Darwin - Brisbane - Darwin

Our weekly blog has turned into a fortnightly blog.  We have pretty much finished work and are preparing to set off for the west.  Garry worked his last day at the Hardware and the work at the races has all but dried up.  We have one last day at the Tab tomorrow (Sat 1/9/12). 

As we will be on the road and away from major airports for a while we took the opportunity to fly back to Brisbane for Doctors and Accountants visits.  Everything is good and we are right to set off.

It was good for Carol to be able to spend her birthday with others and we both enjoyed participating in Madelaine’s  4^th birthday celebrations.  She started the day arriving in our bed around daylight to await the rising of the rest of the household.  She had a good brekky with her Dad and opened all her presents before Ben had to go to work.  She was very excited with her new bike from Mum and Dad, the new Budgies (Sparkles for Mads and Ossie for Isobel's early birthday next month); and her new soft hair brush from Grandad, and of course, everything else.  Mum made her some lovely cup cakes to have with her classmates at Kindy and she had a few friends over for a party in the afternoon.  She is so proud of all the things she can do now that she is four.

Isobel continues to do really well at Prep enjoying learning her words and loves it when her Mum and Dad help out at school.  Kirsty is doing the school P&F Facebook page and Ben helps out on working bees.  We all managed to sit in front of the TV counting Coles grocery tickets for hours on end but finally got through them.  Kirsty just has to count the hundreds of little bundles we made to find the school total.

Carol collected all her sewing and had a stall at the annual baby & toddlers market at Eagle Farm on the weekend.  She put a lot of effort and hours into the sewing and Kirsty helped her a lot with the Facebook page and organising for the market.  They had a good day selling quite well and getting her name out among the young mothers of Brisbane.   We have seen a lot of new activity on the website and orders are coming in. For those who haven’t seen it yet it is on Facebook at TheVintageCaravanStall. 

We were also lucky enough to catch up with Nerilyn, Dennis, Breanna, and Carols brother David for lunch on Carols birthday.  Nez and Den are planning to be back on the road with their van early in the new year and we hope we can cross paths somewhere.  Garry managed to get to the races in Brisbane to see David and Shaneen's two horses run.  It was good to catch up with them for a few minutes.  They are still going well and I managed to leave the track unscathed after the Tab lady printed the wrong ticket and I kept it and accidently held a winner.

We have started packing the van up today as we leave for Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on Monday and will head for Kakadu and Western Australia when we return.  The weather here has warmed up since we went to Brisbane and is starting into the buildup with high humidity and early fogs.  The aircon is going flat out on cool this evening which is very different from Brisbane.

N.B.   Photo’s will be added in the next day or so and the next blog in two weeks.

Darwin – Planes and Plants

This week started with us looking to wind up the visits to things we need to see in Darwin.  We visited an open day at the Air Force Base, walked the Botanic Gardens and strolled around Cullen Bay Marina area after a picnic at the beach.

The Air Force(s) Open Day was really interesting and very well organised.  We were surprised and pleased at how close we could walk to the aircraft and how interesting it was to talk with the pilots, bombadiers, soldiers, and other service people.  The feature aircraft on display were the American built F15 Eagle, F16 Falcon, FA18 Classic, FA18 Super Hornet and the Russian built Sukhoi 27SK and 30SK. These are all fighter bombers.  The biggest aircraft were the transport planes a C130 Hercules, a huge mid-air refueller and a Gulfstream jet converted to carry in air early warning radar systems.  The aircraft came from the Australian, Singapore, and Thai Air Forces.  The most interesting display we found was the Army Attack Helicopter which was complimented by a pilot who was happy to tell us all about its capability.  He had been flying them for 4 years. They are a 2 seater helicopter with the pilot up front and the co-pilot sitting above to the rear and mostly used to operate the weapons.  He likened the co-pilot role as the closest thing to Xbox games being remote from flying and concentrating on using the laser sighters and electronics to see things up to 8,000m away and shoot the crap out of them with missiles up to 8,000m away and rockets and cannon up to 4,000 m away.  Most weaponry can be linked to the heads-up display projected in front of the pilots eyes inside his helmet so that all he has to do is look at the target and fire the weapon.  The missiles can track to a laser spot locked on to a target or fly to a pre-determined GPS location.  Apparently the laser sights can identify and lock on to a number plate on a vehicle up to 8kms away and then track it automatically if it moves.  All pretty scary stuff if you find yourself as the target.   The current exercise has been one of the first opportunities for the Aussie pilots to match themselves against the Russian Sukhoi’s and also allows a real test of the FA18 Classic (30 yrs in Aust) and the new FA18 Super Hornet, only a couple of years.  According to a bomb loader we spoke to the older FA18 Classic’s are outperforming all other aircraft.  They have been surprised by the speed of the Russian Sukhoi but seem comfortable with the FA18’s ability to out-manouver it.  I asked how much fuel they used and the best answer I got was that with normal on-board fuel tanks they could not make Darwin to Newcastle in one hop.  There is the option of adding 3 extra tanks (1 under each wing and a 3^rd under the body, each carrying 1,200 litres) but I gathered the boys would rather carry more guns, missiles, and rockets than extra fuel.

Hercules Transport with a queue waiting to walk through

Faithful old transport for those not requiring a window seat.

Mid Air re-fuelling tanker - rear view

Gulfstream converted to carry long range radar - note bumps along side

Fuel Tanker - front on

Russian Sukhoi SK30

Sukhoi behind Army Helicopter

Army Attack Helicopter - stiff rotor blades allow loop the loops

FA18 Classic - we saw these in Rocky when Fabs was in High School

Trainer with 8 FA18 Classics parked with wing tips folded up.

King Air for transporting the important people with F15 Eagle behind

F16 Falcon

F15SG Eagle

Heavy Duty Cop Car!! - spot the Darwinite looking to pinch the wheels already

The Army version of a high speed pursuit vehicle

Hate to tell him but he really stood out in a crowd of civilians!!

Loading the Hercules

FA18's not on display - note the high tech security vehicle!!

Across Darwin Harbour to Mandorah directly behind us

Marina with expensive houses on the right and the city in the background

The other displays were all very interesting also with the MP’s Riot control armoured vehicle surprising me.  If they need something that serious to control unruly servicemen then we obviously need to be pointing our servicemen in a different direction. 

I felt sorry for the soldier with the full cammoflage kit on.  Who needs to be standing in the sun all day with a full length shaggy dog coat on and carrying a pack and rifle.  Maybe he was being punished for running amok in Darwin the night before.  I had a bit of a yarn with the recruiting officer who told me that they were indeed chasing new servicemen and women at the moment.  I offered the names of a few ex and current politicians who I thought would benefit from a stint in the Army.  He wasn’t that sure of his training capabilities however and we drifted to the subject of how hard it must me to mold some of today’s youth into energetic, conforming, predictable, reliable team players.  He shrugged his soldiers and said that “we have to work with what we get”.  I am sure he retreated into his tent heading for a cup of tea and another handful of anti-depressants so I apologised for reminding him of the task ahead and moved on.  They breed them tough in the training corps.

As we were leaving we managed to watch a Hercules being loaded with huge pallets of gear from a purpose built walking floor truck loader.  It is amazing how much you can stuff in one of those planes and they can still fly.
We visited the Botanic Gardens in the city and had an easy wander around the different areas and read the history.  They seem to have been constantly re-building the place following cyclones, and wars but it was still a very relaxing place with plenty of open grassy spaces and lots of interesting trees.  The orchids, bromeliads, and ginger plants were beautiful as they were all flowering and fresh looking even though it is still officially winter.  They have a cute area for members of the public to grow their own plot of veges, herbs, or flowers which are watered by the gardens staff.  There were some healthy plants growing and the plot owner’s signs were also amusing.  We weren’t tempted to test the security surrounding ownership of the veges growing but I would be concerned that some members of our multi-cultural society fully appreciate the notion that “see one take one” does not apply here.   

Relaxing in the greenhouse - solid chairs

Cute little orchids

Eyelash flowers - they've probably got a more scientific name??

Pretty Ginger

We then enjoyed a picnic lunch by the beach at Cullen Bay.  The Marina with boardwalk cafés and restaurants opposite million dollar mansions with huge play boats moored outside the back door was a pleasant walk for us.  It is a very neat, new, and expensive looking area to own real estate but obviously a lot of people have the money to enjoy it.  The ferry across the harbour to Mandorah leaves from the Marina.  There are still a lot of high rise unit blocks going up on the hill overlooking the Marina and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be sitting in your million dollar unit on the 25^th floor of a building on a hill 300m from the water and directly in the path of the next cyclone. Nervous would describe it, I think.

In the days since the Air Force Open Day it has become more interesting to watch the planes leaving for and returning from their exercises.  Yesterday they treated us to some low level formation flying as they came back home.  Of course the best view was of 4 FA18 Classics flying wing tip to wing tip and very low over the park but they forgot to ring ahead and tell us to get the camera ready.  The next group of 6 were also impressive as was the Gulfstream Radar Warning plane and they were photographed.

Formation Flying - a bunch of F16's I think

Radar Plane

I have finally included a photo of our home site for the last 10 weeks which has had the benefit of at least 5 megalitres of water added to it and more than 2 tonnes of leaves raked off it in that time.  Carol disagrees but I am sure that there are at least 6 more blades of grass to show for all the love and attention I have given it.  No, we have not had to mow it yet.  Carol has been busy sewing and has built quite a collection of young persons’ garments and accessories which she intends to sell at a large Baby Market in Brisbane next week (Sat 25/8).  Previews can be found at her Facebook page called “TheVintageCaravan”.  Please Like It if you haven’t already.  She also posted a garment for sale on an Auction page to benefit the parents of Daniel Morecombe whom we met at Isobel’s school some months ago.  They are ordinary people motivated to do extra-ordinary good for others no matter what the past has dealt them.  The garment on that site is beautifully modelled by Miss Violet.

Lovely shady large site

Also must mention Emily's cousin Jade who returned from the Olympics during the week after having represented Australia in the Hockey team.  Well done and what an experience for Em, Elliot and Violet to be at the hangar to welcome all the Olympians back.

"TheVintageCaravan" sweatshop

Darwin

First I need to correct on omission from last week.  We were so proud to hear that Charlie Wright recieved the student of the week award for his class last week.  Great work Charlie.  He also travelled to Emerald with brother Henry for the Junior Golf Open and Charlie won the Nett for the 3 Holers.  He was so happy with his awards.  Henry didn't miss out at sport as he got runner up for the Juniors back home at Tieri the next day.  Henry also had a good week at school as he was selected to take part in the 'Gifted and Talented' Program at Tieri State School.  He works hard at his school work and hopefully it will keep him interested in learning.


While on the subject of talented Grandkids, we were also happy to hear that Isobel and Madelaine took part in a running festival in Brisbane where Isobel ran 2 kilometres on her own and recieved an award.  Madelaine finished the course also but was assisted by her father who just happened to be going by in the same direction with a pram at the same time.  Well done Ben who had just finished the half marathon in a really good time before coming to the rescue of his middle daughter.


Violet has also achieved this week in becoming a little more independent by learning to ride her bike without training wheels attached.  She is coping well and Fabs tells me she can now take off by herself.  Look out Em, you won't know where she is soon. Fabs has taken over coaching the Junior golfers in Mudgee and is enjoying it.  Elliot is enjoying having Dad teach and likes his golf just like Dad.

To us.....Well it feels like winter is coming to an end.  There are a lot of caravans on the road and most of them are heading south.  Don’t they look at the weather report – it’s cold down there !!!  Three neighbours who all arrived at the beginning of June within a day or so of us have left this week.  Ted and Linda have headed for Townsville, Richard and Barb left for WA and the Swift’s left for home in Melbourne.  Other neighbours at the back of us have left after a couple of weeks and also headed west.  It turns out they know my cousin Rodney Miles and that brother Bruce has done a lot of welding for them when they lived and worked in Mackay.  Of course the farewells were celebrated in the usual style with a couple of nights sitting outside enjoying a cool ale or wine and swapping emails, phone numbers, blog addresses and trip plans.  We have made some great friends that we will catch up with again one day down the track.

The week started hectically with the end of the Darwin Cup racing carnival drawing to a close with meetings on both last Saturday and Monday.  Both days were busy with a lot of punters flying up from southern states for the long weekend and enjoying the racing on both days.  Saturday had the usual local punters and visitors but Monday was madness with the racetrack full of Carnival goers while the regulars stayed away.  We arrived at the track at 9:15am and were surprised to see the beer and champers already being consumed.  We started at 10am and finished work at 7:45pm with a short 30min break.  It was very busy but enjoyable and we may even do it again sometime.  Lots of favourites went down during the carnival and it wasn’t until the last day that I started taking quinella’s with the 2 shortest priced horses and the 2 longest priced horses in the race. I only had time to put 2 on but both were successful so that was a bit of fun as well.  Carol also backed a couple of horses and also had a win.

At the start 9:15am the drinkers arriving..



From the grandstand across the public tents, the track and the Corp tents



Nice to see the spring flowers out already



In the action trackside with the next runners going out



Carol mostly worked in the top of this Grandstand

There is a major Air Force exercise on at the moment with planes from four nations involved and for the last week or so they have been doing night exercises.  I am glad we are 20 od kilometres south of the airport as the noise of an FA18 taking off is deafening here so I imagine it would be very loud in the van parks right next to the airport.  The noise only lasts a few minutes and it is more interesting than annoying although some locals are whinging about the noise.  The reply seems to be that “that is the sound of peace…”  An FA18 did an aerial display over the beach at the Mindal Markets last night and that was very exciting to watch.  He made several low level runs along the beach rolling the aircraft from side to side and looping around for the next run.  For the last run he went out to sea and came straight in towards the beach from right beside the sun and then pulled back and flew straight up until he disappeared in seconds. 

FA18 at play



Low run past Mindil  Beach

Coming out of the sun at speed

Of course, FA18 or not, the sunset at Mindal Beach is always worth waiting for and last night was impressive as the sky was clear of smoke and there was a beautiful breeze blowing.

Enjoying dinner by the beach with a great view...

I just had to share these sunset shots showing the colour changes over 30 mins,,all natural light....No filters or photoshop used here!!

I am looking forward to my last few days of work at the hardware this week and then we will have a break for a few weeks before heading west.  

P.S. the fish we caught last Friday were beautifully cooked (by Carol) and we ate them last weekend.  Large parrot fish make excellent eating with pure white flesh…yumm.

Berry Springs and Dundee Beach

August has arrived and several of our neighbours are making plans to head off from Darwin on their travels or head towards home.  Ted and Linda are due to leave for Townsville to visit Teds son and then home to Inverell and the Grandkids.  Richard and Barb are heading west around the coast following the same path that we will take.  Their daughter’s wedding here in Darwin went well and they have some great pictures of the reception in the grounds of Government & Parliament Houses.  It has been good comparing plans and working out places to visit.  Having lived in Darwin for 20+ years, Richard and Barb have been a great source of information and advice about places to see and things to watch out for around this area.  Both couples will be off in within the next week or so.

During this week we have worked at the Races on Wednesday and will be again today (Sat) and on Monday which is the big Darwin Cup day and a public holiday.  I may have mentioned previously that they sell 18,000 tickets to Monday s Races but there another 22,000 corporate or marquee bookings.  Apparently the crowd is around 40,000 each year.  Wednesday’s races were busy with a number of new groups of punters appearing from NSW & Vic.

We took a picnic out to Berry Springs this week and Garry had a swim.  These are a set of springs only 15 minutes away from the van park which run into 3 large pools and away down a small creek.  The springs are flowing strongly still and the pools are a couple of hundred metres long and 3 metres deep.  They are very popular with visitors and locals alike and have large grassed picnic area with plenty of BBQ’s and a small kiosk.  The water from the springs is a perfect temperature at exactly body temperature so that they can be enjoyed when the weather is cooler or warmer.

On Friday Garry and Ted were treated to some NT hospitality when Blane and Chris (from the Hardware) took us fishing out from Dundee Beach.  Blane has a large fishing “tinnie” (with a 150HP Yamaha outboard on the back) and we had a great day on the water.  The weather was perfect (as usual) and the sea was calm as we fished from off Dundee Beach and out to just off North Perron Island.  We caught a variety of fish including golden snapper (very similar to sweetlip), nanagai, parrot fish, stripies and batfish, and a couple of good sized spanish mackerel.  During the day we saw plenty of turtles, many with lazy seagulls standing on their backs hitching a ride, a small leopard shark, a sea snake, several dolphins, lots of portugese man-o-wars and other jelly fish, and a school of tuna boiling the surface, but the highlight of the trip was coming across a pod of whales on the way home.  There were 5 whales in the pod with 3 leading and a mother and calf following close behind.  They were a beautiful sight and looked so peaceful gliding along in their group, not at all worried about us.  The school of tuna was interesting to watch as they were either being chased to the surface or just busy rounding up bait fish for a feed because they were not eating anythings especially our lures which we dragged around and through them for more than half an hour without one strike.  We could even see the lures and fish in the waves together but no interest was shown in what we had to offer.

We got an early start from Dundee Beach so travelled out the night before and camped at the Pub / Van Park.  The pub has great views and a beautiful sunset but has especially cold beer and great meals eaten on the grass under the palm trees watching the sun set with endless fishing videos running on the big screen to get us all enthused for the following day.  It sounds an idyllic place but there is always a balancing area and at Dundee it is the sandflys and midges.  It was the worst time being within 3 days either side of the full moon but they are thick and repellent is required.  Luckily we had several varieties and I applied both bushmans and aeroguard and fortunately escaped un-bitten.  Both Ted and I had a great day and we will have some very nice fillets and mackerel steaks to enjoy in the coming days.