Here's How to have a Great Day Out on your Doorstep at Mettam's Pool

School holidays have been and gone, but we had a great day out at Mettam's Pool, near Hillarys Boat Harbour, just north of Perth.

Take the snorkels along as the place has lots of inquisitive fish to see. If you are an experienced snorkeler then go straight out form the beach and there's an amazing drop-off with impressive sea life.

 

Catching Dinner...or trying to!

 

 

Monday 14th July

 

After a morning of organising camp and with Simon’s catchphrase ringing in our ears ‘Everything must have a home,’ we set off with the boat on the roof to sample some of Broome’s fishing. Launching from Gantheaume Point (or car park beach) was easy, and with the lures out it wasn’t long before something was tempted. Although Simon had his heart set on a Spanish Mackerel I had my doubts about whether 4 people in a 3.8m tinny could really all stay afloat with a thrashing beast like that!

 

Jacob caught a decent sized Queen fish, which Simon reeled and attempted to kill. Going against all of my advice he dipped the fish back in the ocean to clean it and it made a miraculous recovery and swam away! This gives a whole new meaning to catch and release! I spent the 3 hours on the boat watching for eyes in the ocean, every bubble was a croc surfacing, and Logan looked just as uncomfortable as I did. Needless to say we didn’t have fish for dinner, but sat around the communal fire pit and caught up with some of the grey nomads at camp.

Croc of fun!

 

After a spot of shopping it was back to camp to re-organise (a consistent theme at the moment) before going to the Malcom Douglas Crocodile Park for feeding time. Although Simon and I had expected a tourist trap it was something very different. These guys catch and re-home crocs that are posing problems to local communities and would otherwise be destroyed. The water hole was covered in thick green algae and the huge crocs could just be seen beneath the water gliding slowly, eyes and spikes the only things visible. They are such pre-historic creatures, and watching them feed and defend their territory was awesome. After holding a baby croc and buying a souvenir tooth we all went back to camp for an evening of chilling.

 

Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd July

Happy Birthday Jacob!

 Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd July
 

An early pack up saw us on the road by 7am and an unceremonious start to Jacob’s 14^th birthday! We turned off the GRR after about 60km and onto the Kulumbaru Road, promising Jacob that we would stop for a famous Kimberly burger at Drysdale station as a birthday treat. The road was rough but not as bad as we had imagined but Drysdale was a welcome sight! They opened the kitchen especially for us and we had burgers all round by 10.30am, and they definitely deserve there reputation as the best in the Kimberly! Fed and watered we pressed onto the Mitchell Plateau a further 100km  on increasingly corrugated and rocky roads. Before pulling into the King Edward River campgrounds we negotiated our biggest river crossing yet and gave the car a welcome wash!

 

The King Edward River camp was great, fantastic swimming in the river and our own personal waterfall! It certainly rates as our favourite spot yet.

 Mitchell Falls

The following day we set off to see the famous Mitchell Falls, the highest waterfall in WA and part of the classic Kimberly vista. The drive out was notoriously rough and it was a hair-raising 2 hour drive over severe corrugations, washouts and pot holes. The 3km walk in to the falls was beautiful and lush. The Mitchell Plateau is a testament to the powerful and rugged forces of nature that have ravaged the area and created such stunning ravines and waterfalls. We enjoyed swimming in the croc free upper pools and took an awesome helicopter transfer back.

 

Rough Road

The journey took its toll on the car, first the radio antennae broke followed by the air conditioning which made for a hot and tedious return trip. However, spotting the skull and horns of a cow cheered everyone up and it was duly collected along with wood for the campfire that night! Happy days!!

New ventures and adventures...

Speedykniebe is going private!

I am starting a new blogging venture and will be moving speedykniebe to a private log-in blog.

Boddington Rodeo 2014

Wow, what a day!

Get in early if you want to get a seat in the shade, the cowboys are amazing and a ringside seat is a sought after position!

Dramas with Damper

Camp Oven Cooking

Nothing beats the feeling of satisfaction that you get when cooking bread over an open fire. This is a skill that over the 12 week trip I attempted with often chewy results!


If you know me then you'll know that I always love to experiment with cooking, so it should be no surprise that I wasn't content to follow the basic damper recipe from our Outback Way book. It goes something like this:


2 cups self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk

On the first attempt at damper my children said to me

Add two spoons of sugar and and a partridge in a pear tree!!

Well it certainly seemed like the saga from the 12 days of Christmas at times!! I tried to make the first damper sweet by adding cinnamon, raisins and sugar. It came out very stodgy and dry, with a black base, but everyone was desperate and ate it anyway!!


The second damper had even more stuff in it like coconut, seeds, fruit and nuts. It pretty much suffered from the same diagnosis as the first, overweight, dry and flaky with an unhealthily black bottom! But eager to please the kids did their best to eat it (with a litre of water each) and kept smiling!


Finally my moment of glory arrived!! I made a savoury damper, and followed the recipe almost to the letter, just adding some dried rosemary and a squeeze of garlic paste. It was amazing!! We cooked it on the tripod over the fire and the bottom was golden brown. It was so good we even took pictures...

Lentil soup and the best damper!

It was nearly all gone before we remembered to take a photo!