Tramping tales for September 2010

The first official day of Spring Down-Under and, although there is very little to suggest so in the Top End of Australia as everything looks as much like it did throughout winter we decided to have a day out in the bush to celebrate! During our years, living in Darwin we’d regularly spent a Saturday night in our favourite camping spot on Leeders Creek, some 75kms NE of the city. In those working days, school preparation for the coming week absorbed a lot of time that it was a pleasure to down tools and set off for our secluded bush camp in time to catch a setting sun. The different phases of the moon furthered the lighting to our simple bush setting. We even took Justy and our grandson Otto there when he was eight months old, so it was a place that held warm memories of ‘getting away from it all’ and relaxing in the little creek pool set within the roots of a couple of trees. The last bit of bush track to our camp took a lot of swerving to avoid trees. It was out of the question for a caravan. Oasis Caravan Park only 50 km away; Lea reluctant to give up air-conditioning for a night in Skiv; thus a revisit of a few hours, it was! It turned out to be a sweltering day with mosquitoes out in force. The creek running very sluggishly that our narrow pool was covered in a thick layer of floating leaves was far from inviting to Lea – but bush man George took respite there twice. We happily spent a few hours in an old haunt even though it must be said the hours of darkness are far preferable to midday heat’s discomfort!

The bright green displays of cycads were an additional pleasure to our Leeders Creek bush camp visit, for old time’s sake.

We have continued to stay on in Oasis Caravan Park outside Palmerston as the owners are happy to look after Getaway for the six weeks we are away in Perth and South Africa. We had a couple of jobs that required doing in the city which gave Lea an ideal opportunity to drop in on her old school, Nakara. Seven years later- no trace of any of her pupils – they have all moved up Primary and gone to High School. Staff, too have moved on and Lea was delighted to find a mere handful of old colleagues to greet and touch base with. Most important job of the day was the need to check whether Skiv would manage to fit into The Sentinel underground parking as well as squeeze into our friend Jo’s spare parking place, beside her Troopie. We didn’t want two bulky Toyotas to be problematic for her. By a hair’s breadth we managed, solving the question of transport to and from the airport for us. Jo will be out teaching in a remote school for the next two weeks and her close proximity to Darwin CBD allows for door to door collection by the Airport shuttle bus. Whew! Thanks Jo.

Days began counting down fast to our flight out of Darwin across to Perth on the 11 September. We tidied up around Skiv and Getaway and kept an ear on the ghastly state of politics with 17 days passing before we had a resolution to our General Election. Which minority government was to rule our Federal Parliament? Each Party literally neck and neck that eventually both were held delightfully to ransom, by three Independents! Underlying all the divergent views and sniping going on we soon realized a POSITIVE CHANGE was in reach should a new mechanism of consensus be accomplished. Neither Party had proved suitable yet six men could make far reaching contributions to change. A mere glimmer of hope flickered within the ‘wicked’ stalemate! We felt Julie Gillard at least acknowledged our Nation was ‘FED-UP’ with party-politics while Tony Abbott seemed far too intent on being Prime Minister as he reined in the wild men of his Coalition. By ‘declaration day’ Lea was feeling decidedly melancholy. Two out of the three, chose for Labor and Julia Gillard – we felt a stunned relief developing, especially hearing the shock, horror, aggressive words that flowed afterwards from Abbott and his bully boys. HELLO! They need to look beyond their old ways and see our country wants a co-operative NEW WAY, something different for the 21st Century. It is a tough call but hopefully each Member of Parliament will play a far more unique part in the wellbeing of Australia.

A Nakara staff member had told Lea that Judy Lennie was back from China. Keen to make contact Lea tried an old e-mail address and struck lucky. Deputy Head with the Early Childhood Unit under her protection, Judy had been a particularly supportive mentor to Lea during her Nakara years that a natural friendship continued after leaving the school. In 2004 Judy took a leap out of her comfort zone taking a University English Post in China, we were impressed. It truly became a Red Letter Day for us receiving news of her life in Xian. Any NEWS out of China grabbed our attention too.

Highlight of the week was lunch with Judy as we talked over her four years in China and caught up on her family news. A train ride across China and Russia is on our ‘bucket’ list.

9/11 had us winging our way over to Perth to Saxon, Paul and our grand-daughters. The very next day, Saxon and Paul half heartedly set off to look at a house that had just come on the market, while we looked after the girls. They returned enthused and within 24 hours despite competition, their offer was accepted. One year later and on their fourth offer their house-hunting finally over. We met up with Paul’s parents to see over ‘Sunset Ridge’ set on a beautiful two acre block of land in ‘The Hills’ as the Darling Mountain Range is affectionately known as. Although the house is smaller there is plenty of room to extend and more importantly Skiv and Getaway will be able to park very comfortably there!

A view of ‘Sunset Ridge’.

Settlement date has been set for late October and as we fly back to Perth on the 19th October it was deemed ideal that we stay on and help with Talia and Erin during the house move. In fact, we happily ‘turned turtle’ in more ways than one... Rather than return to Queensland on our return to Darwin, we will continue into Western Australia and make our way down to Perth in good time to celebrate Christmas with the Gee’s in their new abode.

Di Godson hosted an Arundel School gathering at her home for Lea with interloper Di Ryan joining as an ex Rhodie! L to R sitting: Meg Godwin, Jean Rogers, Lea, Ros Davies. Standing: Di Godson & Di Ryan.

Our long flight out of Perth via Kuala Lumpur to Cape Town ran smoothly. Holly collected us at the airport and ran us through to Keith and Colleen’s flat and it was then the wheels fell off! We were all thrown into a quandary as there was no key and no one in the block expecting us. We all returned to Somerset West and took up residence in Werner Reutler’s townhouse in Erindale with its magnificent views of the mountains on either side. It was only when our son called Saxon in Perth and then Holly, concerned about our whereabouts, that we became aware that bush mail had let us all down. Keith and Colleen had actually booked us into a ‘Bed & Breakfast’ for a week.

Hottentots Holland Range - It was glorious to be back in the surrounds of our significantly familiar mountains...

Making the most of an unexpected two days in Somerset West we’d made arrangements to see George’s niece Jessie and our dearest Italian friends Pauline and Guiseppie Chisin – frail they may be but their spirits are remarkable and the large glass of grappa was rapidly decanted back into the bottle as we were driving!

That evening Holly drove us back to Cape Town and we booked into Brooklands House two days late! An elegant guest house a stone’s throw from Keith and Col’s tiny home. The next 24 hours crawled as we awaited the arrival of our family from the bush. Thereafter, time was to fly as we carefully renewed a friendship with Ella & Finn in the remaining two days prior to their parent’s departure for America. Three year old Ella took the parting in her stride but 18 month old Finn’s first time away from his Mum & Dad overwhelmed him with bouts of grief- that first night in particular. Fortunately, being school holidays Holly was able to join us after the first bad night and between three of us, life for Ella and Finn soon settled into a delightful routine.

Naturally there was a list of household jobs requiring George’s attention and certainly, ‘Bumpa’ was worth watching when it came to all the noisy activity of shelf construction.

As September ended we were still very aware of the decided nip in the Cape air and the three of us readily fell into bed each night almost immediately after the children. These bush babies are used to sleeping in close proximity to their parents for safety reasons - as a result Finn sleeps wedged between us and Holly more often than not, shares a good part of the night with Ella in her bunk bed! We must add that we still consider this a privilege despite the initial shock to our systems.