a pull off into the scrub and rolled off the road.  I decided to make lunch while Steve let the car cool down and tried to diagnose the problem.  It was a mystery which had us discussing what options we had to get the last 30 kilometres into Katherine.  Do we drop the van, get the car into town and then hire a 4WD to collect the van or do we get the whole combination towed into town or do we slowly amble into town taking our chances that the car engine won't be ruined.  Leaving any vehicle on the side of the highway in the top end of Australia is fraught with danger as the indigenous people take pride in stripping cars, 4WDs, trailers and caravans of anything useful in no time flat if given the opportunity so we decided to take our chances getting everything into town.  We puttered along at 30kph, driving off the road whenever a vehicle came along so they didn't have to slow down or negotiate an overtaking manoeuvre past us.  We stopped several times to check the water level in the car but had no further problems and reached Katherine safely and with a sigh of relief.

Backed into our Katherine site

Necessary shade erection

View of lovely grass surrounds

Once on our caravan site, Steve and I did the usual ritual of forward, backward, left, right, too much, not enough until we felt comfortable with where the van was.  Over the next few days we cautiously unpacked the essentials for comfort until our home again resembled a small Taj Mahal with tarps, gazebos, cables and shadecloth trying its best to provide as much shade for us as possible.  Plastic tubs of books, toys, craft and games were slowly introduced back to the girls.  As it was, Becca was so glad to see her stuff again that she almost overdosed on them.  There was kids stuff from one side of the annex to the other.  In a very short time, we felt settled and content with our surroundings.  There were so many positives with our new 'digs' that it became like home quite quickly.  There was grass with pop up sprinklers, a cement slab, curbing to direct water, a bin closeby, an ensuite toilet/shower on site which we didn't need but all the sites have them.  There was a washing line and plenty of power points to plug in my washing machine which didn't need to be in the annex anymore.  We haven't erected fences at this stage but the dog is well behaved for the most part and the cats are coping ok with their harnesses and leads although star pickets and gazebo legs make great loom band practise.  Our neighbours have quickly become used to Brindle's style of greeting......a mad rush towards them while barking and hair up followed by a whole body and tail wag.  Only one of the gardeners has told her to 'f*#%k off you mongrel dog' as he walked onto the neighbouring site to put on a sprinkler.  There will always be, however, that nagging worry in the back of our minds as to whether we will have to pack it all up again and continue our travels somewhere else.  Lets hope Steve has some flying luck here.

A semi permanent home

The almost final settlement



Scenic Helicopter Flight

Since coming away on this grand journey and adventure, Steve has started a tradition of sorts totally unexpectedly.  It has been his wish and goal since gaining his helicopter licence to fly our family over the places where we have lived.  This is so we can not only get a perspective of our adopted homes from the ground but also from the air.  It never really dawned on me until this leg of our adventure just how special and important that idea is.   Our first foray into this tradition was the Fraser Island flight soon after Steve graduated from flight school and most of my blog followers would remember that.  We wanted to see Fraser Island from the air after spending a week camping on the island itself earlier that year.  On our return from that trip we flew over Mapleton and Nambour where we had lived for the last ten months.  We were able to do this because the flight school hired a helicopter to Steve which enabled us to do the scenic flight.
While we were in Ingham, Steve gained an endorsement (machine specific licence) in an R44 helicopter through an aviation company in the town.  That company then hired the same helicopter to Steve to allow us to see Ingham from the air.  Steve's mum was visiting us at the time and it was the wet season in January.  The weather on the day we had picked to fly was patchy to say the least with sunny breaks intermingled with scuds.  A scud is neither a tennis player or a missile but a nasty storm burst with heavy rain.  Steve had gained some experience in the limited flying time he had in Ingham avoiding these nasty little cloud formations when he flew between Ingham and Tully. 
On this day, someone had to stay behind with Becca as she had developed a fear of helicopters thanks to an incident back in Mackay after the accident.  The pilot whose house we were staying in decided to test the aerodynamics of his newly rebuilt Jetranger helicopter over the house.  Tree top fly buys and sharp spray turns mid air over the house freaked Becca out after which she wouldn't go near a helicopter for a while.  I opted to stay behind with Becca first while Steve took his mum and Erin up for a half hour flight and then his mum and I would swap so I could do some photography.  Unfortunately the weather turned nasty quite quickly towards the end of that half hour so we had to abandon the rest of the flight.  Thankfully Steve got the helicopter back just in time for the heavens to open up and a torrential downpour to prevent them from even getting the helicopter undercover.  Steve's mum took some great shots for me so I didn't completely miss out on seeing Ingham from the air but it just wasn't such a personal experience.
Here in Kununurra, there is plenty to see from the air and an aviation industry dedicated to showing tourists the great Kimberley region.  Despite the struggle for Steve to get an employment start here in the aviation industry, he continued to network with people who might be able to help his mission of getting us all into the air over Kununurra.  There were several people around town who owned their own helicopters for private or commercial use but their willingness to allow Steve to fly came down to insurance issues.  Being a low hour pilot is like being an under 21 year old car driver.  The insurance excess for inexperience is markedly higher than for experienced pilots.  In spite of this, one man in town eventually allowed Steve to fly his helicopter after background checks and an agreement to pay the extra 2.5% excess on top of his insurance should an incident occur.  That cost would be $2500 to us if the helicopter was damaged.  We dry hired the helicopter which means you just hire the machine and not a pilot......well we had our own!  The hire cost was literally the fuel which went into the tanks so there was no additional costs associated with hiring it. 

Doing checks before take-off

We picked a day in late November when the build up was in full swing and there wasn't any sign of the wet season yet.  The day was clear but very hot at 40+ degrees so we organised to take off early morning.  Steve had navigated a route for us to take to show us the best of Kununurra within the hour time limit that we could afford.  Erin sat up front with Steve and I sat in the back with Becca for two reasons.  Firstly the adult weights needed to be distributed in the helicopter which meant one in front and one in the back.  Secondly, I didn't feel comfortable with Becca in the back without my supervision just in case she needed help with her headphones or accidentally bumped open the door etc etc.  The kids had their doors on and locked while Steve and I had our doors off which is better for photography.

Mirima National Park or mini
Bungle Bungles

Once we took off, I had to acclimatise myself to heights which I hate and motion sickness which I also suffer from in small aircraft.  It has been the bane of my life since I went up in a light plane over Ayers Rock when I was 15 and spent the whole flight with my head in a sick bag while the pilot took all my photos.......mega embarrassing!  I love flying but it just doesn't love me.  I distracted myself with the magnificent scenery unfolding before me and just snapped away at anything and everything.  It was truly breathtaking scenery.  We flew over our caravan park home and the Mirima National Park then cross country to Lake Argyle where Steve circled around the islands, the dam and the resort.  It is only from this height that I could truly get some perspective of how massive Lake Argyle is.  It just goes on forever with no end in sight on the horizon.  We then followed the Ord River back from Lake Argyle to Kununurra winding along it's meandering channel through Carlton Gorge to Lake Kununurra and the Diversion Dam.

Our home - Hidden Valley
Caravan Park

Fruit lots near the Ord River
north of Kununurra

Unfortunately Erin was just as 'green' as me on this day and Steve had to land at one stage in the middle of a paddock to let her stretch her legs.  She was a little trouper though and never threw up.  I, on the other hand, found another use for my hat which was the only thing available to me at the time.  We had collected makeshift sick bags (plastic bread bags) before leaving home and then promptly left them at home.  Thank goodness for the hat.  For the record I did take 'Kwells' before taking off and they did nothing to settle my stomach.

The Diversion Dam across the Ord
River

The Diversion Dam creates Lake
Kununurra

Fast forward a month and it is after Christmas, some rain has fallen and the landscape is greener than our previous flight.  Steve's mum is visiting and it's her birthday so we've organised another flight to show her the magnificent Kimberley.  Steve navigated a slightly different route for us this time so we could see something different.  It had been raining intermittently for days and yet on this day the weather was perfect.  It was clear and ideal for flying as visibility was great and storm fronts were non-existent.  Again we took off early morning and flew across the agricultural areas north of Kununurra then followed the Dunham River down the Saw Ranges towards Halls Creek.  Steve wanted to show us a massive dam created to irrigate the expansive Kingston Rest property which was once dominated by cattle but was now lined with sandlewood plantations.

The Ord River with Lily Lagoon
and Kununurra

Elephant Rock - it looks like an
elephant laying down

Kununurra suburb of Lakeside on
Lake Kununurra

Mirima National Park formations

This time I sat in the front with Steve because I had never done so before and his mum and the two girls sat in the back.  I was happy with that because at least Becca had nanny and Erin to keep an eye on her and help her.  Although it turned out that Steve's mum was the one that needed helping.  We had encouraged her to leave her door off for better photography but the wind and vacuum pressure disrupted her headphones and hat which came off mid flight and was floating around in the bubble.  Disaster!!!  It is essential that anything with the potential to come loose or fly off during flight is to be left behind or tied down.  That's because anything sucked out of the helicopter has the real likelihood of hitting the tail rotor and causing a crash.  There was Steve and I trying to catch this pink Kununurra hat before it flew out the open door while Steve was trying to fly.  After a 'heart in mouth' moment, we managed to grab the hat and I jammed it under my foot to keep it secure.

Sandalwood plantations north
of Kununurra

Ivanhoe Crossing which originally
linked Kununurra and Wyndham

Up until this time, my stomach had played nicely and I was really enjoying the flight and the photography was awesome.  Then we turned 90 degrees and headed across the Carr Boyd Ranges to Lake Argyle which became bumpy due to the heat thermals rising off the rocks.  There goes my stomach again!  Luckily we had sick bags on hand this time because Steve just didn't land in time......not his fault either.  We took off again and flew over Lake Argyle from another direction which afforded us some amazing views.  We managed to pick out some outstanding dry waterfalls which would have looked spectacular if flowing.  After a circle of the resort and top dam, we again followed the Ord River towards Kununurra flying over Elephant Rock and the suburb of Lakeside near Lake Kununurra.  Our final few minutes flying was spent overlooking Mirima National Park and the many outcrops dotted around the agricultural areas.


Agricultural areas south of
Kununurra on the Ord River

Our family objective to fly over the Kimberley has been achieved and the tradition carries on.  We did not know if we were going to get the chance to do it and we were so glad that we did.  There is something altogether magnificent about seeing places from the air and the landscape and colours of the Kimberley didn't disappoint.  It is also about Steve being our pilot.  We could probably have flown with one of the aviation companies in town but that defeats the purpose of the flight.  Not only does Steve gain some flight time but we get our own personal tour which probably isn't on any other aviation itinerary and that makes it special to us because we get to see what we want to see.

The Saw Ranges south of
Kununurra

Heading towards Halls Creek

Flying over ranges towards
Lake Argyle

In all, I took around 400 photos over the two flights that we did and I am disappointed that I won't be able to share the bulk of them with my blog supporters but I will try my best to give you examples of the magnificence that we saw.

More Saw Range country

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Passing over Carr Boyd Range
toward Lake Argyle

The Pilot Dam to feed Kingston
Rest sandalwood plantations

An unknown gorge which would
create a waterfall in the wet

The Ord River winding through
Carr Boyd Ranges

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Upper Ord River winding past
Carlton Gorge

Lake Argyle from the west

Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle from the north

 
 
 

A winding Ord River heading to
Kununurra

The top dam, resort and Ord River
at Lake Argyle

 
 
 
 
 
 

Ord River winding through
gorge country

Lake Argyle Resort overlooking
an endless lake

The expanse of the Ord River
flowing through the ranges

Upper Ord River winding past
Carlton Gorge.