My Kimberley Adventures

We finally arrived in Broome and Kylie took us to the first destination - to buy Maccas to eat on the beach. Small things but as Linda, Belinda nor I had tasted Maccas or seen the ocean for over a year it was simply amazing.   The sky and ocean was so blue, the breeze warm, the sea clear and the sea smell was just divine.  We had on our agenda to see the staircase to the moon; a natural phenomena when the full moon rises over a low tide on the mudflats at Broome creating a staircase effect. We got some drinks, chairs and settled into the sunset and moon rise and the wait was well worth it. These photos do not do it justice.    Remnants of a cyclone?  Dinner at Matso's Brewery                                           ...

It was with huge relief and tears that Linda and I heard that over 60% of Australians had voted in favour of marriage equality. The next hurdle was to get the politicians who rule our lives to vote in favour and to make marriage equality legal. Before Xmas in 2017, marriage equality became law. Linda and I were free to make our relationship legal in the eyes of society and the law. We had previously booked a holiday - a long weekend in Broome for March 2018. Now it seemed only natural to "make it legal". To add to the excitement was that it was a Pride Weekend in Broome with a Drag Show and all things celebrating Gay Pride. We booked a celebrant and immediately started to organise all our paperwork that proved that we were who we said we were and that we were free to marry.  Just like everyone else who gets married....marriage equality already working for us. The next step was to find two witnesses. Who better than our Kimberley sisters, Belinda and Kylie. Belinda li...

Desperate to get away for the first camping for 2018, we decided to go to Parry's Creek Farm. We have visited there before but not camped. We knew that Easter would be hot so the idea of a pool and a pub was very appealing. We left on Saturday afternoon as Linda had to work. Being so close we were there by 2:30 and set up by 3:00. We hit the pool at 3:05PM. Later Linda went for a walk and I sat near our camp, enjoying the sounds of birds and distant rumbling thunder. I was apprehensive that we might get a Kimberley drenching but also peacefully calm listening to the sounds of nature and winding down for a long weekend by reading Kings in Grass Castles - the epic story of how members of the Irish Durack Family drove cattle from Queensland to The Kimberley's in the 1800's to establish a giant cattle empire. It took them a massive 2 years, fighting weather, disease and getting lost to get here and interestingly they established a settlement on the site of Parry Creek Farm b...

Sometimes I walk at the front of the group, sometimes the middle but often at the rear; with the younger tired children. Walking in the rear, I am holding the hands of 2 younger girls; who spend the whole time that we are walking, chattering to me about their day. I feel bad because in the noisy chatter of the other 33 children and with me concentrating on everything I have to; to keep the children safe, I often don't hear their stories. I catch glimmers of how the tooth fairy came that night from Annabel who has lost one tooth and has 3 more really loose teeth that she insists on showing me how much she can wiggle and push with her tongue. I also become aware of the story that Cecelia is telling me about when she had a turn on the biscuit (towed behind a speed boat on Lake Argyle) last weekend with her brother John; and how John caught a giant Barra that was this big (holding out her hands proudly) while still holding my hands while walking. In the heat of the afternoon, my han...

Part of my role as the coordinator of After School Hours Care; and with 2 or 3 other educators is to walk between 20 and 30 children from one school to the other school where the OSHC building is located. The walk is only about 500 metres up the road but we walk to the west, in full sun and this is done at between 2:15 to 2:45PM; essentially the hottest part of the day ranging between 35 - 45 degrees with varying levels of humidity depending on the season. There IS NO option to close school early when it gets higher than 35 degrees; that is life in the Kimberley. The Kimberley Kids are tough; born tough and live tough but these kids are also like any other kid in Australia and this is a narrative that occurs nearly every day when I pick up the children and walk them to OSHC. To look at us from the air, we look like a higgledy piggledy blue snake winding and weaving its way from point A to point B with several stops along the way I have changed the names for privacy r...