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.

Gibb River Road

Dear Grade 4 and every one else who is reading.
Once we left broome we went to  Derby- Start of the Gibb River Road.

We learnt about the  Prison tree. It is a Boab tree it may not look like a prison but that's the worst part they stuffed about 100 aborigines into the tree.

Once we left the boab tree we had lunch and watched a wild salt water (salty)  Crocodile at the boat ramp. We had an ice cream because it was going to be the last one we had in a while

After derby we camped at Windjana gorge.

we went on a walk called Tunnel Creek.

 There was a guy called Jundamurra aka Pigeon he was an Aboriginal warrior. He killed two police officers and then some more police went out and shot 80 aborigines.
Then the police hired an aboriginal tracker who sat outside the tunnel for 2 days and waited for Jundamarra to come out and shot him dead at the tunnel entrance.

Here is a picture of me in the tunnel and some rock art. 

We stopped at Bells and Galvans Gorges and eventually ended up at Barnett River Roadhouse and Manning Gorge. There was a fire nearby so we couldn't go into the gorge in the afternoon that we arrived so we just hung out at the swing.This picture below is not at the gorge, it is at the river that you have to cross to get to the gorge. You don't have to swim, you can just go in the boat. It is not a speed boat, you just pull yourself across the river with a rope.

At Manning Gorge we saw a water monitor. It was the longest lizard I have ever seen.

At Manning Gorge you could jump off high rocks. Out of Grace and I, I
was the first to jump off the really high rock.

We camped at the Gibb River itself. It is not as famous as the Gibb River Road. Below is a photo of Grace and I on the ford, which is where the road goes through the river.

Dad Got us bogged in sand.

When we were leaving the Gibb River we Saw a Dingo very far up the road.

We stayed at eEl Questro Homestead for 3 nights. That night we really just had diner and went to bed.


The next day I had my birthday and I turned 10! We did one gorge walk called El Questro gorge. The car had some water come through the doors because the water was too high. In the WET season, the whole gorge would be closed. We went out for lunch at the steak house restaurant and I had a steak for my birthday lunch. That night we went to the bar and I checked my new watch and it turned out I had turned 10 5 minutes ago because it was 5 past 6. Then we had dinner and had cake. It was my second family birthday party in a row.

The next day we went to Zebedee springs which is a hot spring. The water is warm because it comes from deep under the earths surface. It follows a crack up called a fault line.

Dad and I did a 10 km walk called Champagne Springs. It was 5 km there and 5 km back. The big boab tree represents 2 and a half km. We saw a dingo run into the bushes.

I saw a fly trap that I thought I'd never see. It's one that the fly lands on and then it sticks to the hairs and it rolls up and crushes it to pieces and then it digests it.

The next day we left El Questro and stopped at Emma Gorge. It wasn't the longest walk I've ever done but it was fun. The water was really cold when you got to the end, but it also had a hot spring that not many people knew about. You could sit in the hot pool to warm up.

We left the Gibb River Road and went to Wyndham. They have a giant Crocodile at the entrance to the town.

It is also famous for the 5 Rivers Lookout. Their names are The King River, the Forrest, The Durak, (named after the famous people who owned Argle Downs Homestead which is now under the lake), the Ord River and the Penticost River. The Ord attaches to Lake Argyle and we crossed them all except the Forrest. We saw the biggest boab tree in captivity. It is over 2000 years old!!!

From Tom.

Sorry I haven't written for a while but we've had no connection.

broome again.

Dear Grade 4

We have just driven back to Broome for the THIRD TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last time we were here we had gone down to the beach. We were just swimming and then a life gard was telling every one to get out of the water!!

Now, in Melbourne you would be seared of sharks and stingers here there a bit worried about them but its mostly...crocodiles(saltwater crocks the deadly ones).             

above: every one looking for the crock.

After Broome we went to Cape Laveque. It started off being fun but being in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do can get a bit boring. We didn't do much the first day we were there except go up to the lighthouse which you may see in the picture and it may seem huge but it was tiny. The next day we brought all our things to a beach shack right out the front of the beach. We went for a swim and the waves smashed my Dad and I to pieces. And it wasn't just the waves. My Dad also fell on me.

Once you get past where the waves break, it's actually quite nice.

On our way up to Cape Leveque we called in to Beagle Bay. Beagle Bay is a small Aboriginal village. It had a church that we went into and the alter was made of pearl shells. The church was totally built by hand in 1914. It had 3 bells in the tower that we saw.

The next day after we arrived at the beach shelter we did Bundy's Spear-making Cultural Tour. Bundy was an Aboriginal who was really nice and was really good at making spears and finding food. In the picture below Dad and I are peeling the bark off the wattle and Grace is looking for food.

We went spear fishing and a man named Tim showed us how to find Pippies and they are really delicious with salt water or with salt on them. Inside there is muscles and that is what you eat.You can find them in the sand if there is bubbles coming up to the surface when you step.

After spear-making we went to see 7000 year old Aboriginal footprints. See if you can see them in this picture. They were children's footprints and adults footprints were nearby.

The next day we packed the car, stuck our spears on the roof and started to drive off to Cygnet Bay.

We went to Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm for a tour. We learned that the oysters that they come in are actually alive and there is oyster meat inside. To open them you stick a small clamp inside and kill the oyster. Then you can try and pull it apart and check for the pearl. Then you can either eat the meat raw or cook it. You can eat everything inside it-except the pearl. We even found a pearl that was worth $69.00.  The way to tell their value is if they're super round and creamy colour they're super expensive. If they're lumpy and blueish silver like the one we found it's not worth much. Our tour guides name was Terry. The meat was worth $200 a kg.

This is what's inside the oyster. In the white bit you may see the pearl. It's the little round white bit that you may see and the yellow bit is the oyster meat. On the other side is all the other bits that you can eat.

                                                      

This is when we were leaving the teaching area. I am holding the pearl in my hand. You probably won't be able to see it.

Please comment if you can see the pearl in all the pictures with the pearl in it and if you see the Aboriginal foot print.

From Tom.

80 mile to Broome, Cape Leveque & back to Broome

Dear grade 3,
We left 80 mile beach to Barn Hill I thought there was going to be sheep and everything there but there wasn't  but there were a whole load of cows. We saw hermit crabs, one kept pinching me I called him 'Pinchy'!

We did long walks on the beach. There were big cliffs and loads of shells. We went fishing  our bait was prawns we left there to broome.

We went to a cafe called dragonfly i had a mango smoothie 🐬 mangos are a local tropical delicious fruit.

We stayed at the same caravan park it was called "cable beach caravan park" we swam at the beach we all got told there was an salt water crocodile in the water😨 it was scary but awesome at the same time!



On tuesday we went up to cape leveque, we took tents because  the road was very bumpy.

Along the way we stopped at Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay. It is famous for it's alter and decorations made of mother of pearl from oyster shells.

We stayed near the reception of Kooljaman resort on the 1st night and the 2 other nights we slept down on the beach in a shelter, there was a shower, a goanna hole that we never saw. We swam at the beach, the waves were awesome and bumped you around ALOT! We had dinner in the camp oven.

We did a spear making cultural tour with a person called Bundy and there was a little puppy there on the way. I called it Buster.

Bundy said that the girls make the food and the boys get the food. Bundy showed me how to find some food in the sand. It looked like a little onion and you had to peel it and it was white in side. Here's a photo of me foraging for food.



Bundy told us that at the sand dunes the Swifts lay their eggs and the chicks hide under the seaweed. On the other side the turtles come up the beach to lay their eggs. It was a good tour.

We left Kooljaman and drove up to Cygnet Bay. We did a tour of the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. Our guide was called Terry. Terry lived there since he was a baby and he went to school there. The room where we learned about pearls was his old school room and he found it hard to do school work when he could see fish flipping out of the water through the window. Very distracting.

The really round ones that are smooth with cream colour are really, really expensive. They come in all sorts of shapes. Some look like drops and some have patterns. In where you find the pearls there is also some meat. We ate some from the oyster we opened and it was yummy. It was $200.00 per kg!!!
The oyster we opened had a pearl inside.

We returned to Broome again and we're now getting ready to go to Derby and the Gibb River road.

From Grace.