Fitzroy Crossing to Shark Bay

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Mary Pool to Fitzroy Crossing.



Well we left Mary Pool early after a very cold night in the bush. Jim and I were ok as we were able to fire up our diesel heater – what a great accessory.

The others could hear it going in the morning so there were a few comments made.

We had a short drive today arriving at Fitzroy Crossing before lunch. We checked in at the Fitzroy Crossing River Resort and Van Park. It was a fabulous park and had beaut drive thru sites. We were in time to have morning tea so Jim and I and Gaile and Wayne went up and had Devonshire coffees, we also booked into the restaurant for dinner.

We gave lunch a miss and around 1-30pm we went to the Rodeo - had to wait until 2pm for the bar to open and when it did we sat close to fence so we got a good spot with a table and chairs. Waited and waited for the Bull riding to start, it was a bit delayed because of prize giving for the camp drafting it went on and on and on. It finally started about 4-30, Gaile and I had a couple of Vodkas and the boys had a couple of beers, Wayne didn’t have much as he was driving. The bull riding started and boy that’s really serious stuff we got some good photos. There was a Kiwi bloke riding and really popular with the girls - he was supposed to be first out but his stupid bull sat down and wouldn’t get up, he had to change to another bull. He didn’t do real well though only lasted about 1 second.

We were talking to the guy next to us who also was a Kiwi, he owns a T shirt shop in town, he was telling us the kids come in with wads of notes to buy T shirts they hand over $50 for a $35 T shirt and leave without getting their change - he is always chasing them up the road with their change, he said they having no idea of the value of money.

His partner’s son in law won the camp drafting and they all come over and sat with us.

We didn’t stay long because we were going out for dinner but we really enjoyed the afternoon. We had been told Fitzroy Crossing was a pretty dodgy place but it has changed over the years and isn’t so bad.

On the way home Wayne got breath tested he said he hasn’t been breath tested in years and in just the few weeks he was in OZ he was done twice. Poor Wayne!!!!

The Kiwi T shirt guy told us there where 16 Cops in town and most of them are from the Uk - the one that tested Wayne was Canadian. They don’t have much to do as there is never any trouble there. The Aboriginies here are the friendliest we have come across they actually say hello to you.

We had a really very nice dinner that night most of us had the barra, Alan had duck.

The next morning Jim, Alan ,Wayne and Gaile went on a Gorge trip, which they said was quite good but nothing can really beat the Katherine Gorge.

We finally left Fitzroy Crossing around 10am and arrived in Derby just after lunch where we received the news of Nan’s Passing.



We arrived back in the West 10days later, we collected our van and car from Allied Pickfords where we had left it for the 10days, they looked after it well for us.

We had a quick look at the Port area then went down and had some lunch at Cable Beach. After lunch we headed straight out of town, the first night we stayed at Barn Hill Station - a long dusty ride into it 13ks off the main road. I think it’s a really tired van park - needs a really good revamp. We had the worst site next to a tin shed which a couple were actually living in.

The park is set in a beautiful part of the coast fabulous views (if you are lucky enough to have a front row site) and a lovely sunset that night.

I found out that the station make home made bread every day so before we left we bought a loaf and some bread rolls - it was really nice bread. We didn’t do any shopping in Broome so we didn’t have any fresh milk or eggs. The little camp store had some nice eggs so I bought them and not far along the main road was a little vegie stall where we were able to buy heaps of fruits and vegies.





Camping with Cows





On the way through we stopped in and checked out Pardoo Station but didn’t like it that much so we continued on to De Grey River free camp, where we stayed for two nights.

We arrived there early afternoon and found a really nice spot amongst the trees and back a bit from the river. Our neighbours were a South Australian couple Phil and Colleen and lots of cows - it was fabulous.

First night there we had rack of lamb with a salad for dinner, cooked the lamb on the BBQ – it was delicious.

In the morning the cows joined us for breakfast we got some photos of that.

That day Jim lit up a camp fire early in the day because we planned on cooking a camp oven stew.

We started up the Generator and made cappuchinos for our new friends - they couldn’t believe it. We had a really nice time at De Grey River doing what we love best camping buy a river with a camp fire going. Jim even went for a swim in the river after our neighbour had and shamed Jim into going.

The camp oven stew was a hit. We decided to make some damper also - that wasn’t a hit - more practice is needed there I think.



We left the river camp and headed for Karratha where we planned to meet up with our fellow travellers. We arrived there soon after lunch had lots of hugs and kisses they were glad to see us back again. Jim and I went and did some shopping and got back for happy hour - we then all had dinner together. The next morning Alan took Jim to the Toyota service centre for the ute’s 40,000km service. I caught up on some washing and cleaning and we did some more shopping - with the rest of the day was spent chilling out.



The Hartners and Leckies enjoyed their Horizontal Waterfalls trip out of Derby - except the generator on the boat broke down so it was a pretty hot and sleepless night for them.

They headed for Broome and all really liked it there where they did plenty of sightseeing.

They stayed at 80 mile beach for a night and also had one free camp on their way to Karratha.



Coral Bay Sunday 22^nd July



Our next stop was Coral Bay, a long trip - it’s a long way off the Highway to beach fronts over here and we had to travel 150ks off the main Highway to get to Coral Bay. Just as well it was worth it, a really nice little place. We got set up and took a walk down to the beach to watch the fish feeding, really big fish come in to be hand fed, they also like fingers as Jim found out when he pretended to offer the fish some food by hand.

We had 2 nights here which was probably long enough as there’s not a lot to do here. Alan and Jim did go fishing a couple of times without any luck (or maybe skill). The days were beautiful though. We booked into a little restaurant called Fins for dinner the following night that was quite nice.

Left Coral Bay on the Thursday for Canarvon where we had just one night at the Big 4 van park. They had a free sausage sizzle on plus an Irish man singing and telling jokes. His singing was better than his jokes, it was still enjoyable. While in Canarvon we fuelled up, got some more groceries, and went out and took the little tram ride out on the long jetty. Had a hardcase English Lady driving the tram she was really cute got some more photos.





Shark bay Friday 27^th July



We left Canarvon early for Denham in Shark Bay, a long trip today. We called into the Overlander Roadhouse had a bite to eat for lunch then turned off for the 149k trip from the highway into Shark Bay.

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