80 Mile Beach & Cape Keraudren

Continued on down the coast to a place called 80 Mile Beach, a beautiful, long beach. Water pretty murky and not good for swimming in so bit disappointing. Lots of people fishing and heaps of shells to collect so all is not lost! Very windy, but lovely at sunset. Ella and I voted the showers here the best yet: 3 hooks to hang your stuff on, a wide bench AND a showerscreen (Yep, it’s the little things...)

Cape Keraudren is our next stop, a coastal reserve another 100kms down the road, another camp right on edge of beach. Ranger says there has been a croc sighting in the area, so no swimming. Full of very sharp rocks so not the best for swimming anyway.

First campfire for awhile (since Kakadu) so bit of a novelty again, had satay chicken in the campoven and sweet potato in the coals.

Barn Hill

Left Broome, one new radiator and one power steering pump later! We arrived at Barn Hill (about 150km south) early afternoon. It’s a beautiful spot. A working cattle station called “Thangoo” about 43,000 acres in size, stretching 85km on the coast between Broome and Port Hedland. There is a “cairn” on top of the rock hill, left there by Alexander Forrest during his expedition to the Kimberleys in 1879.

The caravan park amenities have corrugated iron walls and no roof so you can sit and gaze at the stars and our site is on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, magic!

Mark spent some time fishing today and caught a (small) yellow fin bream. We figure he can now relax as he can say he "did a bit of fishing" around Oz. I'm sure there'll be some surf somewhere soon.... 

Enjoyed the beach, the rocks formations (again) were amazing and Charlie enjoyed his Charlie sized rock pools. It is a protected area so couldn’t collect any shells or rocks and of course there were some beauties. Spent most of the day on the beach, only to be coaxed off by homemade (by the station) vanilla slices, heaven! Spent a very lazy afternoon (becoming bit of a habit) watching the sun go down over the Indian Ocean from our campsite.

Gantheaume Point - Broome

Spent the day visiting a bit more of this spectacular coastline. At Gantheaume Point there are dinosaur footprints, which are 130 million years old and only visible at very low tide. Anastasia’s pool is a rock pool the original lighthouse keeper carved out for his arthritic wife in 1922. Ella spotted a pod of dolphins swimming by and a bit later a turtle surfaced. The rocky outcrops looked amazing with the contrast of the blue sky/turquoise water, could’ve taken 100s of photos of all different angles.

Had a great antipasto picnic on the grass, overlooking Cable Beach and watching the sun go down.  Great place to people watch, plenty of backpackers to entertain us, jugglers, bongo drummers etc. The kids had a great time tearing around in the dark. Last day in Broome tomorrow while the car gets fixed, then we will move on, have really enjoyed our time here.

Broome, and more Broome

Now we are really relaxed...5 nights in Broome has done the trick. Cable Beach has worked it’s magic, so beautiful, we have spent the afternoon til sunset there a few times and it’s awesome.

Have done a bit of sightseeing, took in a tour (or talk) at The Pearl Luggers which we all got a lot out of. Ella and Samuel were fascinated with the heavy dive suits and equipment and hearing all about the hardships they faced in the day. Charlie was fascinated with the plastic water cooler cups and how they all fit together! We finished in the gift shop and we got to hold a massive pearl worth $100,000. Ella was chosen to model a necklace worth $20,000 (Mark yelled out “RUN”...., but as we know kids’ never do what their parents want).

We caught up with my cousin Monica and her fiancé Timmy, and as we couldn’t visit them in Derby, they came to us. Were a bit excited to see them and we had a great time, had a few drinks and a meal with them at a pub near our park.

Went to a market at the courthouse today, which was all handicraft stuff, a good one.  Spent some time at a little water park at Town Beach which made Charlie’s day (that and the mini-golf the other night!) There was an old pioneer cemetery nearby which had a few names of the early pearl masters we heard about on the talk.

Mark & Samuel decided to watch some local Broome footy, all indigenous players. Samuel joined in with some boys having a kick to kick and he had the best time.

We settled in to watch the annual dragon boat races but they were cancelled due to the wind. The water here is best described as turquoise, and with the red sand the scenery is striking. There is a Japanese “Tori” (Ella & Samuel informed us, good to see they do listen in class) on the edge of the beach which we stood under for good luck.

Speaking of luck, Mark noticed some radiator coolant under the car and it turns out we need to get the thing replaced as no one here will patch it up. That means we are “stuck” in Broome for 3 more days...bugger! J

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Well our boy got his wish and we have woken up in Broome on his 8^th Birthday! After a bit of present giving (he received among other things...a flat cap, penny board skateboard and some money to buy a didgeridoo).  After a breaky of croissants and nutella we enjoyed an early dip in the pool.

With his birthday money burning a hole in his pocket we had to head into town fast and do some serious didge shopping! We found one in a mercifully short time and could move on to lunch! We all enjoyed a really delicious Thai meal (I promise it was what the birthday boy requested).

Next stop was Cable Beach to get ready for our sunset camel ride. We drove our car right down onto the sand and left it there.

Camel ride was a funny experience, they do smell pretty bad and the one behind me kept snorting on my leg. Ella and I were on a feisty female called “Indi” and the boys were on a grumpy old male called “Horace”. We were amazed at how many people were parked on the beach, watching the sunset and taking photos of the camel riders (there are 3 companies that do it at the same time and same stretch of beach).

Back at camp we finished the day with some cheesecake (thanks Sara Lee) and it’s been a big day for one happy camper! Thanks to everyone for all their birthday wishes, he is a very lucky boy!

Flying Deckchairs and Broome

Spent the day (again) on the campsite at Fitzroy River Lodge Caravan Park. Is really a lovely place with great facilities so can’t really complain that we are “stuck” here. The mechanic “might” come this arvo or maybe tomorrow morn so can’t go anywhere incase he shows up. Not such a bad thing to have an enforced rest day. Kids were finally able to get some quality ripsticking/scooter time, and pool was lovely.

The next morning the cry rang out..”the mechanic’s here” at 8.30am. We weren’t sure he was even going to show as he “may” have had a tow job to Broome and that would’ve meant a no show for us today, so we were very excited. Samuel especially, as we promised we would spend his 8^th birthday in Broome. 3hrs later mechanic had fixed split in our radiator and we are on our way....

I rang the C/van Park in Broome to tell them we wouldn’t be in til later today because of our car trouble. I was feeling nervous they would give our site away as they are as scarce as hen’s teeth this time of year (school hols). A month ago I tried to book in our week’s “holiday” within our trip only to be told everywhere was fully booked and we had to show up and take our chances. There are overflow parks with few facilities that you can go into first, you then have to queue up at the crack of dawn with everyone else to squeeze in when sites in the parks become available. We took a punt a week ago and made a few more calls and eventually found one site!

We have tallied up that Mark has driven about 9,318km and me about 18kms! (someone has to be navigator, on snack duty, need I go on...)

We had just overtaken our first road train when a voice came over the CB......something about a cover on a roof that had blown open...could she mean us? Yep! The pod on the roof of the car had blown open resulting in a “flying deckchair” we have now named Danny. I had to run back the 100m or so where it had landed square in the middle of the road. A few cars had to swerve to miss it and one lady slowed her car down and was driving alongside me as I was jogging along, I think she was trying to block the traffic with her car so I wouldn’t get hit! Quite amusing looking back.

FINALLY we have made it to Broome and in my research in the car I have seen that the only kid’s movie on at the historical outdoor Sun Pictures for this week is on tonight (in about an hour). We dump the van on our site, grab some food and head in to see Ice Age 4. Good movie, great atmosphere and the fact we are in a flight path adds to it all, as several times planes fly low overhead throughout the show.

Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek and plenty of steam!

Have decided my new favourite tree is the boab, they have so much character, one we have seen is 1500 years old. Drove the 150kms of 4WD track (took 2hrs) to Windjana Gorge and left the van behind as track too rough and we really need our cupboard doors intact! It is a really pretty walk along the river in the shade (again!) We caught up with a tour group huddled around a sign. The guide was asking who in the group could see the fossil in the rock, we piped up first and one of the ladies in the group was a little miffed...”and they aren’t even on our tour ..” she complained. Sorry love...Samuel counted nearly 40 freshwater crocs in about 200m of water, swimming, sunning themselves on the banks etc. We went right down onto the sandbank and got right up close to them, the little ones were v cute.

Headed back 30kms to Tunnel Creek and I was braced for a “swim” in chilly water through a pitch black cave with hundreds of bats flying everywhere, and maybe a freshwater croc or two. Reality was a spacious tunnel, mainly knee deep water here and there, no bats (a bit disappointed actually). A few slippery rocky spots but a pretty cool experience (pardon the pun) Two k’s round trip and we all enjoyed it.

Drove back late arvo and a few k’s from the intersection with the main rd to Fitzroy Crossing, the sun was going down....but our temp was going up! We had overheated and by now it was dark...bugger! Sat night and no emergency breakdown services on offer, no mechanic around here on call. Luckily we had plenty of water and once we’d cooled the engine down and topped it up, we had a very slow, careful trip back to Fitzroy Crossing. Way too late to cook so fell into the bistro at the park tired and hungry and figure we are stuck here for a bit... roll on Broome!

Fitzroy Crossing

Roof rack welded this morn = $100 + 2 cans of XXXX Gold! (beer lovingly received, as can only get takeaway light beer over the counter in town). Got to Fitzroy River Lodge C/van park at Fitzroy Crossing by lunchtime (300kms just like that, kids don’t even notice the time in car anymore). Distance on the map doesn’t really equate to time in the car with endless road and no roadhouses or stations in between, very isolated stretch.

Drove out to Geike Gorge late in day, couldn’t really see too much of the gorge with the riverside walk, but nice change to walk along the river in the shade. Had to restock the pantry so did a quick shop for our big day trip tomorrow.

Cruiser Not So Cruisy

Got back to our van which is still in one piece, the Cruiser however has been knocked around a bit. We have a hole in the radiator, the bolts that hold the driver’s seat down have worked loose and the roof rack has seen better days... Mark spends a few hours working on everything and it’s nice to see a few people offer to help. We have to cut our travel plans back today and only get 100 or so k’s to Hall’s Creek Caravan Park.

Forgot to mention the frilled-neck lizard that was in the middle of the track out of the Bungle Bungles. It wasn’t getting off the road for anyone, despite our best efforts. Not sure if the car behind us saw it...could now be roadkill.

Charlie’s funny comment today..”Ella, do you have to be so feisty?”

The Bungle Bungles (Purnululu NP)

Left camp at 7.45am, which is a new record for us (I reckon it’s the single toast cooking over the gas stove x 5 people for breakfast which slows us down). We drive the 53kms of scenic 4WD track into the park and then another 27kms to the Piccaninny Creek Car Park. We do the loop walk through and around the domes, the 3km walk into Cathedral Gorge which is a lovely natural amphitheatre with a pool of water at the end (unswimmable- doh!)

It is a really hot day and we are walking in the hottest part of day, so we just make it to the Piccaninny Lookout after that and we have all had it. The orange and grey beehive shaped domes are made from sandstone and other rocks that have been deposited about 360 million years ago.

Another hour rough drive to our campsite to set up the tents. The communal campfire is near our campsite, so we get chatting to some families as we all put our spuds in the coals. There is a definite camaraderie among travellers which is great, and we come up trumps with our boost bar infused damper.

From Zebra Rocks to Spring Creek

Left Kununurra and the plan is for a leisurely few hundred k’s drive to our overnight camp, dump the van and tent it into the Bungle Bungles tomorrow as only 4WD access.

Enjoyed a coffee (yay powered site) overlooking the lake (I need to mention our Aldi coffee machine that was a last minute inclusion into our van, it hasn’t missed a beat – touch wood, but the pods are being strictly rationed!)

Samuel found a mate to have an impromptu didge session at the playground with, they were just about to make up signs and get a hat for a busking session when we had to pull the pin on it and get on the road...

A bit out of town is the Zebra Rock Gallery and it sounds like something worth a look. “Zebra Rock” is stripes of a combination of red ochre and siltstone which is only found on the side of Lake Argyle once the level has dropped. There is an artist in residence painting fine works of art on the rocks there, the kids can feed the catfish in the lake out the back and the piece-de-resistance .....a playground!

Everything in the shop is great but expensive so we get a small bag of rocks for $8. We get out the back and see big bags of raw rock for $20! We get some and plans are made for lots of sanding, sculpting and polishing – time will tell...

Driving on and the scenery on the Great Northern Highway is pretty good. There are rocky mountain ranges all around and the sun is starting to set. There is a lot of burning off along the road ( as there has been everywhere) and the contrast of the flames, smoke and sky looks really  good so we stop for a pic

As dusk turns to nightfall, it’s getting harder to make out shapes of the cows grazing on the side of the road and we narrowly miss hitting a couple.

We finally make it to our offroad camp and squeeze in with the other happy campers who will leave their vans here for the Bungles experience.

Zebedee & Snakes Alive!

Spent the morning packing up our tents (now we realise why we are in a van). Checked out the Pentecost River we are camped along, v pretty.

Drove to Chamberlain Gorge  where you could see the main homestead perched up on the top of the cliff. There are so many activities in here. If money (and time) were no object you could easily spend a week or more doing things such as scenic flights, heli-fishing, cruises, gorge tours and walks, etc.

A reliable source has told us that Zebedee Hot Springs are the BEST so we check them out. They are awesome! Thermal rock pools cascading down the rocks, surrounded by palms and sheer cliff face. Each pool got progressively warmer as you scrambled up the rocks, magic!

Samuel and Mark decided to scramble even further and headed about 30m further up the rocks, just up and over a big boulder was one more pool, luckily Samuel waited a split second til Mark caught up to hop in as there was a big python all curled up in there! Estimates have it at approx 3m long, the thickness of your forearm. It was a pretty quick trip back down the rocks I think!

El Questro and Frankie J

Left our van at Kununurra in the C/van Park, stocked up and headed off to “camp” in tents at El Questro Station at the start of the Gibb River Road. It’s a million acre cattle station and wilderness park. Great place! Got to Emma Gorge first, which Mark has vivid memories of from his first trip around. A very different place (20) years later, a resort now stands where they camped.

He also remembers it was a pretty special place, and it was. A 1.6km mainly rock scramble track to get in, along and through a creek, in amongst palms, waist high spear grass and big rocks, with the spectacular reddy/gold walls of the gorge either side. The older two and I set off in front (common occurance with Charlie stopping to look at EVERY rock, leaf etc on the way, then the shoulder rides..he has picked up the pace since the beginning though!) We came across some people that had stopped to take a pic of a brown snake right where we were about to walk, and had seen a black one a bit further along the track!! The kids and I made lots of noise along the way after that.

The gorge was spectacular, only a trickle of a waterfall, but the sides nearly enclosed all around us with 85m high sides. Took an extremely icy dip in the water and was watching Samuel swim for awhile thinking isn’t he doing well for so long in the cold. It wasn’t til he got out and didn’t stop shivering for a very long time that we realised he could’ve been borderline hypothermic (oops!)

Set up our tents for a night at El Questro Station, then wandered over to the restaurant/bar area. They were just setting up an outdoor projector for a kid’s movie, so we settled back with our blankets and choccie while Mark checked out the communal campfire. A minute later he was back smiling. Ella and Samuel went to get reacquainted with...Frankie J Holden! (and yes Tathra Xmas Camping Crew, he remembered “The Pizza Song”*, in fact he started to sing it..then asked Mark if he wanted to take a photo of him with the kids!)

·         We stayed at Frankie J’s Caravan Park in Tathra last xmas hols and Ella, Ally & Ben wrote a song about our woodfired pizza night, which all the kids later performed with Frankie J, it was titled “The Pizza Song”

Kununarra

Middle of the night toilet run, as Ella & I step out of the van in the pitch black, Ella “Mum, a dingo!” we take a closer look and laugh, the shadow is of a slow, chubby old dog. The massive trees in the daytime are just beautiful, but by night the are infested with hundreds of squawking bats we have to run under and it feels like they are swooping us (they so aren’t). Get back into the van and just get back to sleep when Charlie’s voice rings out clear as a bell in the darkness “Dad..what does keep your eyes peeled mean?” I have to admit it is a strange expression.

We set off on the way to Kununurra and come across a sign to the “Gregory Tree” which is on the tip of the Gregory National Park. It’s a huge boab tree that marks the camp of Augustus Charles Gregory who led an expedition across North Australia 1855-56. It is on the banks of the Victoria River and the dates of the expedition are carved into the tree. The boat they used to sail there was damaged and they repaired it with timber from Timber Creek where we stayed last night.

Continued on to the Border of WA and the quarantine area. Kid’s had spent some time this morning collecting these big, round seed pods that had split open and looked like heads with mouths. They made them into various funny little characters with faces etc. The first bit of natural craft they’d done and I had a bad feeling they were gunna have to go... We could tell the quarantine man was struggling with his decision..(African mahogany seed pods) but the kids took it pretty well and handed the offending matter over.

Got into Kununarra and into a really pretty park overlooking a lake. Sorted some stuff out then went for a drive to get some takeaway (yay!) Mark remembered that Ivanhoe Crossing was a nice spot. It was closed , but at the spot we had to turn around was...the annual Kununurra Motorcross Event. Samuel fixed his puppy dog eyes on us, we just couldn’t refuse him, so stayed and soaked up the fumes and dust for a few hours.

Timber Creek

Managed to locate Macfarlane Primary School in Katherine and took a photo of Ella in front of the sign to show her classmates. Had a massage in Katherine, so no more references to back pain! Drove to Timber Creek after that and stayed in the picturesque campground amongst the beautiful tall trees. Down the embankment and on the little walkway bridge over the creek is where the staff feed the freshwater crocs that live in the river. Was great to watch them jump up for the meat. Ella spotted a turtle coming up for a feed, and the whistling kites would swoop down from the overhanging trees to catch their share mid-air. A random event that made our overnight camp really memorable. Mark & Samuel stayed til the end and the last croc thought he would have a little snap at Samuel’s toes. The man feeding them said he had never seen that happen before!

No Gunlom for Us

Said goodbye to Kakadu, what an amazing place, could spend lots of time in there, but we must press on. Taking the road out and back into Katherine but first we plan to detour to Gunlom Falls for a quick dip in the only swimming hole in Kakadu. We turn into the 35km dirt track and it is extremely corrugated, try it for a few km’s and think we better check what’s happening in our 2WD van....carnage! The pantry door has completely fallen off its hinges and there is stuff everywhere, other screws are working loose and we have to make the hard decision to turn back (part of me is secretly glad as back is v sore and the few k’s we did was bad enough!)

Just enough charge in the camera for this CSI pic....

Croc Spotting on Yellow Waters

Drove into Jabiru and had a look around town, Charlie spotted a playground so we had to grind to a halt (it is his trip too I guess..). Swings about 5m from edge of wetland, then there’s the lake, which had crocs in it (no fence between)..Just wondering how many curious toddlers have met their demise there...

Visited Bowali Visitor’s Centre and ran into the family from Williamstown we were sitting next to on Mindil Beach in the throng of thousands! Great Visitors’s Centre (I think my best yet). Really hands on, creative displays and not much to read (for the kids of course).

Set up camp at Mardugal and set off for our Yellow Waters Sunset Cruise, to spot some crocs! We weren’t disappointed, saw about 10. One was 4.5m long and just awesome, boat went right up close and I held v tightly onto Charlie! There were at least 20 species of birds (and some avid birdwatchers on the cruise let me tell you) Mark spotted a green tree snake on a bush which swam down and tried to slither into the boat (mother’s instinct had me pulling Samuel  back from the edge of the boat....didn’t know what sort of snake it was at that stage to be fair..I realise I am no Terri Irwin though!)

Guide said that the Aboriginal women get in (croc infested) waters up to their shoulders and feel with their toes in the mud for file snakes, catch them, bite their heads off, repeat the process 20 or 30 times and then cook ‘em up.

Battery on camera went dead flat on sunset and we are on an unpowered site tonight – doh! , may be a pic free post tomorrow, sorry folks.