Middle lagoon and the rabid donkey

Middle Lagoon

With a tear in the eye, we packed up our camp in Broome and after leaving the van in storage, we headed up the dirt road toward Middle Lagoon (on the way to Cape Leveque).  After 180km (of which around 31kms was sealed), we made it to Middle Lagoon where we were camping in tents for the next two nights.  We didn’t think the roads were too bad, but once again, we compared it with the Bungles, so it was like a highway.  There was lots of sand, corrogations and big “dippers” that you could hardly see, but we made it there in one piece.  Definitely not a place you would take your van....or a 2WD vehicle.  We arrived at Nature’s Hideaway “Resort” (I think they use the word resort very loosely up here) to find that they were closed for lunch.  So we had a bit of a look at the beach which was paradise.  Once we got setup (after they decided we had waited long enough) we spent the rest of the day collecting shells, swimming and lazing on the beach.  Mel was a bit disappointed not to have seen whales (but she had her nose stuck in a book all day and hadn’t actually looked for them).    Apparently they had been swimming past all day according to some people we had a chat to that night!!  Charlotte and I had been diving to the bottom of the lagoon collecting shells and to our surprise a lot of the shells had inhabitants in them which we quickly released back to the wild (much to the disappointment of the kids!!) 

We finished the day with a big campfire and baked beans on toast (and a few sausages) all cooked in our new whizz bang electric fry pan....we decided to get a powered site and not worry about carrying the gas bottle or bbq.  

After sleeping in the boys tent and the girls tent, we woke to see everything covered in water.  The dew was that heavy that everything was soaked and we couldn’t see 10 metres in front of us.  The tide was way out so we jumped in the car to visit the top of Cape Leveque.  We left after the school bus picked up the kids from the community and we were surprised to hear that over 500 kids go to the school at One Armed Point (that is bigger than Charlotte’s school) and they all get picked up all over the peninsula.  These would be very long days as the drive to the school would be around 2 hours each way.

We went straight to the hatchery where Dave gave us a guided tour.  He was great entertainment showing up the turtles, feeding the barramundi and showing off the clown fish.  They even had a little turtle that was 20 days old that the kids fed.  This is a delicacy in these parts for the aboriginal people, but Dave prefers Macca’s.  Dave was even nice enough to give Charlotte a beautiful polished shell (that they were trying to sell for obscene prices!!).

We visited a Pearl farm on the way back and had some milkshakes and smoothies.  It is amazing that you can drive down some very rough roads, and it feels like you are going into nothingness and then you arrive at a beautiful beach and in this case a fantastic cafe with all fresh produce!

On the road back to Middle lagoon we were confronted by a Donkey who would not let us travel the final 1km to our tent site.  Mel tried to persuade it by taking to it (i didn’t know she could speak donkey) and I decided to honk my horn....big mistake.  Apparently the donkey doesn’t like the sound of my horn and it attacked my car.  It started chewing on my bonnet so I jammed the car into reverse and started going about 25-30km an hour in the wrong direction....with the donkey in hot pursuit!!  I put on the brakes so the donkey would pass and it tried to rear up on Will’s window, so I floored it and quickly made our way to the “Resort”.  The donkey still followed us, but somebody grabbed it and tied it up (after it bit him a few times).  It was quite an experience and unfortunately I still have a few teeth marks on the front of the Pathfinder.

 

We thought after a busy morning, we needed some more beach action so we again swam, and collected shells and this time did it with our eyes open and we watch many whales breaching and swimming by the lagoon.  Another fantastic day!!

We had saved an easy meal of spaghetti and meatballs for tonight (courtesy of Mama many moons ago) so we fired up the electric fry pan again...our only means of cooking which promptly shorted out the whole resorts power.  No lights in the toilets, not pumps to run the showers, no lights in teh cabins.   We were able to plug into the main homestead’s power to finish our cooking (thank goodness), but there were many unhappy people (oops).

The next day the dew wasn’t as bad so we were able to pack up early and head back towards Broome.  We retired the girls tent...which didn’t have a fly and  didn’t hold up to the dew...the boys tent was fine!!

We got back to Broome where we found that a recruitment agency was trying to get onto Mel (and of course we hadn’t had any service) for an interview that day for a job Mel had stumbled onto (it’s alright people, it was in Melbourne, not Broome!!)  We quickly rescheduled the interview time, which meant we were stuck in Broome for a few more hours (terrible place to be stuck!!).  We got some more supplies, loaded up the van and then headed back to the foreshore, for a play at the park, a paddle at Cable beach and an ice cream (told you we were being punished) while Mel did the interview.  Once completed we jumped on the road towards Barn Hill which we had had very good recommendations!

Another 10kms of dirt with the van and we can to a park perched on a cliff overlooking the sea.  We had arrived at 4.30pm so the caretaker had already left the office, so we found a site (powered of course) and made ourselves at home.  We repacked everything after our camping trip and then were very disappointed that there was no hot water in the showers.  So we boiled some water and gave the kids a tub.  They kids were happy to be in their beds again.  We then realised all the taps were backwards and there was plenty of hot water, so we enjoyed a wash ourselves.

The next morning Charlotte and I visited the rock pools on the beach, where we discovered many creatures of the sea.  We found octopus, craps, little fish and then we stumbled upon a couple of huge trumpet shells which we wedged under the rocks. We took them back to show Mel and Will and Mel advised that there were signs everywhere saying not to take things from the beach....I hadn’t seen them so I didn’t believe her....we kept the shells.

We packed up and decided to head down to Eighty mile beach.  This was probably the best free camp site we had stayed at thus far....whoops, forgot to check in....

 

Beautiful Broome

Broome – Part 1.

As much as we have enjoyed Central Australia and the Northern Territory, we were soooo happy to see the beautiful coast and the amazing blue water of Broome.  We arrived a day early, so we had to stay our first night at Cable Beach Caravan Park (which is meant to be the pick of the bunch), honestly we were happy we hadn’t booked in our whole time there!!  It was an enormous park, probably over 500 caravans, and we almost needed to drive to the pool if we wanted to use it.  Anyway we set up camp for the night, and asked Mum and Peter if we could use their BBQ so we could unpack as little as possible.  We headed spent the afternoon down the beach, it is spectacular!!!!  White sand and Aqua water, and the water was warm, the kids spent hours making a home for a Jelly fish they caught, and I had a nice read of my book after a quick dip in the ocean.

The next morning saw us packing up to move to our more permanent caravan park (Palm Grove), We were almost ready to head off when Andy discovered a Tic embedded at the back of Will’s head!!! YUCK.  After consulting a few people, we decided the Emergency Room was the best option, so off we went, to be quickly turned away and told to just drown it in oil and then pull it out with Tweezers.  I had the first attempt at pulling it out, but that little sucker was holding on strong, and I was worried about hurting Will, so Andy took over and pulled it out.  Ugly little thing, and we still have no idea where he would have got it from!!!  Eventually we made it to Palm Grove, and we were very happy with this park, only about 500m from Cable Beach and a much smaller caravan park with good amenities, would definitely recommend it.  The afternoon saw Andy head off with Peter in the Canoe to do a spot of fishing, while the kids and I decided to head into Town Beach to visit the Water Park.  After a short stay at the water park, we decided our local Cable Beach was much better and spent another afternoon traumatising more Jelly Fish.  Andy and Peter had a great time out on the water, and had many bites (Andy thinks a HUGE one got away) but we saw no evidence of all these fish!!!

Day 3 – Today was an errand day – we wanted  to go in and have a look around Broome, and get Will a haircut (helps us to see the Tics better that way J), well the kids got sick of this pretty quickly and we headed back to the caravan for some lunch and a rest.  That evening we headed into main town Broome for a beautiful Thai dinner with Mum, Peter, Lorraine and Graeme, it was beautiful food and highly recommended if you ever go there – Som Thai Restaurant.

Day 4 in Broome was probably one of our best days of our holiday, we decided to hire a boat for the day.  We packed up a picnic as the boat came with a big Esky full of Ice, so picked up a chicken and some fresh rolls to take. We thought we could set up on the beach and go do some fishing and some Whale watching too.  After getting the boat and the low down on how to use it etc (which we obviously didn’t listen to the part about be careful of the tides bit) we headed out.  After dropping a line over the side I quickly spotted a couple of whales not too far off, so we raced over to see them.  I was a little scared about getting too close, they are big animals, and our boat was not sooo big.  We followed them for quite a while and watched them, they were probably only 100-150m away from us, awesome!!!  After a little more fishing, Charlotte caught one Snapper with blue teeth, and Will decided a sleep on the boat was a good idea, we headed in to shore where Mum and Peter were waiting.. ... This is the part where clearly we didn’t listen to the man about the tides, we came in a little too quickly and the water was rushing out, that resulted in a beached boat.  Quite a heavy one too push out we discovered, anyway crisis averted and we managed to get it back out to a safe distance.  Will and I spent the afternoon on the beach, while Charlotte, Andy, Mum and Peter headed off fishing, no luck there though.

Broome – Part 2

Today was a day for the kids, we walked up to Zanders up on top of the hill overlooking Cable Beach where they had a kids park.  While the kids play I soaked up the view and enjoyed a coffee and Andy had a milkshake.  We decided it was a day to spend at the pool, since it was a little windy and a little cooler (probably still 28 degrees though).  In the afternoon we headed down to enjoy our Camel Ride on the beach.  Charlotte and I were on one Camel and Andy and Will were on the one in front of us.  It was a little scary when the Camel got up but we made it, and the seats were actually very comfortable, although I think Andy’s inner thighs may have been stretched wider than he would have liked.  Charlotte and I had a friendly Camel that decided to walk beside us called ‘Gemma’  I did get a little nervous as her face was right at my leg and she started to make some unhappy noises, and I thought I may have lost a toe or two, but we all got back in one piece, and enjoyed our ride.  We finished the day off with a picnic dinner on the beach watching the sunset – what a great day.

The following day Andy needed to do a few work calls, so the kids and I just headed back down the park, I was keen to enjoy another one of those coffees with that view.  That afternoon ended up been another pool day for us, so the next day we spent at the beach, Charlotte did lots of swimming and I think even will got in the water, strange that all the Jelly fish had disappeared over night though. 

Broome seemed to be the destination for reunions, we got to catch up with lots of people we had met along the way, so it was great to see everyone again.  We reunited with Tim and Christine, and Jane and Cameron, much to the kids delight as they love playing with their kids too. We all decided that a visit to Matso’s Brewrey was in order and headed down to try out some of the Ales.  Andy got a sample Paddle and I enjoyed a couple of Mango Ciders (delicious).  This got followed up by a grand plan to have some cheap Thai that Tim knew about, this took us to some industrial estate with a caravan selling Thai food, luckily for us it was closed, so it was back to the local store for Pizza and Fish and Chips – great final day to our wonderful stay in Broome, we will miss Broome.....

Derby and the big Boab tree

We left Fitzroy Crossing in the rear view mirror (after the mandatory coffee stop for Mel) and headed toward Derby....and the ocean. After 250kms, we stopped at a park so the kids could burn off some energy.  It was when Mel decided she would walk across the road to get some supplies at Woolworths that she realised that she had left her purse on the roof the car in Fitroy Crossing.  In a mad panic we got onto the bank and cancelled all the cards.  Fitzroy Crossing is not your preferred venue to lose you wallet, but that goodness nobody had been using the cards.  Lucky I had not yet given Mel her pocket money and she had all of $7 in her purse.

The next issue was explaining to the bank that we were travelling and we needed replacement cards to be sent to Broome.  Their response "no problems, you just need to show you licence when you pick them up"  Mel's response "but I have lost my purse"  Bank "just show your passport"  Mel  "we are travelling"  Bank "just show your birth certificate " Mel  "we are travelling!!!!"  Anyway, we spoke directly to ANZ Broome and they bent the rules after we had our lovely housesitter Allison fax through a copy of Mel's passport.  Common sense finally prevailed.

Anyway, after our little issue with the wallet, we did geta few things from the supermarket and went done to the pier for lunch.  The kids must have looked very hungry (as I taught them) as we scavenged a couple of chips from a couple of oldies eating their fish and chips by the pier (we couldn't afford the $17.50 per portion after we bought Mel's diamonds....and now that Mel lost our last $7).  Then Mel joined us on the jetty with the remainder of the chips the old woman couldn't eat!!!  Love your work kids....my own little seagulls.  Will was a bit disappointed that he couldn't build a sandcastle as the beach was all mudflats. 

We moved on from beach to the Boab Prison tree.  This is now all fenced off and we couldn't get our picture taken in it because the Aboriginal people have now decided that this is a sacred site.  When we explained to Charlotte that the indigenous people owned the tree, she replied "but they own everything....can't we have anything????" 

We stayed at Bunk and Lois' place (Mum's brother) and my cousin Jane and boyfriend Dan were also visiting so it was a big family reunion.  We had a good feed and a couple of drinks and it was nice to have a shower without thongs on.  I think they were happy to see the back of us with Mel spilling drinks and Charlotte walking through their screen door!  It was good to catch up and it seems they are enjoying themselves with Lois seeing a lot of the country as a nurse with the Flying Doctors.

We have decided even though our booking in Broome isn't for another night, we are heading to the beach....we need to see the ocean.

Fitzroy Crossing ...and the cleaning begins

After our off the beaten track adventures, we needed to clean everything.  6 loads of washing later, we washed the car, the caravan, the pod, the flooring, the chairs and even the BBQ. Will was having to wear some of his sisters clothes so we certainly needed to do some washing.

Fitzroy Crossing was an eye opener as there was only a supermarket, a hardware store (which now has Tri-Fixx catalogues) a chicken shop and a Centrelink office....and hence a lot of aboriginals.  The Supermarket was like Fort Knox with bars on the windows and a huge jail like gate with barbed wire everywhere to lock up after hours....

The pub at the Fitzroy River Lodge had some interesting rules...that we tried to adhere to, but we all know what Mel is like after a couple of drinks and we were lucky not to get banned.

We did a day trip out to Geike Gorge and did the boat trip down the Fitzroy River which was very picturesque although once you have seen the big salt water crocodiles, the freshies don't excite you that much.  Very interesting to see the high water lines from the wet season and to hear about the volume of water that flows through the Fitzroy River.

We decided not to travel onto Tunnel Creek or Winjana Gorge as we didn't have another long dirt road in us, and we have decided that we are gorged out and unless the gorges come to us, we are not going to work to hard to find them (I know, we have been spoilt!).  We are looking forward to getting to the beach and with one small side trip to Derby, we will be in Broome in a couple of days!!!

 

Dirt, more dirt and the Bungles.

We decided to ditch our initial plan of staying at the newly developed Bungles caravan park (52kms from the Visitor information centre on the way to the Bungles) and I am glad we did.  $35 for an unpowered site, only portaloos and no shade.  We parked the van 400 metres from here in a free camp site, where we were joined by our new friends and we went onto have a big campfire, a few drinks and a warm night under the stars.   

The next morning we got all packed up and while the others put their van in storage (they were camping in the bungles) we nevously left our beautiful van in the free camp spot while we did our drive into the Bungles.  After 52kms of rough, dirt roads including 7 river crossings, we made it to the visitor information centre where we were told it was a further 26kms to Cathedral Gorge and little tiger striped domes they call the Bungles.  Charlotte and Mel were not enjoying the bumpy ride and Charlotte ended up sitting in the front so she didn't redecorate the inside of my car.  This was instantly forgotten when we arrived and saw the little domes and walked into Catheral Gorge.  I am pretty sure Qantas did an advert where all the kids were standing in here (we still call Australia home ads).  It was spectacular....I think it might be even better in the Wet season, not that you could access it by road.  We had a picnic there and did the Domes walk before we jumped back in the car (much to Charlotte and Mel's disgust) and went back on the bumpy road in the direction of our caravan.  2 hours later we were there and much to our delight, so was our caravan, still in one piece!!

By this stage Mel was in no mood to be staying in a dust bowl (even with all that lovely wood I collected last night and wanted to burn tonight) so we packed up and headed for our next desination - Fitzroy Crossing - which happened to be 400kms further down the road.

After a few tense moments on the road - and a very brief stop in Halls Creek for some chips for the kids dinner (parents of the year) we travelled through the darkness towards Fitzroy Crossing.  Mel was not amused when I suggested we camp at Wolfe Creek which was only 100km down the road.   We arrived in F.C. about 8pm where were threw the kids into bed, had a fantastic hot shower (and removed most of the red dirt) and enjoyed having electricity again!  A very long day, but worth the extra driving to get to somewhere we can spend a few consecutive nights - and get everything clean again...including ourselves.

The Gibb River Road

Now that we have the Pod, we are actually able to go camping.  I don't know how we thought we were going to fit everything in the car, but we jammed everything in the pod (and the car) and set off along the Gibb River Road towards Home Valley Station.  We were expecting the worst of the Gibb River as some fellow travellers had advised they had 7 punctures before they reached El Questro, but we found a dirt road (not for too much longer....they are going to seal the road to El Questro) which had corrogations and plenty of dust...but nothing the Nissan couldn't handle. 

We stopped at Emma Gorge on the way to Home Valley Station where we again had a hike in front of us.  It was certainly worth the effort (3.2km return - about an hour each way) as after Mel and Charlotte fought off a big brown snake, we found a beautiful waterfall with a big waterhole to cool off in.  We got a bit of local information that off to the side of the pool there was a thermal spring that somebody had tried to dam and we were able to squeeze into and have a dip.  Even Will thought it was warm enough for a swim!!

 
We finished the hike with a cool drink a some sandwiches before hitting the road again...now the only thing in our way was the Pentacost River  - once again full of crocodiles - which the car negotiated well over the rocky river bottom.  We made it to Home Valley and set up the tents - we had a girls tent and a boys tent, and I was lucky enough to end up in the Taj Mahal with Will - the downside was I got the lilo with the hole in it.  Mel and Charlotte were very cosy with just enough room in their tent to cram a double mattress in.

Mel got up the next morning and went on a Trail ride down to the Pentacost river on "Pistol" the horse.  Pistol was very cheeky and tried to take Mel under low hanging trees as much as possible.  The kids and I spent our time by the resort pool (pretty much for the whole day) before Charlotte got to have her turn on Pistol which she thoroughly enjoyed. 

We ended the night with our new friends Tim, Christine, Cameron and Jane at Dusty's Bar and Grill where we feasted on Crocodile, Emu, Buffalo and Kangaroo (washed down with a scotch fillet, some barramundi and a few beers).  A great feed where the kids had a ball.  Charlotte won the coloring competion and she was rewarded with her drawing being displayed on the pin up board (she may have been the only kid who entered...)

We expected the kids to get up bright and early the next day with how bright the tents were, which meant we could get to Zebedee springs before the crowds.  Of course, this ensured that they both slept in and we didn't get to the Springs at El Questro 9am.  I don't know how we did it, but nobody was there when we arrived (most people arrive at 7am to bags the best position in the hot springs) and we snaffled the best position with our own waterfall and huge pool all to ourselves.  Noisy kids sometimes pay off!!  We loved Zebedee Springs as even the walk in felt like you were in a rainforest rather than being in a dust bowl.

After our swim, we headed back to Kununurra where we stocked up on fuel, more groceries, picked up the van and we were off towards the Bungles.  Mel had to make one very important detour to Kimberley Fine diamonds where we invested in some Arglye diamonds.  We will now be eating bread and baked beans for the remaider of the trip!!  Within 2 1/2 minutes Mel had posted the photos of her new bling on Facebook for all to see!!  Back on the road towards the Bungles with Mel's facing beaming from the passenger seat!

Kununurra and Lake Argyle

We finally made it to Western Australia after a quick detour to Nighthawk couriers in Katherine where my roof racks had finally arrived.  We can finally stop taking the Pod in and out of the caravan and actually attach it to the roof and utilise it for some much needed storage!!

After a gruelling 500 kms, we made it to the border where we had to relinquish our honey, a few spuds and a bit of salad and we were into Western Australia.  We were stopped for a while on the road while a water truck tried to control a bush fire (not sure how many of these fires are controlled burn offs or whether they are just bushfires...but there is a lot of them).

We made it to where once again we were met with the McCallums and the Elliotts.  For people who complained we were going to quick they seem to be a lot of places before us!

We found Kununurra to be the hottest place we had visited so far...and the time difference (1 1/2 hours further behind...now 2 hours behind Melbourne time) threw the kids out.  The sun is now up at 5.30am which means so is much of the caravan park (including our kids).  I can't believe some people think it is acceptable to just chat and laugh at 5am without considering that we have little people sleeping.

We went out to Ivanhoe crossing where I threw a few lures around (once again without success).  I did lose a lure right near the bank and even though I could see the branch it was stuck to on a metre and a half away in shallow water, I decided to leave it for the crocs who were lurking just below the surface. 

The flights over Lake Argyle were a bit rich for our blood (and I think Mel is eyeing off an Argyle diamond in town) so we did the drive around the Lake which is between 20-40 times the size of Sydney harbour (depending on season).  It was impressive with picturesque views, but I couldn't help thinking of Lake Eildon when we were driving over the wall.    We did tell Charlotte that the sparkles on the water were diamonds from the mine (before we left she was hoping to visit Lake Argyle and fill her bucket up with diamonds.... so was her mother).

We loaded up the new Pod and did some final preparations for our first camping leg of our trip which will commence when we head down the Gibb River Road to Home Valley Station and El Questro.