Lake Thetis and Cervantes

On the way back from the Pinnacles we stopped into Lake Thetis to have a look at the stromatolites.  We saw a few roadsigns, which I keep taking pictures of.

The town of Cervantes was named for a Spanish ship that wrecked off the coast once upon a time.  I loved the sign on the way into town, it’s spaced very well so that you see a picture of the ship from a distance, then the signs separate as you get closer.

There aren’t many places on earth that you can see stromatolites.  They look like rocks, but the are really structures built by living micro-organisms and are referred to as ‘living fossils’.  The structures make for interesting patterns.  We’d seen some in Shark Bay (which hopefully I’ll get to post about one of these days), these were different shapes than the others we’d seen.

The view across the lake.  I guess all the stromatolites are just on the one side?  There is a path to walk all the way around the lake if you wish to.

I don’t know if this counts as a Big Thing, but we stopped for a picture with this fish sculpture on our way out of town.

After Cervantes we were headed for Perth!

Five Rivers & a Huge Croc in Wyndham

Wyndham is the northernmost town in Western Australia.  It’s about 100km north of Kununurra.  After we visited Emma Gorge we made the drive up to Wyndham to have a look at the Five Rivers Lookout.  It’s a place where five rivers empty into one before heading out to sea.

We had a look for all the rivers and gazed around at the view a bit.  Honestly the kids could not have cared less.  It was hot and windy up at the lookout and they weren’t all that impressed.  Still it was a unique spot and we thought it would be worth seeing.  Where else can you see the mouths of five rivers from one lookout?  I imagine sunset here would be quite the view.  Driving through town was interesting also as it was a bit…unkempt.

We could see remnants of the iron ore port facilities, I’m not sure if any of it is at all operational now.

These old barges tell the story of the days when the port was in full swing.  LadyBug (6) was wondering if that was a swimming pool down there!

 

This sign had me wondering what it says behind that ‘All Clear’.  What else can they change it to?  Do people really look at the sign when a cyclone is on the way? 

One more thing we had to see in Wyndham, the giant crocodile.  If I remember right it is 20m long.

We’d already been to Emma Gorge this day, we had one more stop to make on our way back to Kununurra…The Grotto!

Fogg Dam & Another Darwin Sunset

While in Darwin we chose to go on a jumping croc cruise.  We loved it.  I’ll post about it later after I’ve had a chance to go through the video we took that day.  On the way home from that fabulous jumping croc cruise we drove through the Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve for a quick look.  After our hot morning we weren’t in the mood for any walks but you can see plenty from the road.  Apparently even turtles, though we didn’t see any that day.

What we did see were lots of lily pads and plenty of birds.  The wetlands are a haven for birds.

We drove through Humpty Doo and saw the Boxing Crocodile, but viewing it through the car window as we drove by was as close as we got.

That night we watched the sunset from Cullen Bay.  There’s a lovely grassy strip at the beach which is a popular spot for sunset viewing.  There’s also a lovely fish and chips restaurant there which we chose to indulge in.  We couldn’t remember the last time we’d had fish and chips!  Always enjoyable and always incredibly greasy.

It was another of those nights where we weren’t sure we’d see much of a sunset, but then the sun peeked below those clouds and it was gorgeous.

I found this cool rock and you need to take a picture of it and I’m going to look all serious.

I know, I’m totally hilarious.  Did you see what I did with that serious face?  Funny.  There was another little boy at the beach that night wearing the same shirt, TurboBug noticed it and pointed it out to us.  ‘Dinosaur shirt!’ I don’t know why they bother putting these silly sayings on kids’ shirts, he’d be happy with just the dinosaur!

I love it when you can see how far the tide comes in because of what it leaves behind.  So many beautiful rocks and shells to pick through.  LadyBug (5) had a collection of pure white shells that she brought up to the grass, the white was so striking against the green.

Look at that toddler just wondering the beach on his own.  Where on earth are his parents? ;)

Road Tripping: Alice Springs

Between Yulara and Alice Springs we stopped in Erldunda to refuel.  There’s supposed to be a Big Thing there, a Big Echidna.  When I asked about it at the petrol station they had no clue what I was talking about at first.  Finally they realised what I was asking about and they told me it had been ruined by mice and the like.  It used to be where their emu farm is now.  We were happy to see the emus.  We’d stopped here on the way to Uluru and happily watched them for a good while.  On our way back through we were lucky to be able to feed them, a tour group was leaving and gave us their extra feed.  I could not keep JitterBug(8) off the ground, he was so enchanted with the emus.

TurboBug found food pieces on the ground and threw them through the fence at the ‘meemus’.  They happily followed him around hoping for more.  The sound an emu makes is so peculiar, it’s like a  hollow thumping noise.  With a couple of dozen emus we heard them ‘talking’ plenty.

Have you ever fed an emu by hand?  You place the food in your hand with your palm flat so that they can’t pinch your palm.  I tried it and it didn’t feel very good.  The kids were downright afraid to feed them!

I can’t blame them, look at that mouth!  When they raise their heads they are as tall as I am!  We started placing the food on that wooden railing and the emus were happy to eat from that.

When you are heading to Alice Springs there is a stretch of road with no speed limit.  I had never seen such a sign before!  There’s just nothing out here.  Towing the van we couldn’t go very fast anyway, so we were passed many times.

Not far north of Alice Springs is the monument marking the Tropic of Capricorn which we stopped at the day we left Alice.  It’s only 30km outside of town, so the kids were not keen to get out of the car, we hadn’t been in it long enough yet.  This trip has made our perception of distances a little warped.  What used to seem like a long drive is not so long anymore.  :)

We stopped at Aileron that day to refuel.  Don’t stop there if you can help it, the price was too high and with a credit card surcharge on top of it!  The toilets were in the pub but they were clean enough and they didn’t mind the kids walking through to get to them.  Outside were these lovely goannas.

Also this lovely man in a loincloth, watching over the petrol pumps.

Nearby is the huge Anmatjere Woman and Child.  It’s so hard to tell how big it is in these pictures, but it’s huge.  The trees in the background give you an idea.  The goanna is taller than I am.

Off in the distance you can see the Anmatjere Man statue.  He’s 17 metres tall and weighs more than 8 tonnes.  Both he and his family were created by a sculptor from Alice Springs.  It requires a short walk to get to the man on the hill, we didn’t do since we wanted to get back on the road.

There’s that no speed limit sign again.

The raod trains were massive.  Four trailers on this one.  This is the only size trucks we’ve seen for ages.  Normal semis with just one trailer will seem tiny!

Our next stop is the Devil’s Marbles near Tennant Creek.  We skipped these on our way south to Uluru as we knew we’d be coming back this way.  Then on up to Katherine, Kakadu, and Darwin.  North, north, and north!