Katherine Gorge memories

Last year before we left the Northern Territory to tour in the eastern states and spend time with family we treated ourselves to something special.
We hopped in the ute and drove an hour into Katherine and then another 20 minutes or so out to Katherine Gorge.

Classic Katherine Gorge photo.
Late afternoon

The Gorge has a special place in our hearts. We first visited in November of 1989. I was expecting our youngest son and the other two kids were still in primary school. We didn't own a caravan, so we hired one and packed ourselves and our goods up and headed north from Adelaide.  November is well into the build-up to the wet season so we were treated to spectacular dry electrical storms and it was hot, very hot. We hired canoes and paddled and swam up the river porting the canoes over the rocks between gorges.  Incidentally, the camp area we used  is no longer, as it was wiped away in the flood of 1989. During this flood the tops of the gorge walls were just a series of islands.

It was my first introduction to the NT and even after all of this time the whole experience glows in my memories. That might be one of the reasons that I even listened when K began to wonder about travelling north.

Anyway as I was saying, last year we treated ourselves to the sunset tour and dinner on  Katherine Gorge. Boat trip and short walks through two of the gorges and then dinner while the boat drifted back down stream to the park.

Katherine Gorge just before sunset on a tour

Fresh water crocodiles, numerous birds, lizards  and the most spectacular scenery were accompanied by a commentary from one of the indigenous park rangers. And the sunset was beautiful.

 

Katherine Gorge sunset dinner cruise boat
Tables set up and the BBQ cooking.
Pretty good example of outdoor cooking

We were seated with a couple from France and their mother. It was a fascinating evening, Great food, Great scenery and a priceless insight into this couple's lives.

A good memory.


Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

The morning dance



Moon still in the sky at first light.

We are pretty good  at being together in a small space.

Mornings have a comforting routine. The alarm goes off. K dresses and then clears out to the kitchen end of the van leaving me to complete the important tasks that turn a rumpled mess into a polished adult female. During this process the bathroom of the van is out of bounds to my husband. There simply isn't enough room for two in front of the mirror in the tiny cloakroom. Particularly as I have to be jammed up against the mirror to be sure there is a face to put makeup on. I'm so blind without my glasses that I do this task more by feel than anything else.

View across the park at first light.

Up the kitchen end the coffee machine is doing its thing and breakfast makings are  flying out of my super organised storage locker. K indulges in yoghurt which is now especially good since I am making it myself. ( I still can't understand why anyone would eat the stuff. Cook with it yes. Eat it no.)

Pack a lunch. Make another coffee to go Juggle past each other to the wash basin and off.

Brolgas on the road on a foggy morning

If it is a work day we are up to see the sunrise. Work days start very early here as a reaction to the heat which is coming later in the day. In the tropics the difference between too dark to drive and full light is a matter of minutes. 6.30am dark. 6.45am load up and drive out.

  Fog on the road to work.

While this might read very much like a morning in any other working household, this dance is achieved in a 20ft by 8ft very well appointed box.

Bear in mind that this box might be parked just about anywhere we choose and I reckon life is pretty good.


Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Just a recipe collection and memories

Nothing serious is getting done around here. There's a V8 race on the TV. So naturally  since we are both "rev-heads"  the bed is configured as a lounge and we are glued to the screen.

At some point one of us is going to have to think about dinner. I'm fresh out of ideas.

I gave away all of the enormous number of cook books collected over the years on the basis that I couldn't fit them in. (I am a cook from memory with whatever is in the pantry and fridge kind of cook I figured I wouldn't use them even if I packed them.)

At times like this there are only two places I go.

One of them is the first book I bought when we were planning the transition from house to caravan. Eva Stovern has a series of books, this is the second, born from extensive travels. I set my first caravan pantry up based on her "30 ingredients." Her advise about kitchen essentials is pretty good too.  I don't regret buying the book and still use some of the recipes. This is the author's official site. Check it out



Caravan cook book by Eva Stevern
30 Ingredients and kitchen essentials.
 

The  other potential source of inspiration is my trusty recipe collection.  This is a little green book that I was given before we were married and still has my maiden name in very neat student teacher printing on the inside cover. I could not bring myself to part with this.

 

Inside its pages are recipes copied from both my grandmothers  who were frugal but amazing cooks, and both my mums (his and mine that is).  There is  a chocolate cake recipe still made by many of the members of the extended family with notes in the margin for conversions to gluten free.
Grandma's pot roast, mock chicken, mustard dressing are copied in neat printing.  Later entries are not so tidy. I can hardly read the crust less quiche. There is a page with the no fail sponge that never works for me. I think you have to measure carefully for this one.

Tucked into the pages and the front and back cover are magazine clippings as well as typed and hand written gems contributed over the years by friends.

It is more a bit of history than a cook book BUT as I flip through  I do spy devilled lamb chops in grandma's handwriting and there are some farm grown chops left in the freezer.

That's sorted. Back to the V8s. Go FORD!




Cheers  Sue

A Ferg on the Move

A tale of bread, sticky date pudding and washing.

Today didn't go as planned.

I had four things on my to do list today; try out the new gluten free bread mix that has arrived in the post, cook gluten free Sticky Date for K, make some more yoghurt and do the washing. After that I was going to go have a swim with the holiday makers and catch up with the caravan gossip for the week.

My first gluten free cob loaf

I read the bread mx instructions last night. I'm really keen to get this working. I found it after some serious research. Most mixes are a batter, this one makes a dough and can be shaped into rolls or a cob loaf.

Gluten free cob loaf risen ready to go into the oven

 A great deal of emphasis is made about the need for accurate measurement of ingredients.
Now I am a chuck it all in from memory cook so naturally my mini kitchen scales were right at the back of the under sink cupboard.  K came in for a cuppa just as I had the whole lot on the floor in front of the fridge.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Just cooking," said I stuffing everything back in with great care.

Carefully assembling the ingredients I weighed out the flour mix, adding a bit more, still more and some more again. Since the flour was overflowing the small container I had on the scales I concluded that the scales had better be checked for accuracy. Sure enough a 250gm unopened cheese block weighed 50gms on my scales.

What to do?  While pondering this problem I made up the yoghurt and had a cuppa.

Yoghurt made up and sitting in the bench, I fired up the ute and made a 14km trip to borrow scales from the cook at the roadhouse in town and catch up on the town gossip for this week.

Back on track I mixed, kneaded and set the bread to prove in the obvious place. The dashboard of the ute.

Bread rising inside the car on the dashboard.

All went well with the sticky date because I had popped into the supermarket to say hello on my way to get the scales and remembered that I didn't have dates! That was a good save.   AND I had to use a pot as a cake tin because the right tin was ... you guessed it ... under the sink.

Now the oven. Not willing to trust the bread to the BBQ the first time I baked it I decide to use the glass oven which was sitting snugly in its usual storage place. ....You guessed it again.....Under the sink where had put it after I did the photos for the outside kitchen blog.

K breezed in on his way to fix the commercial drier.  "Still cooking," said I stuffing everything back in with great care again and dumping the glass oven next to the outdoor power point in the annex.

Sticky Date Pudding in the glass oven.

Sticky Date in the oven and bread  rising beautifully in the car  I lifted out the twin tub washing machine, pulled out the power cord and ....  No free power point.

So I currently I am sitting on the bed in the caravan waiting for the bread to finish, doing the washing with the twin tub in the shower, plugged into the power point under the bed and using the shower head to fill it.

Washing machine inside the caravan in the shower.
I usually do this when it 35plus degrees outside. 

K has come in from work to have his Sticky Date with cream and have a shower... Ooops.



Gluten Free Sticky Date Pudding and cream

I still have to return a set of kitchen scales.


Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

When small is just right.

We are watching Better Homes and Gardens TV show tonight. The chippies in the family are not fond of this programme. I think they resent the "just do this and you will have a wonderful...what ever." Like it can be done instantly.


The feature build this week is a house made from a shipping container. At 40ft long it is twice the length of our caravan. So while it is tiny to some it is huge to us. Take a look.

Our bathroom lives in two sections across the back wall. The wardrobe is in the centre, two door with drawers. Perfect for winter clothes, good shirts and my yarn stash. One side has a shower cubicle with a curved sliding door. 

The other side has a cassette toilet and hand basin. Getting in to the toilet room is a bit of an art. Sideways shuffling is necessary but once in....
K has added a full length mirror to the toilet door, and nifty stick on storage baskets to the mirror above the hand basin.



Over the door towel hangers allow towels to hang on the wardrobe doors.


Unused towels are rolled in the shelf above the bed.


All the mod cons.


Who needs a 40ft long palace?


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

 

 

 

Staying in touch. Or the things I have to do to get mobile phone coverage.

I recently spent a week in a community with no mobile phone coverage. This made me very conscious of how dependent I am. We have family spread over half of Australia and use SMS to chat, email and Facebook to see the grandkids, new cars, holiday and event photos and  just plain gossip.
Banking, online shopping and of course blogging is conducted over the internet. No landlines here.


At one of the schools I visit regularly there is one spot on the basketball court where "one bar" is possible. There is often a huddle of staff and community members jockeying for position to get reception and download something.  Strangely reception will happen elsewhere for no apparent reason and for random amounts of time. One day at this school my phone beeped at me in the class room. I was so shocked I turned quickly next to a chair and landed in an undignified heap on the floor. Later on yard duty I was treated to a replay by the year one kids, in language, complete with very convincing acting.


Here where we are parked at the moment reception can be very patchy. K has been known to have an extension USB cable attached to his internet dongle. The dongle lives on the roof and the cable come down from the roof vent  to the computer on the table. Placement is critical. I am unpopular if I use the vent for its original purpose, light and ventilation that is.

I could get lots of exercise roaming the caravan park looking for the best place to download  a book to read.

Bats on the move just before sunset.

 

 

At our daughter's NSW farm phone reception happens at the gate. That is for everybody else who can lean on the gate ordering Chinese dinner or something. Not me! My phone refuses to give me any bars until I am standing in the middle of the road preferably first thing in the morning...... Something to do with signal skip I've been told.

Picture me, early morning checking for emails and SMS or doing the banking standing in the middle of a dirt road in rural NSW hoping that I spot the dust cloud indicating approaching vehicles. Or more importantly that no one comes along to see me in the middle of the road in my jammies with a phone held to my ear.

On a more serious note, I am grateful for the technology that allows me to live in wonderful places in our grand land and still stay connected to the people I love.

No need for mobile phone here. What K does while I download a book.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

 

Home is where the heart is. Or wherever the road takes us.

So the conversation goes like this......


At home on the farm in NSW

"Where do you live?"
"In the caravan," I answer.
"No. Where do you really live?"
"In the caravan," I answer.
"Ok where is home?" they ask with some level of frustration.
"In the caravan," I answer with a grin, settling down for another lengthy explanation of our lifestyle.



At home with visitors in the Northern Territory

It is true that for the past few years our registered address is at the tourist park here in Northern Australia where we spend 7ish months working. It is also true that we have NT drivers licences and the vehicles are registered here but that is a life style choice rather than an anchor.


At home helping with the renovations

Home for us is our caravan. After a day out in Katherine NT, Goulburn NSW, Brisbane QLD, Broome WA (you get the idea) we go home to our tiny house.



At home behind the rain water tank

We are at peace inside its walls or sitting under its annex. Everything we need is here, wherever here happens to be.

Home is where the heart is and with the one who has your heart. (That's you K. I think I just earned  a coffee in bed one morning.)







At home with K

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move