Pearl of the East, Serendib, Taprobane, Sri Lanka. Home.

The chattering of monkeys and sounds of bird call broke through the last moments of my sleep. With eyes half open, I realised that this was the last morning for many months, maybe even a year, that I would awake to the beauty of early morning at Olu Ella. Out I went to the balcony where I watched the slow sun slide through the trees and flash on the white head feathers of fantails as they darted among branches. Other birds called their friends to get moving, to begin their day long food search. 

Olu Ella Inn balcony

There was no need to search for food on my part! I could hear the sounds of people below me as they began preparations for our breakfast. As it was our last breakfast we were sure to be presented with an elaborate one! I decided to go down to meet the day so, after "Good Morning! "to everyone, I went down the steps to the river below. There I sat beside the calm swimming hole watching the yellow bulbuls darting to pick off the insects caught in the new sunlight. I love to sit here, feet in the quiet waters, watching the flowing water find its way through the huge rocks and becoming a fierce rush of white water just a few metres downstream. 

I knew that today this beautiful place would be enjoyed by city dwellers making a weekend escape from the pollution of Colombo by visiting our guesthouse -home to play in the river, enjoying the cool, refreshing water before sampling the traditionally cooked dishes that have earned the guesthouse many recommendations.  

Visitors enjoying the We Oya at Olu Ella Ella Inn

I decided to leave the river today for our visitors to enjoy and made plans to spend the day with a slow trip down the road stopping to take photos at my favourite points. Usually, when we leave home we are moving to a timetable and there's no time to stop for photos. Today I would go alone and stop wherever I pleased! A phone call confirmed that a tuk tuk was available so, after breakfast of freshly made egg hoppers - always my favourite Sri Lankan breakfast - I took my camera and walked down our path to the bridge.

Our Sri Lankan home. Olu Ella Inn

Set among the tea and rubber trees our home is in a hill side village where tea and rubber, together with cardamons and cloves in season, are the income earners for the villagers.

Tea and Ribber trees

Then it was a practiced walk over the high bridge . . .

Bridge over We Oya, at Dombepola

. . . with a pause to take a photo looking downstream . . .

Down stream We Oya from Dombepola bridge

and upstream.

upstream We Oya, Dombepola bridge and after heavy rain.

About five hundred metres along the road is Olu Ella Falls, the fifth highest waterfall in Sri Lanka. I have posted previously about this waterfall.

Olu Ella Falls, wet season

Olu Ella Falls, dry season

My tuk tuk was waiting! The young driver had been told that I wanted to take photos so, after only my first request to stop, he took to stopping wherever he thought a photo should be taken. He really loved his part of the world and stopped exactly where I planned!

Travel by tuk tuk

For the most part, the road is little more than one way only. We are all used to this and there's absolutely no road rage when there are delays with vehicles needing to back up. Instead people use the opportunity to shout news from passing tuk tuks or buses to friends going the other direction!

Seepoth Road, from Yatiyantota

First time visitors to our guesthouse often remark that just getting to our place is an adventure! They enjoy the drive along the windy road, adventures at every corner, through the tea and rubber plantations and the vistas that greet them at every bend.

Getting the day's tea pick ready for collection

Tea is everywhere. As the people usually have only a couple of acres of tea to farm the daily pick is collected by the local tea factories. How much per kilogram they are paid for these green leaves depends on the season but is usually between fifty to sixty rupees a kilogram. The pickers are paid about ten rupees per kilogram for their work so a lot of tea needs to be picked for anyone to earn a living.

Rubber trees, We Oya

Harvesting both tea and rubber is very much dependent on the weather. If there's rain, harvesting is impossible. In recent years there have been very long periods of drought in this area and the people have suffered accordingly. No harvesting equals no income.

Collecting the latex.

When I made my first trip along this road almost fifty years ago I was shocked to see cows little bigger than big dogs. Coming from New Zealand, this horrified me. Now, with breeding assistance from New Zealand, the cows I meet are very much bigger! And can be somewhat intimidating! This one did not agree to having her photo taken.

This area is in a rain corridor so, even on a day that starts out clear and sunny, clouds can appear and dump a bit of water before petering out and returning the sunshine. The hilltops often sit in front of a haze.

We Oya valley

In the wet season the hills are adorned with many high waterfalls. This year I noted that most had dried up, including some I have never known to do so.

Water falls We Oya

What a beautiful setting for the We Oya Rubber Estate's workers' accommodation!

We Oya Rubber Estate

All too soon it was time to turn around.  A phonecall informed me that the visitors had finished their water fun. My turn now!

I was soon back in the water, fish exploring around my feet looking for something to eat. . .

Asian Open Bill, Sri Lanka

. . . and watching the Asian Open Billed stork feeding from the rocks.

Asian Open Bill, We Oya, Sri Lanka

We Oya, Sri Lanka

What a lovely way to end my time in my Sri Lankan home!

The End of our Northern Road Trip

Last year, 2014, ended up being a big year travel wise for us with our road trip north for two months followed by a six week road trip to revisit places we'd previously seen in passing on the Southern Coast of New South Wales and Victoria and then a another two month trip to Sri Lanka and Kerala, India. 

Now, a year since we left home on our 12,000 kilometre road trip through western Queensland, up into the Northern Territory and a short distance into the East Kimberley part of Western Australia memories keep resurfacing of the wonderful places we saw, people we met and things we learned about the First people of Australia and the geological history of this, the world's smallest continent, the very different pictures of the beauty of the land and more.  As I've now published all the drafts that have languished in the edit box and, because blogs such as mine helped me in planning our own trip, I'll finish with a few thoughts on long distance road travel in a camper van. Assuming that you have researched your route, know where the facilities are along the way and where you might stop over night my Number One Tip is:

You can never recover TIME. DO IT NOW ! Of course in a planned way. If we had made this trip ten years ago as planned, we would have been walking through the National Parks, canoeing through Katherine Gorge, tent camping in wilderness areas off road and so on. Advancing years do mean that life's activities have to be adjusted. If you are already reaching the higher numbers don't worry. Make the adjustments and go anyway. You'll be glad you did!

Carry Spare fuel

Number Two: Be Prepared - for anything. 
Carry at least twenty litres of extra fuel if you are staying on road, more if you are not. We had to use our spare fuel on two occasions. Once because we sailed past a service station without checking that our fuel was at 100% and once because a high wind for five hundred kilometres meant that the engine used more fuel than usual. Don't worry about how much it all costs. You can't go down the road for a discounted price. The highest price per litre diesel we paid was $2.10 at Jabiru and the lowest was $1.53 at both Gin Gin and Charters Towers.

Ensure that you have more than enough supplies of any medications you need to keep you alive to enjoy your trip and a first aid kit stored in a quickly accessible place. 

Add some sticky tape to your tool box. Ours came in handy holding the windscreen together for three thousand kilometres. Know that although temperatures during the day are rather warm, the cooler nights will cause a cracked windscreen to expand and lengthen the crack.

Pack once. Then repack two more times and take out ten percent or more at each pack. If you leave behind something you later need you will be able to remedy that at a town along the way. That does not apply to water. Start with at least five litres plus your personal bottle.

Road house, Dunnmarra

Know where the free stops are. 
[ http://www.caravancaravan.com.au/    is a great resource.] You might want to use them for a break if not for an overnight stop. Know that in season Grey Nomads will be there before lunchtime [ how do they get there so early?] and will be camped in the shady spots, beer in hand as you haul yourself off the tarmac, search for a spot that's not by the toilet, decide to have a quick lunch and try your luck getting to a roadhouse a further six hundred kms up the line before dark. Roadhouses are a good place to stop and have camping grounds too.

Road Train, Northern Territory

Don't fret about meeting road trains or listen to those who try to scare you about them before you leave home, especially if they've never done such a trip themselves. For the most part the roads are looong and flat - ish. You will see them coming towards you and usually you are travelling faster than they are if they are behind you. If you're slow, you will hear them. So, plenty of time to get as left as possible. Secondly, road train drivers are very experienced and courteous road users. They look out for you, or at least, as conversations with them at roadhouses showed, they did for us.

Traffic police, Renner Springs

That brings me to road safety. Do know that, even if there are only a couple of buildings and the settlement can be missed if you blink, you do need to go down to the signed speed limit. Police may be checking and you will be breathalysed. Speed limits in a great part of the Northern Territory do not exist, roads are long, straight and empty. Don't be tempted to travel like a plane as help, should it be needed for either your vehicle or yourself, is a long way off. Possibly at least six hundred kms in places. Stop to stretch your legs every two hours but look for a place such as a truck stop where you can get off the road - it may take an hour or more to find one.

Bitter Springs

My last tip is: see your dentist the day before you leave home. If you do acquire a dental problem that bottle of good brandy you repacked three times will come in handy, along with the Ibuprofen in your first aid kit. With a big enough dose you will be at least comfortable, but not perhaps so happy, until you find that nice dentist at Humpty Doo who will remove the offending tooth.

So, having attended to all of the above, checked that your home is secure, Skype is loaded on your ipad, stopped your mail, all you need to do now is to add a few extra bottles of your favourite wine to enjoy under a clear starry sky in the middle of our wide open country, climb into your holiday home and head for the highway. An unforgettable time is ahead! 

Happy travels! 

Lake Argyle

Dam on Lake Argyle, Western Australia

Our arrival at Lake Argyle brought us to the turn back point of our trip and ticked the Number One reason for making this long drive on Sam's List - Lake Argyle. This particular engineering achievement had two other attractions for Sam - the Argyle diamond mine and the  massive irrigation scheme that brought agriculture to this expansive region that could previously be productive only during the short wet months. Our time exploring the agricultural aspect of Kununurra had been most enjoyable for him, satisfying his interest in fruit and timber farming and while he could see the dam and power station here at Lake Argyle, the diamond mine was beyond access! The only way to get to it was to fly and visitors were not permitted anyway. Pity! I would have loved an Argyle diamond from the gift shop! I'd like the one that is worth a million dollars for just one carat.  Ha ha!

Camp site, Lake Argyle

 Before this trip I read all the blogs I could find, gleaming valuable information so here's a little information for those readers doing the same thing. Lake Argyle is a short seventy kilometres from Kununurra on a good road. [ If you are coming from the Northern Territory and not intending to go to Kununurra the turn off is not far from the border.] In the dry [tourist] season the one caravan and camping park there, Lake Argyle Resort, is very busy however you cannot book ahead as the private owner prefers to have a more relaxed first comers get the spots system. I found this out when I phoned to make a booking however we arrived before lunchtime and had no problems securing a very pleasant spacious spot under the trees. By evening the only sites were the non powered camping ones at the back of the ground - very nice they were though. The setting for this caravan park, which also has several book-well-ahead cabins and motels, is stunning!

Lake Argyle Resort infinity pool

The view from the pool was the best part! It was icy!

Dam wall, Ord River

Having come to see the mighty lake and dam we were soon driving over the dam wall. The road takes you first to a couple of look outs then past the lower outlet and along the river to a very pleasant picnic area. Here we had lunch watched by some crocs in the river and birds in the trees.

Ord River, downstream from the dam

 [Spot the croc! ]

 Then it was back past the camp to the Durack Homestead for a history lesson. The first European explorer in the area was one Alexander Forrest whose glowing reports after his 1879 excursion to the area of fertile lands led to  three families, the Duracks, Buchanans and Osmonds being able to secure millions of acres to establish their cattle empires. The Durack homestead is now a museum after being dismantled before the flooding and reconstructed exactly as originally built, albeit minus the out buildings such as kitchen, stables, sheds and servant's [ aboriginal servants] rooms. I know that I look at history through the lens of today's [ or my personal] values but I just felt so sad that firstly the Aboriginal owners were treated as being of no consequence, then had to serve the white masters before finally having their country flooded. The local people here are the Mirriwoong Gajerrong people and as I walked around looking at the exhibits and read of the great feats of the Duracks in driving cattle some five thousand miles over three years all I could feel was sorrow that their country was so altered, their cultural sites and graves lost, and their lives imposed upon by strangers confidently grabbing what they wanted.

Male Bower Bird

So the best thing for me at the Durack family museum was the bower bird. And even he had been named after one of the Durack men. The male bower bird collects the  white pebbles and other colourful objects to attract a mate. After mating she leaves him and his bower and takes off to nest alone.

Estuarine Crocodile, Lake Argyle

The next day we went on a lunch cruise to enjoy the lake from water level. Very pleasant it was, especially the lunch time dip in the lake, buoyed by a noodle, wine glass in hand with 35,000 fresh water crocodiles for company somewhere in the water. That last piece of information was conveyed to us once we were back on the boat. No worries, we were told. Freshies are shy crocs and give no trouble. Well, the one above looked not at all happy to see us out on the water in a boat. Lunch was barbequed catfish  now rebranded as Silver Cobbler and selling for five times the price as "Catfish." It had a sweet taste and firm texture - a winner with us!

Cormorants, Lake Argyle

I had previously seen only one pair rock wallabies -  black ones at Lake Burrinjuck, New South Wales so it was exciting to not only catch a glimpse of these small ones but to be able to watch them scrabble in the rocks for food.

Rock Wallabies, Lake Argyle.

After we returned from our cruise I was relaxing, coffee cup in hand when I heard a helicopter landing. Suddenly I found myself on my feet heading to the office to see if I could book a flight right then and there! This would be a first for me as I have been afraid to get on a helicopter. Yes. I could take a sunset flight fifty minutes from now. I handed over my money before I could change my mind and went back to our camp to give the news to my horrified husband. Had I known that the helicopter was wide open - no doors - I might not have been so daring!

Lake Argyle

I later learned that the pilot thought I was freaked out because I gave little response to his attempts at conversation, giving information about this great man made lake that covers 1000 square kilometres and when full holds as much water as seven Sydney Harbours. Yes. I was listening. In fact I was transfixed by the sights I saw below and beyond! Countless islands, formerly the tops of mountains, steep hillsides their colours changing even in a couple of minutes as the sun slid down in the sky.

Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle

Too soon we were coming back to land.

Ord River, below the Lake Argyle Dam

This was my last glimpse of the Ord as it moved steadily towards the Cambridge Gulf at Wyndham before ending its 320 km path to the Timor Sea.

A tip to those researching their upcoming trip: If you are not able or interested in fishing, boating or walking in the area you could consider taking the morning river cruise from Kununurra to Lake Argyle followed by the lunchtime lake cruise. A bus takes those who do that back to Kununurra. We met several people who took helicopter flights from Kununurra over Lake Argyle.

Kununurra, Northern Territory

A visit to Lake Argyle was on the "must do" list for this long trip but Kununurra showed up on my first draft itinerary simply because, at thirty seven kilometres from the State border where we had to leave all fruit, vegetables and honey, it was the only place where we could replace these items. 

As I became immersed in researching the town it soon became clear that this would not merely be a shopping stopover. My travel companions were very interested in Kununurra for two reasons. One is a retired engineer who, when our children were young, took them to see hydro power schemes, dams and irrigation systems in every country we visited. Now retired, gardening and home production of a wide variety fruits and vegetables is his passion. The other has recently acquired a hobby farm acreage where he and his family are already developing and interesting mix of cool climate fruits and nuts with poultry, sheep and alpacas to follow. My interest came from viewing the beautiful images of the landscapes of very scenic hills, boab trees, coloured rock formations and the like.

Ord River at Kununurra

 Kununurra was born out of the Ord River Irrigation Area plan that is now irrigation the north east part of the Kimberley and has turned the land from a dust bowl in the dry season to very fertile fruit and vegetable farming. Briefly, this was done by damming the 650km long Ord River forming an artificial lake, Lake Argyle. Kununurra grew as the business centre for this massive project and is now an attractive town with many services, including a TAFE, I noticed. It gained some fame as the near location of the movie Australia, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman.

Boab Tree

 In contrast to the thousands of kilometres of dry, almost parched land we had travelled through on this trip, Kununurra was so very lush, with water plentiful and clear. Bright skies, vivid colours, kilometres of lines of vegetables kaleidoscoping, swirling as we drove along the almost deserted roads.

One day we decided to follow the irrigation canal as far as it extended only to turn back way past the point shown on google earth as the end. Maybe the road, minus service stations, might end up back in the Northern Territory!

On our left, the irrigation canal brought water to the crops. 

Irrigation canal, East Kimberley

On another day we ambled around the town visiting the tourist locations. First stop was Oria Orchards on Packsaddle Road where we saw the biggest papayas we've ever seen. The grower informed us that they were not at all sought after, being just too big for use in the city hotels, his number one customer group. Here, we couldn't resist the chocolate iced banana!

Papayas at Oria Orchards

Papaya farm, Saddleback Road

 Our next stop was at Zebra Rock Gallery and Cafe. Here we browsed the interesting striped rock pieces, aboriginal dot paintings and curios.

Zebra Rock Gallery

You can enjoy your afternoon tea or lunch in the picture perfect outdoors and then take a short stroll to the banks of the River Ord. 

Zebra Rock Gallery, Kununurra

Many people feed the catfish they are a thick, vigorous, seething mass at your feet.
[If you are suitably equipped, fit and self sufficient you can have an adventure bush camping at Zebra Rock Mines. We couldn't manage that so it's on my list for another life!]

Catfish in the Ord River

Another interesting place was the Sandalwood Factory fifteen minutes down the road from the town. Here we watched an informative video about the growing of the trees and production of the distinctive perfumes and oils. This is a truly lucrative business with few places in the world being able to sustain trees and the demand for sandalwood oil being so high. Just down the road we passed a part of the sandalwood plantation however visitors there were not welcome. Pity. I would hve liked to take a close look at these trees that produce such an appealing aroma.

Sandalwood trees

Another lovely spot was at Ivanhoe Crossing. This was closed and a few solitary people were fishing close to the water despite the crocodile warning signs.

Ivanhoe crossing

Next stop is Lake Argyle!