Mangoes are ripening on the trees in Broome. We are heading into the season before the wet ….. the Build-up. The season reputed to be enough to send men mad, ‘Mango Madness’. Storms threaten & all anyone wants is rain to clear the air, but rain doesn’t come, only the thunder, lightning & wind to tease & frustrate. The storms are yet to begin but we feel they are not far away.
My my, over 3 weeks since the last post. In some respects it feels like we have done so little & thus have little to post about. However I think that this is more a reflection of our change of pace in a blog which, to date, has focussed upon moving on regularly. Now instead I feel the need to communicate to you something of what it has been like to have reached a destination of which we had a variety of deliberately loose expectations.
Our past travels have taught us that too much pre-planning/research/knowledge building, whilst an enjoyable part of the ‘trip’ also serves to detract from it. Not knowing (or at least ‘not knowing in detail’) what a route or destination holds enhances our experience because it enables a greater sense of discovery & discovery when ‘there’ is far more satisfying than when planning to be there.
We understand that many would be unwilling to ‘endure’ the conditions we have chosen to experience but we are enjoying being here. We have uncertainty too, but as is our way have chosen to make a commitment in the belief that having done so we are far more likely to ‘make the best of it’ & thus to get the best out of it. We took the same approach when we chose to migrate to Australia from the UK & when I gave up paid employment & took up our semi self sufficient farming lifestyle. They were big steps into unknown territory but for us they worked……. and given our time again the only thing we would change would be to do those things earlier.
Choosing to experience a wet season in a remote part of tropical Australia might not be quite as big a step, but the process of commitment is the same.
We love the big blue skies, the constant sound of the sea, the colour of the pindan contrasted against the green of the bush & those blue skies above. MrsTea has amazed me with her liking for predictably warm weather as she has always maintained a preference for the variety that Australia’s southern seasons bring, but now expresses a liking for daily sunshine & warm weather. This part of the country has temperatures mainly in the low to mid 30’s year round. Just the humidity changes. We are now intrigued by the changing season, aware that we must be missing many ‘cues’ to this occurrence, but nevertheless smiling at what we do notice. Many questions about how this country ticks, about what we see or feel are often forgotten, a phenomena which could I suppose become frustrating, but somehow it doesn’t. Instead we just feel increasingly ‘immersed’ & just ‘being here’ is enough. We feel much respect for those who have had generations of knowledge of country passed on to them & hope they know how lucky they are. We feel the same about anyone anywhere who ‘knows’ the country on which they live wherever in the world that might be. Here it is easier (for us) with modern civilisation’s wrappings & disguises far less present, to be closer to country & aware of the natural power around us, even if we don’t have a great knowledge of it. In fact that lack of knowledge only serves to emphasise difference. … & the Dampier Peninsula is very different to anywhere else we know of. A unique blend of saltwater country & culture in relatively untouched surroundings which retain the natural biodiversity of millennia.
We have a pretty laid back life here. Days roll one into another – frequently with no idea what day or date it is. We ‘potter’ & laze, amble & laze some more. The climate dictates most of our decision making, such as it is. Easy to understand why folk who live in this sort of country often have little need for clocks & surprising how quickly we have succumbed to an existence largely free of ‘clock structure’. ’Time is only needed when we have to leave to go elsewhere.
The end of October saw us undertake a BIG day out. A trip into Broome to purchase sufficient supplies to hopefully sustain us for at least two months given the uncertainty of being able to return to Broome when roads are flooded & closed once the monsoonal rains arrive.
It was a long & tiring day, up at 5am, left at 6am – back exhausted after dark at 7:30pm. Three hours driving there & three hours back, mostly on sandy tracks where the quality of the surface varies sufficiently to require 100% concentration. At times good enough to maintain 70 0r 80kph, but can change to a 25kph road at the drop of a hat.
Until anyone has spent a reasonable amount of time driving on unsealed roads we think it is probably hard for them to appreciate just how much the predictability of sealed roads allows for far less concentration & is thus far less tiring. Nevertheless we continue to feel ‘closer’ to the country we are in when on unsealed roads, particularly those that are the same colour as the surrounding country & there is no doubting the red pindan colour of the Cape Leveque Rd!
This however is in the process of major change, the road is to be sealed by 2020, & work to create the new road is in full swing. Huge logistics involved. Everything from the giant machinery to cut a new path parallel to the existing one, to bores being sunk & huge dams built from the pindan itself & lined with plastic – to wet the pindan to allow it to be scraped, shaped & compacted prior to it’s eventual sealing. And all a long way from any supply point. This is no cheap exercise No doubt that it is going ahead, but we, like many on the Peninsula have very mixed feelings about it. Those who live up here in what for us has felt like a huge, but almost separate ‘island’ to mainland Australia, will benefit as access to the ’modern civilisation’ that Broome represents (but don’t forget that Broome itself is a long way from anywhere) will become easier & less costly. One of the highest costs for anyone living on the peninsula is car maintenance brought about largely by the notoriously rough Cape Leveque Rd. What also will occur is immense & for many unimaginable change to lives & living. With the bitumen will come an influx of holiday makers with expectations & demands, unfamiliar ways of being which bring for many unwelcome pressures. A few here will make money, but most of the profit will go to outsiders. Already OH&S requirements are being insisted upon where previously they were either non existent or unimportant. Nothing wrong with keeping visitors safe, but we have already heard stories of locals being expected to pay large sums of money, that they don’t have, to comply with regulations. It’s a cynical process I fear ……..set up expectations which local people can’t meet & then later well funded developers move in to comply with the expectations, eventually taking the profits whilst those who’s country it is are once again sidelined, their rights eroded & country changed in front of their eyes. Some of the more aware folk are already worried about hotels etc making this natural paradise into a high-rise tourist mecca like Queensland’s ‘Gold Coast’. The huge sums of money involved to build this road aren’t being spent to save local’s transport costs. Little doubt in my mind that governments & corporations with an eye to exploiting natural resources are behind all this. Mines, fracking & large tourist enterprises. Divide & conquer tactics. Many of the folk up here, I suspect, have lived as their families have lived for generations before them, & have little sense of the monster at their door. Once they realise it will be too late & Australia will have created yet another disenfranchised population in the drive for profits for folk who don’t live here & probably have no idea what they have helped to destroy. People power stopped the massive industrialisation at James Price Point a bit south of here, but those who only see wilderness as something to be exploited have not given up. I hope I am wrong, but fear that being here now is an an experience we will look back on when such opportunities no longer exist. Many consider a 2020 completion of the road optimistic, especially if the Wet is a big one & undoes much of the roadworks already done…… but it’s coming!
Anyway off that soapbox & back to shopping. Shopping logistics – 4 separate supermarket trips. ‘Pre-frozen goods, To be frozen goods, Packs & cans etc & Fresh produce. 5 large shopping trolleys full! Biggest shop of our lives. Both our fridge & freezer in the car were turned to freezer mode to keep food cold during the 36 degree drive ‘home’ to Goombaragin. Ran out of time & didn’t get the opportunity to search local op shops for ‘wet season clothing.
The weather is a challenge we continue learning to meet. Humidity has been slowly increasing day by day. Average ‘relative humidity’ is now 80% at 34 to 36 degrees.C. but 36deg C at 80% humidity ‘feels like’ closer to 46 deg.C (to us).
We know humidity & temperature will increase but remain hopeful we can adapt as the season changes. So far the heat itself isn’t too bad, although the sun’s rays can be very harsh. The difference between being in shade & out in full sun is huge, & the full sun is there at 7:30 am through to almost 5pm. 8am sees temperatures climbing over 30 degrees.C. Occasionally white fluffy clouds dotted across the blue skies provide a little extra welcome shade. It is still hot in the shade, but along with minimal or no clothing & the sea-breezes it can be quite a pleasant heat , but with no shade it would be most unwise to be uncovered. The humidity is the harder, but nothing like we expected. In other places the word muggy is often used to describe high humidity, that sense of the air being wet & making it more difficult to breathe. That may well yet be to come, but it hasn’t been like that yet. Instead we sweat ….. a lot. In fact I now sweat from parts of my body from which sweat has never before occurred. If doing ‘any’ physical activity clothing is soaked within minutes. I couldn’t believe it, but my shoulders & my outer thighs are like taps, along with the rest of me. I am a walking breathing human tap. With all of this wetness comes the discomfort of clothing sticking to you & pulling on your skin as you move. I had thought that being so wet would equate to being ‘slippery’, but not so. This is, for me, the toughest aspect, but even so I’m finding ways to manage. First it was loose cotton boxer shorts, but they got just as wet as everything else. Now it’s no undies, sometimes with loose but stretchy pants, sometimes with a sarong wrapped around me, but generally when not in the sun it’s nothing at all. Yes I’m sure some readers are squirming at the thought of a naked Cuppa, but you’re not here to see me & nor is anyone else bar MrsTea, & she doesn’t mind. Somehow though she seems to manage clothing better than I. Heat rashes have been a problem for me too, large areas of red angry looking raised welts, not unlike psoriasis. Thankfully though they have just been ugly rather than ugly & itchy. Treatment has been maximum air exposure as often as possible, combined with over the counter steroid cream, bought in Broome ‘just in case’ ……. & it seems to have worked. The rashes slowly reduced & have continued to do so since stopping the cream. I’m hoping that this is a sign of my body adapting to it’s environment. Conversely MrsTea has no rashes, sweats less & has her skin has turned a lovely Meditteranean shade on all the parts which get sun exposure – amusingly leaving her quite stripey when naked! 😀
Towels on the bed during our daily siestas ( which have become extended, often lasting from mid morning to late afternoon unless there are things to be done) keep the bed dry. We can lay on the bed & watch the ocean as well as visiting birds to water we have strategically placed for them. Brahminy Kites are a daily sight soaring out over the bay, & the unmistakeable black sihouettes of Frigate Birds are contrasted against the blue background occasionally.
Nicks, cuts & grazes have to be treated early. Skin moisture makes healing slower & delaying treatment results in angry swollen wounds. Hydrogen peroxide & iodine work well.
As part of our ’sticky weather mitigation programme’ I spent a day getting an outdoor two person spa tub running. It has sat disused for at least a year, & was filled with a variety of stuff which need moving before it could then be cleaned out. With all that done I filled it with water, primed the pump & tried to turn it on. Nothing. Several further attempts to prime it each resulting in hopeful but weak rushes of water through the pipes, but with each subsequent attempt getting a little stronger. The final attempt spat a number of small frogs from the pipes into the spa and full circulation pressure was achieved. I guess it’s not everyone who can lay claim to ‘defrogging’ a spa! Sitting in an open air spa, under a tree, with a cold can of cider is a pleasant late afternoon activity.
A further visit to Broome for a hospital appointment saw us staying in a motel courtesy of WA’s Patient Assisted Travel Scheme for a couple of nights a few days ago. Air conditioning in the room, the hospital & supermarkets was luxury. Sure I couldn’t wander around there in the buff, but the real luxury wasn’t the coolness that air con provides, but rather the dryness of the air – no sticking clothes. Woohoo!
Mid November & it has started to feel like things might be changing. Last night the sky filled with heavy dark clouds & distant rumbles of thunder could be heard. The clouds passed over the top of us, heading westward out to sea without incident. Today (19th Nov) much of the sky was filled with white clouds first thing this morning & the sea-breezes were a little stronger making the waves hitting the beach whiter & louder. Not a huge change but noticeably different.
In the past few days certain plants & trees have been springing into life, new shoots, new leaves appearing. Quite what their triggers are we don’t know but I guess they might know that something is on the way. During that same period we have seen more of some critters & less of others. ’Ta-Ta’ lizards are common, come in a variety of sizes from finger size up to 12 or 14” long. Called Ta ta’s colloquially because they run, then stop, raising one or the other front foot in the air as though waving goodbye “Ta Ta”. We’ve seen them daily but usually only one at a time. Recently it has been common to see several at once, not together, but in the same vicinity. The pesky march flies seem to have gone, although possible they may return when the moon is next full. Hope not though. Also in the past few days we have seen far fewer grasshoppers. These are fairly large & have a tendency to jump onto you if disturbed or if walking with a torch at night. They are scratchy prickly things when the automatic response is to brush them away. Frog activity waxes & wanes, always there, always heard, just that sometimes more are to be seen than others, and sometimes louder. Night frogs, Day frogs, Creaky See Saw frogs, Barking frogs, Scraping Metal Pipe frogs, Dalek frogs & the real beauties the Star Picket Frogs which sound just like someone knocking a star picket into the ground with one of those tubular metal drivers! If it’s not a frog, we have no idea what makes the sound, but several times have gone looking to see if we have a mystery fencer on the property! Then there are the good old Toilet frogs. These include the green tree frogs we’ve seen in bathrooms elsewhere across the top end, but they are not alone, oh no siree Bob, Bathroom frog parties are the in thing & it is not uncommon to have as many as 30 or 40 in the ensuite band. A variety of sizes, colours & voices. We are yet to determine which type, or indeed types have mastered the art of utilising the shower & handbasin pipes to amplify their voices. It is common to be taking a shower & to hear loud echoing frog sounds emanating from below. An attempt to claim the sound as a fart failed but resulted in a degree of hilarity. 🙂 They are messy little buggers though, they and the other common indoor visitors the geckos make cleaning up after them a daily chore. We can understand how the gecko poo gets there, but remain puzzled as to how the frogs manage to leave sandy trails & footprints on the toilet & basin when they never appear sandy when we see them.
Ceiling fans are a lifesaver & the placing of glasses into the freezer ready for use a great discovery.
MrsTea has been enjoying late afternoon walks along the property’s sandy tracks noting many different trails & footprints of creatures that reveal themselves by crossing the sand. One spot seems popular with snakes, Hermit crab tracks are everywhere , dog tracks have been seen, as have a variety of lizard & goanna tracks, & many that remain mysteries. Walking regularly makes it easy to see new tracks, & bit by bit to build up a ‘map’ of critter activity.
Occasionally I join the afternoon walks, but this has been unfortunately limited, in fact my walking generally has become limited due to a painful problem which has developed. Google diagnosis is Achilles Tendinosis. Treatment will have to wait until we are somewhere more convenient to seek it, but in the meantime I have cut some temporary foam heel support inserts for my shoes which help a bit, & have ordered some ‘off the shelf’ orthotic shoe inserts online.
Buying online from this remote spot has been tested & found successful. We arranged for parcels to be delivered to the General store in Beagle Bay. Auspost does not deliver beyond Broome & we have no idea how they get to ‘Beagle Bay via Broome’, but they do. One an ebay purchase from Sydney & another a courier delivery from a friend in Cairns.
The walking, when I’ve done it, that I’ve enjoyed most has been out among the rocks at the lowest of low tides. With reef shoes on we can safely walk over rocks which are quite some distance from the shore. The further we walk out the greater the variety of coral growths there are to be seen. Lots of different varieties, & any number of variations on a theme. Much like humans, all the same but with enough differences to make each individual. Next time I’ll take my camera. However the very low tides which expose all those corals only occurs on one day a month, just following a new moon, next is on 25th November I believe. By then we will be well into stinger season (Blue Ring octopus & Irukanji) so walking in the warm ocean will carry risk. We take vinegar to the beach to pour on stings, but these are stings where morphine is desirable …. apparently. We have read that although people have been stung during the we season down at Broome, it has never happened here, but that is not to say it can’t happen. Only about a week ago the first sting of the season was reported up at Darwin. It seems wise to lessen the risk by wearing some women’s tights, but I doubt whether such apparel is in demand at Beagle Bay.
Yesterday we came across two dogs when out driving, skinny but energetic & friendly, a long way from anywhere. They followed the car for a while, so I stopped & gave them water, poured into my cupped hand slowly from a 2 litre bottle. They shared my hand nicely, wagged tails appreciatively, drank the entire 2 litres & then took off into the bush. Same day we came close to running into a pair of wild donkeys. Wallabies are rarely seen, but occasionally cross the track in front of the car at speed. We think there are a few wild cattle (known colloquially as ‘Killers’ as in ‘ killing for meat’ rather than as ‘Killers of people’ – although it pays to be cautious as some can be aggressive) around but haven’t seen any. They are the current generations from the ‘leftovers from the days when this country was used by station owners to run cattle, enough out there to breed & keep small numbers going. Their footprints are easy enough to identify.
Ants are everywhere, multiple types, mostly happy to lead their own lives, but there are two types who present us with problems. Those we call ’Nipper Ants’ because that’s what they do, aggressive little blighters, but no venom, just pincers which they are prone to sink into you if you dare cross their paths, & they have paths all around the vegie garden. They don’t swarm, at you, but a single nip is unpleasant, although thankfully without the longer lasting discomfort that some ants can give.And then there are the tiny sugar ants in the kitchen. What they don’t have in size, they make up in numbers, appearing in their hundreds at the slightest whiff of food. Food preparation can be quite a challenge, there’s an art to it. Act quick, don’t leave anything unguarded. If under attack, just wipe them away. Only use spray for occasional major invasions.
Another unwelcome kitchen visitor is the rat. Only seen twice, but heard a few times more, he, or she, is a smart rat, knowing to totally ignore the rat bait. We recently bought a rat trap but haven’t seen or heard he or she since.
Whilst on critters I must tell you about what for us has been a highlight of our time here so far. We knew that somewhere close lived Mr P, the name given by the property’s owners to a ‘resident’ Olive Python who has been popping up now & then for around 8 years. It was around 3 weeks before we saw him for the first time. 2.5 metres of him coiled up in one of the bird baths one morning. I was watering plants & took a ‘double take’ when I saw his shape in the water. We had never seen a python before & although fairly confident that this was one, & not a dangerous venomous snake, we shot off a photo to the owners to confirm. At this point other plans were dropped & we spent the morning snake watching. Birds continued to come & drink, paying no attention to Mr P, who apart from one half hearted lunge at a bird, remained motionless. The lunge we now think was Mr P ’testing’ his striking range, but it didn’t stop the birds returning. After several hours, & several changes of position (him & us) not much else had happened so we took a break for lunch. A short while later MrsTea called to tell me the snake was on the move, half in & half out of the bird bath. On closer examination we saw it had a small bird in it’s coils. Turns out it was a Long Tailed Finch, the least cautious of all the feathered visitors. We sat & watched as the snake spent some time examining his prey, ostensibly working out the best way to swallow it. Once that was sorted the swallowing began, occasionally using his coils to help push the little bird past his dislocated jaw. Although sad for the lovely little finch, we were mesmerised by this ‘raw nature experience before our very eyes, & both in agreement that this was precisely the sort of thing we had come here for.
Finally on ‘critters’ we had a new bathroom visitor last night. This time a large stripey centipede. Around 4” or 5” long. These are known to have sufficient venom to kill a mouse, & to give the likes of us an extremely painful bite. Not the sort of visitor I want to tread on during a middle of the night toilet visit, (What about MrsTea you might ask – she no longer utilises the toilet in the middle of the night, not since her snake experience there – she prefers to go outside than to risk upsetting a snake by inadvertently cornering it) but it wriggled away through gaps in the floorboards when encouraged to do so with a stick.
We have spent time preparing ourselves for the possibility of a cyclone. Our debate about whether to stay or to evacuate found us in agreement to stay unless advised otherwise by authorities. We have determined our safest place for shelter & we have a ’to do’ list to be implemented if & when a cyclone warning is given, much the same as we used to do annually with our bushfire plan back on the farm. Hopefully it wont happen, but it is not something we are overly worried about if it does. We are high enough up on the cliffs to be safe from storm surge, the biggest killer in cyclones. If worst comes to the worst & we suffer a direct storm hit, we will just lay low out of the path of anything blowing around until it’s all over. We also keep an eye on a government bushfire alert web site, & notice when there is a smell of smoke in the air. This has happened several times, but smoke drifts a long way, & no fire has yet threatened us. Should it do so we can go to the beach, taking the car with us.
