30 September 2010
Well, we spent a lovely few more days at Miaree Pool but then we had better get back on the road. It was a lovely spot but we only JUST had internet and it would cut out at midmorning so I would have to get all work done by then.
We hit the road and spent the next 2 days heading to Carnarvon as there was really nothing in between Karratha and Carnarvon.
1 October 2010
We arrived in Carnarvon this afternoon and I spent the afternoon working and it was getting late by then so and there was nowhere nearby to free camp so we decided to stay in a caravan park - I KNOW, I KNOW!! Goes against our religion but I really wanted a hot shower - so sue me!!
2 October 2010
We are both a bit crook in the tummies today so we didnt do much and decided to stay in the caravan park again to stay near a toilet!!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
28 September 2010 to 4 October 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
21 - 27 September 2010
21 September 2010
We headed into Broome today to the information centre and I worked while Ross did some shopping, etc. We then filled up with water and headed out to Quandong rest area - we have found pariadise!! What a beautiful place!! We have set up directly overlooking the beach and the water is that beautiful aqua colour you see on all those island paradise pitures!!
We headed down to the water and had a look in the rock pools and talked to some other campers - we had a great afternoon.
22 September 2010
Well, our perfect paradise has been rudely interrupted by a bushfire!! We were just lying about relaxing and enjoying ourselves when our neighbours pointed out a bushfire just over the hill so we thought we had better keep an eye on it. It kept coming closer and closer and we could then see the flames not too far away from us so we decided it was time to pack up and get ready for evacuation!! The people who were closer to the fire just decided to abandon their vehicles and take all their most valuable possessions down to the beach (esky full of beer) and watch the proceedings from there!! It kept getting closer though it seemed to be heading inland rather than towards us but it was still too close for comforte, especially seeing as there were freak gusts of wind about - one picked up our solar panel and dropped it down the gully - how rude. We decided to get mobile and headed over to have a closer look and it seemed to be ok. The fire brigade arrived and said it should be safe but keep an eye on it. We decided we didnt want to take the chance so headed further down the beach to a campsite that was nowhere near the fire and set up there for the night. It had blown itself out by morning and we found out that the way it had started was by some guy lighting his toilet paper after going to the toilet!! Dont know about you but I wouldnt be admitting that!!
23 September 2010
We went for a drive this morning - south - past where the fire had been. We kept driving until we came to an intersection and took a right and then came out onto an open area and headed left along the coast again and eventually came out to a creek where some other people had just arrived and were about to go fishing. They said you could catch just about anything there but you could only get there and leave on low tide and the tide was on its way in so if we werent staying we had better hustle. We had a quick look around and I can surely imagine that it would be the perfect fishing spot as there are some rock cliffs that arent too high that go directly into deep ocean - it would be great but we didnt want to stay for several hours waiting for the tide to turn so we headed on out - lucky we did because we already had to drive through some water to get out!!
We then headed back north again and took another turn to the left that took us towards the beach (there are several turns here but you have to take the one with the red soil rather than the white sand) and it comes out again onto a beautiful beach with the same type of rock/cliffs (only about 10' tall). It was just lovely so we decided to throw the lines in but werent very successful because, unlike the other fishing spot, you are fishing straight off the beach and we dont have beach rods so we couldnt cast very far. There is a bit of a cave there too that you can shelter from the sun in - what a great place!!
We headed back to camp and had a swim then I worked in the afternoon - tough life!!
24 September 2010
I worked this morning then we headed into Broome as we want to see the Staircase to the Moon tonight and maybe see a bit of Broome before we head south again. It has been beautiful here but its still a tad on the hot side and there is no water out at the campsite (other than the ocean of course but not much good for drinking or washing in) and it is an hour's drive back to Broome to get more water.
We got into Broome and spent the afternoon looking around - we went out to the big jetty and wandered around, went out to have a look a the dinosoar footprints in the ocean but it wasnt quite lowe enough tide so we couldnt see them. We went out and had a look at the Buddah temple with the 4 m hand, carved quartz crystal - pretty impressive! We did some shopping etc and then went to watch the Staircase to the Moon http://www.broomevisitorcentre.com.au/events.asp which we were really lucky to see because it had been really cloudy all afternoon but it managed to clear up just enough for us to see a beautiful Stairway to the Moon - it was a great end to the day.
We headed out of town for a rest stop just south of Broome for the night.
25 September 2010
What a stinking hot day!! We took off in search of the elusive Telstra signal so I could work, dropping in at Barn Hill station on the way to see if we could be tempted to spend a week there if it was a nice enough place – you can stay there for $15/night for an unpowered site but there was very little shade and it was very hot so we decided to press on until we found reception which we eventually did at a little roadside stop with no shade but we had no choice but to stop because we didn’t know how long reception would last for as there was nothing showing on the Telstra map that they so kindly provide but it tends to be rather unreliable. (go figure). So we sat in the stinking hot sun for about 5 hours while I worked – I normally only do 3 – 4 hours but my boss is away so there was heaps of stuff I had to deal with.
We were eventually underway and just kept on driving into the night until we reached De Grey River rest stop about 80 kms north of Port Hedland which is a lovely stop right on the river– there is really nothing in between Broome and Port Hedland – bit of a boring drive. It was still hovering around 40° at about 5 o’clock!
26 September 2010
31° by 8 am this morning! There was no reception at De Gray so we headed into Port Hedland and I worked there - it was so much cooler being right by the ocean!! Port Hedland isn't much to look at, it's primarily a mining town so unless you have a burning desire to go visit a mining town there probably isnt much point in going there. We moved on after lunch and doing some shopping and started looking for a place to spend the night. It is so hot and dry around here, every river we go across is dry so we dont hold out much hope of finding a nice spot by a river to camp. We had a bunch marked on the camps book to look at but every one of them was next to a dry, hot river, bleh. We eventually reached Karratha and just past Karratha there is a rest stop that we found that actually has water in it, not only that, it beautiful and clear and cool - yay!! We obviously decided that was the place to stop for the night. We are even out of croc country now so Boris can safely swim which he is very pleased about.
27 September 2010
I worked in the morning - yes - finally a nice place to camp that has internet!! We have a great spot on the river though it seems to be the local swimming hole so all the locals come here to swim. Apparently only a few weeks ago this hole was almost dry but they had some rain and it has filled it up again - what a relief!!
Boris was run absolutely ragged by all the local kids today - he sure is going to sleep well tonight. There are a bunch of Aboriginal kids that come down to swim - what a great bunch of kids - they are like little energizer bunnies though - they just dont stop - they run Ross and me ragged too!! Its all fun and we had a great afternoon.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
14 - 20 September 2010
14 September 2010
We headed back down to the jetty and I worked while Ross went to find out what the action was at the jetty, but there was none. There were some guys who had been there all night and between the lot of them they had caught one fish. Ross took Boris for a swim (a very careful swim mind you considering there may be crocs) and then read while I worked. We aren't going to hang around as there are no fish to be caught it seems. We will go to Berry Springs for a swim on the way out and head down to Oolloo Crossing to see what that's like.
It was HOT – it got up to 40+° in the late afternoon so we kept driving – there’s not much point in stopping when the weather is like that. We didn't end up going to Ooloo Crossing as there is no mobile reception there.
We arrived at Katherine at about 8ish and went straight to the springs for a refreshing dip and we weren’t the only ones there – lots of other people had the same idea! After our swim we went looking for a campsite to stay for the night and we ended up opposite the Big 4 caravan park in a little car parking area for a nice park.
We have been tossing up whether to go to Alice Springs now or later and we decided to leave it till later so we are going to head across to Broome. The next decision was whether to go the Gibb River Road or the Great Northern Highway. We had a look at the map and with our circumstances we unfortunately have to follow the road that has the most mobile reception so we decided to make a dash along the Great Northern Road as there is absolutely no reception along the Gibb River Road and we really felt that to do that road you need to be able to take your time and enjoy it. There is reception at Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing so we are going to aim to do it in a few steps of big drives between those two towns and then on to Broome. We also want to try to get out of the heat. We have definitely acclimatised over the past couple of weeks but still find it too hot to find the energy to want to do anything during the day.
15 September 2010
We noticed this morning the sign for the park where we stayed overnight saying that dogs weren’t allowed – oops! Oh well – ignorance is bliss!
We went back to Katherine Hot Springs and I did my work while Ross went into town to do a few things. We worked out today that Boris actually isnt allowed in the Hot Springs as we thought – we had looked for signs about dogs but hadn’t found any but we talked to a local this morning who told us that they definitely weren’t allowed and we went looking and eventually found the sign – another oops! There was even a ranger on the prowl today – lucky had hadn’t been around the other two times we had Boris in there swimming!
We went for one last swim (without Boris much to his disgust) and then headed off towards Kununurra. It was HOT. By about 4 in the afternoon it was hovering around 40 again – phew!! We drove through Gregory National Park which had absolutely fascinating mountains with exposed rock seams through them. The countryside around here is just brilliant – something different around each corner. We stopped in the Gregory National Park to have a look at the Old Victoria Crossing and went for a quick dip – including Boris but don’t tell the Rangers!! Poor boy was nearly passing out with the heat!
We pushed on after dark and eventually arrived at Saddle Creek rest area where we thought we would have trouble sleeping because of the heat but a bit of a storm blew up and cooled everything down, including Ross who hadn’t bothered to put the fly on over the bed and he was getting dripped on half the night!!
16 September 2010
We got up early and headed across the border. The border guards weren’t nearly as scary as everyone had told us and didn’t pull our car apart looking for things we shouldn’t be bringing across. We checked a couple of things with them that we weren’t sure about and they had a cursory look around and in the car and van and that was it.
We headed into Kununurra and I worked again while Ross did a few things and then we headed off the back way to Wyndham over Ivanhoe Crossing – that was pretty scary and up Parrys Creek Road. Ivanhoe crossing is a bridge with reasonably deep water flowing over it that you have to cross. The scary thing is that there are concrete bollards to guide you across it which are the only thing stopping you from going over the edge and half of them were missing! But we made it in one piece and headed up Parrys Creek Road where every wallaby in the district decided to come out and play chicken with our car!! What’s the deal with that!!?? We managed to drive right by Middle Springs and Black Rock Falls and miss the turnoffs and be too far up the road to turn back and have a look – duh!! WE stopped and had a look at Mambi Island camping area which was quite a nice spot right on the river which would be a good place for fishing but you couldn’t swim there of course because of crocs and there was no mobile reception so we pushed on to Marlgu Billabong for a look which was just beautiful with lots of birds but no Jabiru’s!!
We finally got back onto the main road and stopped for the night at a little rest stop not too far out of Wyndham. Again the wind came up and cooled things down nicely so we all managed to get a good night’s sleep again.
17 September 2010
We drove into Wyndham so I could do my work and Ross had a bit of a wander around town and chatted to some of the friendly local Aboriginals who told him we definitely needed to go up to the lookout so once I was finished off we went to have a look to find a FANTASTIC lookout way above the town with a magnificent panoramic view of five different major rivers flowing into the ocean – what a sight!! The lookout area itself was also great with a big covered area and free BBQs. The only bad thing about it was the toilet – man – I cant tell you how many horrible toilets I’ve seen on this trip – gross!! I literally had to break my way through to the toilet seat through all the golden orb spiders and then sat cringing on the seat in case any of them decided to take revenge on me for destroying their homes!!
After that we drove back into Wyndham to have a look at the big statues that the Aboriginals had made that were Dreamtime Spirit statues and quite well done – very interesting.
We then wanted to go and have a look at the prison boab tree which was on a side road that we had to go past. On the way through were some Aboriginal paintings on some rocks that we stopped to have a look at too. Just before the tree there was a little billabong where we saw our first Jabiru for the trip!!
The prison tree is an enormous boab tree, bigger than any others we had seen – it was very impressive!! There was a little hole cut into it where they must have got the prisoners to go through and once they were in there they would be very easy to keep an eye on and it was also nice and cool inside though I can’t imagine they would have been able to fit too many people in there at once – it’s a big tree but there was still only so much room inside.
After that we headed for Grotto Creek for a swim as it was still in the high 30s. When we got there it was only a fairly small swimming hole but it was wet and cool and we all had a nice refreshing swim before heading off to “The Grotto” which was only just on the other side of the bridge from where we just had a swim. The Grotto is a fantastic waterfall gorge that is really deep and steep and even though there were no waterfalls running when we were there, you could just imagine how it would be in the wet season. There were stairs carved into the side of the gorge that looked very narrow and steep but we just had to go and have a look so we went down the stairs into the gorge – very harrowing and pretty darn scary but worth the trip – there are no rails or anything to stop you falling over and it would be a long trip down if you went over. The water at the bottom of the gorge didn’t look all that appealing so Boris was the only one who went for a swim down there but it was very pretty and lovely and cool down there.
We decided not to go back to Kununurra. We originally were going to go back for a look around but there wasn’t a lot we wanted to look at there aside from the numerous galleries that sold the zebra rocks but we decided against it. We pushed on until we hit a campsite near Halls Creek called Leycesters Rest which is a huge rest stop that was dedicated to a young boy who died near there in a car crash. It was actually almost cool when we arrived – looks like we have finally gotten out of the worst of the heat.
18 September 2010
Nearly had to put a jumper on this morning – only 21°! I couldn’t sleep so got up at daybreak and went for a walk to have a look around and found an old bridge and did a bit of exploring before heading back to camp to wake Ross up and pack up camp to head into Halls Creek. The countryside has changed again and is much greener now though there aren’t the fascinating mountain ranges with the exposed rock seams running through them like there have been for the last few days. There also aren’t nearly as many boabs as there have been over the last few days – they are fascinating trees and there have been thousands of them over the last few days but they have definitely petered out now.
We arrived at Halls Creek and decided to have a look around there area so we headed out on the road towards Old Halls Creek. On the way out there is the China Wall which is a natural white stone wall which looks just like a miniature "Great Wall of China". The wall itself was very interesting and the gully it is in was extremely pretty and we spent a fair amount of time walking around exploring. We then headed out to Caroline Pool which is a swimming hole in among rocks on a river bed - the rest of the river is dried up at the moment and it was also a very beautiful area and we decided we wanted to stay there the night but there was no mobile reception - typical!! Nonetheless, we went out and had a look at Old Halls Creek and wanted to go out to Sawtooth Gorge but the road out there is closed at the moment so we couldnt go so we went back up the road a bit to where I could get reception and did my work and then headed back to Caroline Pool for the night - it was just too pretty a spot not to camp there!! We had our first fire in ages and cooked damper on a stick and had a great night - very relaxing! Unfortunately the wind came up and it got very blowy and COLD!! Would you believe it got down to 16°!? We had to put jumpers on!
19 September 2010
We took our time packing up this morning and Ross found that the 4wd had a flat tyre so we went into town looling for somewhere that would repair it - the Toyota place repaired it for $50!! (usually around $20). Oh well, what can you do. I did some work while the tyre was being repaired and then off we went towards Fitzroy Crossing.
WE stopped at the Mary River campsite on the way through - what a lovely place - we would have loved to have stayed there but as usual - no reception - that's really getting annoying!! We pushed on and arrived at Fitzroy Crossing and turned off before the town past the old Pioneer Cemetary and pas the Inn and past there was a dirt track leading off so we went to have a look - it was a rough 4wd track that was a bit hairy but not very long and we ended up next to a creek in a lovely little spot out of the worst of the dratted wind! WE decided to camp there for the night and then head off in the morning after I did my work.
20 September 2010
Got up this morning and there was no work on so I have decided to work this afternoon instead. We will head into Fitzroy Crossing and have a look around and then on to Tunnel Creek and then on to Derby.
Tunnel Creek was fantastic!! Its like a huge cave about 1 km long with water flowing through it - it's everything you could want - comes complete with wading through hip-deep water in total darkness, bats, crocs, stalagmites, stalagtites and a great little swimming hole at the end - had a ball!! The biggest problem wsa the road - it was awful!! Corrugations enough to rattle your false teeth out!
WE didnt end up going to Windjana Gorge because of Boris so we kept on along the horrible road and ended up just this side of Derby and found an information bay that we intended to stay at and go into Derby tomorrow but when Ross went for a walk he discovered a no camping sign so we had no choice but to move on. It looks like Derby is one of those towns that has nowhere you can free camp so we might have to keep moving because its getting late in the day.
We decided to have a look at the attractions that Derby did offer including the Prisoner Boab tree, the big water trough and Frosty's Pool which were all together so it only took a very short time to see it all!! There are other things to see like their jetty as they have huge tides here and you can catch all sorts of fish as well as mud crabs but because we couldn't camp we decided to move on. We met some friendly locals out near the boab tree who said that we could camp on the right hand side going south out of town - there are a bunch of tracks leading off into the scrub where we could have camped but we decided to move on and headed for Willare Rest Stop which shows as day only in the Camps 5 book but is actually an overnight stop.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
7 - 13 September 2010
7 September 2010
At least the nights have cooled down enough to sleep now and we are getting decent nights sleep - there is nothing worse than being too hot to sleep!!
Ross did a bunch of stuff on the caravan while I worked today and this afternoon Roundy and Janine turned up who are friends of Michelle and Peter's and who also keep their rig at the property. They also brought Beaky with them - a friend of theirs. We had a great afternoon drinking beer and swapping stories in the cool shade. They are a great bunch of people and we had a top afternoon. They are planning to to out to West Alligator River to fish for barra and have asked us to go with them so we are definitely going to seriously consider it!!
We found out through talking to them that the had just been on a car rally that my Uncle Max had just been on too and they all knew each other - small world!!
8 September 2010
More work on the caravan today and I cooked curried sausages for everyone.
I worked this morning while Ross did stuff on the caravan again then we went into town and checked out the Botanical Gardens and did some shopping. The Botanical Gardens were nice but none of the water features were on or had water in them so it kinda detracted from the whole thing!
Stacey and Michelle asked me to go to Zumba http://www.zumba.com/us/ with them so we all went along and had a great time and worked up a sweat and came home and had curried sausages and fell into bed!!
9 September 2010
We were up early and went to Litchfield National Park today and stopped in at Berry Springs on the way through - what a fantastic day!!
We stopped first at Berry Springs and had a quick swim and then headed into Litchfield. First stop was Bamboo Creek Tin Mine which was very interesting and we had a great time exploring there.
Next on the list was Blyth Homestead which was a very sombering reminder of how harsh people had it way back then. It was very interesting wandering around trying to imagine living there.
Next on the list was The Lost City which is a bunch of sandstone rocks that haven't been washed away from weathering like everything else around them resulting in an absolutely fascinating spectacle! You would swear that it was the remnants of an ancient civilisation with structures that looks like castles, statues, columns and walls. We had a great time exploring there!
After that we were pretty well buggered and apart from stopping to have a look at the magnetic termite mounds decided that we had had enough for the day. There were a couple of other things we could have stopped to look at which were mostly swimming holes and waterfalls but it was getting late so we headed home after a wonderful day!
10 September 2010
This afternoon we decided to go the the Darwin Museum. What a great museum and it's free!! It has to be one of the best museums I have ever been to and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It has lots of info on the 1974 Cyclone Tracey including a sound room where you go into a dark room and they play the noise of a cyclone outside and you can try to imagine how terrible it would have been being in the middle of that cyclone or any cyclone for that matter. They had lots of other fantastic displays and we had a great couple of hours traipsing around looking at them.
We went to the pub for tea with the gang and had a great night.
12 September 2010
We spent the afternoon looking around Darwin - we went to the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels which was interesting and cost $6 each to get in. We then went and had a look at Stokes Wharf precinct which was just lovely and then went out to East Point and had a look at Lake Alexander and the Military Museum which we didn't end up going in as it was $12 per head which is probably quite reasonable but we have been spending too much money so decided not to. It was a lovely afternoon.
When we got back Peter and Michelle had returned from going to Shady Camp with Roundy and Janine and brought a couple of barra with them which we had on the BBQ and I made a fried rice and a salad to go with it - very yummy!!
13 September 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!
We decided to move on today as we have pestered Peter and Michelle enough. It has been wonderful having a toilet, a shower and a washing machine for awhile but it's time to move on and Stacey and Tony had been to Mandorah which is on the opposite coast to Darwin (you can see Darwin from there) and said there was a big jetty there where people had been catching fish so we decided to go there. When we got there it was VERY windy but Ross threw the casting net in and got some bait fish so we decided to stay for a bit of a fish. There are MILLIONS of bait fish here just sitting under the jetty - I've never seen so many in my life and there are big fish feeding among them - just cant catch any of the buggers!! There is a guy here who has been here for about a month and has caught quite a few fish but didnt get any today - typical - we always arrive when the fish arent biting. Nevertheless, we had a great afternoon and when it was nearly dark we went looking for somewhere to camp and on the way had a look at the plane wreck just up the road which was quite fascinating as I had never seen a plane wreck before - I think it was from WWII? B52 bomber - something like that anyway. We ended up just camping on the side of the road as it is a very quiet road that hardly anybody uses.