Gregory River

Hi everyone

I’ve just spent four wonderful days camped on the amazing Gregory River with my children and grandchildren. The Gregory is a spring-fed river, flowing from limestone aquifers on the NT border, winding its way north through rocky gorges and dry plains — a true lifeblood to the cattle stations before it empties into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

. The first night our early morning was anything but ordinary, our sleep was cut short by a pack of howling dingoes who came to investegate our camp, I think they could smell Summah’s pet chicken and where thinking of takeaway. With no chance of drifting back to sleep, I lay awake and watched the stars slip across the night sky, the scene reminding me of Van Gogh’s swirling night paintings.

Then came that magical moment just before dawn, when everything is still — until the river suddenly bursts into a symphony of bird calls, from the laugh of kookaburras to the chatter of tiny wrens, signalling it was time to get out of the swag.

The shifting light and the shimmering colours on the water captivated me. I couldn’t resist setting up my easel to do a little plein air painting. With nothing else to distract me, I quickly laid base colours onto three canvases before the light changed too much. The days drifted by in long walks along the riverbed, swims, and floating down the stream on inflatable rings. So peaceful — only the sound of water and birdsong. Everywhere I looked, I saw the possibility of a painting.

I loved walking the bush paths, reading the tracks of animals that had come to the water — emus, kangaroos, wallabies, and of course the dingoes. Claire and Summah, on their way to a fishing spot, stumbled across two huge olive pythons locked in a deadly knot. It would likely have been the end for both of them, had my son Will not come along and managed to untangle them. Both snakes slithered off to live another day.