Tag Archives: Camping

Claire’s Birthday Broome Trip

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So we decided to fly into Broome for a week as Claire was turning 30. We decided there were a few cool places we wanted to explore, so we hired a Grand Vitara. This was before we owned one, it had been on my mind for a while, so we figured that hiring one would be a good test. Despite Broome Broome (best name for a care hire place) restricting a 3 door Grand Vitara from going to places that the Rav3 could go, which made my soul die a little on the inside, they treated us pretty good and the car certainly rocked.

There were so many great places to see down pretty interesting roads. The pearl farm, which wasn’t that good apart from the drive, the dinosaur footprints, Echo Beach resort, it was all really interesting. Completely random, Triple J’s hottest 100 of the past 20 years was on, so you’ve got that, an awesome car, loads of great tracks and destinations… it was great fun.

I think Claire liked the sunset camel trip the best, my favourite bit was Greg’s Astronomy tour.


The rock colour was amazing


Claire being arty


Camel trip

Gunlom in May

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We decided to take a few days off during the week and head down to Gunlom. Claire had just come off nights and has an amazing ability to sleep in any car in any condition, including corrugated roads. We met up with a lot of her uni friends who had been down at Edith Falls for the night. This was the first time that we had been to Gunlom, and the scenery certainly didn’t disappoint.

It was May yet Claire and I decided not to bother setting up the outer canvas on our tent. The weather was great the first day, but the rest of the camp decided to pack it up and go home early. We stayed until late arvo on the second day, we packed it up and headed back… and got absolutely belted by a storm! Lesson learnt, don’t trust Kakadu until July!


Claire and me at the upper pool

 


The lower pool, the waterfall still flowing freely with all the rain they’d had.

Paradise Valley in 2013

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Always hard to do a write up on these trips to PV, I’ve done so many that a lot of the stories blend into one. I remember getting a pretty good left infection from a bite, and the doctor and nurses in the ER (went there to get some antibiotics) were all paranoid about the strange stuff you can get from the NT, nope sorry, never had anything go wrong up here, a couple of days in dangerous Victoria and I’m in the Emergency Room.

As a result of this we didn’t manage to get the canoe trip in, but it was still a great trip. As long as it doesn’t rain, it always is…

Edith falls and dehydration

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We decided to go down and stay at Edith Falls, it was in the build up, but we had plenty of water, and an easy accessible swimming hole, so we figured we’d be right.

We arrived and set up then spent the rest of the day in the lower pool, was a lot of fun. I really wanted to do the bushwalk and see see pool, but the trip (from memory) was about 10km. We took plenty of water, so much it hurt my back and I was drinking it just to lighten the load. I got a little concerned that Claire wasn’t drinking enough, and tried to get her to take more. The swim was great (if a little spooky – I am sure it was safe but that upper pool just LOOKS like a croc’s natural home) and we walked back and did the middle pool. The middle pool really is the best one, it’s such a nice spot.

I am sure you can guess the end of the story, nearly as soon as we got back to camp Claire wasn’t feeling that well and wanted to lie down. Soon I had packed up and we were heading back, stopping regularly for her. It just goes to show that despite drinking 2-3 litres of water and a few diet cokes on that trip, you just cannot underestimate these conditions.