travel review: thursday plantation aloe vera gel & tea tree antiseptic cream

I've come to realise that even though I started this blog with a wholefood focus in mind, travel has become part of it with my family and I traveling for third term each year.

We travel for my husband's work with Elders in remote Indigenous communities so we find ourselves in places that are hot and where mosquitoes and sandflies love to buzz around. The problem with mosquitoes is not only do their bites sting and itch but they can also pass on nasty things like Ross River virus, Dengue Fever and Barmah Forest virus. The other potential problem is that if bites are scratched until they bleed there is a risk of infection which my husband was hospitalised for once many years ago.

Our trip this year to North East Arnhem Land is no exception. Our youngest son Sol must have had 60 bites at least on his bare legs during our time out bush, despite our futile attempt with homemade repellent that just didn't seem to work.

The super strength repellent available to buy includes a chemical ingredient called DEET included in various concentrations depending on the brand. The use of DEET comes with many warnings due to its strength and potential side effects that range from skin irritation, headache, burning eyes to more serious and extreme effects including seizures and death.

Needless to say we steered clear of repellents containing DEET and instead made our own repellent of tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, dettol antiseptic and baby oil.

As dusk fell we sprayed this mix on our skin and then put on our long cotton clothing. It helped but wasn't 100% effective, I don't know if there is anything that's 100% effective. The sandflies found my ankles and we weren't quick enough covering Sol up so we had to find relief from the bites which we did in the form of Thursday Plantation Antiseptic Cream. More about that soon.

The other peril of outback travel is the blazing hot sun. Again, despite our best focused efforts to stay protected from the sun's burning rays sometimes we've been caught out and had to soothe some sunburn.

So today I'm sharing with you my favorite remedies for sunburn and mosquito and sandfly bites. What we put on our bodies is just as important as what we put in our bodies.

Thursday Plantation

Thursday Plantation is an Australian based company that makes a range of products for hair and skin using natural ingredients including plant oils.

Their products are free from synthetic parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) and no harsh detergents.

Thursday Plantation Aloe Vera Gel

When we're traveling my favorite soothing remedy for sunburn is Thursday Plantation Aloe Vera Gel.

When we are at home we break aloe vera leaves straight from the plant in our garden and crack them open to rub the gel onto skin that's been exposed to the sun.

It's a bit difficult to travel with an actual aloe vera plant so on the road I like the Thursday Plantation Gel because it is immediately cooling and soaks nicely into your skin without being too sticky and the tube is a handy size to store in small travel spaces like a tent or caravan or in my handbag. It lasts well too as a little bit goes a long way and it is readily available in chemists and supermarkets.

Depending on where you buy it it will cost around $8 or $9 for 100g tube.

Thursday Plantation Tea Tree Antiseptic Cream

A friend who lives in Arnhem Land put me on to this fantastic antiseptic cream to use as relief from insect bites.

I was so grateful to have this on our recent trip out bush. The cream is very light so you don't feel like your skin is being smothered and it immediately is cooling and anti-inflammatory.

The other benefit is that if like my youngest son, someone in your family scratches their bites until they bleed you can wash the bites with clean water and then dab this cream on to prevent infection.

I will be keeping this as a permanent addition to my travel kit and my first aid kit at home too.

I bought this product at the Chemist for around $8, again depending on where you buy the price varies from as low as $6.95 at this online chemist to $11.36 at this online retailer.

If you have some tips or remedies for insect repellent or relief from bites, stings or sunburn I'd love to hear.

Happy travels!

tea & damper

"Will you go back to town on the weekend?" Shania stared intently at the fire, her brow furrowed. She shook her head no.

"You prefer it out here?" I pressed on.

She nodded. Still staring at the fire.

These were the first words we'd exchanged after sitting for an hour alone at the small, smouldering campfire we'd cooked breakfast on.

It was our job to keep the fire flickering away to boil the billy for tea and in case the hunters came back with fish or mudcrabs.

Shania liked her tea in a red plastic cup that easily held half a litre of strong tea.

She made each cup with two tea bags, water boiled on the fire, a splash of cold water and no milk but a good spoon of sugar stirred in. The sugar taken from a crumpled bag that had become home to a family of ants.

Pete had gone into town, an hour and a half away on red dirt and across four river crossings. One of the crossings called Boggy Creek for good reason.

We were camping at a homeland with the Elder Pete is working with on a community led healing program, and her family.

One of the Elders had woken with a toothache and realised that the next day was a public holiday so she needed to see a dentist today. Plus her husband needed to pick up his medication from the medical clinic.

Pete's focus was getting a generator and water pump back in action for the homeland after it being without running water for two years. He packed the parts into the 4WD, the Elders and their grand-daughter climbed in and they were gone for the day.

Sol and River had gone hunting with the Elders' son and grandson and a new friend we'd made in town who was helping with repairs at the homeland.

The whole time they were away hunting I was anxious about the boys getting sunburnt, about sand fly bites covering every piece of their exposed skin and the very worst fear...crocodiles.

Shania's three month old baby was at the camp with us,  I was delighted to be regularly handed the baby. Such a gorgeous boy, so chubby and full of smiles. When he grizzled I rocked him and walked the red dirt track til he fell asleep in my arms. I would return from walking and hand the sleeping baby to his mother who tucked him into bed inside one of the the three rooms that were used as bedrooms by the family.

Pete and I and the boys were camping in our two room tent and each morning I paid great attention to sweeping the sand out and straightening the bedcovers until they were perfectly straight. I needed order in the tent, it was an oasis from the sand flies whose bites stung for days.

After three days of heat and no running water our skin was grimy and itchy with sweat, sunscreen, sand, insect repellant that didn't work and the myriad of bites as evidence. I was ready to go back to town and have a shower but in an odd way I was enjoying the grime, the letting go of all the things that matter in town.

I was also ready for a full nights sleep without the constant hum of the generator or being woken by Sol who was beside himself with discomfort from the burn and itch of bites.

On more than one occasion I zipped myself out of the tent and into the night with my torch to find a bucket and pour a bit of water into it from the jerry can holding water collected from the river 10 minutes drive away. Every drop counted so I used it sparingly but I had to do something in an attempt to bring Sol relief and bring us both sleep.

I washed his bare bite covered legs down with the cool water, wetting a towel and laying it over his legs. Once the burn and sting had eased slightly I dabbed the bites with a tea tree antiseptic cream and layed beside him singing softly til he fell back to sleep.

Bleary eyed I rolled back over to my bed for a few hours sleep before he woke me again. It was one of those nights that felt endless, one of those nights that mother's know so well where you just will the sun to rise and bring the day because the night is for sleeping and you're getting none of that.

---------------------------------------

"We're having Grandmother's damper for supper" announced Rose sitting crossed legged by the fire she rolled up her sleeves and washed her hands in a bucket of water as she prepared to make the dough.

Shania was assembling the ingredients in front of Rose as she requested them. "Got any baking powder Galay?" Rose called out to me. "No, but I've got self-raising flour". "Ma," she said.

Galay is the kinship word Rose uses for me. The Indigenous kinship system is like a vast weaving that takes deep concentration to follow and to start to work out the relationships. Galay is the word that refers to 'brother's wife'. Rose calls Pete wawa (brother) which makes me galay.

'Ma' means ok.

Once all the ingredients were gathered from the tucker box I sat on the mat and watched Rose mix and need the dough. Her elegant hands flattened and smoothed the dough over and over until it was supple and lightly dusted in flour. Rose began shaping pieces into squares about the size of a slice of bread. She placed a fry pan on the grate over the fire and poured in sunflower oil to fry the dough in. The result was somewhere between a donut and the fried scones my great grandmother made when I was a child. Rose sat carefully cooking each piece until there were two towering piles. "This one's for your family, my family," she laughed, "I know how much boys eat".

With all the pieces cooked everyone gathered around to eat. It was dark by now. A fluorescent light powered by the generator hung from a nearby tree and gave us light to squeeze golden syrup onto our damper from a plastic squeezy bottle and to pour cups of tea.

I ate my piece of damper that was crisp on the outside and softly doughy on the inside. Golden syrup dripped down my hand adding stickiness to the mix of sweat, sand and sunscreen already on my skin.

The texture and sweetness of the damper was as satisfying as the nostalgic memory of my own grandmother's version also eaten with golden syrup. I thanked Rose for the damper, drank my tea and headed to the tent if not to sleep to rest until the sun rose again.

Have you eaten damper by the fire? Or fried scones with your grandmother? I'd love to hear your stories.

*some names have been changed 

weekend reading

 

This is our last Friday in Alice. Well, last Friday for this trip. I do hope we come back.

This is our last Friday in Alice. Well, last Friday for this trip. I do hope we come back.

It's been a week of packing and sorting, of saying goodbye and of doing last minute visits to places and people we have loved meeting.

I like the line in the sand that traveling draws in life, the lead up to a departure is like having a deadline a clear time in which to get things finished and the things that don't get finished are low on the priority list and probably didn't really matter that much anyway.

Here are a few things that have caught my eye around the net this week:

I enjoyed discovering artist Alena Hennessy via Soulemama.

Closer to home I've been introduced to the art work of Minnie Pwerle

Have you seen Heidi's latest cookbook?

And Pete's?

One for the baby lovers. Brace yourself for Joan Scarlett. Huge congratulations Heidi & Ben x

We're stopping here on the way home. Can't wait.

Come say hi on Instagram. You can find me @wholefoodmama

I'm reading Kim Mahood's memoir Craft for a dry lake. A wonderful read for anyone traveling to Alice or interested in a first hand account of life in the outback with all its enchantment and complexities.

I took the boys to see Oddball this week. LOVED it. Highly recommend. Especially for anyone living in the desert needing a fix of ocean viewing! Beautiful footage of the wild Victorian coastline plus wonderful story to boot.

Happy weekend everyone! How did it get to October so soon?! x

weekend reading

Have I told you lately how much I love Alice Springs?

The day we arrived here I was already thinking about how we'll be sad to leave. We're not leaving for a while but it has cast a spell on me as has happened to many, many people before me.

During the week Pete dropped us in town to go to the library, twenty minutes later after he'd driven off I realised the school book bag was still in the car. Instead of maths and writing we did a walking art gallery tour, spending time at Papunya Tula

On Friday night we spent time at Desert Mob to see some beautiful traditional dancing. I'll write more about that next week.

And enjoyed good coffee and friendly service from The Coffee Horse

I've added this cookbook to my collection since I've been here, I want to make so many of the recipes, I don't have an oven here though so some will have to wait til I'm home

I'm loving the Artful Parent, so many great ideas for art with kids

Winter is over here in Australia but for anyone still fending off the common cold here is a great post from Georgia, Top Five Foods to Reduce Mucus

I've mentioned it before but I'm really looking forward to the NT Writer's Festival

I've taken SO many photos this week, can't wait to share them with you. I'm hunting up recipes too!

I hope you're all having a beautiful weekend x

postcard from Alice

My camera and photography skills don't do justice to the magnificence of the land here in Alice Springs and surrounds.

I can completely understand how people become enchanted by the desert. The natural beauty is captivating, red dirt, golden grasses, olive green trees growing against all odds. The light, the changing colours it all draws you in.

Alice is our base and from here we travel out with Arrernte Elders to spend time with them on their land. What a gift.

I am a heart on my sleeve kinda gal - cry at the sight of a newborn sorta thing - so to meet Elders of this land and hear their stories, tears are frequently filling my eyes. So much humility, grace, strength and wisdom in the Arrernte people I have met in the short time I've been here. More about that later as my heart and head take in the depth of life and culture here.

We shared a simple and beautiful kale and veggie soup made by our hosts neighbours, a delightful couple B and her husband S, who escaped the cold of Victoria and living their retirement in full colour. They're savouring the weather, the landscape, and the increasingly "alternative community". B is a celebrated artist here, we're looking forward to visiting her in her studio and opening our budding little artist's mind (Sol) to the painting life.

I don't even know where to begin writing about the Indigenous art here. The colours and stories are so vibrant and the canvases abundant. I am trying to take it all in slowly.

I've embraced the art of the honest selfie in this post. I'm soaking in the amazingness of this place on broken sleep. Hands up who else has a five year old who rarely sleeps through the night? Not that I was going back to have a third baby but there is NO way I could do serious sleep deprivation again. Hats off to mothers of newborns, you are doing an amazing job!!

Homeschooling on this trip has fallen into a fairly easy rhythm for which I am extremely thankful. As with pretty much everything you do with children, if you make it fun they're up for it. In this photo of the number cards, the fun part for Sol was using a huge long stick as a pointer to point to the numbers as I said them. He was having fun with the long stick and brushing up on number recognition at the same time. Simple but effective.

Getting him to write each day proves a little trickier as he just wants to draw or paint, so I let him do the drawing or painting and then ask him to write some words about the picture. I'd like him to write more but I figure the drawing is helping with the fine motor co-ordination needed for writing so it will all fall into place eventually. She hopes!

River is totally engrossed in a project about Red Kangaroos "I'm enjoying it so much Mum I'll be sad when I finish it!" Dream child. (I may or may not have had to spell out my expectations about attitude the day before. Seems to have worked).

That's enough from me for now. Friends and family I'm missing you! Thanks everyone for reading.

More soon x

weekend reading

A gorgeous blog find, if you are following GAPS you'll like this

Love this

I thought Melbourne had a lot of festivals and exhibitions but I think Alice Springs has taken the lead. Let's see, there's the Desert Song festival coming up, The Alice Desert Festival and Desert Mob and that's just skimming the surface!

Pete and the boys and I were lucky to spend a day at Akeyulerre this week, an Aboriginal healing centre here in Alice. You can read more about Akeyulerre social enterprise and healing products made from traditional bush medicine here.

We've also been fortunate to spend time with MK Turner a respected Arrernte woman and author of a beautiful book Iwenhe Tyerrtye - what it means to be an Aboriginal person.

I'll be talking more about Thrive over the coming week, a fantastic new e-course for Raising Kids Who Love Real Food. Put together by two wholefood mamas and health coaches, Alexx Stuart and Brenda Janscheck. You can read more about it and sign up here. (I'm an affiliate which means I get a small commission if you sign up via my link, just so you know!)

I support domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty and her online campaign Never Alone, they've had a win this week with Tasmania committing to a respectful relationships program being introduced in Government schools from kindergarten to Year 12. Join Rosie's campaign and help put pressure on the other states to do the same.

Have a great weekend everyone. X

stills collection

1. The wide open road. South Australia desert.

2. Road train

3. Road school

4. Exploring Coober Pedy

5. Roadhouse cuppa

6. View from the top of the hill at Olive Pink Botanic Gardens Alice Springs

7. Barefoot and happy

where's my toothbrush?

We're home. Our road trip is complete. But of course the unpacking isn't!

Packing is always exciting, the anticipation of what lays ahead. Unpacking on the other hand is well, tedious. I've been pushing through it though and in the process sorting clothes and toys and sending bags of belongings to the op shop.

Pete and I have both returned home with a renewed sense of what matters and what doesn't, how we want to spend our time and what is important when it comes to raising our boys. We were both fairly clear on these things before we left, our time away has crystallised certain elements.

If anyone reading this has been considering taking a road trip I say go. So much of life can easily become predictable and mundane if we allow it to be, travel changes that. Travel is revealing, not only in what you see but in who you see in yourself and in those you travel with. Not all of it is beautiful, but it is rich and adds to the depths of who you are and who you want to be.

Having said that, for me traveling when our youngest was four and a half and our oldest seven and a half was perfect. I marvelled at families I saw travelling with toddlers and babes in arms. Maybe one baby but both a baby and a toddler! Not for me. The thought of breastfeeding, sleepless nights and then keeping an eye on toddlers so they don't get bitten by a snake or worse a crocodile is not my idea of fun. I'd love to hear differently though if you've done it and want to leave a comment.

In the 24 hours that we've been home when friends have asked, "How was your trip?" I haven't really known how to answer. You see, travel is different to a holiday. We weren't on a holiday.

Pete was working, making connections, joining dots, doing all that he could to ensure that his work with Indigenous Elders and at risk Indigenous youth brings positivity and longevity to young people in communities and values the wisdom and expertise of Elders.

River and Sol dropped easily into community life, playing handball with their new friends, catching fish and trying out a few swear words too!

I like to think that I too dropped easily into community life, making cups of tea, listening to stories, getting to know Elders and young people and of course cooking and sharing my love of wholefood as best I could with the limited good food available. In many ways I felt quite at home and in other ways I was confronted and overwhelmed.

It was the matter of factness that struck me when I was told stories of domestic violence, child safety concerns, drug and alcohol issues, chronic health problems, told in a way of acceptance that somehow normalised these situations. When of course there is nothing acceptable about any of them.

Pete has been working with Indigenous Elders for 20 years. This trip was my first time visiting a community. Not only did I gain tremendous insight and understanding into the reality of daily life in Hope Vale, the community we stayed in, I gained a greater insight into my husband. Despite the magnitude of the work he undertakes, working to convince policy makers that Elders led healing is the way forward, he rarely shows even a glimpse of it being too hard.

Now we are home and the work continues. It is big work, work that can sometimes overshadow much of our lives and I have to remind him to lighten up.

Blogging on the road has not been easy. So thank you for your patience and for returning here. In many ways Pete is anti-technology and while he supports the change I want to see in the way people eat, he doesn't even begin to understand why anyone would want to spend hours in front of a computer - promoting wholefood or otherwise! I felt for the most part of the trip it was best to surrender to real life and step away momentarily from my online life.

Finding time to blog on the road was one hurdle as was access to electricity and wifi in some areas.

But now I am home with only four sleeps until school goes back so there will be some clear time in my day (though I will miss River and Sol after 5 months spending everyday together), easy access to power and internet, and a heart full of stories to tell.

I look forward to sharing them with you as well as getting back to some usual posts such as recipes, weekend reading and wholefood step-by-step.

Oh, and the other thing I am really happy about is that my family can stop asking me "Where's my toothbrush?!"

If you have any questions about travelling with children please feel free to ask, or share your experiences in the comments.

more from the road plus thursday recipe: sweet potato + haloumi salad

The heat from our days at Elim Beach is already merely a memory as I sit here in a coat today writing in Byron Bay where the weather is wintery.

I'm sorry these photos hardly do justice to the magnificence of the Cape York coastline. The best way to truly feel the magic of this place is to go there!

We set up camp at Traditional Owner Eddie Deemal's camp for one week. Eddie's camp is remote and therefore blissfully quiet. There were never more than four camp sites occupied at a time while we were there. To camp here a permit is required for details go here.

The days were hot, so we were thankful for the cold showers available because the crocodiles meant no swimming in the beautiful sea.

There is no hot running water at Eddie's camp, cold water is pumped up through some 97 underground springs where the water is filtered by the sand. A natural wonder!

The fish were plentiful. And when out in the boat catching the fish, the sandflies were plentiful too. After one fishing trip up the mangroves River returned with at least 100 bites on his bare calves and shins. Lesson learned: long sleeves and pants are a must as well as a good repellent.

For those who have never encountered a sandfly, the itch from the bite is intense and relentless. Sandflies are not like mosquitos in that you don't see them as they are so small and the itch lasts for days. Multiply that by 100 and you have a recipe for madness!

The night that River's itching was insufferable I put him under a cold shower and knew that taking his mind away from itch was just as important as relieving the itch with the cooling water. So, I told him to sing. His song choice was from Oliver, a movie we picked up in an op shop for $2 that he had watched over and over on long drives in the back of the car. Soon he was singing and soothed by the cool water and the Itch Eze cream I had picked up in Cooktown. tip: the remedy that really settled the bites down was to heat a pot with a few litres of water in it and add two capfuls of dettol and one capful of tea tree oil and soak the affected area.

Uncle Dave, our friend from Byron Bay, flew up to join us at Eddie's camp which was a treat for all of us to enjoy this place together and to introduce Dave to our friends in Hope Vale. 

Fresh fish was our staple over the week, while for Dave who eats a vegetarian diet I made sure the salads we ate had some protein punch in them in the form of nuts, seeds and haloumi. We also enjoyed dahl and a roasted vegetable pasta by the campfire.

I'd love to hear some of your travel tales. Are you on the road? Or dreaming of hitting the road? Tell us in the comments.

Sweet potato and Haloumi Salad

Ingredients

1 medium size sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 1/2cm slices
200g haloumi, sliced and fried til golden, cut into bite size pieces
3 tablespoons of tamari pepitas and sunflower seeds
mixed lettuce leaves
1 lebanese cucumber roughly chopped
1 tomato sliced and then each slice cut into quarters

To make

Roast or pan fry sweet potato until cooked, allow to cool.
Place all ingredients in a salad bowl, drizzle macadamia oil over the salad and splash on apple cider vinegar then toss salad and serve.

(To make tamari pepitas and sunflower seeds, dry roast seeds in a fry pan and at the end splash some tamari over and cook for a minute longer).

hello from the road

Regular readers here know that my family and I are on a road trip that has taken us to Far North Queensland, to Cape York where we've had some magical moments with our friends in Hope Vale.

I took this series of photos on a day when we went out mud crabbing.

The big orange crab pots you can see in the photos were tied into the mangroves with bait inside, when the tide came in so did dinner.

As you can see from the first photo, the sky is bigger out there. No houses, no skyscrapers just endless blue, and on this day bright white clouds.

We have all grown in ways that only travel can stretch you to do.

My travels began at age 19 when I put myself on a plane to Europe to go and start exploring the world.

I've traveled ever since. This journey has been special to take as a family for many reasons.

Many reasons that will filter through my posts over the coming weeks.

I've been collecting recipes as we've travelled along, I'm looking forward to sharing those with you and to catching up with what's been happening here online.

The break has been great but I've missed being here so I'll be back soon!

Thanks for your patience while I've been away. I hope you are enjoying seeing the stories from our travels. Recipes soon I promise! x

stills collection

 

1. Being in crocodile country has taken some getting used to. It is strange being in a warm climate where there are such beautiful waterways and knowing there is no chance you can swim in them.

2. Sol having fun at sunset.

3. "Please mum can we keep him?" The pressure to get a dog is growing!

4. Home made carrot cake in Hope Vale. Anything to get everyone eating more veggies.

5. Hope Vale streetscape.

6. Aunt Estelle preparing to cook the mudcrabs at a local beach camp.

7. Hot potato, hot potato.

8. Sol and one of his new little buddies, Markeesha. She has won our hearts!