Blogs from The Kimberleys, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

I think I am slowly coming to an end of writting the blog on the rest of our Oz trip which is good. Ian was the one who told me to write this all up and he hasn't even bothered to read them. I'm thinking about adding a few nasty comments about him in the blog to see if he does ever read it!! After Mitchell Falls we made our way to Ellenbrae Station where we had some lovely tea and scones! Not what you expect in the middle of the desert. It was such a lovely place. They must spend ages on the gardens as they were beautifal and really lush. The gardens must be watered constatly in the dry season for them to survive. It is so strange to see them waste water like ... read more

After dropping the campervan off it was time to start our tour of The Kimberleys. We did an organised tour as The Kimberleys is a really remote part of Oz and involves driving down some tricky roads. We did our tour with All Terrain 4WD Safaris. I have just looked them up on the internet and they seem to have stopped operating. Not sure why, although I did find them quite difficult to deal with when booking the tour. The tour was really good though so it's a shame they aren't operating anymore. Our tour group consisted of a real mix of people. We weren't on the typical Backpackers bus as we wanted something smaller and also got a really good deal on this tour when we booked it at the travel agent (could be one ... read more

We hit Broome and the fabled Cable Beach! We set up camp and rushed off to find the famous camels silhouetted against the sunset and the miles and miles of white pristine beach. We drove around looking for Cable Beach but we couldn’t find it. The one and only beach we could find was nice with some rocks and a lot of people, but nothing super special. Eventually the penny dropped…when we saw the camels. The 4x4s were congregating on the beach, chairs unfolded, bottles of wine opened, cameras ready. The sand was greyish and quite coarse and some flat waves tried hard to break. People were waiting everywhere for something to happen. We waited too and really tried hard to be enthused - really, we did. Oh well. Broome is modern and trendy with almost ... read more

By Ben! Our plan of attack in Australia has changed slightly and now we are avid campers, keeping the costs low! And thanks to Graham, a very kind Scottish man from Perth we are now in the know of the campers secrets! Lake Argyle and a Handy New Book We were camping at Lake Argyle and putting our tent up, after the previous night somewhere further down the road where our tent had collapsed due to broken poles. I set to work with some PVC tape to try and make a suitable shelter for sleeping and drew the attention of many other campers who took pity on my efforts! So Graham came over with tools and completely fixed our tent! He cut off the snapped bits and made shorter poles, a technique we've had to use ... read more

After a week of relaxing in Broome, I was off yet again on another adventure. This time it was along the Gibb River Road, one of the world's best un-sealed roads! The Kimberley is a large area in northern Western Australia, known for beautiful gorges, waterfalls, rivers, boab trees and ancient rock art. The people living in the Kimberly are cut off from the rest of the world during the wet season, and with my luck, it wasn't much drier in the dry season! After being a bum in Broome and saying lots of goodbyes, I joined with Wilderness Adventures on their 9-day tour. Our group, lead by Scott, consisted of 9 people, 6 of which were Pommies (or Limies as North Americans may know them) and 8 of which were girls. Let's just say it ... read more

Det är lätt att uppskatta livet till havs. Tidlösheten. Den tidslösa traditionen. De mäktiga krafter som ger liv till jorden, som så graciöst omsluter dig. Nu har jag funnit en skatt, vackrare än den vackraste pärla. Det som skulle föra mig vidare, tar mig runt den nordvästra kusten av Australien. Primitivt, uråldrigt, vilande samtidigt levande och ständigt häpnadsväckande. Genom kustsidan av den delvis orörda och på sina håll outforskade Kimberley-regionen. Vikar och creekar som bjuder på mirakel och jordens historia. Vi hade lagt ankar i Talbot Bay i ett par dagar, när vi tog en förkortad arbetsdag. Vi satte oss i en mindre båt för att besöka de närliggande horisontella vattenfallen. Två djupa vikar (20+80m) på rad, med endast ett litet in- och utflöde där tidvattnet ställer till med e... read more