Kakadu Camping Day 4 Much Later!

Aaaannnddd here we are almost two months later back home in Canada since October 4. A crazy October followed by a mournful November. More about all that in later blogs, or perhaps I will just move on. However, I do want to finish writing up our amazing trip to Australia July 26 to October 4. So let's start with a very simple summary of Day 4, the final day of our camping in Kakadu. I have quoted here the review I wrote for Trip Advisor. 

A wonderful and moving experience, not to be missed! As soon as Locky picked us up at Jabirru we were in for a treat. He obviously loves the land. We saw jabirrus, brolgas, a sea eagle and other birds. At the Cultural Centre, he introduced the artists - it was a honour to meet them and to watch Glen work. The print room is brilliant. Norma explained how the women were splitting and dying pandanus leaves. (Our aboriginal guide) Michael, who took us up Injalak to see the extraordinary galleries of cave art painted over the centuries, was patient and kind with me as I tested my new knees on some of the more daunting paths. Locky met us for lunch high on Injalak. When we descended, he gave us plenty of time in the gallery where I bought beautiful fabric items and admired the paintings and weavings. Locky delivered us safely back to our Darwin Hotel in the Lords Tour van. I am so glad we chose the 4-day Kakadu camp trip with this tour as our 4th day. What a great day!

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g255066-d1367822-r420688002-Top_End_Day_Tours_Arnhem_Land_Day_Tour-Darwin_Top_End_Northern_Territory.html#

My package of leaflets and guides for the rest of our trip is here in front of me, ready to prompt memories that I will want to share with you. But right now, I have to make dinner, pick up a friend, and head for Toronto and 120 Diner. My producer, Chris Bikett, and his wonderful band, play for his Tuesday night residency 10-11:30 p.m. I can't miss that. Talk to you again soon. I promise.

Way Outback Camping Aug 29 to Sept 1 - Day 1 a.m.

We booked this tour with Viator but it was a Way Outback Australian Safari tour. So, stumped by GF and the fact that I also cannot eat beef, Viator had me call Way Outback directly. The woman I spoke with there was very kind but could not quite get the no beef thing. Perhaps it was my Canadian accent because I also said that I needed GF or wheat-free food. I told her I could eat around any beef that was served. She told me to bring the GF items with me. But it turned out that Way Outback loaded our guide, Kim, with GF Weetbix, pasta, and vegetarian meat substitutes as I was down as GF and strict vegetarian. Good thing there were other vegetarians and folks willing to eat the veggie sausages and burgers, cause they had wheat in 'em! Anyway, with my GF bread, snack bars, and banana chips to go with everything I could eat that Kim served, I was absolutely well fed all four days.

We threw our duffles in the trailer, and climbed on board with our backpacks and water bottles, to greet our fellow campers. By the time everyone was collected, the little bus was full - Kim plus 17 passengers. It looked like an interesting mix of ages and genders, couples and singles, and a number of nationalities. Let's go!

Our first morning was a trip into Litchfield National Park, almost directly south of Darwin. We made two stops there.
I joined in for a lovely swim at the first gorge, which I think was Florence Falls. The waterhole was wide and quickly deep with a sandbar just far enough out for my skill and stamina. The trick was getting in as the last step down into the water was too much of a reach. The rail made a handy place to hold while I lowered my butt into the water and then pushed off onto my back. Easy-peasy, especially since the water was not cold at all. We were all but dry by the time we got back to the bus. However, at the second gorge I just waked to the lookout to see the beautiful Wangi Falls. It was a long way down and up and Kim warned of slippery rocks at the water. So I stayed at the top, got changed and waited in a shady spot until everyone returned to the bus. Perfectly happy to skip the short swim there.

Kim made up for my breakfast circus by stopping for lunch at the mango place. I can't remember the name of the place - Kim told us we could get the best mango smoothie in the world there, and she wasn't kidding. She drove through mango orchards to get there. They are produce that thrives in that part of the country. I added a bag of dried mango slices to my stash of snacks. For this one lunch we had to buy ourselves, the food and coffee was excellent!

Uluru: 2nd Day Base Walk

We saved the Mala Walk and the Base Walk for our final day at Uluru. From parking at the base of the climb to the return point, the Mala Walk must add a full km to the 11+kms of the base walk. I was determined to complete the walk. This was my bucket list item - of all of our Australian trip outings, the most important one to me. No one should attempt this feat without being fully prepared. Because of the cold mornings at this time of year, we took our time and did not begin until close to 11 a.m. OK, but better to have started much earlier. Required: good walking boots, sun block, hat, fly net if needed, and absolutely 1.5 litres of water. Each of us carry a 1 litre steel cannister, and a 750 ml collapsible plastic drinking bottle that hooks easily to belt loops or bag straps. Be advised! Benches are few and far between around the path. Even less frequent are the water taps. Only 2 to be precise, both toward the halfway point. All set? Here we go!

The Mala walk tells the story of the Mala ancestors at Uluru. But it includes visits to the caves those ancestors actually used - the boys' cave with the peephole that allowed them to watch the men hunting the last emu leaving the waterhole so that the other emu would come back next time; the men's cave where the faces and eyes could still be seen of the men killed in the attack that drove the Mala south; the women's and girl's  cave where the seed grinding spots are still visible; and the old men's cave where the grandfathers sat around a fire that left the roof blackened with soot. We left the Mala story and started the base walk, intermittently looking up to see where we were along the wall of Uluru, spotting landmarks set for us by Justin the day before, and admiring the flora and fauna along the path. There are signs and dark outlines on the maps to indicate where photos are not allowed - even ao, it can be confusing. I hope we were correct in where our photos were taken. The forbidden areas are sacred and meant to be viewed in situ. In some areas the path veered far enough away that places for  Men's or Women's business, as it is called, was lost from sight. We made our way into another waterhole, impressed with the lack of litter. But we were disappointed to find that many footprints left the barricade at the waterhole itself, regardless of signs explaining the sacred nature of the spot and inviting people to sit and reflect on what they were seeing and feeling. It is a shady rest area, the plunge of rock above it utterly breathtaking. However, some folks seemed compelled to ignore this request and disturb the shores around the water, even leaving their initals carved into the sand. At one of the several large benches, curving branches pieced together artfully by a skilled craftsperson, and to be clear, placed too far apart along the path, we put up tired feet and ate our packed lunches. By the time we made the water stop around the 1/2 way point, our bottles were low - thank you to whoever built that shelter! Having started the walk late morning, we chose to walk clockwise. I believe the stories are told in that direction anyway. And it meant that for the hottest part of the day we were on the far side of Uluru, the path more shaded even when it swung quite far away from the rock wall. The shady spots made the sun drenched spaces more tolerable - something to aim for! August is late winter here. It would be impossible for me in the heat of January. Only the last leg was into the late afternoon sun, and once we could see the silhouette of the climb, we knew we had made it.

A wonderful, unforgettable walk. We drove to the Arts Centre and the 'Toilets' as they are called here. One last quick look around as everything was shutting down - no time to pick and choose yet again. Someday perhaps I will find a piece of art from Uluru that I simply must have. Until then, photos and memories will suffice.

Uluru: Ayers Rock Resort 1st Night

At the Outback Pioneer Lodge in the resort, our room was simple but comfortable. The resort as a whole consisted of the lodge, a campground, the more upscale Desert Gardens, and the very upscale Sails in the Desert, as well as a Town Square of shops, and a residential area for the permanent staff. Over the 3 nights that we stayed, we enjoyed our dinners at the Banya Bar (excellent light fare and a Manhatten for me) and at Bough House (excellent mains and a dessert buffet, 2 helpings of pannacotta!), plus breakfast buffet at the Bough House was included, varied and generous.

However, the best dinner was the Sounds of Silence, our introduction to Uluru. As part of our 3 night package at the Lodge, we had just checked in when we had to meet the bus that took a small crowd to a red dune. Up we went to the summit, to be greeted by sparkling wine and canapes (a yummy GF plate for me, of mostly Greek bites), which we consumed while watching the sunset on Uluru and Kata Tjuta, taking lots of photos between mouthfuls. The view was phenomenal, colours in the landscape changing by the minute. And a full moon was rising by the time we started back down to a lovely dining area laid out below crest of the dune. We were seated at a table for 10 - Jackie's family to one side, Sondra and Gordon to the other, from England, and 3 people from China, whose names escaped me, across from us. Dinner was served buffet style, with choice of wine, and a chef who happily pointed out to me what I could and could not eat. There were several meats to choose from and I did have a small slice of kangaroo - good tucker! Everything was delicious. While we were eating a man played a didgeridoo, more beautifully than I have ever heard. The wine flowed, everyone beamed with happiness, and the conversation was great. Two men with faces and torsos painted danced traditional pieces using recorded accompaniment of women's singing and percussion. Mysterious and wonderful. While we enjoyed the dessert buffet and port, tea, and coffee, Taylor used a laser pointer to show us the constrellations. She gave us both the ancient Western and Aboriginal mythologies. Two telescopes were set up so we had a look at Saturn and the beautiful full moon.

The Drive to Uluru

It was almost 11 a.m. by the time we set out to drive to Uluru on August 19. June at the Information Centre had booked unlimited miles for us at Thrifty's - it's the only way because the dealers limit is 100 km per day and charge 25 cents and up per extra km! Anyway, we kept the Camry which meant we had to stay on the sealed roads. No time for 4x4 detours anyway :)

After a false start past the airport heading down a country road to Santa Teresa (ack!) we backtracked and found the Stuart Highway south towards Adelaide, which took us as far as Erldunda. There we turned onto the Lassiter Highway heading west to Uluru and the Outback Pioneer Lodge at Ayers Rock Resort. We did stop briefly at a few spots for refreshments or to see birds, and to have a look from the Mt. Connor look out. The CD that described the history and geography of the land as we drove through it was a great help, and most interesting: MacDonnell Ranges, the James Range, Finke River, Mt. Connor, and finally Uluru and Kata Tjutu.

Jumping Ahead to Yellow Waters

This is a test really. I am trying different ways to post photos from JD’s library to my trip posts and blogs. A couple of crocs by the Yellow Waters in Kakadu National Park!

Alice Springs part 2

Beckie and Craig offered us such a comfortable haven with the beautiful view described in my last blog, that we kept it for our entire visit to the red  centre of Australia.  This gave us a home base, a safe space to leave extras on our various tours, and a comfy stopover in the down times between to do laundry, rest up, and regroup, already familiar with the Alice Springs environs. We got to know the downtown area - June at the Information Centre, Steve and Ria at Thrifty's, Andrew who sent us to  Red Dog Cafe for its great coffee and brekky, the Epilogue next door with its gluten free for me and Gavin's open mic on the rooftop Thursday nights.

An aside here: I wanted to sing my Australian love song, Stay Down Here With You and had signed up to sing at 9:15 pm. Well, Gav was running a little behind. By 10:45, the crowd had swelled as the restaurants closed - a big audience, a full of drink happy but noisy crowd. My froggy throat was even worse in the dry desert air, and the more so due to the smokers on the rooftop. So it was a major disaster but I did it anyway, kind of yelling the song through the mic - couldn't hear a thing! Much better when I sang it to our guides from Glen Helen - uh, later.

We got to know the beautiful state of the art public library, surrounded by trees and a sculptured meeting place honouring the first peoples and pioneers of Alice Springs. We ate at Sporties and the Red Ochre Grill - kudos to both. Closer to where we stayed, I would skip Juicy Rump next time. But for our last night in Alice Springs, The Deck at the Hilton served delightful meals and the bar even had Gentleman Jack for me. Coles, Woolworths, and the Pharmacy at the Yeperyenye Centre provided our needs and Dingo equipped us for our forthcomng camping trip through Kakadu.

So...what did we really do in the red centre? in our frst few days in Alice Springs, we visited the Araluen Cultural Centre, a complex that includes a theatre, several galleries, a craft guild, and two museums. One gallery exhibited a collection of larger than life 3-D photo portraits of Aboriginal individuals, each dealing with a particular physical challenge. Fascinating works. Another was filled with the most beautful and exceptional Aboriginal artworks ranging from representational landscapes, exquisite dot paintings, and contemporary sculptural pieces. The crafters shop included a workspace for locals and an exhibit of mostly textile arts like knits and painted silks. The Natural History museum focused on Australian fossils, meteorites, and minerals, as well as the history of first contact and the changing population. It also housed a good Aussie gift shop. We did not visit the air museum. Or school of the air museum? But did walk through the sculpture garden surrounding a 300 year old sacred cork wood tree. The garden borders a sacred hill, Two Women Dreaming, that is fenced to prevent climbing. We ran out of time, but not before JD spotted the first lizard, a long nosed dragon, and the only species of lizard we have seen thus far.

When we arrived at Desert Park in Alice Springs we had missed all the exhibitions. Matt recommended the Nocturnal Walk that night. We can't say enough about this wonderful experience! In fact, it bears repetition. The park keeps small species almost extinct in parts of the wild since the introduction of camels and cattle have disrupted their environments. Even captive breeding and release programs do not work now due to the huge numbers of invasve foxes and feral cats, even where the dingos are still hunted, which might control the fox and cat populations. We wore red head lamps to see the creatures who came to the feeding stations after dark. Our guide along the walk, Damion, was obviously knowledgeable about all the creatures we saw along the two hour walk: malas (tiny kangaroos and one a momma with an eensy joey in her pouch!), echidnas (one took a stroll through our group!), stickneck rats and a nest, long nosed bandicoots and long eared bilbys. The battong and wallaby remained in shadows so we caught just a glimpse. It was splendid.  However, jostling and low light elimnated most photo attempts :) 

I will leave you here and pick up the next blog at our drive to Uluru. In the meantime, have listen to the song of love I wrote on my first visit to this wondrous country. It is available on iTunes and all music platfoms if you search Catherine M Thompson or Celtic Cat. The song is Stay Down Here With You: soundcloud.com/catscupboard/stay-down-here-with-you

Alice Springs part 1

It is difficult to describe the beauty of the red centre. JD took tons of photos, but they never communicate the scale. For instance, the land beyond our Alice Springs rental's backyard sweeps across a long stretch of dried tall grass dotted with trees and up the high ridge of the MacDonell Ranges and into an unbelieveably high cerulean blue sky. There is an old tub outside the yard, filled with water, drawing kangaroos, a dingo (we never did see), and every sort of bird. The galas descend on one of the trees off and on, grey crowned babbler nests crowd another, and a whistling kite lights on the spar of a dead tree to rest just beyond the fence. 

In the evening, after the sun goes down, the ridge is sillouetted with a soft pink glow as the sky darkens. We had a full moon last week, making one night's nocturnal tour of Desert Park less dark, full of shadows, but still starry enough for our guide to point out the southern cross and my constellation, Scorpio. We wore red light head bands and saw malas (tiny kangaroos, one a momma with an even tinier joey in her pouch), banicoots, echidnas (one that took a stroll among the group's feet) wallabies, sticknest rats, and bilbys.

The Aruluen Cultural Centre galleries are full of Aboriginal traditional and contemporary arts, the natural history museum is full of Australian fossils, and which is located at a women's sacred hill, women's dreaming, including a sacred 300 year-old corkwood tree. The range is the origin of caterpillars in Aborginal belief, represented by a contemporary sculptured walkthrough. Hard to describe. But we did see a ring-neck parrot telling his own stories in the corkwood tree, a long-nosed dragon (!) (tiny lizard), and a gigantic grasshopper. 

As for the birds, as mentioned above and so many more, they are spectatcular and everywhere to be seen. So I am in awe and JD is having a field day! 

Holiday in St. Lucia

Here it is the week before Christmas and this blog has been silent since Thanksgiving. I will fill in the details for the past couple of months in a future blog. Today, I had more to write about our holiday in St. Lucia than I could fit in a tweet. After four gloriously sunny days, rain clouds rolled in over Smugglers Cove last night bringing us intermittent downpours throughout this Friday morning. The advantages are two-fold: it encourages us to take it easy after yesterday's exhaustive and exhausting tour of land and sea (more later), and the rain also brought out the land crabs. The tunnels that house these creatures have been intriguing us since our arrival and this morning we finally found them perched at the openings of their houses along the gardens and pathways of the resort. They range in size from 2-4 inches, grayish to bright orange. The slightest movement sends them dashing underground so it took a great deal of stealth to photograph them.

Smugglers Cove Resort and Spa is on the north west end close to Castries, the largest city. It is situated on an estate of 65 acres of well-kept gardens, six pools, and is self-contained within the cove with a sheltered sandy beach including a snorkeling reef. The all-inclusive services offer bars, lounge, band and stage, a large buffet restaurant for all three meals plus three table service restaurants for dinner reservations. The fresh fruits and vegetables are in endless supply. The dinner menus have been very good - my favourite so far being the 10 spice duckling at Cafe Asia. I had anticipated a lot of shellfish, which I love, but surprisingly that is not the case. The fish is barracuda, tilapia, mahi mahi, and other meaty fish. Chicken and pork dominate the menu, and I love the spices used. The water is luxuriously warm and buoyant for swimming even when the breakers are too rough for snorkeling or small boats. The heat and sun assist the sensation of slowly melting into a healing stupor as the day passes: breakfast, walkabout, beachwear before lunch, lounge chair and reading under a tree or umbrella before a swim in the sea, stroll up to the top pool for the swim up bar and a drink by the cascade fountain as the sun declines, shower and dress for dinner, drinks and entertainments, collapse in sleep to prepare for the next taxing day. All in glorious surroundings of flowering plants, palms, and birds. Too sweet.

We have been overwhelmed by the beauty of this little island nation. The flag is blue for sky and sea, I believe, with three triangles overlapping - the smaller for Petit Piton is yellow as the sun, the next largest for Gros Piton is black, and the largest for the tallest peak Morne Gimie is white. These colours represent the St. Lucians themselves. The land is lush with indigenous and imported plants, agriculture largely bananas for export to the UK, industry the production of rum and cocoa. The shore is a convolution of cliffs, bays and coves, perfect of the development of resorts, spas and hotels for the ever increasing tourist industry. We experienced most of this during Thursday's Land and Sea Tout. We hit the highlights in Castries and two fishing villages enroute south to Soufriere. We drove through rainforests as we crossed over mountain passes, stopping at breathtaking outlooks to take photos, buy fresh coconut and souvenirs. We drove into the volcano to survey the smoking sulphurous centre, visited waterfalls, and botanical gardens. When we arrived in the harbor at Soufriere, we boarded a boat which transported us to a secluded beach. A generous and delicious lunch awaited. On to a beach between Pitons where we snorkeled and sunned for awhile. As the sun descended, we boarded again for the final leg of the tour, a boatride back up the coast to Castries. On the way, we stopped at a bat cave, Marigot Bay, and the tunnel of love used in Pirates of the Caribbean. The tour began at 9 am and we arrived back at Smugglers Cove after 7 pm! What a fabulous day.

We had hoped to see a dear friend while here, 95-year-old Betty, our Thanksgiving guest for 10 or 12 years before she moved here permanently four years ago to join her daughter's family. They are a branch of the Devaux family that stretches back to the eighteenths century. We have been privileged to meet and be hosted by Betty's granddaughters. Her daughter Pam gifted us with a book by Robert Devaux OBE, her husband, an island historian. They Called Us Brigands is the saga of the freedom fighters at the end of the 18th century who inhabited the rainforests and mountains in the interior of the island, claiming their emancipation in opposition first to the French Aristocracy and the Royalist planters and later to the British conquerors who sought to reestablish slavery. Very interesting, putting the place names and the creole language into clear context. We also came away with Pam's homemade cookies and a jar of chutney. Thank you, Robert and Pam! Well, that was Tuesday at Gayle and Carlos' lovely home and clinic, where we met granddaughter Tracy as well as a number of great grandchildren and other family and friends. Gayle and Carlos are naturopaths who also produce in house the NatMed line of natural treatments and the Caribbean Blue Naturals cosmetic products. I am looking forward to trying the lovely soaps they gave us. On Saturday, we are invited to cocktail hour at Maran and Richard's where we hope that Betty will be able to join us. If not, I will print out and send the pictures I brought for her on my iPad and be happy with having met most of her wonderful family. Otherwise, this week is one to kick back and relax.

I did a bit of a spa day on Wednesday with a back and foot massage and facial. And tonight we plan a trip into Gros Islet for the Friday night street party that has been ongoing for 21 years or more. It is reputed to be a blast. I will have to work on staying alert long enough to get there. We leave Sunday morning, to arrive back in TO on Christmas Day at about 6 pm. Fortunately, the usual dinner bunch are occupied elsewhere this year. We are ordering in Thai for them on the 27th this time around. We will be at the big family gathering at Mom's on Boxing Day, thankful that we do not have to deal with jet lag after this trip. In the meantime, we wish all of you the best of Seasons Greetings whatever your mid-winter celebrations, and of course, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.