Rainbow Valley

Nick comes running up to the camper calling out in a serious tone, “quick, quick, there’s been a croc attack on the East Alligator River”.  After a quick breath, we discover that he, Sam and Larina are the Royal Flying Doctors, and they have been called out to rescue an injured man.   This is one example of how our trip is impacting on the lives of our children.  Pretend play continues – just with more variety. 

The trip into Rainbow Valley was a bumpy one.  Heavily corrugated road, 23km, and slow going.  Coming around the last bend, we almost cheered when we knew “we are here!”  The facilities (drop toilet) were good, along with free gas BBQ and hot plates, nicely levelled parking for the van that we could leave hitched to the car, and brilliant fire pit.  It was after seeing this we decided to stay two nights.   

Ben had sourced some fire wood from along the road on the way, so it was time to try out the damper recipe.  Sam retold his joke (“what did the swagman eat after his bread got wet?”…) as many times as he could get away with, as Ben and I pretended we had done this a million times before, and showed the kids how to cook a damper in the camp oven on the fire.  As with all good parenting lessons, it did not go as we had anticipated, and when Ben pulled off the lid of the oven to reveal our lunch, we all saw under the smoke a small round black lump of charcoal.  So the lesson we really got to teach today, was when at first you don’t succeed, try again. Luckily, our second attempt was much better, as were our appetites by the time the lid was lifted.  Ben and I felt very proud – our first Aussie bush damper.  We took multiple photos just to prove to ourselves that we can do it.

Day two at the valley was also marked by an afternoon walk through the desert sand.   Sam and Nick pretended to be lost in the desert, as we walked along the lonely track.  They pretended to hunt their dinner and use bush tucker for survival.  (They also decided to paint some pictures and sell them for money at the markets, so they could treat themselves to a happy meal.) 

We are all a little tired, and I have unfortunately come down with a nice big head cold.  So the restful day was just what we needed.  Actually, we probably should have stayed another few days, as I seem to keep having accidents.  (I fell down the front stairs of the camper, took a gash out of Larina’s  head with the door, and gave Nick a bleeding lip after zipping up his jacket too fast.)  Soon we will make time to really stop and slow down.  At the moment though, we need to press on to get back out of the cold weather and red sand!