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Published: October 22nd 2009
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Hi all!!
Well the slow life of Pemberton seems a million miles away. Its been a bit non stop since! I had a fab week in Perth with guys from Cairns; Kat, Jay, Mitch and Allan. Not a lot was done except we might of had a few alcoholic beverages... Oh, we did hire a car and visit the Pinnacles! Its a rock formation few hours drive from Perth in the desert. Perth seems like a nice place. Not a huge citiy but with plenty to keep you enterained, simialr to Cairns but bigger. Fremantle is a really nice suburb, lovely vibe and beach.
After Perth I flew straight to Broome where i spent a few nights, mostly chilling of Cable Beach which was gorgeous as there's not much to do in Broome. Then I started a 6 day tour of the Kimberleys. Stayed in swags every night in the middle of nowhere under the stars... cant really complain! Our tour guide Phil was really cool, very relaxed, and there were 18 in our group. What was really nice is it was an older bunch just by chance, 24 and above, and everyone got on really well. First stop
was the Prison Boab Tree, a common tree in the region, so named as prisoners were held there on route through the kimberleys. Next we went to Tunnel Creek where we walked though a tunneled cave which had bats on the ceiling and fish in the water and I got a brand new pair of trainers absolutely soaked through! I have no idea where we camped overnight - it wasnt a site or anything, we literally off roaded, parked and set up our make shift camp which consisted of swags (the sleeping bag/mattress/tent combo's we used in our other tour), a fire and a table to get dinner ready on. The toilet??? Pick your spot! The moon was incredibly bright you didnt need a torch to guide your way. Really really good. We had grilled snapper from the fire and we were all in bed by 10!!
Up at 5.30 partly because of the sun and patly because of Phil's subtle hint of starting the van! Lots of driving to do - its 8,00km from Broome to Darwin if you sight see and dont go direct. Our only stop was a walk down Geikie Gorge. Its the end of the
dry season at the moment, the rains begin in a few weeks, so you can imagine how dry the area is. Our walking route was along the bare riverbed, which was another treat for my shoes which are now a dusty black! But it was an enjoyable ruining.
Drove into Purnululu National Park and it took us 3 hours to negotiate the road. Set up camp with the bonus of toilets - long drops with a lid with a sign telling you to shut it so frogs and spiders dont get in... nice. Another early night and morning and we set off to see the Bungle Bungles - a range of rocks this spiritual significance to the aboriginal people in the area. We took a walk down the very dry Picanniny Creek and into Catherdral Gorge. Also walked through Echidna Chasm, again - dry. The walk was a climbing rocks kinda thing though that was fun! Watched the sunset over the Bungle Bungles and back to camp for another early night. The Kimberely is meant to be incredible but in all honesty (and this is probably just because of the dryness) I didnt fall in love with it. I
much preferred Kakadu and red centre.
Our third day was a bit dramatic. It started with Hazel slitting her foot open and me using my GCC first aid training! We then went to Emma Gorge and had another over-rock walk to the waterfalls. Water??? Yes, you heard me - so nice as well as it was in the shade and cold and lovely after a hot walk. On the walk back to the bus we had another injury. Jonno dislocated his finger. We were dropping like flies! BUt Jonno wasn't a drama queen and pushed back into place. Drove to El Questro and had my first shower (and drink) since leaving Broome. Lush. Hottest night so far and I started night sleeping without sleeping bag on top of my swag... until it rained. It was really funny actually because we all woke up at the feel of rain and begun reorganising into our hot swags in the early hours. In the morning, I was one of the few people who's swag remained waterproof and most of us were soaked. We took a bit of a detour to Hospital in Kununarra to get the invalids checked out and then headed
to Lake Argyll for a quick boat trip.
Final night was spent stuffing our faces with marshmellows over the camp fire. The fire was made only for this reason! Our dinner was done on the gas stove and the weather was hot enough without a fire! Quick stop on our trip to Darwin to Edith Falls for a nice swim and then we reached our final destination.
Another drunken post-tour evening spent in Darwin as we'd all become good mates by then so the evening was great. That was tuesday, and the next few days were spent lounging by the pool side and drinking really. Went to the night market thursday and all watched the sunset on the beach.
To be continued....
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