5th December 2016

There’s something about a David Attenborough doco that gets you excited about nature.  Perhaps it’s the soothing voice over, or the wise and knowledgeable look in his eye – but the man is a legend and he has, for over 50 years enthused the Earth’s population to embrace the natural world.   The SJP’s have watched countless DA doco’s, so many in fact, that now if there is a channel flick in progress and DA appears – there is shouting and carrying on until we go back and watch the whole thing.

So what of the natural world have we seen – without the benefit of a television?  Something yesterday triggered that thought in my mind, as Miss 12, Miss 10 and I were having our ritual camp morning coffee and milo by the truck under the shade of a beautiful old tree.  The pigeons were abundant – not annoying but it must be mating season as there was a whole lot of tail fanning and feather puffing going on – so much so that for us it became a game of “Who is he after?”  Our favourite was the Mohawk Pigeon – that’s what we have called them given our limited knowledge of the Avian species – and one fellow in particular was keen to exploit the Morning Glory.  He managed a fabulous tail and puffy feather display before finally, after at least 15 minutes he got the girl and they began the loving ritual of preening each other.   When else would we have spent 30 minutes watching the mating behaviour of a pigeon? Egging him on, championing his efforts, booing the young buck trying to move in on his woman? Only in nature – David would have been impressed. Though the conversation that followed about sex, homosexuality, heterosexuality, bi sexuality and everything in between was enough to blow a conservative mind – good thing I am ridiculously matter of fact about this sort of stuff – make it boring = SMALL CHILDREN LOSE INTEREST!

Impressed.  Hmmm.  Impressed I will be when my children can go to the shower block 15 minutes before me, shower, dress and get themselves sorted before I get in, get showered, cleanse, tone and moisturise (camping is no excuse for letting the skin routine go to shit), prime, conceal, foundation, bronzer, powder and mascara (three different kinds – not satisfied with one brand) – Miss N, B and T we were going to town so I was in swish mode – brush teeth and mop out my cubicle before I am standing there wondering how on earth I am ready to hit the road before them.  I swear I could have fit in an underarm and leg shave before they even stepped out of the shower!  WHAT DO THEY DO IN THERE????

Whatever it was we finally hit the road, scurried off to the Mt Isa lookout to listen to Miss 12 postulate the profanity of mining in Australia (tough one here – mining is partially responsible for the Australian way of life) whilst madly clicking away – desperate to get on Instagram (no free WIFI at the last site – had to pay $5.00 for 24 hours – told her she had to pay that out of pocket money – suddenly there is some reconsideration) to showcase her trip.

The Isa is a weird place – only half the tourist attractions are open (though who, aside from loonies from Far North Queensland would travel extensively at this time?) so we had to settle for the lookout and the gorgeous Lake Moondarra which was the perfect spot for lunch.  Just to clarify BTW – travelling at this time of the year is AWESOME  – there are NO PEOPLE to irritate me – and I am easily PO’d after so long in the tourism industry – we have ACRES of space to ourselves – WHOO HOO! And there is no humidity – massive plus.

Camooweal approaches (after the amusement of a large number of colourfully dressed ant hills)

                    

and so does my desire to see something.  Bullying my family into going to the Camooweal Caves (which you can only see from the rim – can’t climb down – too dangerous) we stop at the local Servo to check the road conditions and are given the green light.  Weeeelllllll … if we didn’t have much 4WD experience before, we do now – some serious boggage and children crying yea haaa from the back meant we must have been doing something cool.  24 kilometres later it was all a bit funny when Miss 12 declares “If this is one of those non interesting, interesting points of interest stops we have seen and been to so many of … ” I was stuffed.   So we checked out the lake, and to the small fry’s delight we bogged ourselves.  If not for the spectacular driving skills of the Husband, we would have been busting out the recovery gear.  Miss 10 declared, “We’re finally dirty!”

Definitely time for a beer and a swim and for $7.00 per person, camping at the rear of the pub under a tree with a cold pool is on like donkey kong.  Funnily enough, all the research I had done had showed lovely waterholes to free camp by – bullshit (I am in Sales & Marketing – I should have seen this coming) – they are all dry, dusty and any type of roadside free camp is FOUL.  Hot, dusty, trees that have been stunted from birth and burning like the fires of Hell with no shade.  Combined with the toilet tissue flying around that some cockroach couldn’t be fagged burning or at least putting into a bin (there were no less that 12 of them at the place we stopped for lunch) we decided free camping until South Australia was off the cards wherever possible unless there was shade and a waterhole that had water in it.

Things I have learned in the last 24 hours – apparently you can eat Camel Balls, Occy straps are the best thing ever invented, kids can sleep anywhere if they really want to, you can never have enough COLD water, this country is truly, madly, fucking HUGE and it takes me 7 days and 1600 kilometres to finally experience something I rarely do.  Floating in a tube in the Camooweal pool this morning at 7.30am I couldn’t work out what was going on in my head – now this is normally a rather frequent occurrence, however this time it was different – I couldn’t hold a thought in my mind – I kept drifting off to la la.  I wasn’t drawn to checking my email, the phone had not rung, wasn’t thinking about the website, quotes, events or meetings and I wasn’t stressed about whether I had forwarded the office phones to myself.  I had nothing to do, nowhere to be and I was … wait for it … RELAXED.  So that’s what it feels like!  Yeah – I can do it, this is awesome.  Another six weeks of this and I won’t know myself!

And then … we crossed into the territory … it’s a whole new ballgame now!