first derby boab festival long table dinner

after driving back from windjana we had a lazy saturday afternoon at home before getting ready for the evenings event.  i lazed the hours away with miski in the backyard on my new (garage sale find) camping cot...now my outdoor lounge.  reading a book with the scent of fresh laundry in the air and hawks circling above and a happy puppy at my feet made the day absolutely perfect. just doesn't get better than that.  that evening we went to the very first derby boab festival long table dinner.  over 200 people were there. we had live entertainment (bands, story telling), raffles, a huge bonfire, unending bar with bubbly and other lovely things, great buffet dinner, fabulous dessert, great company and markers to draw on the table!  it was such a blast. next day hannah brought me the beautiful mark norval print she bought on my behalf at the art auction on friday night. we were at the play but i'd preselected a few i liked.  she bid and got one for me!  super exciting...my very first art purchase.  see more photos in the Derby Dry Season 2011 Album  

winjana time walk

wow.  winjana (not even getting to the gorge) is spectacular. i woke the next morning after the play very early. i wandered off by myself to go on the short time walk. we didn't have time for the gorge walk that day. it was spectacular. the rock formations there are actually fossilized reefs from eons ago. incredible to think it was once under the ocean. you can see fossilized shells and creatures in the walls.  after a nice quick breakfast we all walked in again and this time we saw a kookaburra hunting insects and 5 fresh water crocs!  what a beautiful place.  i can't wait to come back again to see the whole gorge and tunnel creek with my mom.  see more photos here in the Derby Dry Season 2011 Album

jandamarra play at windjana gorge

got back from broome on tuesday after some great events and good training down there with the kimberley SP team.  had a short week back in derby and a fantastic pot luck dinner at lisa's on thursday night.  the food was incredible and the social gathering much needed.  friday jose and i had a day off and went with friends to windjana gorge to watch the incredible play based on the true story of jandamarra, a local hero from the 1800's.  we set up camp and watched the wonderful performance in the very place where much of the story took place over 100 years ago. it was such a privileged to be there. had a lovely bonfire after the play and went to sleep under a cold, starry sky.

concert on cable beach

drove to broome this past sunday for work but also for a concert held on cable beach to protest (unofficially) the gas plant that is schedule to go up soon.  such a shame.  the pigram brothers and friends were there to play for the crowds, and i got to hear some of my favorite songs by them! they were playing on a boat anchored just off shore. the media was there and so were thousands of supporters.  it was incredible. the day was beautiful and the sunset was as stunning as a wet season sunset.  it was one of those days you're even more thankful to be alive.  had a great time in broome, did a little work, a little shopping, and a lot of eating!  went out for japanese at azuki (always yummy) with friends for my bday.  had elderflower water for the first time...and bought a bunch to take home.  mom comes to visit soon!  just a week and a half to go now! i cannot wait!

silly miski

as always, miski relishes her marsh walks, oval runs and golf course jaunts.  the next day, after marsharts, we took her for an early morning run.  she practiced catching tennis balls with jose. of course, as soon as i got out the camera she stopped catching them. but they made for some pretty cool photos.  see more of them here

marsharts in derby

another awesome local event happened just two days later on sat the 16th of july.  the 4th derby marsharts!  a few of us got together and went early, got a great spot in front of the screen, and had some snacks and cold drinks.  we saw the interesting art installations around the event and got sausages and drinks from the scouts stand once the event got going. we watched interesting short films and photos from the kimberley.  some were really amazing!  there was an incredible sunset and an equally incredible moon rise that night.  it was a lovely evening, and the best part was it was right across the street from my house. talk about convenient. 

mowanjum art festival

the dry season in derby is packed with really fun activities. one is the mowanjum art festival, held at the mowanjum art centre.  it's only 12kms out of town and had dijeridoo lessons, face painting, art exhibits, and later indigenous dances, music and songs.  it was a really lovely evening. i even got to try some gubinge juice mixed with agave to sweeten it. gubinge is a local bush fruit. it was SO good!  i also bought wild dried lemongrass and jilungin dreaming tea (a local plant) that's good for helping you sleep at night.  the lady who helped us patch our tires out on the gibb, and helped us get home essentially, found me in the crowd to say hi!  i thanked her again for her kindness.  i can't believe she remembered or recognized us.

holy sh-t i'm 30!

so it finally happened. this thing i've been dreading. i've closed out my 3rd decade...and had an awesome time of it! started with a picnic at dinner tree the sunday before with some good friends.  had great food, great company, champagne and other spirits.  when the tourists came and clogged the site up we moved to the marsh by my house and watched the sunset with another bottle of wine. on my oz birthday i got some nice surprises in the morning, watched an incredible sunrise with claire and miski and then claire made this incredible lunch and brought it to work.  i pigged out!  after work a bunch of us went to the jetty to watch the sunset and eat some more.  we also had more champagne.  went home after and played with sparklers and ate cake.  talk about overindulgence.  today was really my us birthday and i watched the sunrise again with miski and claire.  it was breathtaking.  what a lovely way to welcome myself to my 30's.  all the photos are posted here

darwin conference and drive down the gibb

it was very hard to leave indonesia.  i hope we get to go back someday and see even more of the islands.  i could definitely live there.  hmmm.  anyway got back into darwin at 4am...got the car...and drove to get a campsite. well they weren't open very early so we napped in the car as the sun came up and got a site once the office opened. slept most of the day and then checked into our posh hotel that we had for my national conference.  i attended that for three days and got to shmooze with lots of aussie speechies :)  jose got to explore more of darwin and we had some nice dinners out there.  then we headed out to kununurra.  visited the beautiful emma gorge and amalia gorge, zebedee springs, and then camped at el questro station.  it was heavenly.  the next day we were going to try to get home to see miski but had terrible terrible luck and got three flats all at once and only through the kindness and preparedness of strangers were we able to limp 75 miles to the nearest tire repair center - where we got to buy two very very expensive all terrain tires. but they got us home the next day after camping at mount barnett...well sleeping in the car. it wasn't my favorite part of the trip and has rather put me off driving around the gibb.  we had to start work the next day so now i think we both feel like we need a holiday after our holiday. oh well!  and now my big 3 oh birthday is coming up soon. yikes!  more photos in this album

ubud and southern bali

ubud was another major highlight of the trip for me. i could live there without a problem. the food, fruit, vistas, people, culture, events, and shopping were the best.  we stayed at honeymoon guesthouse which was incredibly luxurious and decadent. we explored rice terraces outside the city, saw museums, visited galleries, went shopping, tried new and unusual fruit, visited the monkey forest, had incredible meals, met up with mj, bob, caitlin, and joey, visited some temples around the area, oh yeah did i mention we went shopping?  the market was fascinating and the whole culture around bartering is pretty fun.  we went to a fire dance (kecak) and cuban dinner with the whole crew too! i can't wait to go back someday!  we also visited a few nice sites (rocky temple, batuan temple, and the epic tanah lot) on our way to seminyak to meet mj, bob, and caitlin at their incredible villa.  went out to another fabulous dinner with them at naughty nuri's and then explored southern bali a bit. can't say i really enjoyed myself. we got something for miski and then decided to head back to ubud for the few days we had left in bali. such a good decision.  relaxed at our favorite hotel before heading back to darwin and back to reality!  more photos in this album

east bali and temples

after i ripped myself away from the beautiful islands, we took a rather wet and bumpy boat ride back to padang bai and then a taxi to candi dasa...stayed there for 3 days.  it was an ok hub to see other parts of the east but overall i wish we'd stayed in amed.  oh well. we had some retail therapy and ate some incredible meals so all was not lost. did some day trips to a bali aga village (tenganan) and then took a full day temple tour on the way to ubud.  we saw the floating palace (my favorite), king's palace in amlapura, water palace, besakih temple at the foot of gunung batur (volcano), sampled kopi luwak (cat poo coffee) along the way, and ended up in wonderful and enchanting ubud.  see more photos here in this album

gili air indonesia

after our trek we headed straight away to bangsal port to catch a boat to gili air (about 20 minutes by boat).  this turned out to be quite a difficult feat. we ended up having to charter a nearly empty boat and after much ado we finally got to gili air. what a beautiful, relaxing place.  there are no cars on the island so we took a pony drawn carriage to our hotel! the beaches were beautiful, the people lovely, the waters warm and clear, the snorkeling the best i've seen, and i got dive certified!  we loved out time here so much we stayed a week at the coconut cottages, relaxing, swimming, eating and drinking. indonesian people are incredibly polite and kind.  i hope we get to return to the islands again someday.  see more photos in this album

rinjani volcano trek - lombok

once we got into bali - at 6am - we hailed a taxi with a fair amount of trouble and went to padang bai to catch a fast boat to lombok port (teluk nara) where our tour guide was waiting for us to drive us to senaru.  the boat trip was rather bumpy but beautiful. lombok turned out to be an incredible island. it's relatively untouched by tourism and so much more beautiful overall. it was a great way to see more of local life.  we embarked on a 4 day/3 night trek of the second highest volcano in indonesia (rinjani). it was one of the hardest and steepest treks i've been on but also one of the most beautiful. i saw my first shooting star on this trip which was exciting. our guide and porters were incredible. they carried so much weight and ran up and down the mountains in just flip flops, barely breaking a sweat.  this trek was one of my favorite parts of our trip. see more photos in this album

drive to darwin - june holiday

we're finally back after 5 wonderful weeks away!  i've broken up the trip into 6 sections.  the first part of the trip saw us driving from derby, along the great northern highway, to darwin over three days.  what an incredible drive. the first day we left at 6am and it took us 9 hours to get to kununurra where we camped at discovery park along the lake.  the drive was so beautiful. we saw all kinds of wildlife along the way like wallabies, cows, birds, snakes, goana's, lizards, etc. next day we explored kununurra for a bit and then drove to katherine where we stayed with friends of a friend. next day we explored katherine gorge which was fantastic and then drove up to darwin.  on the way we stopped to hike into edith falls - a really beautiful oasis. on the way from kununurra to darwin we saw wedge tailed eagles, wild pigs, wild horses, and lots more of the typical wildlife.  we also saw many beautiful mountains (hills really) and incredible sweeping vistas. left for bali at 2am...which was a bit rough. see more photos of our drive through the kimberley and into the nothern territory (to the top end!) in this album