And the big wait continues...

Rein checking in -

"It's now been almost four (!) weeks since we returned from the North and our wilderness adventure in the Kimberley. These past weeks have been a pre-eminent opportunity to practice one of our sabbatical virtues: Patience, with a capital "P". As Simon wrote in the previous post, we've been through a number of scenarios of what could come next, but since about 2 weeks we have had our new adventure on the books: three months of consulting volunteer work in Mozambique!

But, as you can imagine, one does not start a job like this overnight; especially not when you need to communicate across different timezones 12 hours apart. We send a query to HQ in Washington and need to wait for them to come on-line around 9 pm our time; Washington then needs to discuss with Maputo which is 6 hours ahead of them, so by the time they hear back from them and get back to us, two days have passed! So these last two weeks have seen us alternating between franticly going through loads of documents received, formulating e-mail queries and responses, hooking up on skype conference calls and a lot of waiting, and waiting, and waiting in between.

We are just very, very grateful that we can live as if we are at home at m. & d. Andrew's home. They are both treating us as part of the family and continue to make us feel very welcome, even after all this time of encroaching in their own lives.

After living with them for almost four weeks, m. & d. Andrew feel it's time we move out of the main house and build our own little annexe...

We have managed to use our time well though. We've been helping out with m. & d. Andrew in and around the house; bonding with Simon's nephew of 8, who up to now only knew us as his two strange uncles who live in a far-away country and who bring him a present once a year.

We have also been able to catch up with family and good friends, that we haven't seen much of in the past 6 or 7 years. And we even connected with my very own Australian family, here in Perth. Simon and I met up with Wendy and Peggy who were both born here in Australia and are direct cousins of my mother! We've been catching up on several occasions since we first met and it is amazing who much like family we really feel! I must admit that blood relation can create quite a strong connection even if you have never met before.

And then of course there are our long walks along Rockingham's beautiful beaches and coast line which are just as enjoyable in winter as they are in summer.

Here are some pictures reflecting our activities these days.

Dinner with my Australian family: f.r.l.t.r. Stefan (Peggy's husband), S., Wendy (my mother's cousin), Heidi (Wendy's daughter and my second cousin), me, Grant (Wendy's husband), Peggy (my mother's cousin)

With my gorgeous Australian cousin!

With Wendy & Peggy

We even managed to witness an authentic Greek dance party (courtesy of James & Ashley, Simon's cousins - Thank you guys!)

Preparing a pick-nick in Perth's Hyde Park

Our pick-nick guests arrive

Local wildlife - the Kookaburra

Lots of time for reflection

and more reflection

and more reflection...

And here is hoping for a speedy wrap up of all formalities with TechnoServe prior to departure, so that we can be on our way (and out of m. & d. Andrew's hair) before too long!"

- Rein checking out

One week, a thousand changes

Simon signing in:

Well, it has been a little while (again) since I wrote here but I guess the reason for that is clarified below.

This past week Rein and I have been in a whirlwind. Since our arrival at my parents' house in Western Australia we have been awaiting our next 'mission'. We knew when leaving The Kimberley that we did not have anything lined up to go onto so this is where we still are, waiting.

When you are not working and have nothing 'shored up', it really does play with your mind as to who you are, what you're 'doing with your life' and we both kind of went into panic mode.

We both started sending messages and going online to send word to the world that here we are, in Perth, ready to go further. No response. Rein attempted this again two days later. No response. It felt as though the world had stopped wanting us, as if we were had, spent, unwanted.

When these emotions start appearing, it is then that you start turning on each other, and this is what we started to do. We started to get angry with each other over the smallest of things. Every morning was a struggle. Rein has to get out of the house and I, I just revert to my book or the History channel.

Within the last week Rein had recommenced communication with his employers and we were within a hair's breath of finalising our sabbatical and going 'back to work'. I will not go into details on this front but can say that we are now still continuing on our sabbatical for a little while still.

Struggling through a week like this can make you go insane. We started to again panic that we do not have a home, so we have no where really to run or return. You can only stay with your parents for so long before they and you go insane and need you to go so we have been wanting to know what next! Also, this year we have been living of our savings so anytime spent where we are not keeping busy is money being spent without any return and living in Australia, well, for anyone not living here, Australia (especially Perth!) is bloody expensive! More expensive than Europe hands down! Rein and I cannot believe it.

But this past week, starting around Tuesday last, all things started to look brighter. Firstly, we got our first real bite on selling our 4wd. The new owner called quietly on a Tuesday morning and after a visit, and my and his negotiating a price, we shook hands and sold the car. This was the first real great news we had had since returning from the North. They came down that evening carrying cash and drove away. Both parties were happy. :-) It was a great car albeit we owned it for only 7 weeks.

On top of this, by Wednesday, Rein and I had made a decision on where we would go to recommence our lives and Rein sent off an email confirming we had made up our mind and stated which date would suit us. This also meant contacting Rein's parents and let them know how we were, what we were doing and well, whether we could kindly stay at their place for a little while. Finally that night we would sleep a little better. Sleep in the knowledge that this void in which we were living was closing up.

Sitting watching a movie that evening Rein walks in to announce that the organisation in which we registered in September last year had finally come back to us to offer an opportunity in Mozambique! And more incredible was that they wanted both Rein and ME! Me? Wow. I completely forgot that I too had given them my CV though I did not think I fitted the description of the people they hire. I was a little shell shocked at first, then happy.

This news certainly could not have come at a more bizarre time. One, we had only just three hours prior confirmed an option which meant stopping our sabbatical. Two, Rein's parents had been told to expect us earlier rather than later. THREE, we did not need to stop our sabbatical, but end it on this great note! So, that evening we would not be sleeping too well. Not just yet.

We now had to set up skype interviews and commence the paper work side of this opportunity. They understood our urgency, so the interview was set up for the following day afternoon (being on the far-end of the world means we have to wait for the afternoon for the rest of the world to wake up). It was successful so then Rein had the audacious task of calling up his employer to defer his start date by a few months. That too went down without too much trouble.

So now, once complete all the paperwork is complete, Rein and I will be off to Mozambique! More specifically, the Inhambane Province. The organisation we are going with is TechnoServe. They are a US organisation which has been active since 1968. Rein and I have been wanting to work with them the entire time though nothing had come up (strictly speaking, one opportunity in Morocco did come forward though we had committed to our work at The Kimberley, so therefore had to decline the offer, much to Rein's plea to go).

Nothing much to tell on the whole project as yet, but it would mean Rein and I are the 'team' working on this particular project and they will be taking care of us with their other permanent teams on the ground! As I state, when we know more we will let all know.

I have never been to Africa (except Morocco) and the prospect of visiting South Africa and Mozambique is amazing! This project too would mean spending our entire sabbatical year around the Indian ocean, which was not planned, but it just worked out that way.

Now Rein and I prepare for the departure which is still to be confirmed, but we are both very excited to again feel 'wanted' and to be heading somewhere to again give back, the purpose of what we started this year.

In looking back on this posting, and the past week, I guess we should learn that we need to be patient, that we need to look within ourself when these feelings start and to think about the other people we have worked with this past year, and remember the lessons learnt from them. We all live in this world and although it does not always go your way, it always works out in the end. One way or another.

Type you soon,

Simon

Winter in Perth...

Rein checking in -

"It's been a few days that we're back now in Perth, after out amazing road trip.

View from Kununurra's look-out

Our trip back from Kununurra was uneventful, yet as stunning as the way up. Even though it was for 90% the same road us we used to drive north, in reverse, we did enjoy the scenery again, and from a different perspective.

The first day of driving took us right through the Kimberley on the Great Northern Highway, a stretch of road we hadn't done yet. This is one of the most remote areas of Australia, occasionally passing through mainly Aboriginal communities and the scenery was beautiful. 

That night, even though we didn't realise it at the time, we had our last camping night. We did the whole bush camp thing again, pulling up beside the road (somewhere between Derby and Broome), setting up our tent and starting a fire to keep warm and realised how expert we had become at all of this :-) Within 30 minutes we had the billy on the fire and a bowl of hot food in our laps!

The following morning we set off early as we wanted to make it in time to a beach side camp site near Port Hedland, realising this would probably be our last chance to swim in tropical waters. We did stop for lunch though on 80 mile beach, which we assume is called this way of its length. Well, however long it is, it is a beautiful white beach as long as the eye can reach. 

Of course, I had to take advantage of the occasion to dive into the crystal clear waters before delving into my sandwich. And in retrospect it was good I did, as it would be my last dive up North. As, when we arrived at our planned camp site later that afternoon, we were very disappointed with the fact that it was overrun by fellow roadies, spoiling the idea of a swim and a bush camp. Instead we decided to hit the road again and try to reach Karratha  and see if we could crash at Simon's uncle's place there. So said, so done and that evening we had a nice catch-up over a pub meal with Brian, Simon's uncle and a good night's sleep in a bed under a roof!

To our surprise on day three we woke up to a grey sky and spitting rain. We crossed the beautiful Pilbara region, through to Coral Bay, in the hope that we'd be hitting better weather on the West coast. That was in vain; the sad weather stayed with us all 1000 k. so when we arrived we decided not to brave the pending thunderstorms with our little tent but instead to check into the local backpackers' for the night. Who would've thought that I would spend my first ever night in a youth hostel at the honourable age of 46!

Due to the miserable atmosphere of the beach resort in the rain and flooded by Perth suburbanites with their kids for the school holidays that just started we decided to make a run for it the next day. We set off early again and just kept driving until we made the safe haven of m. & d. Andrew in Rockingham that evening. It was good to be reunited and to celebrate we drank wine and played our own family game of cards, "Moroccan Rummy", the rules of which we concocted while on our family holiday in Marrakech.

That was a week ago today. Since then we have spent most of our time cleaning, advertising and selling our car as well as reflecting on our next move.

After 6 months of living like nomads we feel the time has come to start rebuilding a home somewhere. I have reestablished contact with my work and to our delight there are several opportunities for reemployment in the firm, ranging from Europe to India. Of course these things cannot be decided overnight by either side, so at the moment we are waiting for the go ahead to book our tickets and set-off again for a meet and greet with my colleagues in New Delhi.

Cottesloe Beach

In the meantime, I am enjoying the joys of a Perth winter, which frankly reminds me of the better summer days in Belgium! Lots of sun in a stark blue sky and temperatures around 20°. While most of the locals think I am crazy, I think this is perfect weather for a nice day at the beach. I have been taking the opportunity to drive up the coast to one of Perth's most pristine beaches where yesterday I even braved a refreshing dive into the surf...

In spite of this though, the waiting game is asking its toll and we both hope to get some resolution soon. Here's hoping to hear back from Delhi sooner rather than later and being on a plane heading west!"

- Rein checking out

Life at Mornington

Rein checking in –

“I realise that we haven’t even finished the write-up of our epic road trip, but we’ve been here now two weeks and we’ve had so many experiences, I thought I’d better start recording them now before they disappear in the big cloud of memories from our sabbatical. The road trip account will have to follow at a later stage. It is hard to keep track with our blog, particularly as it is so hard to find some downtime and internet access at the same time.

Mornington Research Camp;
this is the central kitchen and place that we called home for about three weeks

There is always something that needs doing here. As I am writing this, Simon and the rest of the crew are busy sorting through the load that was delivered this morning by the food truck. We get our daily food delivered here for about 25 people once every fortnight and that then needs to be distributed item by item to the individuals that ordered it. Not quite the same as hopping over to your local supermarket for your daily groceries… It is a bi-weekly flurry of activity with people relishing in the new supply of their favourite things or disappointment with stuff that didn’t come through (such as all the fruit in the last shipment, so people are now attacking the stack of apples and oranges that have finally arrived – unlike the coffee for the second shipment in a row L).

The crew for our first survey;
just before we set off for 6 days in the bush

But we came here to work, not to eat… Our first week here saw us going out with the crew to remote Marion Downs (even more remote than Mornington Station) to go trapping. While Marion is only about 170 k. away from here, it took us almost two days to reach it. Underway we got “bogged” (the Australian term for getting stuck with your car) on the rough tracks so we had to unexpectedly put up our tents half way. We were the first to make it to Marion since the “Wet” (there are only two seasons here: the Wet (roughly from November through to May) and the Dry) and we found that most of the track had been washed away by the enormous quantities of rainwater that had fallen over the last months.

Making our way on and off-road

Definitely "bogged"

Setting up camp on the "road" halfway

Simon's first go at bush camp cooking!

When we finally arrived at our destination, we set up camp for the following 5 days. We had to bring everything we needed to survive during that time with us so it took a while to unload the trucks and organize ourselves. The group split up in two, with four of us being airlifted over the ranges to do the trapping on the other side. Simon and I stayed in the first camp together with two other volunteers, three AWC staff and a few scientists, doing field research into interaction between dingoes and “feral cats” (wild cats that stem from lost pet cats).

Our campsite for the 6 days

That evening, as every following evening, we lit a big campfire for cooking our evening meal and to keep warm. Temperatures here vary enormously between day and night, dropping down quickly after the sun goes down to about freezing by 6 am and then rising again just as quickly with the rising sun to around 30 degrees.

The next morning we woke up with the first call of the birds, around 5.30 (we’ve been living now without watches for months and follow natural cycles of light and dark, and the calls of birds and such).  After a cup of Billie tea (tea cooked over a campfire) and some hot porridge we were in the savannah by 6.30 to set up the trapping sites. This involved digging trenches with shovel and pick and putting up fences along pickets hammered into the hard soil. Each site took about one hour to set up and we had four of them to do. At times we felt like the chain gang working the earth with the sun beating upon us, but to be honest, by around 11 o’clock we were done and headed back to camp.

In our labourers' uniforms! First time in my life I handled a pic.

That’s when there was time to relax, wander around, read a book and have some lunch, until around 3 in the afternoon when we headed off again to actually bait and set the traps for the evening, a less physically demanding job that took about two hours. We got home by sunset at 5.30 just in time before dark, to collect some wood and light the fire for the night. Dinner, mostly consisting of stews and pastas cooked in the camp oven (a huge cast-iron cooking pot placed on the coals of the campfire) was on at 6 and by 7.30 most of us retired to our tents to go to bed.

Our first "catch"

The morning of the second day we set out early again to check the traps for wildlife, such as small mammals, frogs, lizards, snakes etc. This involved sticking your arms down tubes and searching for little living things. Everything that was caught got identified, measured and tagged for the records.  And this cycle of setting and checking the traps repeated itself for the next 5 days.

Luckily we camped near a creek, so we could splash-bathe ourselves (among the freshwater crocodiles) in the icy cold water to refresh and get most of the dirt of ourselves, but after 6 days of this work the dust and dirt accumulated in places we didn’t know existed! So when Saturday arrived we were relieved by the foresight of heading “home” to Mornington Station and the showers…

This snake looked more vicious than it really was...

.... this is what it looked like when picked up

Relaxing after a hard day's work

That morning we had to get physical one last time to check and then pack up the trapping sites. Then pack and clean up our camp and by 2 pm we were finally on our way home. Given our experience of the tracks on our way out we weren’t sure if we were going to make it home in one go, but to our delight we found that they had been graded (smoothened out by huge road machines) during the week we were away so it was smooth sailing all the way home.

Relieved to be heading "home" to base camp and the showers!

We were welcomed home by the visiting parents of one of the staff here with a home cooked dinner, which was well received. We got into those showers faster than you could imagine and washed away days of dirt and ‘disgust’. Could we handle another two weeks of this!?

We were happy to find out the following day that AWC had planned that Simon and I were scheduled to remain in and around Mornington to do local trapping sites the following week. Those words were bliss, albeit we were still ‘camping’ but with facilities!

So here we are, doing week two, getting more or less settled into the bush lifestyle, learning a lot about ecology, wildlife, but most of all about ourselves. One thing is very clear, though…. Bush life is nice for a vacation, but not for us in the long term. We are very much looking forward to visiting Simon’s cousin, Aroha and her family, in Kununarra, after this. She has promised us that we can stay inside their HOUSE! Ah, the luxury J.”

A Mornington sunset

- Rein checking out

The road to Broome, continued

Rein checking in -

"Picking up from where I left off last time I wrote, I’ll focus on the highlights of our road trip to Broome.

Day one was all about our trek through the Pinnacles. We arrived around 4 pm and walked through this wondrous, alien looking landscape at sunset, taking some amazing shots (all lost unfortunately) in the yellow light against the red earth. That evening we dined on some excellent locally caught seafood at the village bowling club. Apart from the crustacean delights this had as an added bonus that we could enjoy a bit of “couleur locale”, mixing with the locals.

The next morning we set off as soon as we had packed up camp. Which of course took a bit of time as we weren’t yet experienced with the camping ways. But, after a good breaky, cooked by Simon on the camping stove we were on our way by 10 am. Day two saw us passing through some nice historic colonial towns, such as Dongara and Greenough, but the day’s highlight undoubtedly was Kalbarri National Park. 

This park, which can be reached only through a 30 k. off-road track, incorporates the beautiful Murchison River gorges. Over hundreds of thousands of years the river has carved out a 100-meter deep gorge in the red earth and we enjoyed some stunning walking trails leading us to the famous Nature’s Window. Again we took some amazing pictures but need to refer to the stock photo below to give you an impression.

After a full day of sight seeing it was getting late so we needed to find a place to camp urgently before it would be too dark to set up camp for the night. We tried our luck with a station indicated on our map. After a beautiful drive off the main road we arrived at Riverside Sanctuary where the caretaker warmly greeted us and offered us the old sheep shearers’ quarters for the night. As it turned out, Riverside is an old sheep farm converted into a wildlife sanctuary offering all kinds of ecotourism options. That night we were the only two people staying on the property, other than the three permanent staff, so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Simon cooked us a hot meal in the camp kitchen, which was based in the characterful sheering shed, which still had the entire old sheering infrastructure in place. We then retired for a well-earned good night’s sleep in the warm donger (= Australian for bush cabin) that was appointed to us.

We woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunrise of the bush lands surrounding the station. It had been freezingly cold and there was a touch of frost on the ground, so we were happy we hadn’t needed to sleep outside. Day three was going to be a long one, aiming to get to Monkey Mia, with plenty of sights along the way, so we made an early start. Monkey Mia is a small beach resort on Shark Bay, known for its daily dolphin visits to its shores. It is a well-known holiday destination in Western Australia, and as Simon had never visited it, we were keen to make an overnight stop there while we were (sort of) passing by. This meant a detour of roughly 300 km, but as the whole Shark Bay area is a world heritage listed national park, well worth the effort. On the way there we stopped at the old telegraph station at Hamelin Pool, which is famous for its colony of pre-historic stromatolites. 


These are the planet’s first oxygen producing organisms and in fact to thank for all subsequent life on Earth. Hamelin Pool is one of the only places on earth were they still live due to the absence of natural predators. In Hamelin Pool they have formed large colonies in the shape of columns or mats on the seabed, which are visible from the beach. An amazing sight; again one we cannot show our own pictures of due to the sad loss…

After this visit we continued onto Shell Beach, which is named after the bright, white shells it consists of. These shells extend to 10 meters deep and the lower levels get crushed into “shell rock” which used to be excavated and used in the buildings in the bay area. This now is no longer allowed but the beach remains another incredible sight and our chosen site for a picnic lunch that day! The last stop before hitting Monkey Mia was Eagle Bluff where there is a boardwalk along a high cliff over the azure blue waters of the bay for spotting sea wildlife such us dugongs, sharks and dolphins. Unfortunately we had no luck spotting anything but the views again were amazing.

That evening we settled into a nice camping site at the Monkey Mia resort and had a refreshing swim in the bay. Next morning we got up early to watch the dolphins visiting the pier of the resort. Admittedly, this was a bit of a circus with the hundreds of tourist, lined up along the beach to catch a glimpse, but the friendly animals did not disappoint and showed up almost on cue to perform their morning ritual of frolicking and interacting with the park rangers.

We didn’t stick around after the dolphins visit but got back on our way. That day (our fourth on the road) we decided to skip the following main attraction on the way, avoiding another detour, instead opting to make some serious distance. By lunchtime we had made it to the country town of Carnarvon, the last post of human civilization (well sort of) before making the great traverse of the Pilbara plains. After a nice picnic at the Carnarvon marina we set off on the long stretch of about 700 k. to the next town.

That night was our first experience with bush camping. At the end of the afternoon we pulled up along the highway at a 24-hour rest stop to set up our tent. While Simon prepared our dinner, I got a campfire going to keep us warm during the freezing savannah evening.  We sat and watched the amazing starry sky, drinking Billie tea (= Australian for a campfire brew) before slipping into our sleeping bags around 7. I had one of the deepest and most refreshing sleeps in a long time, waking up the next morning with sunrise at 6 am.

... to be completed at a later stage ...

Blog entry - sneak preview

Dear readers

As it is sooo hard to get decent internet access in the Australian Outback we haven't been able to keep you guys up to date with our journey. I (Rein) have started a posting in draft but haven't even been able to finish that, due to being on the road all the time and therefore not behind the computer.

So to help maintain your much appreciated interest, here is a snippet of what's to come. I assure you, we will try not to make a habit of it.

Please stay tuned!

A Road beyond Bangalore…. To Broome!

Rein checking in –

"After being on the road for exactly one full week and having “done” 3200 k. we’ve made it to Broome! In fact, I am writing this blog entry, or at least its first draft, sitting in the sun right in the middle of Broome’s ‘world famous’ Cable Beach.

The trip has turned out to be an epic journey as promised. The state of Western Australia not only is vast (i.e. comparable in size to Western Europe) it is also uniquely beautiful in its geography and climatic diversity. Over the past 7 days we have traveled roughly along its Indian Ocean coast through temperate Mediterranean and sub-tropical climate to the tropical North.

Along the way we have made several side trips to get the maximum out of our journey. Again due to the size of the state and the corresponding distances this has meant we’ve added almost 1000 kilometers to the trip. But this has been very much worth it. Unfortunately, the great pictures we took at the most spectacular sights are lost, due to a crash of our hard drive. As you can imagine we were not amused by this, but again it has taught us a lesson; not to be too focused on shooting that ultimate shot and forget to just enjoy the moment and taking it all in as we are living it. This has also meant that we’ve had to rely on internet stock photos for the first few pictures in the postings of our road trip.

So after 10 days or so of preparation, which was mostly in the trustworthy hands of Simon and his mother, we set of from Rockingham, South of Perth, towards Lancelin, a rather dull surfing town just north of the outer suburbs of the city. We enjoyed our first road trip lunch here on the pristine white beach (feasting on typical Aussie curry pasties, courtesy of mum Andrew). Then we continued directly along the coast to Cervantes where we set up camp for our first night. We chose this place because of its proximity to the Pinnacles Desert. The Pinnacles are a natural phenomenon of vertical limestone columns set in a desert landscape. Scientists still don’t agree on how they came about, one theory claiming they are fossils of ancient tree trunks.