final blog.

Dear every one who is reading

we are finally home.

On the way home we went out to Kings Canyon. We did a 8.4 km walk around the edge of the canyon. Kings Canyon has the best echo that we heard on our whole trip. It is like someone is calling back to you.

We rode camels at Stuarts Well.

We drove 850 kilometres one day to Woomera. Woomera was built by the Australian Army in the 1940s. We saw a canon that was used in WW2 as well as more modern rockets and other things that Gru from Dispicable Me would definitely use.

Another massive drive and we arrived at Keith for our last night out. Keith is a nice place. Strange name.

The highlights of this trip was: the car flooded.
Karajini. manning gorge.cape leveque. woomerra. keith

The best things I learned is that at salt mines they put saltwater into holes and the water evaporates and leaves only the salt. Salt is important for use in washing and cleaning detergents, glass and food, as well as treating leather. 

The North West Shelf is operated by Woodside, BHP, BP, Chevron, Shell and MIMI. It is a gas and oil project. They use big machines that are out in the ocean. They drill deep down into the earth below the ocean and suck up the oil and gas.  

for the last time from tom.

cusackoztrip2017.

Katherine to Territory Day!

Dear all,

a few days ago i went to mataranka it has a whip cracking champion who i will talk about later.... Anyway that day we went to a huge termite nest that is down below. we also went to bitter springs and swam in water that was 34 degrees celcius. it comes from more than 200 metres underground where the earth is warmer as it is closer to the centre of the earth.                                                                              

               

hello

We stayed at Little Roper Station. there were some animals and buffalo's and a cow has a son that is a bull called donkey-big bull.

Des, who owns and runs the place is an old Ringer which is someone who works on a station. He cooked us dinner in camp ovens and then we ate together at the big table. 

For our Entree we had pumpkin soup-yummm. For main meal we had bufallo  that was very very chewy so I didn't eat it, but there was some yummy carrots and some nice meat-Lamb and Beef. Dessert we had Spotted Dog with custard. It was Yummm. It's like plum pudding.

Spotted Dog

we went to the wold champion whip craking nathan griggs also known as mr whippy he did a bunch of tricks and once he got his whips......AND PUT THEM ON FIRE!!!

the next day we went to the Devils Marbles we have been there two times but this time we stayed there for one night.

We stayed the following night at the Hi Way Inn at Daley Waters. It Territory Day and people celebrated with fireworks.

in the nothern territory you can make your own firworks, buy fireworks and let them off on the 1st of July. People were doing fireworks all night long where we were staying, mum loved it - NOT.

From Grace

back to Alice Springs

Dear every one who is reading.
We are back in Alice Springs and are very hot in the day time and freezing at night.
After Edith Falls we went to Mataranka.

The first place we stay'ed at Bitter Springs it was hot allot of the time there.

After Bitter Springs we went to Little Roper Stock Camp.We went to a three course meal cooked in camp ovens in a camp fire. It was a real stock camp dinner.

 For entre we had pumpkin soup and home made bread and damper. Main course had 3 types of meat. Camp oven roast beef that was really east to eat, lamb that was also really east to eat and buffalo that you needed to be a tiger to eat. It was really really chewy. The veges were potato's, cauliflower cheese, roast carrot, broccoli and tinned peas. For dessert we could choose from Spotted Dog and Apple Crumble. I had spotted dog and ice cream with a bit of custard. The ice cream and custard were nice. The spotted dog didn't have much taste and I didn't like it much. Then apple crumble-you all know what apple crumble is.

We learned that the Buffalo is a feral animal in Australia that originally came from Vietnam. They can have horns up to 3 feet long each side. They can hit a coin flicked in the air with their horn tip.

There was a big bull and a cow called Brahmans. The bull was an orphan after his mum and dad were shipped to Vietnam to be eaten. They also had pigs that they would eat once a month. We called them Porky and Ben. They don't have real names because they are going to be eaten.

After dinner we went to a whip cracking show. The guy who was running it is named Nathan Griggs and he holds 5 Guinness World Records. 1. the longest whip made in the world and it took him 3 months to make. It is over 100 meters long, 2, the longest whip ever cracked, 3. the most cracks in 1 minute by 2 whips (689 which is more than 11 per second), 4, the most cracks by a whip in 1 minute with 1 whip (368), 5. I can't remember.

This is him cracking whips that are on fire.

Mataranka is famous for Elsey Homestead which has had a book written about it. We of the Never Never. We visited the homestead and I lifted an anvil up that was very heavy. An anvil is used by blacksmiths for making horse shoes and weapons. 

We left Mataranka on Territory Day which is a special day for people living in the NT. We stayed at the Hi Way Inn at Daly Waters. That night we went out for dinner and watched the local people letting off fireworks which looked dangerous and one went blasting toward a fuel tank but didn't blow it up.

There was an old plane next to the driveway.

We stayed out at the Devils Marbles that night.

Some of the rocks looked like a sleeping giant at night.

Comment if you can see the giant in this picture.

On our way towards Alice Springs we saw some people who couldn't exit the side road because there was a cow stuck in the cattle grid. A cattle grid is bits of train track put down so that cattle can't get through. Cars can drive across it but cows can't walk across it. They are not even supposed to try. We saw the police and station owner on their way to sort it out.

From Tom.

happy holidays!

Dear grade 3, this will be my last blog because it is close to the school holidays YAY!!!😊
We went to Keep River National Park after Wyndham.

We went on a walk that was 2k's, It was a bit like bungle bungles. tom saw a rock wallaby i saw some birds and my dad also saw some birds.

We left to timber creek tom and i swam in the pool.

We saw fresh water crocs and kites.

We left there and went to a town called Katherine.
In Katherine we stayed at a caravan park which out the back was Katherine Springs which were great cause they were warm. But even better out the front in the yard were 2 adorable pugs!! Molly and Lewis. Lewis needs to go on a diet cause he's very chubby and Molly loves walks and they both make snorting sounds but Molly makes them the most.

Get OUT of the Jayco Molly!!!!

Tom and I walked them.

Then we went Edith Falls, there was a big waterfall and we swam swam swam for 3 days.

Happy holidays, very excited to see you all in term 3

From Grace

Timber creek too edith falls

Dear grade 4 and every one else who is reading.


After Wyndham we went to Keep River National Park, we spent one night there and we had a fire at night that I lit, we didn't need paper cause the land was so dry we just used hay.

The next morning dad, Grace and I did a walk and looked for birds. We also did a 250 meter walk up a hill where aboriginals caught hawks, when there was a fire the hawks and kites would come down and try and find food. The aboriginal would be in a little box like thing and at the right time would catch and kill the bird.

Then we arrived at Timber Creek we stayed there one night, we picked up a package that had a new door handle in it, the original one we had broken on the Gibb River road.

We went and saw some fresh water crocs being fed, then some hawks being fed.

The next day we walked a dog named Crystal she wasn't the cutest dog I had ever seen but still adorable.


Then we packed up and went to Katherine, there were 2 pugs named Lewis and Molly at the front office. the next day we went to the Katherine Hot springs.

We then went and I cooked lunch for us all, it was one of the yummiest lunches I have ever eaten cause I cooked it. I got it from a book I got for my birthday.The next day we walked the pugs and packed up the van.

We then went to Edith Falls where we first swam at the Edith falls pools. Mum and I walked up to the top pool which was awesome.

The next day we went on a 8.4km walk to sweetwater pool, we had lunch there and swam around and came back and swam in the upper pool.

The last day we did more swimming in the upper pool and had lunch there. We did lots of swimming and then went back and played cricket and then watched the sunset over Edith Falls.
We are now in Katherine at the library.
From Tom

Ps Grade 4 hope you have a great holiday, see you in Term 3

Gibb River Road

Dear grade 3,

 i haven't talked to you for a long time so i have a lot to talk about

i have finished the gibb river road and i'm back in the nothern teritory i have three more weeks till i am coming home. yay! 100 years ago this boab tree was a prison. this tree is at derby the start of The Gibb River Road. The Gibb River Road is about 700 km long through the Kimberley Range. 

We went to Windjana Gorge and saw lots of freshwater crocs. These crocs don't harm humans. Saltwater crocodiles do eat you.

We stayed at Imintji campground and found a dog to pat at the shop. I call it Buster

We went to Galvans Gorge and it had a swing with a stick handle and I swang off it. 

kowabunga

whee hee.

LOTS of times.

At Mount Barnet Roadhouse we stayed and went out to Manning Gorge. We did all sorts of jumps into the rockpool. It was great, we went behind the waterfall and it was a hard swim to get behind.

g'day mate!

We went to a station the next morning called Ellenbrae and had yummy toasted sandwiches and there was a dog there called Evie and a sign saying please don't feed me I'm on a diet.

We then went and camped on the Gibb River and we got bogged by a person called Brendan Cusack also known as my dad. Another man came along and helped us out.

Next day we drove to El Questro which had 2 donkeys Harry and Larry.

There were 26 horses, we went on a walk and it was called El Questro gorge. When we drove there our car flooded (bad music dandandan). Mum said you are crazy to my father. We did the walk to half pool which was good then on the drive back Tom, mum and I went in a truck back with a lovely man called Owen and dad drove back on his own with the suzuki.

there was a tiny bit of water but not as much as before.

Tom Mum and I crossed the river in one of these.

this is larry

We left El Questro and popped into Emma gorge and went on a walk that was 2km☺ Here's a photo of the waterfall at the end of the walk.

After 8 days and 700km we made it to the end of the Gibb River Road.

At the end of the Gibb River Road is a town called Wyndham. It's one of the hottest towns in Australia. It has a good view of the sunset.

Great talking to you.

From Grace.