Arthur River to Somerset - "The first 100 days"

Well we have been on the road for 100 days.

Time for reflection, maybe, but there is a long way to go on our travels yet.

When we think of "Relections" now, it will be associated with "Arthur River Reflections", this was the name of the boat that we cruised into the wilderness on, for a day trip to the never never, or the Tarkin wilderness.

This is the boat that was a vehicle to a special world, where only the really adventurous venture on foot.






This is the river bank, there is no penitrating this unless you cut a trail, but both aborigines and the first settlers - in Tasmania's case the first settlers were all convicts - blazed a trail.

They found many things and now the most valuable at present is the wood - some of these trees are worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The area we were in is protedted so after 400 years they rot and die.Unfortunately the wallabies eat the young shoots of the trees


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The view from the front boat tells you the depth of wilderness we were entering.












This indicates the temperature at mid day in the wilderness








Albeit it is the wilderness, the fruit on the palm of Katherine's hand is very edible, but it would take a week to gather a meaningful serve.




















This is one of Katherine's interests - Flora of the fungi sort.

This colour on the forest floor is quite exceptional.











This fingi relies on water gathered in the centre of the flower.







When we visited "Dismal Swamp" there were a number of special scuptures around, one of which was this pair of "Preying Mantis"










Is this a scupture or a relic from the dim and distant past.

Certainly it fitted the environment.




















These were again very approptiate, a vivid imagination is a prerequisite for appreciating their form.









Just to illustrate the primeval nature of "Dismal Swamp"

The centre as this shows is quite modern which incorporates a very long Slide to the bottom of the Sunken Hole" 110 metres deep and took 5 seconds to descend.








After "Dismal Swamp" we ventured to The Nut " at Stanley and there we joined 20 other motor homes having a free stop on the waterfront.
It was like a tinkers camp - with people from all over Australia.






At the next stop, beside "Detention River" and met this bird who obviously thought it was his site and not ours. So as always we co-existed.

This is Detention River in the evening and you can see why we stayed for a few nights.

After the rver bank we went to "Table Cape" at Wynyard.

The view from our Van was this.

The nightime scene was even more rewarding.

Distance Travelled = 6650 Kms

Distance from Perth = 3951 Kms

Number of days on the road = 100