Sunday, 18 July
A most important day – my birthday! We had a very early start to the day, being wide awake at 4.30 am suffering from jet lag. A time difference of 90 minutes in 200 kms takes a bit of adjustment! Telephone calls from the children and grandchildren was a wonderful beginning to the day, as well as text messages and some presents which had been stored in the caravan before we left Hobart.
This morning we toured the Ord River agricultural area – a huge floodplain irrigated from the Ord River. We saw sugar cane, sorghum, corn, pumpkins, other stuff we couldn’t identify, sunflowers and trees – so many trees! Sandalwood is a major crop in this area, with TFS having thousands of acres planted out with the first harvest due in three years. They have almost as much land again being prepared for plantations. We visited their tourist outlet, watched a promotional video, looked at the products for sale and learnt a lot. The sandalwood tree is actually a parasite and needs another tree planted beside it to feed off (three different trees during the growing stages) and the oil is used by all the best perfume manufacturers. With wild sandalwood nearly depleted, plantations are becoming very important for the sandalwood oil business. The seeds are the size of small peas (easily to colour sort …). There is also a rum distillery close by, but we did give that a miss, not being fond of rum. We definitely wouldn’t have allowed Cat anywhere near the place!
We drove to Ivanhoe Crossing, the beginning of the 4WD track to Wyndham. The crossing is over a weir spanning the crocodile infested Ord River and the track is marked by bollards which are 35 cms high. A few of these were actually under water. While we were there, two vehicles actually crossed the river and both created a nice bow wave. A couple of pelicans were waiting patiently for a fish to appear and a cormorant was actually diving in the strong current at the base of the weir – and managing to remain stationery.
This afternoon we listened to a great football game (the Swans won, in case you were wondering) before we listed to Shan’s concert on ABC Classic FM. A lovely way to fill in the afternoon. Tonight we are actually going to eat out.
A most important day – my birthday! We had a very early start to the day, being wide awake at 4.30 am suffering from jet lag. A time difference of 90 minutes in 200 kms takes a bit of adjustment! Telephone calls from the children and grandchildren was a wonderful beginning to the day, as well as text messages and some presents which had been stored in the caravan before we left Hobart.
This morning we toured the Ord River agricultural area – a huge floodplain irrigated from the Ord River. We saw sugar cane, sorghum, corn, pumpkins, other stuff we couldn’t identify, sunflowers and trees – so many trees! Sandalwood is a major crop in this area, with TFS having thousands of acres planted out with the first harvest due in three years. They have almost as much land again being prepared for plantations. We visited their tourist outlet, watched a promotional video, looked at the products for sale and learnt a lot. The sandalwood tree is actually a parasite and needs another tree planted beside it to feed off (three different trees during the growing stages) and the oil is used by all the best perfume manufacturers. With wild sandalwood nearly depleted, plantations are becoming very important for the sandalwood oil business. The seeds are the size of small peas (easily to colour sort …). There is also a rum distillery close by, but we did give that a miss, not being fond of rum. We definitely wouldn’t have allowed Cat anywhere near the place!
We drove to Ivanhoe Crossing, the beginning of the 4WD track to Wyndham. The crossing is over a weir spanning the crocodile infested Ord River and the track is marked by bollards which are 35 cms high. A few of these were actually under water. While we were there, two vehicles actually crossed the river and both created a nice bow wave. A couple of pelicans were waiting patiently for a fish to appear and a cormorant was actually diving in the strong current at the base of the weir – and managing to remain stationery.
This afternoon we listened to a great football game (the Swans won, in case you were wondering) before we listed to Shan’s concert on ABC Classic FM. A lovely way to fill in the afternoon. Tonight we are actually going to eat out.
1 comment:
Did you give them our business card???
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