Friday, August 9, 2013

Driving past Cocanarup today


14 comments:

  1. What smooooth tarmac! Blimey, you must have been going well in excess of 20mph|

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  2. Yep, I was gonna say something like that too, 'Smooth ride ya got there Sarah', but I was listening to the music and trying to get into the long haul road trip vibe that takes over on journeys like that. I was then thinking, 'oh no, don't tell me the car's gonna stop, gonna run out of petrol or just plain break down right there,' but none of that either. I did see your finger lift at the beginning though, and kind of point to the right, which I gather was the pool, Cocanarup Pool, where all that awful business took place a hundred and thirty three years ago. You know, I was on the old email to Ollie Gray this last couple of days, we've been talking about Campy Taylor again and how he looked after Moses Bevan and how Johnny Knapp was probably Afghan, Negro and Noongar all at once. Also, about old Ah Loo and one of his progeny, a kid called they called Monkey, who also was born out at Thomas River, and how they went together back through Esperance to Fanny's Cove, Oldfield River and on to the Phillips River, up to Kundip where your place is and over to Manyutup and Cocaranup Pool, that place where your smooth running car just eased past like there was nothing in the air but the sound of cicadas and a light wind through the trees. Johnny told little Monkey all about what happened there, not just what happened to John Dunn, but before that and after that. That there pool is a place of watershed, where it became all to hard for the settlers and they let go their thirty or forty odd years of having to do what they did to make something of themselves and vented it through the firing of their shotguns at running...

    It isn't the place, I know. But I know what you were pointing at and I sort of know what you were thinking when the camera got switched to capture, because, if you know, you can't really ever drive past that place without being reminded..

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    1. That is such a great rave Ciaran. What a lovely story re Ollie Gray.
      (the sign to Manyutup has been altered recently to may u tup :))
      But also, to insert a pin into the finger balloon (does that work? Mmm.) I was driving back to Albany and Cocanarup is to the left. That was just me mucking about with my phone. Sorry.

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  3. Hilarious. A place that isn't really a defined 'place' - or at least that's how I saw it. I think you have to be a native-born Australian to really get the beauty of that scrubby coastal country. My Dutch mother hates it, her Australian born daughter loves it with a passion.

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    1. It's really interesting country Michelle. Set on the edge of the Fitzgerald biosphere, it is globally considered a 'hotspot' of biodiversity. Biodiversity reminds one of the lushness of the Amazon and here is this country, described as 'scrappy' by Euro immigrants such as your mother. But get up close and it is just magical. The biodiversity comes from hard scrabble land. Every plant and animal must diversify their nutrient intake to survive. Hence you have more species per square metre than just about anywhere else in the world.

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    2. I think it's an acquired taste. It isn't lush - my Mum loves Bali beacuse it's lush. No wonder she hates the Aussie bush!!

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  4. I can sense the peace, contentment and sheer quiet joy in that video, Sarah. The only trouble is that I have seen so many Russian video clips which begin just like that, but end up in a horrendous pile-up involving lorries on their sides, or meteors crashing into small towns, etc, that watching yours was tainted by the expectation of an imminent disaster. I'll just have to watch it again in a more relaxed manner.

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    1. Have a toke first Tom and you'll be relaxed mate.

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  5. That is so funny Tom, because I've seen the carnage too. There was no deaths or accidents here however ... just a long, long drive with some good music for company.

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    1. It is a good four hour drive and I do it quite regularly, that and the one to the city to visit my daughter and grandie (Five hours). The thing about Western Australia is the distance. The next 'village' where Seashell lives is at least half an hour away, if you drive at one hundred kilometres an hour.
      Long hauls are the norm. I still don't feel comfortable with the long hauls but I'll buy some coffee from a dodgey roadhouse, put on the good songs and drive. That's what this post is about, really.

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  6. Lovely Sarah, love the countryside. And I loved Ciaran's yarn, would love to know the 'whole story.'

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  7. Sort of weird after recently driving for four hours between North wales and London with rolling hills, picturesque "English" valleys and dense clusters of villages. Austrtalia, after, is a little shocking. The weekend after we arrived back from Europe I drove from Brisbane to Warwick through Cunningham's Gap and over the Great Divide. That helped remind me what I love about this landscape - beautiful scrubby eucalypt forests and hills of blue (can't really call them mountains after the Dolomites.

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