Home after 4 months

We hope you have enjoyed travelling with us through parts of our great country.

 

I think I was photo'd out for the last part of the journey, hence no pictures to show, but we still had a great time on this final leg. We arrived at Port Augusta on a hot dry day, blown along by northerly winds. The wind changed that night and it rained. The temperature dropped so we were blown along to Broken Hill by a cool southerly.

 

We visited the VISE family from last year, they live on a sheep station half way between Broken Hill and Wentworth. From there we spent two days in Griffith and sampled the local produce. After a  few days in Wagga visiting relatives, we headed for home and arrived home last Wednesday. All up, we travelled 12,000 km in four months and had some wonderful experiences, met great people and saw wonderful sights.

 

Next year? probably but we don't know where or when.

 

Thanks to the people who sent kind comments about the photos, you didn't see the hundreds that were discarded. And thanks to those who sent news from home. We really appreciated keeping in touch that way.

 

Now that I have a blog, I may put some more info there, maybe even more photos, in the next weeks or months, but not straight away. Keep an eye out, it is www.pcaspo.blogspot.com

 

Bye for now and God bless,

 

Peter and Lee Caspersonn.

 

 

 

South through the Centre

Hi all,

We are in Broken Hill and we will be home in about two weeks, but this email will show you excerpts from our trip down from Tennant Creek to Port Augusta.

Travelling from Darwin to Tennant Creek (990 km), we were retracing our northward journey, but after Tennant Creek we were in new territory.

The Devils Marbles is an amazing collection of rocks about 100 km south of Tennant Creek. It is a National Park, we camped there, it was very hot with very little shade. You can just see the edge of the campsite in the right edge of the picture.

This close-up shows rocks about 20 to 30 metres high. The colours change depending on time of day and direction of the sun and camera. This is late afternoon with the sun behind the camera.

Alice Springs is another 400 km south. We are sitting in Studio 1 of ASSOA (read the logo) having a private internet lesson with Cameron, Lee's student 1,100 km away at Nutwood Downs. Cameron's teacher showed us around the school then offered to arrange the lesson. It was great. The studio has a big glass wall so tourists can see and hear the lessons. We were on display for a bus load of American tourists, who could also see and hear Cameron on their monitor. 

The West Macdonnell Ranges are breathtaking. We camped at Ormiston Gorge, seen here looking up the canyon from a walking track. The large pool in this photo can be seen in the next one.

Here we are looking nearly in the opposite direction out the mouth of the gorge. The redness of the rock walls had to be seen to be believed.

If you get to Standley Chasm right on midday you can take a picture like this. The white floor of the chasm reflects the sun onto the walls, which are just on the edge of the sun's rays. The whole thing glows, but it lasts for less than an hour.

This Spinifex Pigeon was in the Alice Springs Desert Park, a botanic garden on the edge of Alice Springs. We spent a whole day there.

We passed the Greyhound Bus several times as we travelled south (not the same bus). It goes every day from Adelaide to Darwin, 3000 km, in 43 1/2 hours, stopping for meals and to swap drivers four times. It stops for passengers and mail at every roadhouse and station mailbox on the way. The Station people depend on it. This was how people from Nutwood Downs got to Katherine, Darwin, etc.

As we travelled south from Alice Springs we saw several wedgetail eagles. We stopped and I was able to get these close-ups before he flew away.

His wingspan is about 2.2 metres.

Another 680 km south of Alice Springs is Coober Pedy, the centre of Opal mining for the world, with over 90% of world opal production from this area.

 

There are no big mines, all claims are between one and four persons. The miners buy or lease large machines mounted on trucks, with a generator, a cutting machine and a huge blower, capable of throwing rocks the size of cricket balls (and larger) to the surface. hence the mounds. If they find the right strata, then they dig by hand so as to not destroy any opal. Dirt mounds like the above cover an area 30 km north and south of Coober Pedy.

 

The town has about 3,000 people but they are transient. About 60% live underground. There are three underground churches, this is the entrance to the Anglican. The rector's house is also underground, to the left. Look closely and you will see white poly pipes on the RHS of the hill above the church. These are for ventilation. All underground buildings have wet areas at the front and it is best if they slope slightly uphill.

 

This is the inside of the church. Surface conditions can be very hot and dusty. It is real desert. Underground the climate doesn't change much. The walls are sealed to avoid dust, and the texture and colour is very attractive, a pinkish texture.

Just east of Coober Pedy is a section of the Dog (dingo) fence. It stretches 5,300 km through South Australia, NSW and Queensland. it aims to keep wild dogs on the north-western side away from grazing lands. You can also see the flat landscape and stony desert conditions of this area.

The southern part of our journey (south of Alice Springs) comprised mainly desert, the northern part was in the tropics so had more rain and vegetation.

This picture is looking directly at the sun as it sets, at Lake Hart, a salt lake between Coober Pedy and Woomera where we bush camped for the night. We didn't go into Woomera, it is off the main road. We reached Port Augusta the next evening. Port Augusta calls itself the crossroads of Australia, you can go north to Darwin, west to Perth or east to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide by road or rail.

We had travelled 2,700 km almost due south from Darwin. The days had been very hot all that way. The weather changed at Port Augusta, we went from hot to cold in one night. . We were ready to turn east for home, planning to go via  Broken Hill, Mildura, Wagga and then to Sydney.

Till then,

Goodbye and God Bless,

Peter and Lee.

The Top End - Darwin and Kakadu

Hi all from hot and sunny NT,

This email describes our time in the Top End, after we left Nutwood Downs. Our main stops were at Katherine Gorge, Litchfield Park, Darwin then Kakadu.

We travelled nearly 400 km from Nutwood Downs to Katherine. At Katherine Gorge, we did a boat trip up two gorges, starting at the downstream end. There are a lot more gorges all in a chain. We swapped from one flat bottom boat to another, clambering over the rocks between gorges. This photo is in the second gorge just near Jedda's leap (for those who saw the movie a long time ago). At Katherine we also tried to get a fuel pump problem fixed, with limited success.

260 km further north is Litchfield Park west of the main Stuart Highway, and about 100 km south of Darwin. Litchfield is a place of waterfalls and giant termite nests. It was very hot so it was great to cool off after a short bush walk. We even drank our coffee (plastic mugs) in the water.

Termites build above ground because they would otherwise be flooded and drown in the wet season.

We had a phone call from Peter's student, William, as we drove into Darwin, inviting us to meet him for brunch at Cullen Bay. He had just finished a week at senior residential school in Darwin. The lady in the photo is a teacher who billeted him, the girl is another student who was about to board the Greyhound Coach with Will to return home.

We took a sunset cruise on Darwin Harbour, in a sailing catamaran, with about 10 other people.

Darwin is a beautiful city, lots of parks with big shady trees and streets lined with flowering trees (Frangipani ?). We went to Mindil Sunset markets on the beach and watched another lovely sunset. We also checked out the Cyclone Tracy exhibit at the museum.

And we went to the Military Museum at East Point,to learn about the bombing of Darwin. Over 60 Japanese air raids in 18 months from Jan 1942. Can you see Lee's reflection in the searchlight mirror.

Darwin was a strategic location for the navy, in its own right and as a supply base for the Pacific war. As a result of the air raids, the navy replaced bombed out oil storage tanks with underground ones (long tunnels) under the city. These were not finished when the war ended so were never used.

Leaving Darwin, we travelled about 250 km east to Kakadu. We crossed three rivers flowing north, the Adelaide, Mary and Alligator. All have tourist attractions. This is a small part of a panoramic view from Mamukala bird hide.

We saw these Jabiru dancing at Nourlangie, just south of Jabiru township. We kept the engine running here as we were still having problems. We ended up booking a service at the Mercedes dealer, which meant we had to return to Darwin.

We liked Yellow Water best, at the upstream end of the South Alligator. We went for a cruise in a flat bottom boat and saw lots of birds and crocs.

These Brolgas were in the long grass beside the lagoon.

and the boat got real close to this Northern Azure Kingfisher.

Look at the Jabiru's reflection in the Lillies.

My favourite was this White Breasted Sea Eagle, apparently the second largest eagle in Australia (after the wedge tail).

It was then back to Darwin where the fuel line was finally repaired (a small hole in the hose), and we headed south hoping for some cooler weather, or at least less humidity.

Till next time,

Peter and Lee.

Nutwood Downs part 2

Hi to all,

We left Nutwood Downs about a week ago and have just arrived in Darwin. Here are some further impressions of the very interesting six weeks we spent there.

Last email I described the process of mustering the cattle. The ultimate purpose is to load them into roadtrains for transport to Darwin then live export to Indonesia. Below are the steps to load the roadtrains.

The cattle are mustered from very large paddocks into the cattle yards. You can see a long line moving right to left in the distance and the group of stragglers in the foreground are being pushed along by the bullcatchers (which you can't see).

This is Starkvale, one of three cattle yards. It is almost empty because we just loaded 2 roadtrains (12 decks). In the top left you may just be able to see cattle. The main gates are here. Cattle are pushed in an anticlockwise direction down the left side through a series of gates to the front left hand corner then into a “pound” just under the small tree in the centre. Cattle can be drafted in several directions from the pound, the majority in single file up the narrow ramp towards the road train which is just behind the camera.

Cattle are drafted about 10 at a time into the pound and then sent through one of several gates. Some cattle can get very anxious and charge at speed looking for a way of escape.

The work is very skilled and requires quick reflexes

It gets extremely dusty.

Up the race into the blue and yellow road train.

They talk about the number of decks, so this road train has six decks and will carry about 150 cattle, depending on size of the cattle.

Nutwood Downs has certainly been a different experience for us - the remoteness, the climate, the way of life, the dust, the dogs (there must be about 7 of them which are let off the chain at different times during the day. Some of them are stupid big pups which jump up on you as you walk past).

Not to mention the cane toads. Hundreds of them come out at night and as I (Lee) walk to the toilets or shower with the torch, they hop out of the way – or just sit defiantly. As I was pulling my washing out of the machine the other day, I noticed something moving, and sure enough, it was a small cane toad – a lighter shade of brown than usual, but still moving!

One good thing about the cane toads – the highly poisonous brown snakes like to eat them, and of course the poison in the cane toads kills the snakes, so there aren't as many brown snakes around !!! There have been several sightings of snakes around the house – William killed one the other day, but the others got away. The numbers of snakes and spiders increases dramatically during the wet season as more and more of them seek the high ground around the house – sounds inviting, doesn't it ?

Having the noisy generator going 24/7 has been another different experience for us. The generator died one day and had to be replaced. Backup No 1 was also out and backup 2 was too small, so they had to fork lift an old one in from the workshop. The power supply is not consistent, there are many surges of power and flickering of lights – the microwave in our Van has "chucked a hizzy fit" and seems to be gaining a couple of hours a day – it can't cope with the irregular power supply.

School work has progressed well. Lee's student had to design an experiment to drop a raw egg from 2 metres without breaking it. With many hints from Lee, he succeeded. Peter's student went to Darwin the day we left for seven days Senior residential School. He was really looking forward to the social interraction with his classmates

Of course all the meat is locally produced, how many ways can you cook beef? We also had pork and there are chooks as well. This photo is outside the kitchen, the big white box is the walk-in coolroom.

A couple of quick comments to conclude. The Hodgson River runs through the property. It has a huge flow in the wet season. When it is flooded the only way out is by helicopter. For the rest of the year the river quickly

subsides and all that remains are waterholes at several places. The Hodgson drains north into the Roper River, which flows east to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Nutwood Downs was one of a string of stations owned by (British) Lord Vesty till the family bought it in 1986.

There are usually three or more Aboriginal stockmen. Their tribal area extends to Roper River and Ngukurr in the north, where CMS has just celebrated 100 years of missionary work and church support. The stockmen live on the station or at an Aboriginal settlement at Hodgson River (an Aboriginal owned cattle station), immediately north of Nutwood Downs. Hodgson River has a community store, school, nurse and police station. Aboriginal people also own Cox's River to the east. Unfortunately, neither station is running anywhere near its potential.

We really enjoyed our time with this family and other staff at Nutwood Downs. Our two students were delightful. The weather and the dusty conditions were trying, especially as it got hotter at the end of our time. Overall another memorable VISE experience.

God bless,

Peter and Lee Caspersonn.

Nutwood Downs

How do you describe living on a million acre cattle station, 100 km down a dirt road from the nearest very small town, and your first encounter with mustering by helicopter and bull catchers, things most people only see on a TV documentary?

We took a week to travel here from Winton. We covered only about 300 km each day, and stopped two nights in Tennant Creek. We arrived here at Nutwood Downs on Sunday midday, just over two weeks ago.

Nutwood Downs is a cattle station 4,269 sq km, about 75 km by 58 km. It is on the northern edge of the Barkly Tablelands, with good reliable summer rain. Grasses that grow after the wet generally last all year. It is good cattle country, especially with breeds that can withstand the heat. It is generally flat except for dry (in winter) river courses and some relatively low hills in a couple of ranges. The grasslands are mostly also covered with scattered trees up to about 10 metres in height.

The station is almost completely surrounded by a very long outer perimeter fence. Immediately inside this is a large undeveloped area with no paddocks and no reliable water. Inside that is an inner area with large enclosed paddocks and 17 bores which pump sub-artesian water into large man-made dams with high walls and deep insides, called “turkey nests”. Cattle drink from troughs around the turkey nests. White ant nests are very common, some as high as two metres above ground

We have been taken for two drives around the station, each time over 100 km and we still haven’t seen most of it. The first was a bore run, where pumps had to be turned on or off and motors checked and fuel added, etc. It took 3 hours to check 5 bores.

Mustering is very dusty work. The helicopter pushes the stock by diving and swooping, making noise and dust. Five or six bull-catchers work with the helicopter, walking the cattle up a fence line and stopping renegades from breaking out.

The bull-catchers have to zoom about all the time in the first hour or two, but when the cattle get hot and tired, they mostly become more orderly.

Sometimes a wild animal will stare the bull catcher down or charge it. That’s the time to stay well inside the vehicle.

They muster to a stock yard, which has very strong steel frame fences. There are three main mustering yards. Usually the whole of the next day after a muster is spent working the cattle. They are vaccinated and de-horned, and sorted into groups including breeders and those for sale. These are then put back into separate paddocks, till it is time to sell some

Stock is moved around from one area to another, with their own six deck road train.

As well as the  family there are several staff, a mechanic/handyman, five stockmen (3 of them aboriginal), a visiting friend and a cook. There seem to be people coming and going all the time. In the wet season, the river floods and the homestead is cut off. Only the family stays here then.

Everybody eats together in the kitchen. The family home and schoolroom are in an adjacent building, separated by a covered walkway. Several smaller dwellings house staff, and there are various store rooms and a large machinery workshop. There is a walk-in cool room beside the kitchen. Electric power comes from a diesel generator which runs 24/7. All buildings are steel frame with corrugated iron or aluminium walls; white ants would eat anything else

Usually someone will drive into “town” once or twice a week. – they drive to Daly Waters which is a pub / caravan park / post office / tourist attraction all in together. Australia Post deliver mail to the pub and they hold it there until someone collects it. Supplies come from Katherine and are held at Daly Waters.

Last week it was a truck load of poddy food that had to be collected, and there are 16 tyres of various shapes and sizes that also need to be collected, but they wouldn’t fit in with the poddy food. There are over 100 poddies that are in yards near the house – their mothers have died or are unable to look after them, so they are here near the clothes line – with that lovely cattle smell drifting over everything !!!

Lee has hung our washing on the line – it will be dry in about an hour, it is hot and windy today. she went to make friends with one of the poddies and she licked her hand, and in between her fingers with her rough, black tongue. She is smaller and younger than the others, and she is tied up outside the yard as the others would butt her out of the way and she would not get the milk or poddy feed. Lee will go back later and let her have another lick.

Lee is doing well tutoring her student. His school of the air teacher came up 1,000 km from Alice Springs late last week, stayed overnight. He gave Lee some ideas but was basically happy with the way Lee was guiding him.

Peter’s student works independently (Year 11). He is a very capable student but because he has to work by himself and has jobs to do it on the station, he was behind. So we spent the first week catching up on work from last semester. We are trying to get organised and pace ourselves so it doesn’t happen again.

Well, this has been very long, but it is only a part of all the fascinating things we have learnt here. We would love to hear some news of your lives and events at home etc. Please click on this link: pcaspo@iinet.net.au

Bye for now and God bless.

Peter and Lee.