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Sunday, October 3, 2010

Last Days at Barn Hill


We have come the end of our stay at Barn Hill Station Stay. Can recommend it as it is hard to leave. We asked the kids to write about the time here. Here is Banjo's response he wrote in his diary:

"THE AWESOME THINGS ABOUT BARN HILL.
The sunset was beautiful. The sea was so blue. You can hand feed miners, they jump on your hand."



We have been really lucky with what we have seen. The photo below is of a mother and baby chick Tawny Frogmouth. We have watched this little ball of fluff grow to a frowning youngster!


The sunsets are fantastic. This is Banjo about to catch a wave as the sun sets in the background. The kids have loved the gentle surf at the beach. We have swum most mornings and afternoons.


Ruby Dreaming at Sunset. The bench she is sitting on is perched above the beach and is a great viewing seat of the beach at any time of the day, but is standing room only normally at sunset.



Annie and Ruby, (I think I'm nearly as tall as you Mum!)


We headed down the road a bit on Friday to check out a nearby place called Port Smith Lagoon. It was a beautiful lagoon, but was 600 metres from the caravan park and with sandflies and such a long walk, we decided to just spend the day there. The idea was to swim, snorkel and fish. We all had a dip, Ruby and Annie went snorkelling but the water was a bit too tidal and the sand in the water made it hard to see much, and we didn't manage to catch a fish. As we started packing up, I was walking through the mangroves to see what I could see, and spied the mud crab as shown below. Of course it didn't have a fishing rod holder spike through its head when I first saw it, but eventually Annie managed to spike him, yes, it was a him, and we enjoyed a sumptuous dinner on Friday night of mud crab, the cod I caught at Cape Leveque, the Dart Moses had caught that afternoon, and a flathead I had caught at Broome Pier. All excellent fare.


Moses with his first ever caught Dart


You know when the tongue comes out, Moses is excited about something. What was in the bucket was the cause of his excitement.


Some of the rock formations on the beach at Barn Hill Station are just amazing. The below photo is one of about a dozen I could put up. The Osprey nest was not far from this one, so a walk along the beach was full of shells, little rock pieces, rock formations, bird watching, swimming and fishing. I just can't understand why we like this place so much! :-)



Banjo in the camp ground at Barn Hill Station showing off his new gear, hat, shirt and boardies!


So we will reconnect with you all when we head into Port Headland. Could be 3-4 days, could be a week. We really aren't sure. There is the occasional mention of leaving our holiday and heading home, mainly from Moses who is missing his friends, as are Banjo and Ruby but they aren't as vocal about heading home. We are starting to gather a formidable bird list and naming particular species and varieties is a challenge, but we now have a large library of photos of birds alone. We have joined the Eremea website under Waring Farthings and will update that site regularly on the trip too, as well as posting some of the fantastic photos we have of birds here, such as the Frogmouths above.

Thinking of you all and wishing you were here and hoping you are enjoying the blog.

Please leave comments because it keeps us in touch with you too.

WFs

3 comments:

Glenda McCarthy said...

Hey Richard, Annie and kids! Great blog and photos. What a wonderful experience! How long will you all be away for? Lots of love, Glenda and Kelly

Unknown said...

I hope there's some video of Annie skewering the mud crab! Not much happening here - we're getting lots of rain in all forms, starting a vege garden in the back yard, tom abt to start a cricket season, is also playing futsal, calisthenics & drama continue. K&P finding a few moments to watch empty Delhi stadiums. all our luv - you guys are looking great in the photos - even betta than the sunsets....& birds

Unknown said...

Go after Clive guys - C'MOOON (cock wrist with hand pointing back 2 forehead)

EREMAEA TOP BIRDERS 2010 - WA
Rank Observer Species
1 Clive Curson 212
2 Michael Wood 178
3 Grant Brosie 145
4 Meryl Ferguson 136
5 Richard Miller 125
6 Tim Bawden 118
7 Michael Green 81
8 Colin T. Richardson 79
9 Richard & Margaret Alcorn 75
10 Lawrie Conole 75
11 Tim Mintern 46
12 Mat & Cathy Gilfedder 45
13 Mike Kuhl 43
14 Neil McGregor 36
15 Andrew Sutherland 33
16 Bruce Wedderburn 27
17 Oliver Cardona 26
18 Barbara Gilfedder 18
19 Waring Farthings 15
20 Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow 12
21 Jim O'Shea 6