Sep 2007

What was meant to be a stopover turned into 2 days as we are in no rush at this stage to get to Darwin. We are staying at a caravan park which is next door to the Katherine Hot Springs and we went there for a refreshing swim. Despite being approximately 34 degrees, it feels mildly warm and it’s nice to swim somewhere there is no chlorine. We don’t want to do too much here are we’ll be coming back though here after we’ve finished at Darwin.

One place of interest we did visit was the Jurassic Gardens which is entirely filled with all varieties of Cycads. These plants are almost unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs hence the name of the gardens. You can read more about them at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycad

It was also nice not to have to pay huge prices for fuel. In fact this was the cheapest fuel we have bought since leaving Perth over 8 weeks ago. It's still quite hot here but we are starting to get a taste of the humidity of the tropics which we know we'll get when we hit Darwin.

This will be our first day in the Northern Territory and after leaving Kununurra, it’s only 40 K’s to the border and first thing we have to do is move our clocks/watches forward an hour and a half as we move into Australian Central Standard Time.

Our objective today is Timber Creek which is only 230 K’s from Kununurra, but because of the border crossing, we have lost 90 minutes so it means we are very late having lunch!

We spotted a couple of places that look worthwhile exploring on the way into Timber Creek, so will have a look around once we get settled. The caravan park behind the roadhouse is very shady and it a bit cooler than it was in Kununurra, but the air conditioner is still put to work none the less. There is a small creek that runs behind the caravan park and staff feed the freshwater crocodiles off a small suspension bridge. Freshwater crocs may not be as aggressive as the salties but they fly out of the water when there’s food around.

We try our hand at fishing for Barramundi, but unfortunately are in the wrong place at the wrong time. When we went to the local pub one evening we had the privilege of meeting our first cane toad. Timber Creek is only 190 K’s east of the WA border so hopefully the cane toad scourge can be kept out of Western Australia - only time will tell.

We arrived here and decided this was a good place to put our feet up for a breather before heading into the Northern Territory, as we had been travelling every day since we left Derby. Despite the arid landscape this is the land of plenty courtesy of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and the Hydro Electric power station. They grow all manner of produce here and I even saw Sugar Cane for the first time which appears to be the dominant crop.

Apart from using the time to chill out we explored the region which included a day trip to Wyndham. Wyndham is 100 K’s from Kununurra by road, and is a town which is unfortunately slowly dying. It is not the hub it used to be since the port was downgraded and it shows in the look and feel of the place (or lack of). However there were number of wonderful spots we looked at including The Grotto (gorge and water hole) and Parry’s Lagoon which was on a billabong and flood plain which looked and felt like the tourist brochures you see of Kakadu National Park. The view from the 5 river’s lookout overlooking the town provided a stunning panorama, but once again the prevalent smoke haze obstructed a lot of the long distance view.

Another place of interest was Celebrity Tree Park where visiting celebrities planted trees in the park overlooking Lake Kununurra and Lily Creek Lagoon. Some of these celebrities were as varied as John Farnham, Peter Brock and Harry Butler to name a few. We also looked over Lake Argyle which is a huge area and you don’t appreciate the enormity of it until you’ve been there.

Kununurra is very tourist oriented and there are lots of tours you can do to places such as Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles, but we limited ourselves to a sunset BBQ cruise on lake Kununurra which was beautiful and well worth it. With our batteries well and truly recharged we are ready to finally leave WA after 7 weeks.

After 288 K’s of mainly uphill driving, we arrive at Halls Creek. We checked into the caravan park after filling up the car. It was slightly hotter here today, which was 40 degrees under the awning of the van. We hid inside the van with the air conditioner going flat out until later in the day when we cooled off by having a dip in the pool.

Despite the notoriety of this town, it wasn’t evident to us and we had a pleasant stay.

We were not sure where to stay (there are 2 places for caravans in Fitzroy Crossing) so we ended up at the Fitzroy River Lodge just over the Fitzroy River. This is like an oasis in the desert and after we unpacked enough of the van we went up to the front bar of the resort and shouted ourselves a couple of beers as it was hot work getting things set up. We’ve noticed it getting gradually warmer the further north we are going and this region of the Kimberley is about the same during the day (approx 38 degrees).

Later on we take a drive through the town and end up at Geike Gorge National Park which is 18 K’s out of town. We did a couple of short walks there and decided to head back as didn’t have a good water supply. You could tell the locals were wondering what we were up to.

Fitzroy Crossing was a pleasant stay thanks to the facilities of the resort and it makes a perfect overnight stay for anyone travelling through the northern parts of the Kimberley.

After spending the last 9 days in relative luxury we head for Derby which is 220 K’s by road from Broome. After leaving the Gt Northern Hwy and passing the Curtin RAAF airbase, we arrive at Derby. Derby is what I would call a typical Kimberley town – very little movement in the heat of the day and appears quite deserted to the untrained eye.

We stayed at the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park for 3 days as we want to be able to see our beloved West Coast Eagles battle for the Semi Final on Friday night. Unfortunately they lose to Collingwood by 19 points and it’s the end of the footy season for us.

There’s not a great deal to do in Derby, and we found it to be a drab, uninspiring town. However, it presented us an opportunity to do some fishing which we haven’t had much of a chance to do on this trip. There is a circular shaped jetty used for loading shipping and one of Derby’s claim to fame is that it has the second largest tidal range in the Southern Hemisphere. While we were there, there was almost an 8 metre difference between high and low tide. It is also quite hot here. On the days we were here, the temperatures were in the mid to high 30’s and if not for the air conditioner in the van, would have found it hard to take. For those of you who live in Perth, imagine a typical summer heat wave - that happens here all year round! We were able to stock up on our supplies as the shopping is quite good here despite only having only having Woolworth’s and IGA supermarkets.

One thing we have discovered since entering the Kimberleys, is that the liquor sales restrictions have altered how we buy liquor. Because of the alcoholism problems with some sections of the Aboriginal population, you cannot buy any more than 2 litres of cask wine and those sales are restricted to 1 cask per person per day. Our favourite cask drop comes in a 4 litre cask and realise that we will probably not be able to buy it until we get to Darwin, and maybe not even there. We became aware of this when entering Broome and realise this will probably be the case until we leave WA. Having mentioned this, we will be stopping at 2 notorious places in the Kimberleys on the way through – Fitzroy Crossing and Hall’s Creek. It will be interesting to see if things are as bad as the media in Perth have depicted it.

After 375 K’s we arrived in Broome. On the way we had to pass through massive bushfires which were burning out of control and being fanned by very strong winds approx 100 K’s south of Broome. We drove through a fire front which was about to jump the road and was amazed by the intensity of the heat radiation in the car. It was a scary experience and will think twice about attempting it again – we could have lost everything including ourselves.

Broome was going to be a week of veging out. We have booked ourselves into an ensuite site which is where you have your own private toilet and shower block. After 5 weeks of showering in ablution blocks and having to walk long distances (at some places) just to go to the toilet, this is luxury. Also the annexe we ordered in Perth just before we left was waiting for us and we put it up as you can see. Now we are starting to get things together.

Broome was not quite what we expected but we were not disappointed. It is a very busy place and the tourists make up a good proportion of the population here. Everyone we met here was friendly and the town has a really good vibe to it. Because of the bushfires, the smoke from them was being blown out over the ocean and made for some stunning sunsets especially over cable beach. Broome is good for shopping and we bought ourselves some nifty little knick knacks for our travels plus there is a good selection of shops in general. We noticed there are a lot of pearl shops and we were wondering how they stay in business as they were mostly empty every time we walked past one. A couple of times we called into the Roebuck Hotel for a couple of quiet ones which is a pleasant place to kick back.

Our aim when we get somewhere is to explore the place and not necessarily go to the touristy places which is what we did here too. Apart from a few visits to Cable Beach we did visit Malcolm Douglas’ wildlife park and crocodile farm. This is not to be confused with the crocodile park in Cable Beach and was definitely the highlight of our trip here. We learnt a lot about crocodiles which is handy seeing we are going further into croc country!

We finally found a good fishing spot on the main jetty at the port. Needless to say we didn’t catch anything, but we saw a sea snake and a turtle swim past which was quite a surprise – pity I didn’t have my camera with me at the time. We just enjoyed the experience and was never ceased to be amazed by the tidal movements up here. We were having such a good time here we extended our stay by another couple of days before we have to hit the road again, so our stay was 9 days instead of 7.

Eighty Mile beach is located on the coastline between Port Hedland and Broome. There is a caravan park approx 250 K’s North East of Port Hedland and 10 K’s off the highway called (wait for it) Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park. This is a place to relax and enjoy doing nothing. There is no town here and the only supplies are available from the park shop so you’re really out in the sticks here.

However, when the tide is out (and the shore can recede up to 1 kilometre here) it reveals a treasure trove of shells which is teeming with creatures that inhabit them. It also provides stunning sunsets especially when the tide is out.

The other main activity here is beach fishing. When the tide was in, the beach was lined with fishermen as far as the eye could see pulling them in. I’ve seen a few of them on the beaches down in Perth, but not like this!

Eighty Mile beach is the perfect stopover from Port Hedland to Broome so do check it out if you’re up this way.