27th - 28th Oct Marble Bar WA

We set off to Marble Bar after the storm passed. This was our fastest pack up ever, less than an hour, we packed up before the storm hit 80 Mile Beach.    We are definitely in road train country now, we were passed by 2 road trains today, we were going 100kph, so how fast were they going? The landscape in still pretty flat and bushy with a few rocky outcrops. We hear that Marble Bar is the hottest town in Australia.... 160 consecutive days back in 1942-43 38 deg and hotter, gave this town the honour.   It's very windy here when we arrive and HOT.

We settle in to the only van park in this town of approx 200 residents (400 in outlying areas).  We venture down town to the pub as you do, $16 for a rum and a bourbon, ouch!  That's a bit different to the $8 a shout we were paying at RSL in Broome.  We decide to crack the Hoochery, Ord River Rum back at camp, a very nice drop we might add.   At this small park it's just us and another couple in a van and one permanent resident van, so we do our usual and spread out and settle in.   We do a self drive tour in the morning, first stop is Marble Bar Pool.

We were previously told by a fellow traveller, they were a bit disappointed in the Marble pools, that was until they realised you have to wet the rocks, so we had the heads up.    It would be spectacular to see the rocks when it was raining, with all the colours showing.   It is actually Jasper rock, however early settlers mistook it for Marble, hence Marble Bar was named.    It is illegal to take any Jasper from this area which falls across the Coongan River, however there is Jasper deposit site (left) down the road and down a narrow rocky road, where people can fossick to their little hearts content.

We visited the Comet Gold Mine founded in 1936 and the tourist/museum centre, 7.5 kms out of Marble Bar.   I noticed on the wall was a story of Charles Kingsford Smith marrying a local girl in Marble Bar.  Didn't say anything about his aviation days, maybe it's a different chap.  We went further down the dirt road (good dirt road) in search of Glen Herring Gorge, but with no signage about, decide to head back to town via the flying fox (right).  The wire in foreground had a number of white balloons attached acrossed the dry Coongan river bed.

They say it doesn't rain here much, tends to go around the hills, however it does flood here as the waters come down from catchments in nearby areas.    It would be great to see the Coongan river in flood as it is a very wide river in places.  We stopped off at Marble Pools on the way back for a cool off swim.   Also visited Chinamen Pool, which was pretty dry and water stagnant, but pretty spot.  Lots of cows around.  We're noticing more flies here too.   Back in town we jump on the treddlies to take the heritage trail round town.

The most impressive is the Government Building (above)  Built of local stone in 1895 and is still providing accommodation for Police, Wardens Court, Mining Registrar etc.   They have and Anzac and Pioneer memorial walls, old church, town well, lookout, some sites just have a plaque, no remaining building, leave it to your imagination.   This is a sleepy little place, not many people wandering the streets, just some local kids.   On right pic taken from water tank, we treddled up there to (okay I walked a bit).

You can see our little blue tent in bottom half centre.   Margaret the caretaker their a lovely lady been here 6 years and loves it.... you gotta love the quiet life and the heat we feel.   Previously she had driven taxis in Port Hedland for 18 of the 19 years her and hubby spent there.   Seen some changes over that time.    Here I am descending from the look out.   I win the prize for eating the first fly!   When we were going up, I caught it between my teeth, shook my head and swallowed it.........okay not really the damn thing just flew in and kept going, that'll teach me for having my mouth open at the wrong time!!

Before we head off we went out to Marble Pool to take some more photos, this time we take a bucket with us so we can cut loose on wetting the rocks down and exploring all the colours.    This pic at right is not wet.   We could bore you with a numerous pics taken here but we won't, just a couple.   Can't believe we met a lady later who visited here and didn't wet the rocks, thought they were spectacular as they were.....  She has really missed out.

It was Saturday and we went to fill up at the Road house, it was closed.....closed every Saturday.   Lucky there is another servo in town or we might have been stuck for a day.   As we leave we check the temperature displayed on a digital sign in the park.    Currently 38.1 deg at 8am in the morning!   I guess the locals are used to it, but we decide this is not on our list of places we could live.

26th Oct - 80 Mile Beach

 We got out of Broome and started our journey southwards.   We were told about Barns Hill, nice little spot to stay bout 100kms from Broome, not a long drive, maybe we stop there..   No it is about 5kms dirt road and Darl can not face this just yet.  We continue on, the landscape is a little bland, not much happening, but still green as.  I notice quite a few whirly winds happening.  We fill up at Pardoo station and decide to give 80 mile beach caravan park a go for the night.  We were expecting to see a lot of fishermen out.

I guess our expectations, a beach is a beach, BUT wow!!  We set up camp and wandered over the dunes down onto the beach and were blown away.  As far as the eye could see in both directions.   What blew us away most was the ocean (above), where the ocean met the beach it looked like a 3-5 metre wall of water.   We collected a few seashells (I am converted by Liz) and decide to take a walk out to the water's edge.  Will we make it back if the tide turns I asked Darl, yeah no worries.   The closer we got the more eerie it got and we decide to head back to the safey of the dunes.

We asked a few people if they knew what it was, but no one really knew, a sand bank and a gully.  It wasn't till next morning we talked to a couple of volunteers been here for 2 or more years now, they said it was a mud bank.   It tapers off when you look down the beach to a "normal" looking surf.    This is a nice little spot, it has a nice Anzac memorial by the sand dunes.   The grounds and amenities are well kept, neat and tidy and nice little gardens.   It even has a TV/computer room set up in an air conditioned container, which we venture up to after dinner, to study our maps and enjoy the cool.

 We wake early in the morning, gee the tide is in and the waves are crashing and thundering, have to get out of bed and go down have a look.   My Darl was soon to point out that it was thunder, as in storm thunder, I said surely not.   But when I stepped outside the sky was black as...  No one out fishing this morning, but a couple of crazy european tourists out walking the beach.  The locals didn't think it would blow over towards the park, wrong!   This is our first real storm of the season and first real rain shower since Mackay.

At least the rain settled the dust for the 10kms over the dirt, corros back to the highway.  The locals also showed Darl and I a turtle nest above, which was awesome, they come in at dusk and after to make their nest and lay their eggs.  The season starts from October, so this is one of the first for the season.    It would have been nice to spend another day here and wander along the beaches collecting shells.   It's very relaxing you know, but we decide to head down and out to Marble Bar, which we have been told is a great stop...... we'll see.

25th October - Tip

Hi guys I have just discovered something really cool, if you haven't already found.  If you double left click on any photo of any post, it will bring them up bigger on the screen........

21st - 25th Oct - Last Days Broome

                                                                                                                                                                 Couple days after the trip to Cape Leveque, we have recovered and so has the poor old Suzuki. What a legend, turns out she guzzled all the gear box oil, Darl topped it up and next day she was good as gold, 5 gears back. Darl did a full service on the bike and she has been resting up for the past few days.......until next trip.

We were enjoying our daily swims until this chap was pulled ashore.  One morning a lone fisherman in the water up to waist, happily fishing away, spotted a bit of a fin and went over for closer look, reports say he jumped about a foot out of the water when he realised it was a shark, not a small one either.   Then thankfully, he realised it was already dead.    Looked like it had been shot or speared.   The authorities come and took the carcass away.    Needless to say we were a bit hesitant to go swimming after that.

Without the car for a couple weeks, we have been on the treddlies getting around, getting some exercise to boot.    We visited the old St John of God Convent, built in 1926.   They have a permanent exhibition consisting of 8 galleries depicting conditions, activities, works, people helped over the years, a lot of great work has been done by the Sisters of St John of God.  This slab believe it or not is the site and the size of the first home in Broome of the Sisters of St John of God.  I hope there was only one living there at the time..

We ventured out another day in search of some watermelon and rockmelon seeds for my dad!  He's having trouble getting them in Qld.  We went round in circles for a bit trying to find Bunnings, just about to give up and asked a nice person driving by, we were on the right road, just a little further down.   Then we treddled over to seek some comfort at the shopping centre and come across the Chinese and Japanese (right) cemetries.  There are 707 graves here (919 people, some have doubled up). There were a number died during cyclones 1887 and 1935 and of course others due to drowning and divers paralysis.

Have wheels, will travel!!!  Picked up the car this arvo.    We have enjoyed our stay in Broome, it's a nice little beach side town.    We will miss "our bay"  and all the goings all that have kept us entertained each day.  Have met some great people here, Ash and Nina (our long term neighbours of 3 weeks), Liz and Ross from Adelaide and Pat and Brian from Castlemaine, Vic.    Brian used to come here in the 70's, when the streets were dirt, people used to sit under the trees playing their mandolins and the luggers used to still dock at Streeter's jetty, nothing ever stays the same.............

19 - 20th Oct - Cape Leveque Trip

Well a few days r n r and my Darl announces we are going to ride the Suzi to Cape Leveque, we had considered it before but decided too far and too hard and unsealed road!  We'll take the sleeping bags and camp out under the stars, how romantic!  Only if I can take my pillow...ok.   We packed up two sleeping bags, 1 pillow, 1 bag clothes, shoes, toiletries, towel, you know the essentials.  No grog!  One bag of tools and 2 litres fuel my darl carried and one bag water, sangas, sunscreen I carried.

                                                                                                                                                                  We set off at 8am, all keen and eager. Well I tried in my mind to be positive, but a little bit hesitant of what to expect on this dirt road we were about to hit. It wasn't too bad, not as bad as Cape York roads, though pretty sandy there were some narrow stretches of hard road, which were still a bit bumpy. It was okay until we had to navigate back to the left of the road, through a foot of sand, the suzi didn't make it and we fell off, Darl over the handle bars, I just went with the bike! Lucky we had a soft landing.  There was a 4WD coming towards and you know he didn't even stop to ask if we were okay......

                                                                               We knew it was going to be a journey as we only have a small fuel tank and have to fill up at the only fuel stop, halfway at Beagle Bay. This is an aboriginal community. We got there at 12 o'clock but we have to wait until 1.30pm for the store to open so we can get a fuel card to fill up. Some friends told us of this awesome bakery there and I thought it would be great for lunch, but the bakery was shut up, closed down and gone!!    We ate our squashed, soggy sangas instead. We had a look at the church, decorated with pearl shells, built in 1915-17 by the german priests and brothers.  

                                                                                                                                                                  They were at the time, running the show, and forced into house arrest during WW1, when they started building the church. We got our fuel card and after a few goes got the pump to work, filled up and continued on our way, we were on bitumen now, clear run from here to Cape Leveque. Or so we thought. The neighbours back at Broome just got back from Cape Leveque and said if we could get through the first 2 kms on the dirt (sandy) road, we would make it through. They failed to tell us that the last 5kms to Kooljaman, was gutter to gutter sand!!!
                                                                         

We took one look at this road and said nah, we not going there and beated a hasty retreat back to the tar, well we almost made it, when we hit a patch of sand and went down again, our left legs pinned under the bike, lucky my Darl was on top so he took the brunt. That's it!! I will walk to the road and darl rode the bike out. A couple of nice ladies in a 4WD come by and said we are so close, if I get a lift with them then darl can ride the bike in, so he said he would give it a go. I watched from the 4wd as he swayed and writhed his way through the sand, his little chicken legs got a real workout!

My Darl, the enduro rider!! He was a lather of sweat when he got to the camping ground. A couple of sports drinks later and he was ready for a walk to the beach. I said let's book a room, you know, with a real bed. No way we bought the sleeping bags, we gotta use them..OK!! So yep we set up camp, the bike, the sleeping bags, no chairs, no light, no food and no drinks! We really did need a drink after the day, left at 8am and got to Kooljaman at 4pm.  A couple fellow campers (Doug and Russell) are amazed at our feat, took pity on us and offered a mattress for some added comfort, but we roughed it, how tuff are we??


We had a pleasant walk along the swimming beach in our bike gear .... We found a couple chairs to sit on and a worker bought us a lamp over to use, he, another ne couldn't believe our feat, had never seen such an old bike do this trip. As we had no food, we were lucky that Wednesday was dinner night at the cafe. We enjoyed a nice meal (though expensive) and it was only BYO so we really had a dry night. Off to bed we went, a sleepness night, tossing and turning. I can't remember the last time I ever slept in a sleeping bag, but there is not much room for movement in there!

We woke at day break to birdsong, mozzies and flies! We decide to go for a walk to the Western Beach.   No swimming here as the rips are too strong. Red sandstone cliffs melt into red sand to meet the squeaky white sands of the beach. Worker Paul told us of a truck coming in that we could follow out on the bike, parting a track in the sand. Sounded good. Russell and Doug offered us a cuppa for brekky, we had a great chat and laugh. Russell works at Tom Price and on a camp trip with his dad who has a yacht moored at Russell Island near home.

The truck didn't arrive when expected and Darl decided he was going to cut for it. Russell gave me a lift through the sand to meet Mel at the other end..... It gave me the opportunity to take a few snaps of Darl negotiating the sandy track. It was much easier not having my lump of a weight on the back of the bike for this 5km section and he found it a lot easier getting through this morning then late yesterday afternoon, though he did have a few wobbly moments. I don't believe the Suzi has so far survived the trip, with 2 falls, she started first go this morning.

After a short break at the end of the 5kms sand, we loaded up and took off to One Arm Point, where we needed to fuel up. We got brekky from the community store and asked where the Hatchery was. Just follow your nose down the road........ had a look at the road and it was tar, all good. We had some time to kill as we needed to re fuel again at Beagle Bay and the shop was shut 12-1.30pm. We set off to find the hatchery (turtles and fish) only to find a turn off, off the tar onto dirt/sand - we ventured a little ways along, there were no further signs to follow.

All we found was a number of these crued shelters along the shore line, look like they are used for gatherings/picnics etc. 11am time to fuel up and get going, we estimated a couple hours to get back to Beagle Bay. At the bowsers we met Bruce, the aboriginal "hippie" artist. He showed us his port folio, references etc., and let us know that he takes in back packers and woofers. We'll keep that in mind if we ever come back to this place. Petrol here 199.0/ltr. Darl found another 4 ltr container so we filled that up too, all up 6 litres fuel in reserve for the trip home, we are not going to run out.

                                                                                                                                                                                               

All the while I was wondering how we were going to go getting back over that road. We arrived early at Beagle Bay, the Suzi was making a god awful noise, what's that?  Sounds like the clutch....oh no, but Darl assured it would get us back to Broome.  The nice shop man, served us early so we could get on our way and Darl assured me he would stop every 20 miles for a break.   Darl tackled the trip home differently, he went faster and it wasn't as bad as the trip up.   Still a long ride home.  This trip all round approx 500kms (250kms sand/dirt with the occasional big dust hole)

   Yep, I'm done!!  Are we there yet??  Only 23 miles to go.   The noise seemed to have disappeared and we headed for the Razza for a drink when we got back to Broome, well we nearly made, as the poor old Suzi was running out of puff and was missing some gears.  A quick shower, then on the treddlies off to the Razza for curry night and drinks.   A nice feed, curry, vegies and rice and 5 drinks each for a value total $60, not like night before $74 for two meals (no drinks!)   We treddled our weary bodies home and had the best night sleep ever!!!

14th to 18th Oct - Broome

 These past few days we have just been kicking back, relaxing, taking in the views.     We had a huge day on Sunday.  We decided to go the markets in morning, jumped on pushies, rode down and they weren't on!   Back home for a bit then we rode pushies to RSL, a 5-10 minute ride down he road to settle in for 3 motogp races, the highlight of course Casey Stoner sealing the 2011 championship on his birthday.   That took us through to 2pm, then we did 40 minutes of test rugby league.  At half time we decided we should go home.  Those cheap RSL drinks going down too well.

The Beer and Satay Hut on the way home, so we called in to watch the 2nd half of the test, only to find out that in the 5 minutes we had left RSL, the game was over and we had won!   What the... obviously RSL had the delayed coverage.  What the heck, the neighbour turned up and we kicked on to watch the union test..... the score wasn't looking too flash and by 7pm we decided best call it quits for the day, so treddled home.   Good sleep that night.

Not the most glamorous shot I know, but I am trying to work on the tan.    We swim most days, it's hard not too, having the water at our door step.  My darl nearly got himself into a biff one day, he was talking to a little piccaninny playing with a turtle.    Next thing he ran over to his dad, then his dad (all of 6'+ and muscle bound) got a bit stroppy with my Darl, but he managed to defuse the situation.    Thankfully no blood spilled this day......  The top shot showing the first signs we have seen build up to the wet!  We leave soon we hope.

12th-13th October - Broome

 We watched a P&O cruise ship dock this morning and had a real lazy day, read, swim, a bit of blogging, couple drinks.  Our quiet day was disrupted when we got new neighbours, 3 adults and 7 kids!   We were a little bit worried. 1 adult left and took 2 kids with, that left 5 about 9 year old girls for a camp out birthday party and two adults.   My big brave Darl sorted them out though (at 2am) he shone torch on tent and told them it was 2am and time to shut up!  With that there wasn't another peep to be heard until 6 o'clock the morning.

 Thursday we took the Suzi for a burn over to Gantheume Point on high tide to see if there was any water in Anastasia's pool and there was, so I went for a dip.    We had quite an entertaining day actually.  It started when old mate called in our camp bout 7.30am, walked up and pulled a Boab out of his pocket, word must be getting around that we are suckers for Boab nuts.   Well we only need two nuts so we declined the purchase, but he was a friendly chap and wanted hand shakes, hugs and kisses.  Don't know but we seem to attract.

He did ask if we had a beer, said he come from the desert. At Gantheume point these obviously local kids (with BIG gonads!) girls too, where jumping off the rocks. The amazing thing was they had to wait for the right swell before clambering back up the rocks. They were doing somersalts and backflips. Yes, I did have to hold my darl back from joining them. Back home later we watched drama unfold, (front row seat) as a very drunk or high or both, european guy stagger into the water and decide he was going to swim to India. He got a fair way out, having the time of his life, until the cops arranged a rescue boat for him.

Saw him walking the beach this morning, he looked back to normal, more sedate, but he must have been sporting a hangover for sure.  Interesting the 3 cops in attendance didn't volunteer to swim out and rescue him, though a long way out, he was only in waist deep water.    Finished the day with Staircase to the (full) moon.  The photos didn't turn out so I bought a hand painted wine glass instead.    Nice feed of Barra for tea!   Pic of me at sunset waiting on the rocks for the moon to come up.  No drinks and no repellent, both bad moves.