Meet and Greet

 

Saturday 12 June 2021 –

Meet and greet

Another leisurely start to the day and Larry had one more go at fixing the headlights and, with the help of technological advances such as a match stick jammed in the connection, finally had some success!

We hopped in the car and headed north across the Ivanhoe Crossing (not very deep but the water flows quite fast across it) and onto the unsealed Parry Creek Road.  In all the years that Larry lived up this way he had never done the crossing or gone on this road as it used to be closed to stop the spread of the Noogoora Burr.  It’s still out here but the road is now traversable and there are only some side roads that are off limits.

                                        

We bumped along the road with Larry occasionally checking the indicators (still working!) and stopped when we got to the Mambi Island boat ramp for a close look at the Ord River.  Larry put the drone up and Jen stood close by and kept an eye on the river in case a croc tried to creep up on us whilst L was distracted. None to be seen and it was all pretty peaceful.  One caravan down here so those people had found a quiet, secluded spot away from it all and after about 10 minutes of us being there, they had it all to themselves again.

                                        

Drove on and were then within the Parry Creek reserve.  We went to the wetlands with the bird watching hide that we had visited with Ben back in 2016.  There was quite a lot more water around this time and the place was teeming with birdlife. We noticed hundreds of tiny fish through the grating under our feet so obviously they were hiding out under the hide in an attempt to not get eaten!  Last time we were here there were lots of crocodiles sunning themselves on the opposite bank.  This time, with the water level being higher, the bank is a bit too steep for them to heft their giant bodies up onto so they had migrated further down the creek and away from the hide and only one lady with a camera and enormous telephoto lens could really spot them.

                                          

                                            

Time to get back in the car and head on to Paul and Deb’s for a catch up.  The plan had been to take them to the Country Club for lunch but Paul explained when we got there that the club isn’t doing lunches at the moment so we ended up just staying at their place and drinking cups of tea and beer, eating yummy steak sandwiches that they whipped up for us and having a good old catch up.  As is usual with them, various people dropped in for Paul to help them out with odd jobs and they joined in for a drink and a chat also so it was a very pleasant way to spend a few hours.  Two of their sons are back in Wyndham and working with Paul at CGL and as there is now more work to be had the town is picking up again and there are now plans to rebuild the country club to make it a real community hub for the town.

We eventually dragged ourselves away and Deb very generously sent us on our way with a dozen freshly laid eggs and a jar of her fabulous home made relish.  Thanks again Deb!

We headed back to the caravan park thinking Hendrik and Miranda might have beaten us back but they were about 20 minutes behind us so we were there ready to be a welcome party when they finally arrived.  They have had a long 5 day drive from Perth to get here so they were more than willing to sit and relax whilst we cooked them dinner and then a bottle of bubbles to celebrate the beginning of our group holiday before early to bed.