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

moroccan salad and fitzroy visit

completely unrelated but i'm trying to cook healthier food these days...Moroccan salad was one of my first attempts. With salmon on the side. talk about yum!  anyway also had a quick and incredibly busy trip to fitzroy last week.  got to see lots of kids, which was great, but it was absolutely exhausting.  had a lazy, relaxing weekend where we hit garage sales, read books, enjoyed wine on our porch (finally the weather is nice) and went for a romantic dinner saturday. yay!

miski chillin on the patio and fitzroy floods

i looked outside one morning and there she was, just hangin in the chair. how cute!  fitzroy has been flooded for some time - as is most of east kimberley region.  this is an aerial view of the flooded catchment. noonkenbah looks like an island...but it's not. it's usually surrounded by marsh land and a couple rivers. we're even cut off from broome and halls creek now too. we're stuck! no more food really left in the grocery stores and i am getting cabin fever...i need a broome trip soon :)  more photos here Derby 2011

miski's spay and sunsets

poor little miski.  had to get spayed while i was away in flooded fitzroy. more photos under the Derby 2011 album (see right column).  Jose did a great job of caring for her but i wish i could have been here with her too. he had to carry her home, carry her outside to pee.  i came home early because of flooding on the roads in fitzroy. great to be back and was treated to an unbelievable sunset! 

flooded fitzroy trip and suprise backyard visitor

last week was my 4th fitzroy trip. it was very busy and very productive. had a blast!  on the way there (we'd had a bunch of rain recently) we went through quite a bit of water and had storms every night. one was so intense that it was impossible to sleep. even with my eyes closed, the curtains drawn and my head turned away, the lightning was so bright that it actually hurt my eyes. unreal.  then on the weekend jose and i had an adventure with a goanna who happened into our backyard. silly thing couldn't find its way out again. we helped shoo it along after a few minutes though.

traipsing about in fitzroy again

well it is definitely the wet season here now. it's great because it's not as hot and humid as before and the storms are spectacular. but it does make transport difficult with flooded roads and access to places being cut off. all part of the fun. out in fitzroy this week again for work. got to see a huge goanna which i chased after. i was later told they like to crawl up people because they cannot see well and when threatened they try to reach the highest place. i guess i should not run after them again, but they are too cute. just had the most powerful storm i've ever experienced here. it ripped through for about an hour and made our hotel shake like it was an earthquake. i've never seen lightning or heard thunder like that before. incredible. hopefully we can get back to derby on thursday!

Fx trip and fantastic skies

had another remote trip to fitzroy. this time it's the end of their school year for summer vacation. so bizarre to have that in December. anyway the trip was good and the skies were amazing!!!  there are more pictures at the end of the derby album.