The Joy is in the Journey

Thursday 26 th September I have officially retired! I had a lovely last week at Alawa School where the school council presented me with a gift at an assembly and several students read out some lovely reflections about my contributions to the school. It was very touching to hear words like: ‘the birds sing and the flowers bloom when you are at the farm’ and ‘while the name Smith is common, you are certainly not’. They presented me with a book of drawings they had done, many of which featured my banana, watermelon or pineapple shirts. Then we had a few drinks after school with the staff and they gave me a fabulous sculpture for our garden and topped it off with some Yeti wine goblets. If you haven’t come across Yeti products yet, I recommend you check them out. Great for travellers. The Australian School Sport 10-12 yrs Athletics Titles are over and so are our volunteering duties. We are tired but have enjoyed being involved in such a well-run event and to see so many of th...

Theme of the Local Hero,   Mark Knopfler's  Going Home If you have a google account you should be able to click that song title and click to listen to the song, an instrumental, as you read the final leg of this journey. So many songs about going home, Leonard Cohen, Tinpan Orange, Carol King, to name a few. But the lyrics are all wrong.  Our journey is coming to an end. We have this last day in Katherine and then we head up the very familiar stretch between here and Darwin.  This morning we took the bikes out for a spin. When we lived here we often went riding and have fond memories of riding with a bunch of friends around the Zimin Dve Circuit, or to the Cumbidgee Lodge or Springvale for breakfast on the weekend. Today we planned to do the Low Level to High Level circuit. Our park is situated right on the trail. Getting to the Low Level took no time, all down hill. While we stood watching the river flow beneath us Eric recalled a great story. We were both ...

John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote: Move, Down the road I go. Move, Down the road I go......... A great lyric for this sort of journey where you hit a straight stretch and it extends the length of your vision to the horizon. Mind you, the rest of the song is about escaping his current lousy situation, getting out of town, which is not quite the case for us. We feel we are on the homeward leg now, though it is a long one, and we are heading back to town. Gosh Eric has a great music collection. The only blog-related song title I have had to search on Google for was James Blundell. But we do have a dear friend, and if she had been travelling with us, I am sure I would have been listening to James too.  This morning we had considered driving to Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve. Over 160 species of birds have been recorded at Marlgu Billabong, including migratory birds from the northern hemisphere and its listed as a wetland of international importan...

Another one by James Blundell. Kimberley Moon is shining on me, Soft and yellow on high In that indigo sky Smiling gently. Thursday 11 July The birds in the tree just outside the window woke me early and I had to get up to identify them. Then I decided it was a good morning for a shower since I can’t remember when I had the last one. We haven’t used the one in the van yet, instead taking advantage of the ones when we have stayed in parks. Walking across to them, I was taken by the sight of a swag on the back of a Hilux. Could I see myself nimbly clambering up and down out of that? It reminded me of a challenge we set the boys when we travelled these parts 20 yrs ago. They were each to consider all the options others were travelling in and then tell us what they thought would best suit them. It kept them (and us) amused for 3 months. Below is another option – bus with annex and Land Cruiser with boat. I can’t imagine what they would spend on fuel! And 10 wheels turning! We...

James Blundell and James Reyne recorded Way Out West by The Dingoes and sang: 'Way out west where the rain don't fall.........' And how true is that of late, although Broome recorded plenty last wet. The road from FC to Broome is like a long ribbon, easy driving though there were some roadworks in the later stages. The Boabs at this end are amazing in that there are some that are completey bereft of leaves while others have plenty. Many are bearing fruit at this time. The raptors are commonly perched in their branches and you see many nests from quite some distance. We were listening to Elton John's Greatest Hits and discussing his success despite the dysfunctional family and all the rest we learnt from seeing the movie 'Rocketman' recently. When 'The Circle of Life' was playing I was thinking about my Dad as that was the song we chose to play in the background as images of his life were displayed at his funeral. Not long after, we came to the tur...

In 'West' by Lucinda Williams she sang Come out West and see The best it'll ever be I know you won't stay permanently But come out West and see And we could only agree, it is beautiful and vast, vast, vast.  Saturday 6 July We began the day with a walk back along the walking trail by the golf course only to be met by a big mob of people, both locals and tourists, doing the parkrun. They were wearing tshirts from all over. New bird sightings this trip included the Australian Reed Warbler and White-browed Crake.  We pulled out of Kununurra and took the Great Northern Hwy to Bungle Bungle Caravan Park. It is just 1km off the hwy on Mabel Downs Station, 50kms beyond Warmun. Warmun is where one of Eric’s mates from the Ringwood Athletics Club taught for many years. It is also where they charge $1.89 for a litre of diesel. We filled up at Kununurra for $1.45, so luckily only had to top-up. The rugged landscape continued but you have to keep your wits about you as ...

Dire Straits sang: Some people get a cheap laugh breaking up the speed limit Scaring the pedestrians for a minute Crossing up progress driving on the grass Leaving just enough room to pass Sunday driver never took a test Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west.......... Well there are not a lot of pedestrians out here and we are certainly not breaking any speed limits. We've found most drivers pretty respectful of the speed limits and laws to date to so far.  Tue 2 July After a short delay having the bike rack securely welded to Joy's bumper and then the flat battery given some shock therapy (because we forgot to disconnect while all that work was being done) we were on our way again. Special mention here of Ray at Katherine Sheet Metal who delivered great service and did a very professional job on our rear end. Ray, who owns the joint, happens to be Fran's son so it all turned out to be very fortuitous that Eric ran into her the day before.  Today its 'Tru...