27-28th Sept - Off to Broome

One of the top things on our bucket list to do in WA is the Horizontal Falls Adventure.  I rang to enquire on bookings and they advise that the season is ending next week, tides are getting low, but they have two prime seats available for Thursday 29th.  We decide to cut for it and book in, this gives us 2 days to do 1049 kms to Broome, it's a bit beyond our norm 2 - 300kms in a day.   We set out to do 6 - 700kms first day, passing through Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing to a free camp 88kms west of FC. 

It's a hell of a drive, hot as and long day.  We were going to pull up at Halls Creek for a lunch break, but ended up continuing out of town to find a shady tree along the road.  There were no shady trees along the road, so we pull up at a truck stop.  It was a very quick sanga lunch, this place was not pleasant it obvious a lot of travellers use this stop as a toilet......   As usual we enjoy the ever changing scenery along the way, we caught this bush fire in full swing, some how I don't think all that haze over Kununurra can solely be blamed on the NT fires.

We see a lot of rocky outcrops, escarpments along this highway.   We've seen these doves before I think they have followed us over from NT (Devil's Marbles).  It's spring and it's very entertaining watching the blokes do their little dance thing to impress the chicks, chasing them around, some lucky girls had 2 in pursuit.  We wonder if they know what to do after they catch the girls??   This free camp was a nice spot, just off the highway (Ellendale), we decide to put the trailer up tonight and not do the camp under the stars thing.

There were 4 wizz bang vans, 2 caravans and us.  Pity about the caravaners who had their noisy generator going all night to 6.30 in the morning.   300 odd kms to go on the 2nd day to Broome.   So many straight long roads we have travelled, sometimes we wonder if there is anything at the end of these roads......

Guess what there is, this is our very own little patch of front yard at Roebuck Bay Caravan Park in Broome and I gotta say we are loving it!  No humidity, the weather is a lot cooler, must be the sea breezes.   We have booked in for 9 days, time to chill out and enjoy the surrounds.   

We have some resident seagulls too, makes a change to the whistling kites, parrots, corellas etc., we have encountered along the way.   We are on the east side of Broome so get the sunrise every morning.  There is heaps to see and do here, just off our shoreline is a few WWII plane wrecks, that can be accessed on low tide. 

Dinosaur tracks off another point, sunset over Cable Beach, heaps of different tours to chose from.   We are up at sparrow fart tomorrow to be collected at 5.30am for our trip to the horizontal falls.

26th Sept - Kununurra

We are slowly getting used to the daylight hours here, sunrise 5.30am and sunset 5.20pm or thereabouts.   By 6.30am this morning, we had done 2 loads washing, had breakfast and were wondering what to do next.  We took off for a bit tour about town.  The township is nestled between the Mirrima National Park and the Ord River, so we take off on the Suzi over to the National park, they refer to this as the mini Bungles.   We decide to go in the cooler part of the day, but by 7.30am when we set off for the walks it doesn't take long before we are sweating up a storm.

My ever adventurous Darl attempts a rock jump.

And he nearly makes it!  No skin off......

I just opt for a pose, this is actually quite a climb up to here.

We were saturated, so continue on our little sightseeing tour to the Sandalwood Factory.  Not producing yet as they have planted forests of Indian Sandalwood, take 15 years to grow, 4 years to go, however the shop is well stocked with Australian Sandalwood products and we indulge in trying all the different creams, perfumes and deodorants.   Onto the Hoochery Rum Distillery, WA's only legal operating still.  It is 100% locally made product.  Quite a nice drop, we buy a bottle of rum, did the tour, tried the Rum Cakes on offer and off we set to the Zebra Rock Gallery.

Now the Zebra rock carvings, little pendants etc., are all quite beautiful but very expensive.   We venture out the back to the work shop and get chatting to the workshop boss, a character, tall thick set chap with a jacky how and leather apron on.  One would think that Kununurra is a thriving town with all the agriculture and crops (mangoes, sandalwood, melons, citrus, pawpaws etc) however it's not till you get chatting to the locals that you get the real picture.   Apparently the Sandalwood forests are a pending problem.   They are taking over from the crops (cane, mangoes) wrecking the scenic aspect of the town as blocking out the mountain views, quite correct as I checked this on way back to camp, there are also some bad environmental implications as well.  We found this boab with a hole in it and I am in it, I know should of stuck my head out a bit further......

25th Sept - Kununurra

Sunday morning and Darl went off to the local motorcross meet, last one of the season.  Very impressed with the track and the talent, really enjoyed.    After lunch we were collected for our 3.5 hour tour of the Bungle Bungles in a float plane.   It was a little disappointing that it was quite a hazy afternoon, apparently as a result of the continuing fires in NT, the smoke drifts across.  Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the outing, the scenery and the commentary by the young pilot.   This is where we were the other day Ord River Dam, bird's eye view.

The Bungle Bungles are quite amazing spectacle.  There are several gorges and associated walks that you could do, if you had a 4WD to drive into the Bungles.   However we have been told the best way to see is from the air.   It was interesting that this area was only discovered (or made public) in the 80's per chance a camera crew here doing doco on mustering, drinking at a Kununurra pub with a local pilot who asked if they had seen the Bungles and hence the Bungles were introduced to the Australia and the world.

The Bungles are million of years old, they say formed over time from the continuing desert winds from the east.   From here we continue back to Kununurra via the Argyle Diamond Mine.  Could you imagine working there, the workers fly in fly out, 2 weeks on at a time.  The staff are accommodated at "Club Argyle" - sounds better than most 5 star resorts, each has their own self contained unit, they are cooked for, cleaned for and have all gym, pools, bars, restaurant facilities.   They do not have to cook, iron or clean. 

However the down side, if you are a diamond sorter, each staff member has their own one on one security guard (all of which are retired SAS), they are basically your shadow from the time you clock on to clock off, even toilet visits, now that's a bit much.   The founding company where in such a hurry to establish before their 99 yr lease was contended they built a runway to allow access only trouble is they have built over a several million dollar seam of diamonds.....clever.

Quite eerie isn't it, we stop off on Lake Argyle at Lagoon Island for afternoon tea on the beach.  There is a fresh water croc sunning itself on a rock, only it is not moving, it has been dead for a few days.   The ratio of female to male crocs is 4 to 1, for male crocs to be born the temperature during incubation must remain between 30 and 33 deg C and as this rarely happens, chicks rule here!    At this point there is 37 kms of water in front and 27  kms of water behind us.  As you can see the water is like ice and we are not able to see the horizon.

A number of islands throughout the lake, which they actually refer to an inland sea it is that huge.  As a consequence of the Dam being built, the original Durack homestead and property (Argyle station) was resumed.  The original site now lies approx 18-22kms below water level at depending on the season.  The waters flooded the property unpredictably quick, hence a lot of things were left as is on the day, however the sandstone bricks from the homestead were saved to enable the recreation which is now the Argyle Museum. 

There is a couple of weeks each dry season when they open the original Argyle Station site to divers.   All in all it was a great afternoon out, very informative and scenic.  We've been carting around a coconut since Loyalty Beach and decide to crack it and celebrate the end of the day with a Pina Colada, camp style, check the cocktail shaker...

24th Sept - Kununarra

Here's looking at you!  This little chap near our camp Lakeside Resort.  We venture out to the local markets today, a nice little country affair.  A couple of fruit and vege stalls, artwork, local crafts.    This is definitely Boab and Dragonfly country, as these are depicted on jewellery and artworks.   As we had cooked up all the vege when we come over the border, we stocked up here on some local produce.  We take a drive out to Wyndham, WA's most northen township.  Population approx 800.  The port is operational exporting iron ore.

We went up the look out for this view, the first day of our trip we decided to put the aircon on for the trip.   Full blast it was great, until we started the incline to the look out by the time we got up there, the 'ol girl was boiling a little, well it was gurgling.  Darl decided to let the car "roll" down the hill, this seem to cool the car somewhat.  We notice that the housing is pretty basic standard but there seems to be reasonably newish vehicles in each car port. 

This is the local hardware shop, in need of a little TLC we think.     As per usual we find the pub for a coldie, we find that pubs always paint a picture of the local culture.   Fishing for Barra is big here.  They have a lot of Boab art pieces for sale, etched bottles, wall hangings which I mistakenly thought were chimes, however apparently according to the barmaid, the boabs nuts are quite fragile, oops!   On the way out of town we took a picture of the huge croc statue, and were approached by a local chap selling carved Boab

nuts.   $30 a pop, we tried to barter down to $20 but no go, he walked away, we weakened and agreed on the $30.   He probably headed straight to the pub to get that carton.    On the way back to Kununurra, we were following this truck and as Darl was getting ready to overtake, he saw smoke come from the truck, next minute all we saw was dust and thought for sure he had rolled.    My Darl yet again to the rescue, 2 good deeds in 2 days.  This guy very lucky he missed the trees and the approaching culvert.   Had to give him a lift back to town in the back of ute, turns out he lives at the park we are staying at.

23rd Sept - Cross the border WA

Quarantine check at the WA border, we have arrived!  And yes they do a thorough check of fridge, pantry box and any supermarket bags.  We passed with flying colours and were on our way.  Before we hit Kununurra we spot the sign to Ord River Dam so take the scenic route out there, the road meanders through the escarpments, beautiful. 

My Darl decides to do his own little celebratory dance in the Ord Dam picnic area, luckily there were no other tourists around at the time.       Go Darl!!         We almost scored a swag on the way here on the main road, come across it sitting high and dry in the middle of the road, Darl threw it into back of ute, but just as we were taking off a young bloke pulled up behind, he had come to retrieve his swag and was most grateful, nearly!

The dam was completed in 1972, it opened up 76,000 hectares of land irrigated agriculture.The rockfill dam is 68 metres high and 355 metres long and originally impounded 5.8 million megalitres of water. In 1996 the spillway was raised 6 metres, doubling it's capacity.

We also visit the Durack Museum which not far out from the Argyle River Tourist Park (near Ord dam).  The Duracks were the pioneering family  in this area.

We head into Kununurra to the tourist info to get the go on the local hot spots.   We decide on a few activities including drive out to Wyndham, WA's most northern town.  We picked up a brochure at Katherine for Hidden Valley van park, looks good big shady sites.  We got there and the shade was mango trees and the sites were small.  We headed over to Lakeside Resort and van park, much much nicer.  We saw a couple fresh water crocs in the arvo swimming on by.  Site big, we put up the annex and settle in.

22nd Sept - Heading West

 We're quite excited today as we are venturing into territory neither of us has been before.  The roads are long which the norm out here, but the landscape changes practically every 5-10 kms travelled, from grasslands to bush to escarpments.  We cross the bridge over Victoria River in Gregory National Park.  Take a pit stop at the roadhouse and a wander down to the bridge.  Just about every road house, inn, station has photos adorning the walls of crocs caught close by, this road house no different, though they also have pics of buffalo hunting.

 We decide to camp up tonight at Big Horse Creek Campground, just right past Little Horse Creek of course.  Both creeks run into the Victoria River.  It seems a popular fishing spot for boaties.  This stop is 177km east of NT/WA border, nearly there!   Only toots at this stop, but we have enjoy a very refreshing bucket bath in the twilight hours.  Lots of campers here, $3.30 pp.  These national parks all have honour boxes with envelopes for leaving the fees.  Who can spot my Darl in this Boab tree?  They are huge out here, this one actually had shortened star pickets in the trunk to make it easier for Darl to climb.  If you haven't worked it out by now, he loves climbing things.

 We jump on the treddlies and take a quick tour around, 500 metres back along the track there is a photo opportunity, identified by a picture of a camera on a road sign.  It's a bridge with a gate on the other side, we can only go this far as this is the Bradshaw Field Training Area.  Lots of warning signs, Do Not Enter etc., and "If you touch anything it could explode" this convinces us not the test the boundaries....  We just pose for a couple pics instead.  Below if you can see us shimmering in the sun light, that's not the Banana Boat, that's SWEAT!

We decide to be a little adventurous tonight and camp out under the stars!   We have a blow up mattress, got the compressor onto that. But no sheets or pillows they are on the bed in the camper.   So we improvise with jackets for pillow, a couple of sleeping bags, though we don't need for warmth, just to keep the mossies and any other little creepy crawlies at bay.  Not we are also armed with the Baygon and Bushmans.  Next time we think we should plan ahead and maybe buy a mossie net as well.

We woke with a start with lots of Correlas camping in the trees, breaking out in loud chorus.  Other happy campers noticed also and they threw what sounded like a rock at the tree and they all took off.  Good on ya!    We sussed out the other campers about how strict quarantine are at the NT/WA border, they are very strict so we cooked up all our vegies (no raw allowed) and had salad for dinner.  We also threw the bit of honey as this is a big no no too. Peeled the garlic and threw that in the pickled onion bottle.

21st Sept - Katherine

A couple snaps of Springvale Homestead.  These are American Rain Trees, planted in 1879.  They have massive trunks which can support a canopy up to 30 metres or more.  At night the leaves close and condensed moisture drips, like rain when the leaves open again in the morning, hence the name Raintree.

The homestead was inundated with flood water up to the ceiling in the January 1998 floods.  Though the building was found to be structurally sound after inspection there was a lot of superficial damage to internal joinery, paintwork and plaster.  The place is teaming with guinea fowel, ducks, wallabies.

The grounds are beautiful here, it is a shame the amenities leave a lot to be desired, i.e. 3 of the 5 washing machines are out of order.   The homestead laundry next to the amenities is overflowing with bags of linen, everything really just needs a good clean.  They are winding down for the wet season, they will close and undergo maintenance etc. then, the place needs it.              We had a drink at the Katherine pub today, looks like the place to enjoy a drink or 3 but we had 1, they have water sprays on their fans in the beer garden, very cooling.

20th Sept - Katherine Gorge

We decide to drive out to Katherine Gorge (Nitmuluk Gorge) also in the Nitmuluk National Park.  If you feeling energetic and a few days to kill you can actually walk from here over to Edith Falls.  We were debating whether to do a walk or a canoe paddle up the gorges.  Not feeling like doing anything physical in this heat, I persuaded Darl we should take a boat cruise, which incorporated a small amount of walking and a swim, 4 hrs in total $77pp.  This is the only sighting of freshwater crocs today, a baby

sunning itself.   We thought mum should be close by but she wasn't.  The gorges are pretty spectacular.  In 1998 Katherine was hit by a flood, the water level went up 12 metres here in the gorges (13 in total) sending a 4 metre wall of water through the township. 

This pic taken looking into the 2nd gorge, apparently this is the photo which appears on all the souvenirs, coolers, teatowels, adds etc.

There was some rock art back at the 1st gorge, this pic taken of the silicone drips (sounds like something medical), these redirect the water away from the rockart, in order to preserve it.

After enjoying a relaxing, cool cruise on the water the guide Robby points out the lookout.  Well we have to do that now don't we.   It is a very steep climb up to the top but the view is worth it.  I had to stop halfway for a little breather.

Me and Darl on the edge!  The lookout a bit further up and we wave to tourists on the next cruise departing.   We also wave to the helicopter going over, don't know if they waved back.  After our little excursion we head into town to have a coldie at one of the pubs.   We go into the Stuart Hotel Motel and order a couple drinks, not long after the locals vacated.  Darl asked barman if we scared his clientele away, nah the bottle shop opens at 2 o'clock, they off to get their supplies.

19th Sept - Mary River to Katherine

On the way to Katherine we stop off at Edith Falls, in Nitmuluk National Park.  My cousin Bernard reckons it's a top spot for a swim.  We set off on the 2km walk to the falls, up hill most of the way, gees we think this better be worth it, hope there is still water in this plunge pool.  What we do know is this is a very vast land and if you don't like driving long distances between stops then this ain't for you.   As out here in NT it is a very long way between towns. 

Lucky the falls are flowing and plenty of water, a little oasis at the end of the walk.  We enjoy the swim and cool off before heading back to the park.  Some other travellers advise us that there is a swim hole 150 metres only from the car park, we could refresh when we get back.  We don't but we're glad to make the walk to the falls, it is beautiful.

As usual it's not long before my Darl makes some new friends at the Springvale Homestead at Katherine.   We really didn't know where we would stay, but a couple we met in the pool at Mary River Roadhouse recommended this place.  It has a natural spring fed swimming pool, billabong and this property was one of the first pastoral stations established in the Top End of NT back in 1879, so a lot of history surrounds these grounds.

18th Sept - Ubirr to Mary River Roadhouse

We left Ubirr today to head down the Jabiru Highway.  Called into Jabiru township to top up fuel $50, we put in the jerry cans also to get us through to Katherine.  Fuel $1.70+ here.  We stopped off at Nourlangie where we come across this guy, Nabulwinjbulwinj (and if you can say that you are better than us).  He is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.  We spend an hour or so here, there is quite a lot of rock art here and a couple of look outs.

We made the ascent up to this lookout.  They reckon in this hot humid weather when trekking to drink up to 4 litres of water a day. We know we are not doing that, but I reckon we are perspiring that amount in a day.   We continue on way down to Yellow waters.    We don't do the cruise, but take a pleasant walk along the boardwalk edging the billabongs.

We are surprised to see an array of birdlife, who needs to do the cruise, amongst which were these healthy looking magpie geese.   We also see golden ducks, herons, jacanas etc.   The walkway is about 2 foot above the ground, it has double bars along the bottom, we guess to keep the wild wild life out, crocs, pigs etc.  

So far in our travels, we have seen wild horses, camels, wedge tail eagles, dingoes, crocs, donKEES (Darl saw these on Jabiru highway while I was blobbing off).  We stop at the Mary River Roadhouse, 200metres south of the Kakadu entrance.   We peddled up to take this shot and on the way back we spot a couple wild pigs scurrying through the bush, destructive little things they are.   We spot a pile of dung and are excited at the prospect that there might be a buffalo near by, but they elude us again.... No wild emus either

17th Sept - Arnhem Land

We're off, into Arnhem land, it's a 6 hour tour which we thought was going to be lead by an aboriginal guide but instead we are met by a young Aussie girl, Kirra.    She's got her MR licence to cart us tourists around in a big 4WD mini bus.  There is only two other couples on the trip, a young couple Italian honeymooners and an elderly American couple (bird watchers).  This is the other side of Cahill's crossing, where we spot our first real life crocs (ginga) in the wild.  It's best spotting them at high tide when they're out to catch all the fish, we'll be back for that.

Our first stop an aboriginal burial site.  No photos are allowed at this site unfortunately.  However the surrounding grounds are buzzing with Correlas and there is cows and a couple of nesting whistling kites.   We could see a lot of bones at this burial site and there is artwork on the rock walls here as well.   The clan these bones belong to no longer exists, so another tribe has taken over the upkeep of the site.  No one knows how many bodies buried there.   This site is protected by trees, there is no burn offs around this site.

Back over in Kakadu they use silicone lines to protect the artwork, redirecting the rain waters away.  A lot of elements affect the condition of the artwork, rain, wind, dust, fires.   At the next stop we are able to take photos of the artwork.   The hands are that of a decorated elder, the boat was just sailing by at the time.....  All these sites tell a story, artworks are sometimes painted over top of other paintings, telling the different stories as time goes by.

We travel to a small community Oenpelli, to visit the Art Centre.  We are able to take photos outside, except no photos of children and photos of elders by request.   We have a little tour around the grounds by old mate Tony.  Here, traditionally the men do all the painting and the women weave.  It was a bit hard to understand old mate Tony, but we got the gist of what was going on.  They still paint with the natural ochres and use reeds as their painting brushes.  Up here they do line paintings, different to central Australia where they do dot paintings.

This ol mate giving us a demo and I must say he had a very steady hand, the lines were straight as.  This painting to take approx 2 weeks to complete, I suspect that's because he only adds a few lines when the tourists come around, cause as we left he was out with his mates socialising.  The paper they use is imported from France, expensive but lasts for up to 200 years.  The men were painting on the left of the building, the ladies were set up to do their weaving on the right side of the building but they were having a slack attack when we were there.

 We ventured inside, no photos allowed. We bought a half price pandanas woven basket for $27.   We found the paintings on the expensive side, especially after the cost of the tour $225 pp. But that includes lunch by this billabong.  Here we enjoyed buffalo rissoles and thai chicken rissoles, salad, fruit salad and iced tea all pretty yummy. The others didn't fancy the buffalo but we tucked in.    This place is teaming with bird life, we startled a whistling kite, he took off with a snake but dropped it right near our picnic area.  Luckily it was dead and half eaten. 

We also see brolgas, jabirus and other birds here, on the other side of the billabong of course.  We thoroughly enjoy the day out.  Last stop was at Cahill's crossing where we see some foolish blokes fishing at high tide.  But wait there's my Darl out there with them.  Kirra asks me to call him back from the water's edge.   One of the fisherman says lucky they are lazy, little does he know, it's like the calm before the storm.  As we crossed back to Kakadu I counted 9 crocs swarming around waiting for a feed.  We ended the day with a push bike ride down

to the crossing where we spotted a few lazy crocs sleeping off their lunch on the opposite side of the river.  The one in the middle is huge when zoomed in.   I do my best Steve Erwin "Crikey Mate" but miss the startled expression.   Note the last pic on the sign if you can, crocs eating humans, guess it does happen.