ABC WEDNESDAY

F IS FOR........FLIES

Ah yes, the great Aussie salute....the graceful swish of the hand across the face, to deter those pesky bush flies!

From our 2003 adventure, across northern Australia, three beautiful places loom large in the pantheon of bush fly-plagued camp-sites - Limestone Gorge (in Litchfield NP, Northern Territory), Bell Gorge ( along the Gibb River Rd, Western Aust) & Walcott Inlet ( also WA).

In the photo above is Ian ( yes, one of the 3 great cooks from last week) baking at the Limestone Gorge camp....if the flies have settled on your back, DO NOT disturb them. If they're on your back, then they're not buzzing round your eyes, nose & mouth!!


The must-have accessory is your fly-net, which automatically goes on at sunrise ,when the flies arrive, and doesn't come off till sunset, when they all miraculously disappear.

For other equally-rivetting F posts, buzz on over to Mrs Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday blog & click on the links.

ABC WEDNESDAY

E IS FOR ..........EATING and drinking

A huge part of our 2003 adventure across northern & north western Australia was eating & drinking. Heather, Rob & Ian are all incredible cooks & my then 15 y/o nephew Tim a very willing apprentice. My role....kitchen aid, & Peter's...bar attendant.


We ate the most amazing meals, and truly, there is nothing those 3 can't cook in a cast-iron camp oven.....Turkish bread, friandes, 40-cloves chicken, Moroccan lamb, apple crumble, Old Cork pork, Black Forest cake, bread loaves & rolls!


At Darwin's Mindil markets, there is an eye-popping choice in satays & burgers when you check the selection available.

We ate meals in the most incredible and mundane locations....empty beaches in a tiny patch of shade & car parks with picnic benches.

If you munch your way over to Mrs Nesbitt's, you'll find links to more ABC Wednesday posts.

ABC WEDNESDAY

D IS FOR..........DIAMANTINA RIVER

The Diamantina River flows through central Queensland, in a SW direction, through the Channel Country, becomes the Warburton River, journeys on into South Australia, and, if there is enough flow, eventually into Lake Eyre.


We first glimpsed the Diamantina in 2002 and returned in 2003, to camp on her banks at Old Cork Station, on our way to The Kimberley. I'll quote from my diary...

"Sitting in peace & solitude, high on the banks, overlooking the coffee-brown waters of the Diamantina...budgerigars feed nearby, gorging on grass seeds...this place is so beautiful,peaceful, redolent of history in the abandoned homestead."

Breaking that peace, above, are Tim & Peter, zipping around the river in the tinny.

Most of the country along the Diamantina is flat & rough, and is used for grazing cattle. The photo below was taken in 2002, along the Diamantina Road, when the country was in the firm grip of drought.



Old Cork Station was featured in my post "Loo With A View", just below the Divas' post, and will appear again later in ABC Wednesday.

Mrs Nesbitt does a wonderful job hosting ABC Wednesday and in this link,you'll find links to loads of great D posts.

ABC WEDNESDAY

B IS FOR ..........BOAB TREES

Boabs, or adansonia gregorii, belongs to same family of trees as does the boabab. It is the only variety of boabab found in Australia and is thought to have derived from the boababs found in Madagascar.

In Australia, they are native to the Kimberley area in the NW, and in some parts of the Northern Territory. The majestic boab above sits on the north coast of Western Australia at Murragurra, and has withstood countless summer cyclones.

They also grow in little groups too, of 2 or 3 trees, & many clumps look like friends having a communal hug! Boabs are deciduous & bear white flowers in summer, then huge woody seed pods. Juicy, young boab roots can be chopped up & used in a stir-fry too!

The above boab we camped near in the Gregory National Park in the Northern Territory. In the pre-dawn it filled with Little Corellas, all squawking & carrying-on an awful treat.

On my 'B' list were 13 different things from our 2003 adventure, but , following the 'KISS' principle, just one will do!

However, to see what others came up with, wander over to Mrs Nesbitt's ABC WEdnesday site & click away!

ABC WEDNESDAY

ABC WEDNESDAY


ABC Wednesday kicks off on its third trip through the alphabet. To try & link all my posts, I'm going to attempt to choose each week's post from the wonders I saw in northern Australia in 2003.

First off.........
A IS FOR ...........
AVIATION HERITAGE CENTRE, DARWIN


The Australian Aviation Heritage Centre was opened in Darwin in 1990. The photo above shows the B-52 (on permanent loan from the USAF & one of only two on display outside the US) dwarfing a Tiger Moth. Below is a Sabrejet Fighter, first used in combat in the Korean war, and later as the main training jet for the RAAF.


Below is a B-25 Mitchell bomber, used by Allied air forces in every theatre of conflict in WW2, including the Pacific war.

The Heritage Centre shares a huge parcel of land with both the RAAF base & Darwin Airport.It was a lovely juxtapositon to be looking at the Sabrejet while watching the Air Force's F/A-18 Hornet fighters practising landings & take-offs on the other side of the airfield.

Zoom over to Mrs Nesbitt's, and check out the other A postings for this week, and maybe even think about joining this group.

ABC WEDNESDAY

Z IS FOR..................
ZINC CREAM


Growing up near the coast in Sydney, back at the dawn of time, almost the only kind of sun protection available was zinc cream. It is able to absorb both UVA & UVB rays from sunlight, and is almost insoluble in water.

"Traditionally", it was worn smeared across your nose & cheeks, and on your lips, & came in white only. A high profile wearer of zinc cream is Aussie cricketer, Andrew Symonds, below.


As you can see from my zinc stick , it is available in these modern times in "skin tone " (though I'm not sure whose skin tone it matches), and also a rainbowed variety of fluro colours.

Wearing zinc on your nose is considered a very "Aussie" thing to do!

I'm sorry I didn't visit many ABC Wednesday blogs, last week, as I basically posted my Y item, immediately before going away for a week. I will try to catch up this week.

If you waltz over to Mrs Nesbitt's, you'll find other posts for Z. It should be fascinating this week!

ABC WEDNESDAY

Y IS FOR .............
YELLOW WATER BILLABONG

Kakadu National Park, in Australia's Northern Territory, is where you'll find Yellow Water Billabong, & is home to a huge number of bird species, as well as the saltwater crocodile.These are pink lotus lilies, below.


A billabong forms where a creek or river changes it's course, leaving part of the river as a kind of dead end. In the iconic & perhaps 'unofficial' Australian national anthem, "Waltzing Matilda", the sheep-stealing swagman throws himself into a billabong to escape capture by the trooper, or police.

If you click here, you be able to listen to a very different version of the song, played on the throttle of a V8 Supercar....TRUE!!

Visit Mrs Nesbitt and find out what else in the world begins with Y.

ABC WEDNESDAY

X IS FOR ............
......XANTHORRHOEA

An xanthorrhoea is an extremely slow-growing Australian grass tree. They are often the first plant to reappear after a bushfire has gone through an area.


I took these pictures last Sunday, about a month after a fire burnt through bush next to our local school, & already the new growth was apparent.


Bushfires ,in the wild, are part of the natural cycle of growth & regeneration in the Aussie bush.

The flower of an xanthorrhoea is born on a long vertical spike. You can see 2 flower spikes from last season in the picture below, from an area not burnt out.


If you want to see what others came up with for X, check out Mrs Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday list.

ABC WEDNESDAY

W is for.............................
WHISPER THE WONDER CAT!!


Whisper the Wonder Cat was adopted from the RSPCA four years ago, at 10 weeks of age. Her name then was Ariel but she loudly complained that , really, her name was Whisper, so that's what she became.

Like most cats, she loves boxes......



...and like other living creatures, she does naughty things when she doesn't get her own way!


Her second best friend is Casper Domingo who decided he wanted to live with us 3 years ago. Together, they get up to all kinds of shenanigans, like fighting over shelves in the linen cupboard!

But , in the end, there's nothing they like better than curling up together on the best seat in the house!


If you romp on over to Mrs Nesbitt's, you'll find links to other ABC Wednesday posts, and also see Mrs Nesbitt's own W post, which is along the same lines as mine.

ABC WEDNESDAY

V is for...............................



My gorgeous zippy pocket-rocket VW Polo is what's referred to, here in Oz, a Euro-diesel. It's a whole new generation of high-tech. diesel vehicles that are classy and SO-O much fun to drive. They run on the smell of an oily rag and ooze that special VW vibe! Just a shame that diesel prices here have spiralled more out of control than unleaded, and nobody except diesel drivers seems to care a fig!

Visit Mrs Nesbitt and click on others who have posted V items.

ABC WEDNESDAY

U is for...................

ULTRAMARINE


Ultramarine is the blue colour pigment obtained from ground-down lapis lazuli and has been a valued rock and pigment for thousands of years. Traditionally, lapis comes from Afganistan, but it is also found in Egypt and Chile, and, in smaller quantities, in parts of the former USSR & Asia. Its primary metaphysical property is as a bringer of peace.

Genuine lapis is very expensive, and as I only have lapis chips, my photo below is not wonderful. However, it gives you an idea of the ultramarine pigment, which is classified as a 'warm blue'. In painting, it is often used to symbolise royalty.


We're getting to the tricky end of the alphabet...what a challenging time for me to have joined! If you're wondering what else in our world starts with U, please go to Mrs Nesbitt's and you'll find a whole list of blogs featuring U!

ABC WEDNESDAY

T IS FOR......
........TICKET


The year I lived in London, my friend and I were lucky enough to get tickets for the Men's Final at Wimbledon. It was the year Boris Becker , as an 18 year-old I think, won his first title.

If you visit Mrs Nesbitt's, you will find links to others who participate in this activity, so you can check out what others have posted for T.