AN UPDATE CONTINUED!!
30th July Left Darwin on the next leg of our trip – through Adelaide River which is full of WW2 history and onwards through Katherine & Victoria River to Kununurra. There are very strict quarantine regulations on taking fruit, vegies, honey, nuts & plants into WA. Just before Kununurra (at the crossing of the NT/WA border) all vehicles including caravans are inspected the Quarantine Station where we had heard of many people having to surrender all sorts of things.
From Kununurra it was off in the car & tent again to travel part of the Gibb River Road and further on to the Mitchell Falls and Kalumbaru returning home via Wyndham for a look at the view from the Five Rivers Lookout. This trip took 6 days, travelling on red dusty roads over km after km of corrugations and through the Pentecost River. Yes through not over as there is no bridge just a river crossing. The scenery was diverse and spectacular - the colours of the Cockburn Range are wonderful and the landscape is dotted with those amazing boab trees. It was a 3.3km hike into the Mitchell Falls but a quick 6 min helicopter flight back to the campsite. We travelled to Kalumbaru, an aboriginal community just off the coast, continuing on to McGowans Campground a little out of town where we literally camped on the beach for 2 nights. Here the boys went on a charter fishing trip catching lots of fish (names of which I cannot remember), saw a sail fish and caught a shark. A great morning.
From Kununurra we did the Triple J boat tour up Ord River to the dam wall of Lake Argyle. A bus ride followed to Durak Homestead, a viewing point over wall and lake and then returned to town. Lee & Lyn did a flight over the Ord River irrigation scheme, Lake Argyle, landed at the Argyle Diamond Mine for a ground tour and over the Bungle Bungles before returning to Kununurra. The same day the boys enjoyed a full day barramundi fishing trip on the lower Ord River. Catch of the day was John’s 76cm barra with Ross’s largest barra being 68cm. As Ross had missed the opportunity to do the flight which we enjoyed so much, we decided to stay a couple of extra days so that Ross could do the flight (without the stop off in the diamond mine).
More time was spend cleaning the car yet again trying to get rid of red dust after Gibb River Road & Kalumbaru.
18th August Arrived in Derby having stayed at Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing on the way. John & Lee did a small side trip to stay with some friends at Camballin while we did a day trip to Windjina Gorge & Tunnel Creek. This saw us travel over a small section of the other end of the Gibb River Road. We visited the prison boab tree which is believed to have housed aboriginal prisoners and Myalls trough - the longest stock trough being 120 m long and room for 500 head of cattle at one time without running dry.
From Derby we all flew north-east over King Sound to Talbot Bay to witness the unusual spectacle of the Horizontal Falls described by David Attenborough as “one of the greatest natural wonders of the world”. It is created by the enormous variation in tides – which are as much as 10 metres. The water level, rising or falling in Talbot Bay (due to the tide), causes a major height difference with the water level in the inlet on the other side of the falls. We had seen this on Malcolm Douglas’s TV shows and it was much looked forward to by all of us. We spent the night on Talbot Bay on a catamaran which slept 12, went off on a smaller boat to view the water rushing over the exposed coral reef at low tide and travelled through the rushing rapid-like water at the falls on the fast boat before flying back to Derby the following day & over part of the Buccaneer Archipelago -an absolutely amazing adventure.
23rd August Saw us arrive in Broome. Of course no trip to Broome would be complete without a ride on the camels along Cable Beach or a trip to the Willie Creek Pearl farm to learn about the cultivation of pearls. And of course you have to visit the many pearl shops & hopefully make a purchase. Well we did all of the above except buying a pearl. We also visited Cable Beach a number of times, enjoyed many of the restaurants & cafes Broome has to offer and learned about the history of the town incl the pearling industry. We also drove to Cape Leveque, staying the night at Kooljamon Resort in a safari tent from which we had an incredible view over the ocean. From the balcony at the front of the tent we could see whales breaching in the distance. This was a long drive of some 200km each way (100km each way on a red dirt road with lots of corrugations) but was well worth it to see the red cliffs at Cape Leveque which are an indescribable colour as the sun sinks in the sky just prior to sunset.
4th September saw us arrive in Port Hedland. It was good to see Matt & Kate again after 8 mths and to see the town that has been Matt’s home for the last 2 ½ yrs. Ross & Matt have done lots of fishing & some crabbing. We have eaten lots of the catch fresh with many fillets of snapper, mackrel and blue bone being frozen. We drove out and had a look at Marble Bar (Australia’s hottest town), did the BHP tour where we learned about what happens to the iron ore which is brought in by train from the numerous mine sites. We followed the ore through the process of being unloaded from the train, being sorted (& sometimes re-crushed), and the stacked in readiness for loading into those huge ships. The port is extremely busy with ships constantly coming & going. Kate & I went to Cooke Point and saw the Staircase to the Moon, a natural phenomenon which occurs during certain months of the year when the full moon rises over the mudflats forming what appears to be a staircase leading to the moon.
We felt old when we were out and about. This is a younger persons town – would you come to Port Hedland to retire – I don’t think so!!! You can spot the tourists easily they are the ones in shorts and light clothing - the locals (being winter) are in trousers and quite often long sleeved shirts even though the temp was 29-30 degrees. As well there are lots and lots of locals, both men and women, in their long sleeved orange or yellow safety shirts all wearing navy blue trousers or jeans.
21st September Karijini National Park and Tom Price
Arrived at Karijini National Park which is the second largest national park in WA and some 300 km inland from Port Hedland. In the northern section of the park small creek beds, hidden in the rolling hillsides and dry for most of the year, suddenly plunge down 100m chasms. Oxer’s Lookout provides one of the most spectacular views in the park and is the spot to get an overall concept of the magnitude of the gorges. It is the place where Hancock, Weano, Joffre & Red Gorges meet. Our next stop was Tom Price which is a service town for the booming iron ore mines in the region. We did a tour of the Rio Tinto mining operation here. The tour guide put the whole iron ore story so simply when he explained it as “blow it up, pick it up, sort it, transport it and ship it out”. Tom Price sits at the bottom of Mt Nameless which is the highest accessible mountain by vehicle in WA. It was a short 30 minute drive (4WD vehicles only) to the summit which provided views over the surrounding ranges, Tom Price mine site and the Tom Price township. We left Tom Price on Friday morning and needed to be somewhere with television reception by Saturday 12 noon to watch the AFL grand final (remembering that to view it live the telecast was as 12 noon). This finished up seeing us drive 605 km for the day to get to Exmouth. A huge day – our longest day towing the van for the entire trip. Although the day was very hot (34.5 max) it certainly was not the hottest day’s travelling we have experienced.
So far we have travelled 23,855 km and still have quite a few more to go. We are having a great time and are still coping with being together almost 24/7. So much of what we have seen cannot be captured on a camera by the amateur photographer but I hope the photos will give you an idea what we have seen.
Stay tuned …
