Broome to Kununurra

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Day 82 Thursday 22 June 2006 - Day 86 Monday 26 June 2006
Broome
It was to be our last night on our site for 2 weeks but have decided to stay another few days until Tuesday. It is such a lovely spot and the kids have made great friends that we don’t want to leave. The caravan park only takes bookings Friday to Friday so the next morning we had to move sites for 4 nights. Pathetic!! We spent the last few days sunning on the famous Cable beach, going back to Café Carlotta’s for scrumptious Italian and that one last sunset!!! Awesome!!

Day 87 Tuesday 27 June 2006
Broome to Derby
We were very sad to leave Broome today. We waited until 10 am departure time so we could spend every last minute in the town. We only had to travel approximately 200 km’s. but it was so far because we were out of the hang of travelling. I wasn’t looking forward to Derby because we had been there before and it wasn’t much chop. Graeme wanted to stop 2 nights which I wasn’t thrilled about. It is such a boring town and not very tidy. There are two caravan parks in Derby - one for adults only (which has a pool) and one for the families (no pool) which is not very good. In the afternoon we drove on the jetty which is a very long jetty. We went to the old prison and the old museum. Duane and Kiera had fun talking on the old phones. We found an old switchboard that I remember Wendy working on at her job at Gilbert Lodge. The sunset is still really pretty here.

Day 88 Wednesday 28 June 2006
Derby
We got up early this morning to attend the Kimberley School of the Air. This was very interesting. Duane got to see all the kids in a photo and on a map and where they lived. The School of the Air operates on computers now and not radio’s anymore. They have a ½ hour air time talking to the teachers and then they do a similar program to Distance Education so Duane could really relate to it. We listened to a live conversation with an aboriginal community up near the Mitchell Plateau. The Aunty was teaching 7 kids which would be hard work as it would take her all day. The normal school starts at 8am and finishes at 2.30pm (it was the same at Broome). Didn’t do much except after this except Duane’s schoolwork in the morning and looked around town and went to the local shire pool because it was quiet a hot today - 30 degrees. It is amazing that the pools are really cold up this way. The locals say that it is nice to swim in their wet season but their dry season the pools are freezing. The kids only stay in for 10 minutes and then they are freezing and sit in the sun to warm up.


Day 89 Thursday 29 June 2006
Derby to Fitzroy Crossing
We packed up this morning heading for Fitzroy Crossing knowing what to expect from this town as we had been here before. It hasn’t changed. The Fitzroy Crossing Lodge hasn’t changed either, lovely green lawns (and surprisingly no bindies - remember Mum and Dad with Duane). Graeme has been talking for the last two years that he was going to visit the Crossing Inn (the local pub for the brothers) and he finally got to do it without us. He drove in to the carpark where a sister was throwing rocks the size of the palm of your hand at a brother which was bouncing off his chest with a thud. She threw two that hit him but had more under her arm for more ammunition. Graeme tried to reverse out of the carpark but there was someone behind him. He got out of the way of the Patrol and then tried to wave Graeme into the pub. When it all calmed down Graeme drove in, parked the car next to his so it could have some shelter from the rocks. There was security at the door so Graeme went in for a beer but was very hesitant and looking over his shoulder all the time.

Day 90 Friday 30 June 2006
Fitzroy Crossing to Manning Gorge (along the Gibb River Road)
We didn’t leave too early for our camping trip along the Gibb River Road about 9.30am. We made sure we were topped up with diesel because we didn’t know where we would get more fuel. The King Leopold road was shocking between Fitzroy Crossing and the Gibb River Road. The Gibb River Road wasn’t much better. A lot of rocks, corrugations and lots of river crossings. We travelled 380 km’s on the gravel road. We stopped at Lennard River Gorge for lunch but couldn’t see much because we had to stop way before you get to the Gorge otherwise it would have been a very rocky track. We walked up the hill and arrived at the start of the path of the Gorge when Duane and Kiera could not walk any longer so Graeme went on to try and see something but he soon came back shortly with no result. We travelled on because we had a long way to go. The only other stop was Imintji store which is between Bell and Manning Gorge where you can get some supplies. The diesel was $1.96 per litre, luckily we didn’t need to fill up. There was nice icecreams though. 10 km’s either side of the store the road was like a motorcross track. I t was shocking! We arrived at Mt Barnett Roadhouse which is the gateway to Manning Gorge. The lady behind the counter made a comment to Graeme “You have had a hard day” and Graeme had. It was a long, rocky, dusty drive. We were looking forward to settling down but we had the tent to put up (for the first time) and another 7 km drive and worse roads than the Gibb River Road. We finally made it into the Gorge and whilst we were looking for a campsite the kids had spotted our friends from Broome - Rod, Naomi, Declan and Zali. We had travelled all these km’s and they had left Broome two nights before us. We set up camp next to them and enjoyed their fire. It was really nice catching up again. That evening I went to take Kiera to the toilet when I heard this stampeding of hoofs and rustling of reeves. I just picked her up and stood still (very frightened) in pitch darkness. The bulls/cows were so close, I felt the wind past us. Needless to say Kiera didn’t go to the toilet that time and we were all frightened to go into the bushes that night. Duane was really scared when we got into bed. He kept waking me up all night and holding my hand listening to the noises of the bulls.

Day 91 Saturday 1 July 2006
Manning Gorge to Bell Gorge
This morning we packed up which took a while and went for a walk to Manning Gorge. It was approximately 1 - 1 ½ hour’s walk one way and took a long time as it was very rocky, sandy, a few creek crossings and up and down hill. Half way Kiera eneded up on Graeme’s shoulders. Graeme’s calf’s are looking very muscular as he has to keep carrying an extra 16 kg’s on his shoulders. We were really hot when we got to the gorge. It was a beautiful waterfall plunging into a huge deep waterhole. It was fairly cold in the water but very refreshing. We jumped off the rocks and swam under the waterfalls which was a huge impact on the top of your head. We got back to camp and left at 1.30pm after lunch and drove to Bell Gorge. We arrived about 3pm and missed out on the 10 Bell Creek campsites that are available but we could camp in Silent Grove which was a general campground. Sorry Karen Maher (from school) I did say Hi to the ranger but it was not Ranger Dave as it was his day off. From memory it was Rod O’Donnell who was the ranger for that day. We took our tent off the packrack and Graeme and Duane went looking for firewood whilst Kiera and I put the tent up all ourselves. The girls were really proud as the tent was up when Graeme and Duane came driving back with the firewood. That night we had a beautiful bbq and a nice fire to sit around. We watched “Captain Underpants” on dvd on the computer. We were all exhausted so went to bed fairly early that night. Graeme must have been so tired that he went to sleep with his mouth open when he felt something in his mouth - it was a frog!!!! We didn’t find this out to the morning when he told us. He didn’t wake any of us up.

Day 92 Sunday 2 July 2006
Bell Gorge to Windjana Gorge
Bell Gorge is suppose to be one of the pitcturesque gorge but it is our opinion that Manning is the best from what we have seen. Bell was still good with only a short 1 km walk but when you got to the gorge you had to walk all the way around to get to the waterhole. That morning was quite cloudy so we didn’t bother taking our bathers. When we got to the waterhole it was very inviting so the kids went in their undies in the shallows. Graeme went for a big swim and under the waterfall again. It was too cold for me (even though it was 28 degrees - I must be climatising). We then got back to the car park when we noticed the back left tyre looking a bit flat. Instead of changing it we decided to pump it up and see how it went. We only had one spare. We then started driving to Windjana along this rocky, bumpy road. 15 km’s before the turn off to King Leopold Road (the turnoff to Windjana) we popped the back right tyre. We put the bonnet up to connect the compressor for the spare tyre when people stopped to help us change it. Kiera got really scared because it was the first time she had seen the exhaust jack being used. It worked so we were really happy as we had only bought it in Kalgoorlie. We knew we had no spare but we continued onto Windjana to stay the night. We set up camp and went for a walk along Windjana Gorge. This is the second time we have visited and it is still fascinating. Lots of freshwater crocodiles bathing on the sand in the sun. We purposely went into the gorge around sunset to see the colours of the rock formations. Beautiful!!!

Day 93 Monday 3 July 2006
Windjana Gorge to Fitzroy Crossing
We took it relatively easy the next morning on our way back to Fitzroy Crossing but the road was still really bad and rocks everywhere. We were just hoping that we would not pop another tyre as we had no spare. Duane and Kiera were in the back crossing their fingers and toes but unfortunately it didn’t help because we got about 50 km’s away from the bitumen road (95 km’s away from Fitzroy Crossing) when the back left tyre popped. What were we going to do?? Kiera and Duane started to cry as they knew that there was no other spare. I was a little worried as it is not a very busy road and after three nights camping we were starting to run low on food and water supplies. We had 7 litres of water left. It was hot, there was no shade and you stayed where you were. We had ideas that Graeme would walk and I would stay with the kids and the car. Just as Graeme was to set off with sunscreen on, a hat on and bottles of water in his pocket a 4WD that was going the opposite way came by and stopped. They were a couple that was heading towards Bell Gorge. David (the guy’s name) and Jackie came from Melbourne too. Jackie took Graeme back towards Fitzroy Crossing to see if we could find a community or farm that could assist. They found a cattle station (Leopold Downs) that had some sort of mechanic that could patch up the one tyre. David stayed with me and the kids. 45 minutes went by when Graeme and Jackie came back with the plugged up tyre. Graeme said he had to put heaps in it. We then put it on the car and drove to this cattle station which was 5 km’s down the road to see if we could get the other fixed. A big thank you goes out to David and Jackie for helping us out. Good luck on your travels. Fortunately the tyre stayed up to get to the cattle station where there was about 4 men in their big cowboy hats and cowboy belts on with RM Williams of course. Brendan the guy took one look at our other tyre and said he had no more plugs left for this so he put a patch on it. The walls on the tyre were stuffed to say the least so we were driving on patchy ground. Thankyou Brendan - you guys in the outback are so generous. They accepted no money even didn’t want a few beers that Graeme had in the Waeco. We drove off and about 5 km’s down the road the tyre with the plugs blew again. The exhaust jack is getting a fair bit of use on this trip. We then changed the tyre again with the patched tyre and just hoped we could get on the gravel road towards Fitzroy Crossing. We made it into town - it only took us 5 ½ hours to travel 100 km’s. We were so exhausted and we desperately needed a shower after three days. We were suppose to leave the next day but decided a nice shower, a good meal at the pub and a nice cold beer was in order for the night and a reasonably restful day tomorrow.

Day 94 Tuesday 4 July 2006
Fitzroy Crossing
We spent the day unpacking our camping gear, putting our tinny back on the car and generally cleaning up after the Gibb River Road. We went up to the bar for happy hour between 5 - 6pm for $2.00 4XXX beer and had dinner back at the caravan. Beautiful scotch fillet and sausages for the kids.

Day 95 Wednesday 5 July 2006
Fitzroy Crossing to Leycesters Rest - Ord River (100 km’s north of Halls Creek)
We left today all refreshed ready to embark on Halls Creek. Some people told us to drive straight past it and only one person said it is not that bad. Graeme was determined to stay for the night and we also were trying to pick up a spare tyre so we could go into the Bungle Bungles. We arrived and the tourist bureau was a really nice building worth 3.5 million with a café and all. I bought some placemats and coasters in aboriginal art. There is only two caravan parks in this town, one right in town (which we have been told that the brothers run through it at night, scary!) and the other 16 km’s out on a gravel road. We decided to look at the caravan park in town and what a dust bowl it was. We then drove out to Old Halls Creek where the other caravan park was. The road was shocking. I was cringing everytimewe we went over the rocks and the dips. What a shocking road. We arrived and it was worse than the first. We decided that it would be better to go to a free stop as it would be better than the caravan parks here. We also couldn’t get a tyre for our 4WD so we picked up some frozen bread (because that is all they have here) and then drove another 100 km’s to a free stop. This was great. There was at least 30 caravans. We met up with a group of 4 parties that are travelling together and spent the night around the fire together comparing stories. They were really nice and gave us some tips on where to stay in NT.

Day 96 Thursday 6 July 2006
Leycesters Rest - Ord River (100 km’s north of Halls Creek) to Kununurra
We were not suppose to travel so far but because of our tyre we could not go into the Bungle Bungles National Park. We were told that a town called Doon Doon Roadhouse had some good 4WD tagalong tours to the gorges and good barramundi fishing spots. We arrived there which was a nice roadhouse and caravan park attached to it in the middle of nowhere. All enthused we asked the roadhouse how we tagalong but the lady behind the counter said that because of the cyclones the roads were closed. We were very disappointed. It was only lunchtime so we decided to drive on (what was the use of staying in the middle of nowhere and wasting a day). We drove to the next free spot but it wasn’t much chop so we continued driving into Kununurra. We were told that it is a busy town and the caravan parks get packed so we were very concerned because we were contesting with the NT traffic because they are 1 ½ hour in front of us so people roll up really early to get a spot in the caravan parks. There is 5 in town. We drove to the first tyre place and got a price for our tyre because we had planned to purchase the new spare and drive back to the Bungle Bungle’s. $290 for the tyre but at least it is matching (dearer than Fitzroy Crossing). We booked into the 5 star caravan park Ivanhoe Village because we thought we had deserved it but it is not much better than all the others. I don’t believe the star ratings mean anything. It is nice though but very cramped and you feel like you are on top of your neighbours. The pools are still very cold so the kids go in for 10 minutes, freeze and then come out and jump into the hot shower.

Day 97 Friday 7 July 2006
Kununurra
We haven’t done much today except buy supplies, do the clothes washing, talkabout satellite TV’s and meet up with friends from previous towns.

Day 98 Saturday 8 July 2006
Kununurra back to Leycesters Rest - Ord River (100 km’s north of Halls Creek)

Today we left so we could go back into the Bungle Bungles. We have decided to do a day trip and leave the van in the free spot. Everybody else does it so we will take the chance. It is amazing what the kids do for fun. Kiera is walking around with her pram in the campground looking for rocks. They are her new dolls. Duane is busy collecting wood so we can have a fire and playing Hotwheels in the dirt. Graeme as usual is setting up his satellite. It will be a long day tomorrow and another rocky road. We have both agreed if we blow a tyre on the way in we will just come back.

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Photos

Duane and Kiera
Duane, Kiera, Declan and Zali. They have been great friends for Duane and Kiera.

Derby
Duane at the historical museum.

Gibb River Road crossing
One of the many river crossings we did.

Manning Gorge
Jennien and Naomi at the waterfalls.

Termites nest
The kids are amazed how large these grow??

Bell gorge
Our second night camping in our tent.

Duane reading
Duane trying to read on the bumpy Gibb River Road.

Our 1st flat tyre
The Gibb River Road - too many rocks.

Windjana Gorge
The skies are fantastic at sunset.

Windjana Gorge
This is Kiera modelling in front of the crocs!!!

Our 2nd flat tyre
The roads were terrible and we had no spare tyre.