DeGrey River....loved the bush camping!

The drive from Port Hedland to DeGrey River Campspot only took just over an hour, being 80kms down the road.  The girl's didn't even get a chance to whinge before we arrived and took a drive around to scout out a nice quiet spot by the river.  When we got down by the banks we saw that it might not be so quiet as it was jam packed with vans.  We eventually found a spot but soon decided to move up to a higher ground, not due to the water but to meeting a bloody nit case hippy woman who was just plain weird.  Thought the further away from her the better.  She even came up to give me some icy pole plastic holders that she found in the bin, plus a notebook she had personally made out of old scraps of cardboard and bound by small pieces of fencing wire.  Again, l think our decision to move away from her was the right one!! Lol...

What a spot!!!

 

Girls loving the open spaces with grass...
no red dirt!!!  Yay

DeGrey River....

We had only anticipated a few nights at DeGrey River but ended up being four.  We had one night by ourselves which was just bliss.  We all explored the river banks and saw that most of the river had dried up with only a few medium pools of water present.  It was so peaceful, sitting around reading my book with the sounds of birds chirping in the background.  Even though the place was packed surprisingly it was still quiet and relaxing.  We enjoyed a campfire with marshmallows and later in the evening the noises of the permanent cattle feeding and walking around.  

Our first campfire in ages!!!

Gorgeous party crashers!

Cooking over a campfire...nothing better!

Well maybe eating it!

Time for marshmallows...

We met up with an older couple, Rhonda and Ross, who were from QLD having a quick trip.  We got along well with them and enjoyed a chat with them.  In the end Rhonda ended up taking our names and thought she might be able to have her friend line us up with work in Normanton later in the year if we were interested? Always a reason you bump into people, weather its for a short yarn or to make contacts for later down the track.  They were really cool and so funny, the girls loved having a chat with them.  Later on that night l headed down to the semi-dried up river for some sunset pics, love the colors that the sunset creates in the horizon!

Reflection at its best.....

Little Miss Meg coming to give me a hand!

The "HardFirms" caught up with us and pulled up camp for a few of the nights we spent there.  Again, the kids went crazy as if they had been separated for life from each other.  Hate to think what it is going to be like when we have to eventually part ways for good.  Over the days we did school in the mornings then the kids had the rest of the day to play together.  With the new scenery, new imaginary games were made up. They ended up role playing "jungle animal warriors", rescuing animals from being injured.  So cute to watch as they ran thru the bush and used their teddies and toys as the animals.  The older boys had time to play too with Marty making a fire poker and Cameron attending to maintenance jobs on the car and van.  I tried to start up my runs again, was hard yacker some of it.  Finding it harder to run on the unstable ground rather than a treadmill.  Having grief with a sore hip post runs but hoping it will pass.  I even got the weights out and did some workouts, the weight bar Marty had made in Dampier working a treat!  Thanks to Tonia l had the chance to totally relax with her giving me a bush facial, totally not feeling like l am bush camping by a river that's for sure.

During the nights we made our own entertainment around the fires with marshmallow's, games of charades and Cameron introducing us all to the alphabet game.  We all had to go round in a circle starting "what we would take camping" each taking turns to say something with the letter of the alphabet.  All in all, a memory game.  In the end Marty was the last person to have to say everything that had been said from the letter A to Z.  The kids did so well and Meg didn't even need much prompting!

Another night Ton and l headed down to the river again with the kids whilst the blokes organised dinner and had some fun with the camera's again.....

Oh the love....

Time for some dancing....

Just chilling!

Road train timed it well....

Our time in DeGrey had to close to an end but it served its purpose of reviving us post Karijini gorge walks....now all refreshed we were leaving by ourselves once again having suddenly become one day in front of the HardFirms. The 'north' was calling us, so off again we go......

Bell Xxx