Tramping tales for Dec / January 2011

The sigh of relief we gave on arriving safely in Perth mid December was much muted in comparison to the rising crescendo of utter relief that steadily built within us, over the coming weeks... The sudden flooding of the Gascoyne River had us count our blessings first! Yes, the dry river we had camped along a mere week before with its ‘sheet flow’ upper catchment, unexpectedly raged down to Carnarvon, creating enough havoc and inundation in this agricultural centre to be declared a disaster zone. Not that too much attention was paid in their direction due to media focus shifting to the progressively falling rains on the hinterland of the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. In turn, Queensland’s severe flood warnings for Bundaberg, Emerald and Rockhampton triggered our realisation that fate, in the form of a property, Sunset Ridge had steered us clear of a dangerous set of consequences.

In the grip of a La Niña event (a cyclical phenomenon) Queensland succumbed in shattering rapidity to accelerated run-off of water to severely damage ¾ of this large State bringing untold misery to its people, infrastructure and industry at a financial cost that is beyond comprehension. The enormity of it all beggars’ belief as nature wreaks destruction in so many directions, painfully brought home by cameras and mobiles for the small screen. Technology is able to determine preparation for the worst in many cases and yet Toowoomba, safely perched on the top of tableland was slogged, with no warning, by an unparalleled ‘inland wall of water’ bringing terror to city streets as it tossed vehicles around like toys before continuing a path of annihilation down the Lockyer Valley where it took its highest toll of lives. All too ghastly and of nightmarish proportions leaving an anxious pit in the base of our bellies as we awaited word of ‘safety’ from cousin Tim and Les Howman with their family, Jane & Jonathan Palmer with their daughters. ‘All’s Well’ was a most welcome response. As for Ross & Jackie Lebish in Rockhampton- I doubt they know the extent of damage as yet to their drowned home, as they were safely away on Stradbroke Island for Christmas when the Fitzroy inexorably rose across its extensive floodplains, cutting the cattle capital off for days on end. Even the third largest city in Australia – Brisbane, despite hindsight gained from the 1974 peak flood scenario, was held to ransom by the deluge that came its way. Fading only a teeny bit in comparison with Queensland’s unprecedented rain falls, are New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Northern Territory, who all battle these extra-ordinary monsoonal rains affecting people and their property across the country.

Soon after our arrival back in the Perth metropolis we collected cousin Anthea and took her south to Woodman Point Caravan Park – boasting she would finally enjoy SUN as her three month visit Down Under with mostly wet weather drew to a close. Sadly, despite Perth’s having experienced a very dry rainy season promptly followed by a summer of early searing heat, our promise of three perfect days did not come to pass, Anthea brought rain with her! We actually had to sightsee and picnic from inside Skiv one of the days, as cold blustery rains flailed outside.


‘Mrs Bucket’ accessing Skiv became our daily amusement- sorry Anthea!

 Fortunately we were granted some hours of fine weather during a visit to Penguin Island, just south of Rockingham. Although around a thousand rare Fairy Penguins nest out on this safe haven amongst the dense cover of Sea Spinach, saltbush and Acacia thickets, it was the assemblage of gulls, terns and pelicans that kept us well entertained but none more so, than the Buff-Banded Rails. Generally shy and skulking, we found many of these particularly elegant birds (worthy of an artist’s brush) roaming amongst the picnickers with delightful attitude, flicking their tails.

Each year, thousands of people visit Penguin Island, crossing by ferry or wading over the permanent sandbar at low tide. Despite many signs warning of tidal danger, the wind induced currents take lives. Tragically, two foreign dads drowned before the eyes of their families, the day after our visit.

No sooner was Anthea winging her way to spend Christmas with her daughter’s family in Singapore than we were dashing to catch up with the Osterberg Clan before Christmas was upon us. They were all out from Africa to spend Christmas in the home of their daughter and sister’s family. Too much talking displaced recording on camera the two visits we had with JG & Lynne in Duncraig and Maida Vale. Much the same happened when the Ryan’s and Lord’s came to dinner at ‘Sunset Ridge’ just after Christmas while the Gee’s were off camping.

Christmas Day - Talia and Erin alias ‘Weasel’ were somewhat overwhelmed until joyous excitement set in with all the unwrapping. This was the first Christmas we’ve ever spent in the home of our daughter Saxon, Paul and grand-daughters.

Saxon was debuting her first Christmas as hostess. Despite forty degree heat, in her inimitable style she coolly excelled with three different colour-coded Christmas spreads for breakfast, lunch and traditional English dinner, while the rest of us wallowed in the swimming pool. We were joined by Paul’s parents - Kay and Alan Gee along with Lil Holly and her Dad, Tom Rutter to make it a Perth family festival.


“Holly Horse” kept her godchild Erin with sister Talia, entertained for hours in the water – the only place to be with a relentless sun beating down.



We had to slip in this unusual photo of our beautiful niece Lil Hol, taken underwater on Christmas Day!

With a reprieve from the sun shortly after 8pm that night we all tucked into delicious hot traditional fare!

“Our Cinnamon beauty passed on 27th December 2010 as gently as she lived. The Husky era is now over” notified us of dear Mr (sic) White’s death and our hearts went out to Cousin Alison and Amanda in Tasmania as their two huskies brought much pleasure during their lifetime. We, in turn had received many dinner-tales for regaling!

After a tasty meal of chilli mussels, Old Year’s night passed quietly and obliviously into 2011 for us. Saxon had kept George hard at work transforming a double garage into a playroom for Talia and Erin for the best part of a fortnight. Father and daughter are equally ‘driven’ to accomplish physically demanding tasks in spite of high temperatures. Restorative sleep eluded us all at night when the violent GULLY WINDS of the Hills Region began their nightly wailing... In due course we learnt this was a characteristic of the area, enough to drive many people crazy during the summer nights.

The humongous noise generated in the gum trees around our home had us listening with nervous apprehension for the roof to fall in.

Mention must be made of Harley-Rose the Gee’s much loved dachshund. A diamond hunter at the best of times bordering well on neurotic in her search for glinting lights has become George’s shadow due to regular sightings of reflected sunlight from his watch face. H-Dog has virtually deserted her family for our caravan home sleeping tucked up against George - the very man who wouldn’t marry Lea until her sausage dog was accidently killed!

Harley’s intensity in searching out ‘diamonds’, even within Getaway is immense.

With the playroom completed, we hitched up and pulled out of Sunset Ridge in the middle of January, had Getaway checked over in readiness for a major service in early February before we were able to head south for two weeks. En route for a night in Yalgorup National Park- a favourite spot in the peppermint groves beside Martins Tank Lake we were able to make a brief stop in Secret Harbour to meet up with Tim Smook and his delightful blonde four year old Caitlyn with an uncanny likeness to her Aunt Bronwyn, in Durban. Decades have passed since we last saw Tim and we’re thrilled to have him and family living in Australia which will, hopefully, lure his parents Ted and Ann Smook over for a visit, in time.

As a large part of sodden Australia gauges rains, river levels and record heights being peaked, our small south west corner is tinder dry. All the more distressing are the pyromaniacs. We’ve had quite a few these past weeks and news of a conflagration in the Clifton Lake area the night before our departure had us slightly antsy and ready to change plans should the need arise. All was well in Yalgorup National Park and we spent a peaceful night before making tracks to Gracetown. We were booked in for the weekend specifically to attend the Lord/Zadow wedding.

An impromptu fish and chips supper at Gnarabup Beach on the eve of the wedding - we joined the bride’s parents Des  and Liz Lord, Judy and Owen West, Des’s sister Ros from Stellenbosch and Liz’s brother Kerry and wife Rose from Auckland. Shortly after, the bridegroom’s family – ‘the Kojonup farming contingent’ arrived. Introductions soon set the scene for a particularly convivial wedding.

The delight of being in the right place at the right time to attend the last of the Lord weddings required the right gear! An outfit belonging to Lea’s late mother came out of mothballs. Pete Ryan rallied with shoes and a tie. Hair! Something needed to be done about that. Di Ryan cut George’s and Lea booked an appointment in Margaret River for her hair. She was squeezed in at the start of the day with instructions to come with newly washed and dried hair. Lea simply wanted that professional touch to tie up her hair in an easy informal style. On arrival back at the truck 30 minutes later, she was met with stunned, somewhat nervous laughter by her husband. Not only could he detect little difference from the front, his description of the back: “a strange woven sparrow’s nest” did little to instil confidence or allay the pain of shelling out $65 for 15-20 minutes work on a heavily pinned immovable concoction she could feel. Although a big letdown, we both decided to let it BE...

Our sartorial efforts!

Cape Lavender, Wilyabrup was the venue for a wedding seeped in atmosphere- a maze of tall lavender bushes lined the pathway leading to the garden of green lawns under sunshine, overlooking water and backed by trees. A bus brought in the glamorous young crowd in their minimal summer best and position was taken up beneath some trees to await the arrival of the bridal party. We were soon jockeying for sunny spots as a nasty breeze nipped at us all. By the time the simple and most significant matrimonial service was over, the mass group photo taken, guests beat a hasty retreat to seek out the last patches of sun before it sank behind the trees. It wasn’t long thereafter, that all manner of items were retrieved from cars in an effort to keep warm. By the time Conky and Andrew returned from their ‘photo shoot’ the evening chill had turned their elegant guests into a strangely mismatched dress code and the celebrations were on. Inner warmth came from the all round happiness and family histories eloquently expressed during the course of the toasts. We were privileged to be part of it all.

Des and Liz bringing their stunning daughter, Corrine to nature’s altar to wed her Andrew.

Although lower temperatures seem to frequent these southern reaches of the South West, we are always drawn to the scenic splendour of its karri forests, vineyards, coastline and eclectic communities. Thus having made the trip for the wedding we were keen to linger longer revisiting much loved places even discovering new. En route for Conto’s Campground we pulled into Gnarabup Beach as close as we could safely get to Kalifi, the beach holiday home of Des and Liz – Well timed! They were just returning from a morning beach walk with their house guests. All were ready for a hard earned brunch which we enjoyed partaking with them before continuing on our way. Returning to our favourite site we were met with that sinking feeling of ‘invasion’ as there was a caravan parked in ‘our peppermint grove”. We had to remind ourselves “solitude is an unexpected luxury, not a right”. It turned out Bill & Liz were the incoming Campground Hosts (they had arrived a few days too early for their stint)- National Park Volunteers who maintain standards and an eye during peak season summertime. They turned out to be delightful people and fonts of all knowledge.

Di and Peter Ryan arrived the following day for “training”. They take possession of their pop-top A-Van late February and we spent the next week together relaxing and enjoying the great outdoors together.

Enjoying the splendid views from the Cape to Cape tracks we were delighted to unexpectedly have a Western Grey rise out of impenetrably thick coastal scrub. As cameras clicked a curious female and joey poked heads above the thickets. Our close encounter ended with a chuckle as the youngster struggled to match the classiness of his parents bounding away over difficult terrain.

We walked, we talked, played Bananagrams, Deal or No deal and read... all within nature’s backdrop and some entertaining vivid blue fairy-wrens. A book awaiting return to the owner with the curious title “Fly Fishing for Sharks, A memoir of life with OCD” by Andrew Alexander caught Di’s attention and from then on she was HOOKED. Compelled to take ‘time-out’ alone to read on... When she finally returned to socialise with us, her eyes were moist with tears while her heart wanted to sob. The exact reaction Lea had on completion. We found we’d both cried in the final pages, struck by the power and grace of a beautifully written memoir. It’s a book worth looking for.

We moved on to Augusta and only just managed find a site available to us. Beautiful coastal spots are at a premium during the Christmas School holidays

Awaiting a lunch treat of Fish and Chips beside the Blackwood River-mouth George and Peter
planned to revisit their schoolboy speciality bully-beef and egg jaffles over coming days!

Feeling cramped we moved on a day later to Molloy Island, further up the Blackwood River. Our memory of an informal caravan park overlooking the Blackwood River and the private Island of Molloy, large numbers of birds circulating around and within caravans and tents had us keen to share this pretty place with Di and Peter. Again, only one site available but at least we had a view of the river. Although parrots didn’t visit us we had plenty of ducks waddling around. We planned to stay two nights and move on to Alexandra Bridge Campground for our last night with the Ryan’s but our run of good weather came to an end at Molloy and we stayed put, which was as well as a leak came to light on the sky hatch during heavy rain. We hope it was simply due to the uneven ground, ‘Getaway’ was parked on. Fortunately this can be checked out when our caravan goes in for a five year major service on the 7th February. We parted company with our friends as they continued on down the coast while we turned inland to Pinjarra, where we spent our night in the town’s Rest Area that we particularly like.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie- Oi, oi, oi at our caravan door ensured we knew this was our special day of thanksgiving.  Cheers to Loraine too.

Gee, Rutter and Begg families celebrated Australia Day together. Finishing off,  atop the container at Sunset Ridge to watch the ‘Sky Works’ display in Perth.

We ended January with Aquarian celebrations for Saxon and Lea. With temperatures topping 40’ on the 28th January, our niece Carmen Rutter flew into Perth to begin her new life after nine years in London. We all dashed to the airport to form a noisy reception beside her father Tom and sister Holly with our balloons and flags to welcome Car ‘home’.

Lea celebrated her shared birthday with a skype chat to grandson Finn turning two in Cape Town before escaping to the pool with her grand-daughters.  Here, she enjoys fun and games with youngest grandchild Erin.