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Published: February 17th 2010
Our first stop after leaving Kununurra was Halls Creek. The caravan park was nice and quiet which suited us fine, as we had heard a few horror stories of drunken violence in the area. Halls Creek is the closest town to Wolfe Creek Crater, caused by a meteorite falling to Earth. It is the second largest in the world after Arizona in the USA. The crater is only accessible via a 4wd track and is 800m in diameter. Grady had been particularly looking forward to seeing the crater and was bitterly disappointed when told the road had been closed only a few days earlier. Flights over the area were $180 each but only for two or more people, so it was not possible for Grades to see the crater. I have vowed to return to the area so we can drive into the Crater and also the Bungle Bungles, whose access road is also nearby.
Halls Creek has a monument outside the visitors centre to “Russian Jack”, a local legend who pushed his sick friend over 300kms via wheelbarrow for medical help in the early 1900s. Apparently this event was used to inspire the Rev. John Flynn to start what is
mango place, broome
Cody enjoying a mango ice cream... yumnow known as the Royal Flying Doctors Service.
On the drive out from Halls Creek to Fitzroy Crossing, I read the info on Russian Jack to Grady: his life and death. What a character! A few things to note: the wheelbarrow was not conventional - the wheel was concrete and the beams were 2m long. The whole contraption was extremely heavy. The legend says that Jack was well over 2 metres tall himself and pushed his mate over hundreds of corrugations. There were some funny stories to read about him and we are looking forward to our arrival in Geralton because we have heard that is where the wheelbarrow resides. Jack died in Geralton of pneumonia (yes, he pushed his barrow there too), thought to have developed because of his habit of drinking at night and sleeping under the stars - not a problem in the heat of the Kimberley, but not so wise in the cooler south.
Knowing we would encounter a McDonald’s at Broome, we decided to free camp after Fitzroy Crossing, rather than pay roughly $45 to stay in the caravan park. Saving this money would allow us to treat ourselves to Maccas on arrival in
Ganthemue point
Beau looking over the coastline Broome. We opted to stay at the Boab Rest Area, named aptly for the huge Boab tree in the centre of the parking area. Sounds pleasant, until we saw the human faeces in the centre of the tree! There are no pit toilets at this rest area, so people have used the tree as a toilet. That pretty much put a dampener on the evening - that and the fact that it was stinking hot with not a breath of wind. We had a single 12volt fan which I had to keep getting up to change position between the 4 kids whilst Grady and I sweltered on our bed. I think it was about 3am when Grady commented: “that Big Mac had better taste good!”
The first thing which surprised me about Broome is how expansive the area is. Three main areas of residence: Old Broome, New Broome and Cable Beach are connected via double lane roads with coast everywhere. Thinking back, it is no wonder I was surprised at the size of the town, as it was the largest town we had seen since leaving Darwin 3 months ago. We had been told to stay at the Cable
Beach Caravan Park because it has a 30metre pool. The pool didn’t disappoint - the kids enjoyed swimming over such a large area and we used the time to practice snorkeling ready for the coral coast.
The best part of the caravan park though was the opportunity for the kids to play with other kids. We hadn’t camped with other families since Darwin and they relished the opportunity to play spotlight at night and cricket and “catch the flag” during the day.
We met some lovely people at the Baptist Church on Sunday and Grady enjoyed fishing out on a boat with a few of the guys there. He was rewarded with a “Spanish flag” (looks like a striped snapper, for our Victorian mates) and we enjoyed meals at the houses of two families during our time there. Yet again, the hospitality of strangers has been a real encouragement and lesson for us.
Grady picked up some work with one of the residents, which involved traveling over 600kms to Port Hedland to help put up plaster in two houses. They worked like dogs over the 8 days and slept in conditions worse than criminals! Grady certainly earned the cash to
continue our travels.
Grady was away for Australia Day, and so I took the kids to the celebration on my own. I loaded them up with glowsticks so I could always keep an eye on them and we set off to the resort venue (name escapes me) on the beach. I had been used to the Geelong celebrations with crowds everywhere and no parking, so it was a welcome change to arrive well into the party but get a close park and a crowd so much smaller that it seemed almost intimate. The fireworks were fantastic and such a memorable moment for the kids to remember Australia Day 2010 in Broome.
When Grady returned we booked in a camel ride on Cable Beach. There are 4 camel operators on Cable Beach and we opted to ride with the Blue Camels. Chloe and I received free pearl earrings and we had the first cloudless night since the start of the wet season to enjoy the sunset ride. What impressed me the most about these guides was that they rushed around using each rider’s camera to take photos for them - people we spoke to from other operators didn’t have that. It
Chloe
Little girl is growing up fast... gives a much better perspective when looking back over photos and so we were really happy to have chosen this group. What an experience as well - to stroll down the deserted beach on a camel watching the sun go down. Cody kept up the chatter the whole way: “This is good fun!” and each of the kids really loved it.
The next day we head to the Pearl Luggers in town for part 1 of our two part pearling activities. Pearl Luggers demonstrate the history of pearling, with suits, boats and a close up look at some of the wares of the day. We enjoyed hearing some of the tales (some quite sordid) and imagining what it was like in the day. The kids behaved exceptionally during the 1 hour talk and were rewarded at the end with a taste of the meat from the oyster and a hold of a $100,000 pearl. We all loved the oyster meat - but at $140 a kilo a taste is all we’ll get (it retails in Japan for $400/kg).
Part two involved a trip to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm along the Cape Leveque Road where they harvest the prized South
Sunset
L-R Seth/Beau, Emily/Chloe, Grady/Cody Sea Pearls. South Sea pearls are the largest and most prized of the pearls. Generally a pearl necklace in a jewelry shop is made with imported pearls. The South Sea variety however are more likely to be under lock and key. Our guide showed us how the many different types of pearls are farmed and it was truly interesting to see and hear. We went out in a boat and saw the oyster bed and then cruised down the waters of Willie Creek to hear more history about the area. A note to backpackers: 6 months contract work at Willie Creek cleaning the oysters of barnacles earns a take home wage of $1000 a week!
Following our cruise of the area, we were treated to Damper and brewed coffee/tea and cordial. This was a real delight and then Grady surprised the boys and me with a flight over the area in a helicopter. Cody is addicted to Thomas the Tank Engine and he was rapt to be able to fly in “Harold”. Our flight was not the conventional type for our pilot - he just had to let his in-flight commentary go because the boys kept pressing their speech buttons
just to say things like: “ooohheeee” or “this is AWESOME” and to ask millions of questions. The day was concluded with a dream in the retail shop and I have to say, the combined tours was the highlight of Broome. We will never look at a pearl in quite the same way after learning some of the history and value in each of these organic gems.
Other activities we enjoyed in Broome were the Mango Place (yum), the dinosaur footprints in the rock at Ganthemue Point, fishing off the jetty, the museum (interesting place with pearl history and war history) and of course the library. Also at Ganthemue Point is a natural pool formed into the rock. It has been named “Anastacia’s Pool” after the wife of a former lighthouse keeper. She had arthritis and her husband had his worker concrete a seat in the pool so she could do daily exercises there. His love for her was so strong that when she died a part of him must have died also, because within a year he had also passed on.
We enjoyed a barbecue with our friends in the park the night before our departure and bid farewell quite
Pool
Cable Beach Caravan Park... 30 metre pool... great! late the next morning. Our destination was Port Smith - a place Grady had heard was legendary for fishing. For us however it was a myth - with king tides the fish were not biting, but the sandflies were! We had heard about sandflies in Darwin and Broome but had never seen them or been bitten (only the mosquitoes seemed to get us). It was different in Port Smith where you could see tiny bugs no bigger than the head of a pin land on you and engorge themselves with blood. The little blighters got the kids really bad - they looked like they’d had a bout of chickenpox. Sandflies leave a tiny red spot which over a couple of days develops into a shocking itch. We were able to test our home-brew of equal parts Dettol/Eucalyptus Oil/Baby Oil and I can say it works a treat - I had dead sandflies all over me. However, wouldn’t recommend lathering oneself liberally in Baby Oil in the Australian Sun; SPF 30+ twenty minutes prior is a good start!
We did enjoy Port Smith - the people in the park were really nice and the price was certainly good ($35 a night
for our family). If we ever do another “lap” we will certainly stop there.
With the tightest budget we have ever had, I grudgingly agreed to a $50 roadhouse stop the next night at the Pardoo Roadhouse. This was a pleasant area with grass everywhere, a COLD pool (hooray!) and at night, the best display of outback stars I have ever seen (beats even South Australia). Grady and I were mesmerized at night by the full Milky Way and a shooting star so big that it left a white stripe in the sky. It was a beautiful evening and we added this chapter to our book of “moments” we never want to forget.
Port Hedland still held bad memories for Grady, so we flew through this town with not even enough time to call family whilst we had mobile service. It was a big drive to get to Karijini National Park and we were prepared to have a free camp on the side of the road, but the kids surprised us by saying they wanted to keep going and we made it into Karijini by nightfall. They really are seasoned road-travelers! 500kms doesn’t seem like a long way, but when
towing with kids at 80km/hr and also stopping for fuel/toilet it makes for a big day. Driving along these stretches of road it really hit me just how big Australia is. We had driven for 500kms before the scenery changed and when we drew the line on our map, it really wasn’t that impressive! With a lot of time to think, I seem to spend a lot of time in appreciation of the explorers who paved the way for us to do a trip like this, whilst being impressed with their methods of transportation to do it. On the way to Darwin, I had read the story of Charles Stuart, who explored the area from South Australia through the Northern Territory. The endless hours exposed to the sun destroyed his eyesight and the Government didn’t recognize him to qualify for additional finances when he struggled. He died in his 50’s and was a true pioneer for the country - the grey nomads certainly do it differently nowadays and we have people like Stuart to thank for it.
Our arrival in Karijini was dampened slightly by the closure of Dales Gorge and campground (due to recent bushfires). This cut out 3
Boab Rest Area
Nice place, shame about the rest of it!!! of the pools and we were a little disappointed and too tired to continue to the next campground, so we put the legs down at the visitor centre and enjoyed their flushing toilets and showers. At night we sat up with the kids and watched the stars again - they enjoyed spotting shooting stars, but there were no biggies like the night before.
No one cared that we had used the car park as a campground (another blessing of traveling in the off season) and we enjoyed looking through the Visitors Centre the next morning and were over the moon when Dales Gorge was reopened during our tour. How fortunate were we! We drove to the gorge and scaled down the steps into Fortescue Falls, where we enjoyed a refreshing dip for a good half hour before continuing our walk along the path to the Fern Pool. A cross there reminds tourists that a person died in that place and a request to keep the Fern Pool a place of peace - not a difficult task with a large blue, open aired pool in a gorge bordered with ferns, fruit bats in the gum trees and a twin trickle of
Boab Prison Tree
Near Derby, used for prisoners but also for the illegal kidnapping of Aboriginals for work on the pearling boats. First, two blokes would pull them down to the bottom of the ocean where their eardrums would burst. falls over an alcove in the rock just perfect for sitting under. At the entrance of the pool there were heaps of little fish which Seth enjoyed catching by hand. After our time there we continued down the road to the lookout for Circular Pool. Not content with our day’s activities, Grady and the older boys voted to walk the trek to the pool. This was definitely NOT on Chloe’s or my own list of top 10 activities for the remainder of the day, but for the sake of our men we cajoled down the Class 4 trek (Class 5 is the highest, Class 6 requires abseiling equipment) and were rewarded at the end with a beautiful swim in a lovely pool. It is worth mentioning at this point that we were visiting Karijini in its hottest time (42 degrees celcius). This is actually a fantastic time to visit, as the temperature of the pools is perfect for swimming. In the cooler months when tourism is at its peak, the pools are supposedly quite cold.
Filled with our days activities, we drove the van along the dirt road (as rough as we’ll ever want our van to get) to the
Em wearing $14,000 necklace
Great look with the grotty old caravanning t-shirt! Karijini Eco Campground (fancy way of saying they have no power or rubbish removal). Prepared for the worst, we were pleasantly surprised to pay $25 a night (no charge for kids - first place to do so), which was just as well with no power. The showers and toilets weren’t bad, but with only two to service the area I would hate to see the campground in peak times.
More prepared for a night of no power we plugged two extra 12volt fans into our battery pack and slept quite well that night with temperatures in the high 20’s. Two nights with no power had taken its toll and in the morning we found our battery pack nearly out of power, with still another free stop before Exmouth. We plugged the pack into the car to charge while driving and ventured on to Hancock Gorge - our most adventurous of the gorges.
Our trek into Kermit’s Pool in Hancock gorge would begin with Class 4 before developing into Class 5 trekking. After Kermit’s pool the trek became Class 6 and for tour groups only. To reach Kermit’s, we were required to climb down a 6 metre ladder vertical against the
$100,000 pearl
Beau oh so casually holding the pearl... rock wall, clamber over natural steps against a drop, swim through a long pool and walk the “spider walk” - against two walls of rock before arriving at Kermit’s Pool. It was great fun! The kids felt like true adventurers and loved every minute. We met some lovely backpackers at the end and enjoyed the time there so much we forgot to take photos of Kermit’s Pool! A rope had been left behind on the drop out of the Pool into the Class 6 area and a couple of the backpackers had made their way to the Junction pool and back (we found out later that this rope was left by the guide on their trek through the canyons ready to be used on the way back). Bruce from Stawell offered to take Grady with him through the Class 6 trek to Junction Pool and back (in boardshorts and bare feet, mind you). In order to start the trek they first had to jump off around 4 - 5 metres into the pool before they could make their way along. After doing the walk to Kermit’s, I can only imagine what this was like with no equipment, but for Grady
Fortescue Falls
Trekked down to the bottom for a swim... lovely it was the highlight of everything he has seen so far on the trip. I think he secretly enjoyed doing something only reserved for those with “high level of fitness” (according to the Karijini pamphlet) and the camaraderie between two travelers.
We thoroughly enjoyed everything that Karijini had to offer us at that point, but were happy to move on and leave more exploring for another time. We will return one day; it is a truly gratifying place for road-weary travelers who have put in the kilometers to get there.
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Sharon
non-member comment
Wow!
Em, I am never less than impressed with your travel blogs. I love reading about your experiences, your observations of the people and the histories, the things you are learning about yourselves and about life. This is a wondrous time you are having with Grades and your kids..... incredible memories and an education like no other!