Shady Camp

Shady Camp on the Mary River

A photo expedition to Shady Camp early one saturday. Lots of crocs around this morning all sunning themselves. The morning was beautiful, not to warm with enough of a breeze to keep the flys away. They continue to extend the bitumen and you can get over half way now before you hit the corrugations of the dirt road. Late in the dry season corrugations are always bad.
Having had a lovely long dry season means that the river wasnt flowing over the barrage but the lotus lillies were flowering.

Shady camp is a funny name because there is no shade on the river. A few large banyan trees are up in the camp ground but its very easy to get sun burnt as I found out.

I like going to take photos by myself, you get to take time to plan and frame shots and take enough so that you know you have it. No one around urging you to hurry up. Mind you the number of crocodiles around makes you wish you had someone keeping an eye out for them.

My nephew Thomas

Go West.......

I Know I have been extremely lazy and not posted anything on here in ages. Life has been pretty run of the mill lately so nothing much to talk about. Work is rarther full on, but at least we finally moved venues and now we have airconditioning ( a must now that Darwin appears to have entered the build up). Mum and Dad have come and gone, at the time of writing this they are with my uncle in NSW. They have had a great trip. While they were here we went out to kakadu and did the tourist thing, its amazing how something as awesome as Kakada, world heritage listed area, becomes so much of an everyday thing after you live up here for a while. We also spent a couple of days on their yacht sailing around Darwin.

Last weekend I went to Victoria River and Timber Creek. Timber Creek is the last stop before the WA border. A long way to go for a weekend but it was something new. The scenerey is amazing, very different to anywhere else I have been.

First off there was Joe Creek Picnic Area. Driving into this amphitheatre was awesome. The escarpment is lined with Palms where the water cascades down in the wet season. They look spectacular against the red rock face of the escarpment. This place would look awesome in the wet season with cascading down.

Then there are the Boab trees. They seriously are wierd trees. I took tonnes of pictures of them, purely cause they are so strange. The bark has an almost silver sheen which looks awesome at sunset, taking on the colour of the setting sun.

I camped at Big Horse creek which is just done the rd from Gergory's tree. gregory was the the leader of an expidition in this region and the date of his arrival is careved into one of the boabs. His camp was on the Victoria River. The Boabs are also sacred to the local aboriginal people and there is a huge fine if you are caught defacing them. It was really good to see this part of the country for the first time, will definately be back to explore the Kimberly one day.

Ups and downs

Life has certainly been interesting for me since March this year. I have moved house, stopped living with Gary, been to Adelaide, become an aunty, been stressed to the max with work which has flooded and been sprayed for insects meaning we couldn't work there. Then we had a huge cyclone bearing down on us but luckily it died before hitting darwin so we only got a little wind.But all in all life is sorting itself out and I am happy enjoying the challenges it give me.

But in between all this there has been time to take some pics, some of which are here.....

Washington

Pam and Allan's dog Washinton, isn't he gorgeous. Now he can say he's been in cyberspace.

Victor Harbour Triathlon

March 1-5 was spent in Adelaide for a course. Luckily while I was there got to catch up with the family. Watched Ben race in a triathlon at Victor Harbour. He managed a personal Best. Well done Ben. Was a lovely day so nice to be away from the humidity of Darwin. Thanks too to Pam and Allan for letting us stay at their place for the night.

The Gas plant is operational and shipping gas. Here are a couple of pics of this controversial project. The Chief minister assured us that you wouldn't see the tank... ha what a lie that was.

Windy Weather

We have had the most amzingly windy weather here in Darwin for the past 5 days. Darwin is hardly ever windy apart from storms and I haven't experienced anything like this up here. The wind has created an amazing swell and some diehards were out trying to surf. The kite surfers I could understand but the waves weren't that great. Its really nice however to be able to stand in the wind which isn't hot or cold and just fell the air move around you. After a hot and steamy build up this is a real treat. With the overcast weather we have been having Darwin is actually bearable. Here are a couple of pics taken from Nightcliff jetty showing the spray.... Its fun to just stand and watch the waves roll in.