Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle at Dusk


It’s been a lovely couple of nights so far at Lake Argyle, which is a really pretty spot in the Kimberley. We arrived here quite late on Saturday as I needed to stop in Kununurra at the hospital before we came on here. I’ve been having trouble with my right eye and wanted to see someone about it before we headed here and on to Timber Creek and Victoria River Crossing where I knew there’d be no medical services (apart from a first aid box a lot of roadhouses keep).

I’d been to the hospital in Wyndham the afternoon before, but arrived late and the doctor had finished for the day. The only other way to see ANY doctor in the area was to go to outpatients in Kununurra in the morning. There would be no doctor at the hospital on Sunday as she’d be out at a community and there are no doctors in private practice in a town of 6000 plus us tourists. All pretty tough for the locals.

After a wait of 4 hours to see the doctor, although the eye was swollen, bloodshot and vision blurred, they couldn’t find what has been irritating it and me for 9 days.

When it was time for me to see the doctor, a nurse called a large aboriginal man in a wheelchair and me in at the same time. I followed him in, then asked another nurse where I should go. She said it was OK if I went in with my husband which gave him and me a good laugh!

The drive out to Lake Argyle was very pretty-especially when we turned off the highway and drove the 35ks in. Lake Argyle is Australia’s largest body of fresh water and was formed when the cattle station Argyle owned by the Durack family was dammed. The Durack family came to Australia from Ireland and eventually settled up here taking pastoral leases around Old Halls Creek, Wyndham and Kununurra. Mum borrowed all Mary Durack’s books on the family history from Warragul library when I was around 12 and as I read them all too, I was pretty excited to see the area.

Dead Horse Springs

Sunday we took a drive out to all the look-outs over the lake, then after lunch went out to the Durack’s Argyle homestead. It was rescued before the site was flooded and then rebuilt as a tourist attraction over the next two years. It was apparently hard work as the stone walls were over 13 inches thick and had to be numbered to get them back together. On the way back we stopped to look at Dead Horse Spring, took a drive along the Slipway Creek and finally stopped at an interesting looking rock. We thought there should be aboriginal rock paintings somewhere like there and there was. We found a cave with a very good crocodile, people and the stenciled hands you often see.

Ord River and Picnic Ground

We had thought about taking a boat tour, but decided the $150 each for a 5 hour tour was a bit pricey especially when we already had 3 days sailing in the Kimberley! Instead, we put our boat in the water and gave ourselves a 3 hour tour. We saw lots of birds, a croc and we had a couple of bites on our barra lure-it was beautiful out there and cost us $17 and two pieces of fruit!
Row, Row, Row the Boat on Lake Argyle


After a late lunch and a little rest, we went down to the “swimming beach” (which also doubles as a rather rocky boat ramp) for a very pleasant dip. We had heaps of barra, a few cat fish, archer fish and a black bream around us as we took our swim.

Tomorrow against many people’s recommendations, we’ll head to Timber Creek where we will visit Gregory National Park which was part of another Durack cattle station.

El Questro

Dreamtime Statues Wyndham


Yesterday we'd planned to take a drive out to El Qestro but slept too late to do it. We had a swim, took a look around town, then took another swim instead. Wyndham has been the hottest place in WA for the past few days, so the pool is a wonderful spot to pass a couple of hours!

There's not much to look at in town-a spectacular look out that gives great views of the 5 rivers that meet below, some very large Dreamtime statues, a Big Crocodile and the largest Boab in captivity right here in our park. Thank goodness for the pool! We met our former Kununurra neighbours Graham and Ann at the lookout.

Today we managed to get out of bed early and drive out to El Qestro. We'd decided to do a circuit so headed out along the King River Road, taking a short cut over the salt flats to cut a few kilometres out. We'd followed an aboriginal family out of town, overtook them and drove on, calling in to look at Moochalabra dam that supplies Wyndham's water, and then an aboriginal rock art site. When we got to the King River Crossing, a couple of the aboriginal teenagers were fishing and the other three had lit a fire on the rocks and were obviously waiting for a feed of fish. It was a lovely place to spend a few hours.

King River Road then turned into Karunjie Track at the Wyndham Prison tree-these prison trees were used by police as overnight lock-ups mainly for Aboriginal prisoners.

Karunjie track was in better condition than we'd expected-recently graded and good travelling. No real need for a 4WD we reckoned. We passed through a number of gates and noticed a lot of them were new and the fences too. Then we started to see new signs telling us we were on Private Property and shouldn't drive on their salt flats. I opened a gate and noticed two 4WDs coming so waited for them before closing the gate-you get so sick of opening and closing them it's nice when someone does it for you. Anyhow, we both commented on them being hire vehicles.

A bit further on, we saw heaps of cattle trucks, 4WDs, cattle and figured they must be mustering. Then we noticed the horses, cranes and helicopter and figured out just before we saw the sign "Location" that we had stumbled on the very secret (well it is round here) locaton of Nic and Hugh's movie. I'm not star struck, but it has been so hush hush up here it felt like spotting the first whale for the season in Warrnambool!

The moment we past the movie location, the track became just that, a track. It was rocky, rutted, and the ruts were full of bull dust in lots of places.

Karunjie Track

We'd just spent 20 minutes crawling over small boulders like you find in a creek bed when we ran into a SA couple. We stopped for a chat and I was horrified when I asked how much more of this there's be and he answered "30ks". It'd taken them 2 hours to cover the 30ks and I was ready for home, but the boulders stopped and we were left with the rutted, windy rocky track again which was so much better than the creek bed. It was a very beautiful drive with the King and Pentecost rivers often on our right and the Cockburn range always on our left. There were lots of farm dams and lots of birds and cattle-it really was worth the drive.

The Gibb River Road seemed like a highway when we finally arrive there, and although we'd been told the road into El Questro wasn't so good, the grader had just been over it and it was good too. Finally at El Questro round 1ish, we discovered they wanted $15 per head for just being there so turned around and went out again. We figured we have seen plenty of gorges and although they are all different, they'd have to be good to beat the ones in the Bungle Bungle.
Pentecost River Crossing El Questro


Back on the Gibb River Road, we stopped for a latish lunch then called into Tier Gorge and Matteo's Rock. Tier Gorge was supposed to be a good spot for a swim and it was. We were so lucky to be the only one there to enjoy it too.
Tier Gorge


Matteo's Rock was another (very good) Aboriginal Rock Art Site.
Rock Art Matteo's Rock


We got home round 5 and called over to see the SA couple we met out on the road as they wanted to know when we got back, then we had another feed of Barra and chips for dinner for a treat.

Car Service and Move on to Wyndham

Monday we had the car serviced at the local Nissan Dealer. It's the first time we have taken it in to Nissan-we've used small local blokes previously. Our last 3 services were $150, $159 and $199. As this was a big one, we were expecting it to be pricey, but both almost passed out when it was nearing $700 (and that's after a 10& discount for being Big4 members!) No more Nissan dealers for our Nivarra!

Tuesday, we packed up and took the van down to an auto electrician to have the 7 pin plug replaced. That was a pleasant $50 and made us feel a bit better. Oh, and the insurance cheque for the broken TV arrived in Warrnambool on Monday according to our neighbour David, so that was good news too.

It was so sad leaving Kununurra-it's been a lovely park to stay in. The lake is a wonderful place to sit and watch the sunset of an evening and lots of people did just that. Everyone would wander out and sit or stand and chat, so like Port Smith, it's been very friendly.

We've back-tracked 100ks to come to Wyndham. It's out on the coast west of Kununurra and although the drive was beautiful, the town really isn't. It has a few local scenic attractions and is a good place to visit El Questro and a number of gorges from. The park is shaded and has a pool, so we have taken advantage of their "pay for three, stay 1 more for free" offer, but I think that will be enough. One of the caretakers tried to coax Russ into staying an extra night so we could go to the race meeting, but I think we spent our allowance on the car and van this month. This coast line is famous for some of the biggest salt water crocodiles found in Australia, and although there are plenty of mud crabs out there, those crocs and the big tides are probably going to deter us. The weather is warming up too-around 36 lately through the day and not going much below 22 at night. I don't mind the warm days now we are always near a pool, but I wish the nights were a little cooler.

Last night on the recommendation of people we'd met in Kununurra we had barra and chips for dinner. One of the park caretakers sets up a mobile food van between 5 and 7 pm to sell his barra and chips. That's all he sells and he claims that the $15 serve will be enough for two to share. He's right, we got 3 huge bits of barra in a lovely light batter and a huge serve of crispy chips for our $15. Russ saw him cut the filets fresh from a whole side of barra and it was almost the best fish and chips I have ever eaten-just about worth coming to Wyndham for!

We had planned to go out to El Questro today, but the place is so quiet after Kununurra, we slept through til after 8 and have been to slow getting up and going, so we've changed our plans and will try again tomorrow.

More on Kununurra

Yesterday we went out to the Mirima National Park for a look around. It's only a small park and is almost in the middle of town. It's most famous for being a small easily accesable version of the Bungle Bungle, and a moderately difficult walk to the lookout gives good views over town and the irrigation areas.


Next we took a drive round the irrigation areas and stopped at the two veg shops to stock up. I'm sad and sorry there are no other stalls at farm gates, but the prices were still OK. We bought bananas for $3 per kg, tomatoes for $2 kg, capsicum $3 kg, broccoli for $2 kg, a beautiful ripe, fragrant canteloupe for $1 ea, a big butternut pumpkin for $1 ea and a couple of good sized zucc 50c ea, and corn cobs 40c each (very nice for lunch when we got home). I also bought local chickpeas for $5 per kg-not sure if that's good, but I wanted to try them and the interesting recipes they came with!

After lunch we headed way up the river for a bit more croc spotting-didn't do as well as last time though. It's a beautiful part of the ord river and fun to take our boat up there.

Middle Springs

Today we went to the market-the same veg we bought yesterday were about half as much again so it's lucky we'd already bought them. After that we headed on a drive out of town to Valentine Pool (a lovely temp for a swim later on today I think), then Middle Spring and Black Rock Falls.

Black Rock Falls

There's not much water coming over the falls, but it was a lovely quiet cool spot to sit for half and hour and contemplate our navels. To make a round trip of it, we had to come home over the Ivanhoe Crossing on the Ord River. It looked pretty scary as the water rushed over the two concrete crossings, but Russell assured me it would be safe and it was. The first crossing was about 30 metres and the second around 100 and although they aren't particularly deep, the water goes over at an alarming rate (or so it seemed to me).

Ivanhoe Crossing

We have new neighbours moved in beside us, and it was nice to find out they have been living on the road for 22 months. We do cop a lot of "I don't know how you could do it" from lots of people who say they couldn't leave their house, garden, elderly parents, grand children, golf club, friends etc etc etc for so long si it's interesting to talk to someone who has done it for longer and is still loving it.

Kununurra and Leon

The Lake Looking Towards Budda Sleeping


I got a call this morning from my friend and neighbour Janette to tell me our much loved work mate Leon lost his battle to cancer just before she rang. It's so sad, but inevitable. I'll remember him as a man who loved to look good-enjoying facials and waxing, and loved a good gossip!

We've spent 4 nights here now. It's a great place and we love our spot by the lake. Our neighbours are all nice-a couple from Townsville, a very elderly couple from Mildura and behind us a nice couple from Yinnar who know our good friend Henry!

The elderly couple are travelling in a motor home that he designs, his son builds and elderly mum cleans, details and makes the curtains for! They started making one in their retirement and now have a factory employing 10 people. They are nice motor homes and came second in Motor Home of the yeaar last year-with a few improvements, they think they should win this year!

Russ Home from Fishing

We are right beside the lake and it's a lovely place to take a couple of chairs down to and watch the sunset. We are woken every morning at 6am as a sea plane takes off over the very still lake and then all the boat cruises go by here as well.

Our days have been fairly quiet here-a little bit of sight seeing, a bit of shopping, catching up on cleaning of van and car, and paperwork-(sorting out my credit card and the insurance claim seem to have taken all day).

Sunset Looking Towards the Diversion Wall

Kunanurra

It was a stunning drive from Turkey Creek to Kunanurra through some of the prettiest scenery we have seen in the Kimberly along the highway. It was a little bit spoiled knowing we had no brakes or tail lights on the van (we couldn't find Chook or anyone at the community to find him either!) but we took it a bit slower and got here just fine. Lucky the Nivara is such a solid vehicle and the van isn't over full of unnecessary stuff!

Kunnanurra is a beautiful little town 45ks from the WA/NT border. It was only established in 1960, so has a nice modern, clean feel to it.

Our Site from the Lake

I phoned ahead to try and book a site at Kona Lakeside Caravan Park, but like many parks up here, they don't take them. The assistant manager Jan I spoke to suggested though if we arrived around 9.30 am we should get a site. We did and were lucky to get one fronting Lake Kunanurra. It's a magic spot and on our first night we had drinks and nibblies down by the water with Karen and Jim who we met on the Horizontal Waterfall cruise.

Our 6am wakeup call the last two mornings has been a sea plane taking off about 50 metres from the van on the lake. It looks beautiful as it crosses the very still lake with its morning reflections. Better the planes than the noisy neighbours who woke us at 4.22 am in Turkey Creek!

We initially booked here for a week, but will have to extend that as we couldn't get the car in for a service until the 7th day of our stay. I don't think it will be a hardship though as there seems to be so much to see and do. This morning we are going to take our boat out on the lake for a private tour. The park has a boat ramp which meakes it all very easy. We had to take the boat off to fix the roller that fell of on the road after the first river crossing to the Bungles!

After the very sad little towns we came through to get here, it seems like an oasis and I guess it is with all the crops being grown through irrigation from the Ord River. There are 7 caravan parks in a town of 6000 and the place is full of tourists at the moment, but it has a different feel to Broome. I went to the only chemist yesterday to get a prescription filled and the wait was 1 1/2 hours-I've never had to wait that long.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban arrived by private plane yesterday to start filming here and Hugh Jackman also arrived (but by domestic service, flying economy!) so the place is really buzzing over that. He might be here in the park, but I bet Nic isn't! Rumour has it she is staying out on Riverfarm Road in a house owned by someone who owns a diamond store in town!

Pandanas on the Lake


This morning we put the boat in the water and took a tour of Kunanurra lake. It was a beautiful morning and we saw lots of birds and crocs on our 22k or so trip. So much cheaper than the commercial tours too.
Reflections of Elephant Rock

Bungle Bungle

Saturday morning we got up around 6ish, took the boat off and headed out to the Bungle Bungles at 7. It's only 100ks, but took us 2 1/2 hours to get there. It's a sealed road for half the way, then it's unsealed through Mabel Station and into the National Park. The road is only open to high clearance 4WDs and after a day out there I can believe it!

The first (and worst) of 11 river/creek crossings is about 10ks in and a lot of people actually turn back there. I'm glad to say we made it through because the park has to be seen to be believed. I put it right up there with Ularu, snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and our sea plane landing at the horizontal falls for spectacular.

We spent 7 hours in the park and travelled about another 100 bone shaking ks to do 3 really wonderful and quite different walks. While the Bungle Bungles are probably best known for the "beehive" formations, we really enjoyed Echidna Chasm-a very high and ever narrowing chasm between the beautiful red rocks. Chathederal Gorge was beautiful too-a lovely walk through the gorge ending in a huge cathederal.

I was exhausted when we reached Echidna Chasm and refused to go the whole way-I sat on a rock and waited for Russ to go take a look then we'd head home. I had to put up with about half a dozen people telling me I should go to the end as it was spectacular.

Finally Russ arrived out and said we couldn't go home until I went in and saw it. I did and it was beautiful.

It's a very high chasm that gradually narrows to the end-in places where it twists and turns, you can't see the sky so feel like you are in a long narrow cave.

Anyhow, my not going in in the first place meant we were a bit late leaving the park and had to do the last and scariest water crossing in the dark-not very pleasant! Then we had to negotiate all the cattle and kangaroos on the highway back to Turkey Creek.

Warmun (Turkey Creek)

China Wall


We survived Halls Creek and are now in Warmun (formerly Turkey Creek) Roadhouse CP for a couple of nights. It's a tiny park and we are wedged in like sardines, but we need to stay here so we can go back 50ks to the turn off to Bungle Bungle NP in the morning-then it's 53ks in to the info centre.

Yesterday we took a lovely drive out of Halls Creek to China Walls, Old Town and Caroline's Pool. It is great to start and see the sort of scenery that leaves you thinking the Kimberly may actually be as beautiful as the Pilbara. We had come through 1000 ks of "Savanna" which mostly consisted of dead flat land covered with just over head-height shrubs. My sister called it "tedious" and I have to agree. Now we are in much more interesting country.
Caroline"s Pool


I left Halls Creek feeling very sorry for the locals. Although there are over 3000 of them, it isn't particularly well serviced. Most places it's size around here have a large (and cheaper) supermarket, chemist, hardware, sports store, etc, but the place is dismal. It does however have a pub and another liquor store and they seemed like pretty good places to stand outside and hurl abuse at each other!

On the way here, the electic plug that connects the van to the car and powers the brakes, lights and fridge fell out and the plug came off. Right now Russ is trying to get hold of "Chook" who lives at the community nearby and is something of a mechanic!

Geike Gorge

After 3 days spent relaxing at the Fitzroy River Resort, we are now in Halls Creek. Against the advice of a lot of other travellers, we've decided on a two night stay here as we hate to push on too fast.

Halls Creek has had a lot of attention lately after a series of child abuse cases in the Aboriginal Communities and even now there is a big police presence in the tiny town. I met a woman travelling on her own though and she said she spent for days here and felt very safe.

Fitzroy Crossing was another tiny and predominately aboriginal town. Our resort was a few ks out and very nice-the pool was especially good on the 36 and 37c days we spent there. The resort and the other pub-the Old Crossing Inn-are both aboriginal owned and there is a lot of pressure (by local women) at the moment for them to stop selling take-away liquor for 12 months in the hope of sobering the blokes up. It seems to be an on going problem trying to get any money out of them for food and essentials!

Geike Gorge

We were exhausted after the archipeligo cruise so it was nice just to kick back and do next to nothing although we did enjoy an 8am (to miss the heat) boat trip and the short walk at Geike Gorge. Our neighbours Arthur and Thelma Burton from Heyfield were very pleasant as were a really nice couple Lee and Phillip from Adelaide. Our site was large and shady and we were able to wash the van!

Geike Gorge

Credit Card Fraud and $5.25 Lettuces!

We arrived at Fitroy Crossing Resort last night and I was a bit put out when my Mastercard wouldn't work. I rang them this morning and was asked if I'd bought air tickets to Singapore recently? No! So the card has been cancelled, I have to sign before a JP and then I'm no longer responsible. It was a bit of a bummer yesterday but a huge shock this morning.

The resort is really nice-lovely big shaded sites, a lovely pool and cheap drinks in the bar at Happy Hour. Washing of cars and vans is encouraged on your site, so this morning we spent a couple of wet and enjoyable hours turning our red and dusty van back into a beautiful white one again. Our neighbours are really friendly. They are from Adelaide and Heyfield in Victoria. The couple from Heyfield had to be towed into town last night and will have to stay here until parts arrive and work is done on their van. It's hard to know just how long all that will take.

Last night as Russell went up to the toilets, he ran into a woman (Wendy) we have met in Malloy, Denham, Broome and now here. Like us they are heading to Kununurra next.

After the van was washed we went into town to the little supermarket. I wanted a lettuce, but couldn't bring myself to pay $5.25 for a tiny iceberg lettuce which had seen better days. I wanted a zucchini, but a smallish one was $3.50 and the asparagus was $28 per kg. It was packed in trays around 400g for $13ish. I am really pleased that our freezer and can cupboard are pretty full.

This afternoon I'm off to the pool and tomorrow we are going out to Geike Gorge first thing in the morning for a river cruise.

Horizontal Waterfalls, Talbot Bay and Buchaneer Archipeligo

Starsand


We are just home after 4 days/3 nights out at the amazing Buchaneer Archipeligo. I was a bit concerned at the cost of it, but have come away thinking it was well worth the money.

Mudflats and Tidal Creeks

On Wednesday morning, we were collected early by taxi and taken to the tiny airport of Derby where our seaplane was waiting. I love the fact we had no tickets, no boarding passes, and the pilot had no shoes! He gave us a great low (between 500 and 1000 feet) flight out to our yacht over the extensive mudflats, creeks and the Kimbolten Ranges. It was a perfect morning for flying, the scenery was stunning and our 9am landing on Talbot Bay spectacular (had enough superlatives yet?). It was one of the rare times he was able to bank and take us right over the lakes and then between the chasms that form the horizontal waterfalls before putting down in the bay at a pontoon beside the yacht. It certainly made my heart pound as it was more exciting than any amusement park ride I’ve been on, but I loved it.

The yacht is a million dollar job with a crew of three-on our trip, a new host (Brenton) had just started as help for the existing (and very hard working) one Leone. The owner of the boat was away and we had a fill in skipper Justin. He was lots of fun. As the falls were flat and no other tours were coming out, we also had the jet boat operator Ian along for his first trip around the archipelago. All very nice, hard working, fun people who live on the yacht for one month on, one week off in the most remote circumstances you can imagine. There were 10 passengers.

It’s a nice yacht, but not well set up for charter work. Sleeping arrangements were not great and only one toilet and shower for 14 people a bit of a trial. Still, we came for an experience, not a toilet or great bed and the experience was amazing. We were to share the tiniest 4 berth cabin with another couple, but opted to take our bedding up and sleep on deck under the stars for the three nights-the best decision we made for the trip. I think our sleeping arrangements were the envy of all in the end.

Sunset on Starsand

The scenery was amazing-the archipelago is said to contain more than 1000 islands. The varying colours of the rocks and water at different times of the day was fantastic and the sunsets can only be seen to be believed. Our first day was spent cruising about 5 hours, stopping for lunch in a pretty bay. We moored around 3.30ish and set about getting to know each other.

The Waterfall at Crocodile Creek

The following morning we cruised a little further, then moored in Crocodile Creek and went by tender to a fresh water waterfall and swimming hole a couple of miles up stream. We spent a few hours there swimming, barbecuing some sausages and a very good sized fish one of the men caught. It was a great way to wile away a few hours. It was onto the boat and on to another mooring at Silver Gull Creek for the night.

"Hermits" Phil and Marion and Chris

After breakfast, we headed up the creek to visit Phil and Marion who have squatted up there for 13 years since dropping out of the rat race. They are one of the very few people who live out in the area apart from an aboriginal community, a former station now used by the army and a few mines on various islands. They get their supplies dropped at one of the nearby mining islands and then collect them. In the dry season, they have many boats calling in and are usually called up to see if they need anything. They trade home grown veg for stuff the boaties bring in to them. It was a bit scary to be met by Phil wearing his undies-apparently he lives in them and was even married in a new pair when they married 3 years ago! Marion makes jewellery from local pearls and corals, stones etc and I think she makes a good living from that. The block has a warm spring which they run into an old tank and we were able to have a great splash and relax in that.

Swimming in Phil and Marion's Springfed Tank

While they call themselves hermits, it’s hard to see it when they have all the people calling in over the dry and I think they are pretty savvy business people making a pretty tidy living in a location that suits them. Phil hasn’t been into town (Derby) for 9 months! We had to make two trips out to them in the tender and I was in the last group to return. Phil and Marion walked up to a cliff to wave us off, and then mooned us!!!

After our visit with them, we returned to the yacht and made our way back to Talbot Bay where we’d originally landed. We arrived there around 6ish and it was wonderful to sail at sunset! Not so much fun trying to find our buoy in the dark though. We enjoyed a nice dinner of kebabs, prawn sticks fresh caught fish and salads. The new crew member kept us entertained for a long while trying to take underwater photos of a large sleeper shark that circled the boat for a couple of hours. He strapped his underwater camera to an oar and set the timer. Russ threw fish to the shark and he tried to get shots. He got the jet boat prop, the yacht's hull and finally, one fin of the shark. Still it was all very fun to wonder what photo he’d get next or whether the shark would eat his expensive camera!

Horizontal Waterfall (at Lowest Tides)

This morning we were up at 6am (as usual), had our breakfast and packed up. Then finally it was our turn to have a ride through the horizontal falls with Ian. The falls were pretty flat, but it was still fun to go out in the jet boat and particularly pretty in the early morning. Our plane arrived at 7.30am and we headed back into Derby exhausted but very happy we’ve done the tour! The pilot gave us a great trip home starting with a figure 8 over the falls and Talbot Bay, then a flight at 4500 feet back with a good commentary on all we were seeing. The higher flight gave us a good perspective of the area we had crossed so low over the other day.

Horizontal Falls from the Air

Three of the four other couples on the boat were really good fun. We especially enjoyed two of the couples company. I would have like to throw one woman to the sharks or crocs, but there was enough others to avoid her most of the time. We have laughed, joked and got to know each other very well in the confined conditions on the yacht and all got off wishing it had been a couple of days longer

Derby

Boab Tree, Derby

We arrived here 'round lunch time on Friday. By the time we'd set up, we figured we'd spoken to more people in this tiny park than we spoke to in just under two weeks in Broome. It's proven to be a great choice of parks-small, friendly, and well run by the couple who just bought it.

We have a can recycle bin right by our van and spoke to a man as he dropped a couple of cans in it. It turns out he grew up in Warragul (his parents owned the Orient Hotel for many years) and he and I knew a lot of people in common. He is also really good friends with my last boss at the Vic Hotel in Warrnambool Graeme Welsh, so we gave him a ring to tell him we'd met! The two of them worked together in Consumer Affairs in Melbourne for 18 years.

Windjana Gorge

Saturday we took a tour out along the Gibb River Road to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. We were collected at 8am and arrived back at 7.30pm, so it was a big day out. Tunnell Creek is 184ks from town and 120 of that was along unsealed corrugated road in one of those trucks they convert into a bus. I was lucky to travel up front with the driver in a well sprung seat so got the best view and the comfiest ride! It was a fantastic tour-both places are incredibly interesting and very pretty. The gorge is just that-a gorge, but the colours in the rock are beautiful and we spotted lots and lots of fresh water crocs along the creek banks.

Only A Freshy, but Wasn't I Brave?

Tunnel Creek is a 750 metre long tube through the ancient reef It has limestone formations on the roof where flood water doesn't reach and scour them away in the wet. We loved the fact it's a bit of a climb over huge rocks of jasper into the cave, then it's unlit throughout. We had to carry torches and wade through the creek so it was lots of fun and really beautiful, but really unspoilt. The bus company provided morning and afternoon tea and a pretty good lunch and lots of drinking water, juice tea and coffee so it was a good day out. 4 couples from this park went along, so we've met plenty of the 20 couples staying here.

Tunnel Creek

Yesterday we had a lazy day sitting chatting to Brendan and Karen in the morning, then taking a stroll around the jetty to check out the huge tides in the afternoon. We finished the day with a drive out to the prison boab tree and a wander around the old town common. Last night we barbequed our dinner and sat out eating with a few people. Honestly it is so much friendlier than our park in Broome was!

Derby Jetty

Today we are off out for a look at May Creek then after lunch we are going to go looking for mud crabs.

Derby

We left Broome this morning and travelled the 220ks to Derby. It was one of the first times leaving a park that not one of our neighbours came and said goodbye! We just didn't meet anyone in the park. As Russ was returning the gate thingy and ensuite key, the woman behind the desk asked where we were from and where we were going, how long had we been travelling (today is the start of our 18th month!) and as he said, she knew more about us than anyone else in the park.

The trip to Derby was OK, we started to see lots of boab trees which are pretty amazing, and the one lane bridges we'd been warned about. Also passed lots of wide loads today which was fun on the built up roads we travelled a lot of the way on. Lots of burning off along the way too-at one stage it was fairly ferocious and right by the road.

We booked into a little park this time-only 20 caravan sites and 12 units. The owners are friendly and our neighbours either side have already been over for a chat! Lunch and then a drive round town proved it's not a very exciting place but it'll be a nice change from Broome. It was amazing to take a drive down to see the wharf and boat ramp-the water is coffee coloured and the current looks so strong. Derby has one of the biggest tides in Australia and the world. Tonight it will be 10.2 metres! There should be plenty of crabs in the creeks (if we can avoid the crocs!).

I just booked us a tour out to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek which we'll go on tomorrow or Monday (depending on seats available) then on Wednesday we leave the van here and fly out to go sailing for 3 days on the archipeligo.

Last Night in Broome

Tomorrow we're off to Derby. I won't be too sad to leave Broome-two weeks was too long. It's very touristy and pretty expensive and we have spent our tourist dollars on the cruise we'll be taking out of Derby so it's been a quiet time.

Tuesday night we gave the pizza man at Beth and James' CP a second chance. I'm glad we did, because we had the best night sitting eating wonderful pizzas by the pool! We all voted the Blue Pumpkin (roasted pumpkin, blue cheese bacon pine nuts, rocket) the best!


Yesterday we did our shopping to move on with and then last night we went down to Cable beach to watch another Broome sunset. It was 31c yesterday and a beautiful evening.


Today we had our farewell lunch with james and Beth in town and a wander around Chinatown.

Fishing with Jeff

Yesterday a workmate of Blair's took us out fishing. Jeff has lived in Broome for the past 12 years and flies in and out of Sunrise Dam above Kalgoorlie (via Perth)week on, week off. He and his wife have two small children and she works two days a week. The youngest was in day care as normal and as he normally looks after the older one around kinda times on two of his days off, he had to get her looked after while we fished.

We'd never met so arranged to met at the port boat ramp-he'd be driving a green twin cab/blue boat, us in our dirty silver twin cab! What a nice guy he turned out to be and what a good day out we had. It was a bit rough on the way out (15 miles), but settled to a nice few hours on the water. We didn't catch too many fish (I caught two and Russ one) and we had a few hook-ups of mackerel trolling on the way home, but didn't manage to land any. Didn't loose any of Jeff's expensive lures though so it wasn't too bad.

It was very exciting for us to spot a whale just cruising along and to pass within about 30 metres of it. I saw lots of turtles, sea snakes and jelly fish too-more reasons never to swim in the ocean again I reckon.

I think Jeff would have liked to go fishing again today (Tuesday) but it would have meant finding more baby sitters. Maybe we can catch up again when we are up this way in a couple more years!

We had a nice suprise yesterday as we were getting ready to go out fishing-Mike Shaw (who we met in Port Smith) knocked on our door and suggested we catch up in the next few daays before we all move on. Mike and Mary are a couple my age. She's a nurse and he is a turner and fitter and now their two boys are grown, they are travelling. They left QLD 4 years ago and have been travelling and working when they need too. They are over in the Roebuck Bay CP, so we will probably pop over and see them today.

More of Broome

Roebuck Bay Near Crab Creek


Thursday we had our antenna connection to the van fixed by a local repair man. He did a good job, and after a new TV, Antenna and connection it should all go just fine for at least a while! Someone we met suggested we really don’t need TV, but like I explained to them, this isn’t a 4 week beach holiday. We need to keep in touch with the world sometimes!

After lunch we went down and spent a couple of hours in the local museum. It focuses mainly on pearling, the bombing of Broome in WW2 and Aboriginal inhabitants. It was quite informative but on the costly side for small local museums.

Another Sunset!

At 5 o’clock we packed our chairs, a nice bottle of champagne and a few nibblies and went out to G Point to watch the sunset. It’s a bit of a Broome tradition on Cable beach, but our end of the beach was less crowded with 4WDs, camels and people. It’s the same beach we are about to go and launch the boat off right now and I love it. I’ve never walked or driven on more solid sand. Anyhow, it was a very pretty sunset over the water and rocks of the point and as usual, I took too many photos!

On Friday we had another go at Fishing off Gantheume Point and once again caught nothing. I love fishing until I've had a couple of days like that-there isn't even little fish to be caught-it's just fished our round here I reckon.

James and Beth at Broome Races

On Saturday we caught a bus at 11.55 and went to the races. The moment we arrived, we grabbed a table and chairs under a big tree, beside the bar, toilets and mounting yard. James and Beth arrived shortly after and we settled in for a very pleasant afternoon. It wasn't particularly busy according to Beth and James, but it was good fun. No one one much money (but very little was lost either). Country meetings are hard to pick at the best of times. As we were waiting for the bus, a woman said to Russ that she recognised him from Denham (they were camped beside the fish cleaning tables). Once she said that, I knew they had been camped across the road from us in Malloy too. Small world.

Today we put the boat in at the port boat ramp and tried our luck fishing for a third time. Once again no fish! It was very hot out there so we gave up after a couple of hours, came home and had lunch. After lunch we took a drive out to the very beautiful Crab Creek about 30ks out of town. You can launch boats off the beach out there, so we are going to have one more try on Tuesday. It's a bit more remote, so hopefully not as over fished as the other two spots we've tried so far.
Roebuck Bay Near Crab Creek


Tomorrow though I'm very excited as we are going out with one of Blair's workmates Jeff. We are meeting him at 9 am and will head out about 20 miles to try our luck-let's hope this trip is sucessful. He's going to show us some good spots to take our tinny and give us some crabbing tips too.