And the story goes on..... and on...... and.......
Quentin helps Ykki to put her shoes back on
And then we crossed the NT/WA border. Even though we had tried to eat all the fresh food and veggies, we hadn’t done a good job and had to chuck a fair bit away. A pity! The officer at the border was not in a very good mood we thought! Didn’t understand our questions and was fairly grumpy. Anyways. We arrived early in Kununurra (also because we ‘gained’ 1,5 hour due to the time difference between NT and WA) and stayed at the Hidden Valley campground near Hidden Valley Ntl Park. It was tsjockerblock in Kununurra and so was the campground. No powered sites available, so we stayed unpowered. We were lucky to arrive early and had a fantastic spot under a boab tree. Next to us was a couple (Rob and Kerry King) from Sydney. Lovely people. The children liked them a lot and so did we. Had some good chats. It was really cold during the nights in Kunnunurra so we were pleased with the douna we bought for Ykki in Katherine. She is a bit overwhelmed with it, but she’ll get used to it soon.
And then we hit the dirt road again. Very rough road with lots of corrugations and loose gravel. Not a smooth drive to El Questro. El Questro is run by the same organization as the Uluru resort. And it was busy!!! Amazingly busy. We stayed at the far end of the basic campground which was very far from any amenity and it was so extremely busy that people almost camped on top of us. You can imagine what that is for us who like to be as far away as possible from people. Despite the crowd we stayed 2 nights because we did want to see more of the park. Did some 4WDing to Explosion Gorge and just enjoyed it. Because we heard that the Zebedee springs were very busy during any time of the day, we decided to get up early on the morning we wanted to depart. The alarm clock went off at 5.30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was freezing cold (10oC) and still dark. Why on earth did we want this again????? Anyways, after a bit of complaining from my side we did get up, woke the children, put them in their PJ’s in the car, got the swimming gear and arrived at Zebedee hot springs at a quarter past 6. We were almost the first, enjoyed our warm bath and when it became too crowded we left again. Had breakfast, packed the trailer and checked out just before 10. Important, because if you don’t check out before 10…. You’ll loose your 10 bucks deposit. MMMmmmm talking commercialized.
Since we had a week permit for the park, we didn’t have to leave straight away, so I enjoyed a hot shower and we had a cup of coffee before we headed to the next site.
The Kimberleys are really beautiful. Constantly changing environment with dramatic look outs over the Cockburn range. We had lunch at one of the lookouts and around 3 we arrived at Ellenbrae station. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we found our camp spot. Near the amenities, but since it didn’t appear to be busy we thought we would be fine. Boy, were we wrong. It became very busy close to 5 o’clock. Everyone had to go over our campsite to go to the toilets…..Although not optimal that’s okay during the day, but it is not okay when it is in the middle of the night! And of course we had some ‘leaking’ people during the night. Bummer! For once Ykki didn’t wake us up, but now others did. The campsites themselves are fairly good and the amenities are actually really good for a bush camp site type. The pit toilets even smelled like lemon!
We left Ellenbrae station early the next morning to hit the road again. Still not sure if we would go to the Mitchell plateau! But after some reading about the condition of the road (very poor) and realizing that the walk from the nearest campground to the falls was more than 3k over rocky tracks, we decided to skip that part of the Kimberleys. It is simply not possible to walk 3k with Quentin and Ykki on our shoulders over rough terrain. Poor shoulders….. People had told us about the possibility to be helicoptered out, but we also understood that we had to pay 95 dollars per person, no matter what age. Maybe a bit too expensive to spend almost 400 bucks for just 8 minutes in the chopper?
So whilst driving we decided to go in the direction of Manning Gorge. Around 12 we took a track to the right hand side to Mt Barnett Gorge to find a spot to have lunch. After a bit of a rough track we pulled up near a lovely river and decided to spend the night there too. And that is where we are now. With the frogs in the background, the water rustling, a glass of Port wine and the fire going it is really great to be here. Tomorrow we will drive to Manning Gorge and return to this spot again. It is fantastic, it is for free and we love it.
view
from our camp site
Monday, July 21st 2008
Manning Gorge was an interesting day to say the least. We arrived relatively late because we first had a cup of coffee at our campsite. Nevertheless it was only 11 o’clock and we went for a swim to ‘test the waters’ and afterwards had lunch. Around 1 o’clock we decided to start the walk. Well,……. First we had to swim across the lake. We could put our gear in some floating boxes provided by the campground. Of course it an interesting logistical question how to get the gear, the kids and ourselves to the other side. After having swum 2 times to get our gear to the other side, and each of us took a child to the other side, we could start our walk. It would only be 1 hour, so we thought that would be easy. Usually when the indication is that a walk is 1 hour, we can do it in 45 minutes. Mmmmm, not really. Halfway through I really wanted to turn around. It was a tough walk with the kids on our shoulders and by the time we were near the gorge we were 1,5 hour further in time and I was nearly in tears. We had to cross 3 small gorges, which meant going down first and than up again climbing on the rocks. No paved path! The gorge itself was gorgeous, but because we started relatively late and it took us very long to get there, we only had half an hour to rest/swim before returning again. We made it back just before sunset and had to drive back to the campground in the dark. A big adventure altogether!
One and only picture of our walk to Manning Gorge; spot the markers
The following morning we said goodbye to our fantastic camp spot and in the direction of Mornington Wilderness resort. When we came to the booth at the start of the 90km to the camp and radio-ed the resort, they told us that they had no vacancies. We decided to drive 4 km back towards Kununurra and take a turn to Charnley river station. After about 50 km we arrived there. A nice campground, but the facilities were minimal. Only 2 showers and 2 toilets for the entire campground, which is not enough judging the line in front of the showers and the toilets at any time of the day. We haven’t seen the gorges which we could have visited, because we really wanted to go to Mornington Wilderness resort. So we got up very early in the morning and left Charnley at a quarter to 8. Very early for our standards!
But, we got in at Mornington and stayed there 2 nights. Mornington is supposed to be a very luxury and special. They only have a few campsites and stick to that amount. Which means that it is never very, very busy. We visited the 2 gorges and the children had a swim in the rivers. It is really beautiful and definitely remote. During the wet season their only lifeline is through the air. They have very unique wildlife and are trying to avoid the extension of certain species. Rogier (I stayed with the kids) went to the ranger talk which was very interesting and explained a lot about the surroundings. Mornington was certainly well worth the 90km (one way) detour and the time was well spend.
Trees, sand, rocks...... love this place!
And a beauty she is.... guess which picture
The car... the dust... the fun!
Great Australian faces
Our following camp spot was at Bell Gorge. And we definitely felt the crowds of the school holidays. The camp ground was very full. After one night we got up early this morning, packed the trailer and drove to the gorge. After a short but tough walk we came to the upper falls. Definitely beautiful. The children loved it and because we were so early there were not many people. We decided not to go to the lower falls because we would have had to cross the river again and most probably would have got wet again. And it was a bit too cold to get wet.
We went to Windjana National Park after we had lunch at Bob’s place, who has a interesting place next to a river near the turn off to the Park where he has coffee, some hot food and definitely a good view over the river. The camp ground here is very full. Still because of the school holidays.
After we had set up, we went to Tunnel Creek National Park and did the interesting walk through the tunnel in the water and back again.
The children thought it was a lot of fun with the torches in the dark and we got our feet wet.
Ancient
stones 
Mad cows?
Ykki on stone/rock.....(Sharon Stone look alike.......????) 
entry to the gorge
Monday, August 11th, 2008
So much to tell, so little time. I know that sounds ridiculous when you’re on a 8 month holiday, but we are really doing a lot and want to see so much that the time that we have is quickly passing by!
Last time I wrote was about Tunnel Creek. After we left Windjana Gorge, we also left the Gibb river road behind. The last part was a bit dull, partly bitumen and we were glad when we saw a camp ground about 30 km before Derby. Because people told us that Derby would be very busy and hard to get into, we thought that 30km out of town wouldn’t be bad. We were lucky to be the first to pull up at Birdwood Downs and they only take 6 campers at a time. It is a nice station where they want to do everything ‘eco’. We decided to stay 2 nights so we could clean up, do 5 wash loads of laundry and stock up. We needed to get new meat vacpacked which we bought at Sampies. We were hoping that it would be as good as the meat from Katherine, but we know now that although it wasn’t bad at all, it was not as good as the one from Katherine.
We were not so lucky the first night with the other campers. The only other ones pulling up, pulled up right beside our van. Unbelievable that people choose to stay right next to you whilst the rest of the campground is empty. Why? Not sure.
In Derby is not much to do. We drove around town, went to the flood plains and to the jetty. So after 2 days in Derby it was enough and we left to go to Broome.
Again people had warned us that Broome would be very busy and you needed to have booked to have a camp site. Broome Caravan Park still took people, but only unpowered sites. It was again tsjocker block! We were very unlucky with the people around us: they were tradies and had music on late at night and had to leave for work very early in the morning. And the second night we were immensely unlucky, because the fortnightly races were on. Amazing what a noise that makes. We could hardly hear each other.
Broome itself was nice. A cosy town with lots to do. And of course Broome is famous for its camel rides, so we decided to go for a morning camel ride at Cable Beach. A bit of a rip off for about 300 m return trip on a camel on the beach, but the children are still talking about it. It was worth the money in the end.
After a drive on Cable beach we had a cup of coffee at the resort at Cable Beach and a Dutch lady gave me some Dutch books. Very nice of her!
In Broome we walked around, went to the Pearl luggers and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Of course we also went to Point Guillaume where we did a short walk to the tip. Beautiful!!
Because the weather was really nice we could not avoid swimming in the pool of the caravan park. The children were really drawn to this new pool. Very cold water though! The floaties which we bought in Katherine prove to be worth the money.
slow but steady
He
just loves water..... 
and
she's not sure yet.... 
When we left Broome, we went to Willie Creek Pearl Farm. They explained everything about pearling, the pearling industry and the pearling history. Very interesting. The children really enjoyed the short boat trip and the salt water crocodile was studied with interest. We also had the opportunity to get close to the helicopter of Willie Creek. Even though the children were terrified of it, they still talked about it days after the event.
At the visitors centre they advised us to go to Quandong beach campsite because at low tide the children would be able to swim in the rock pools. That sounded very attractive, so that is what we did. And it was fantastic. We had sort of a private beach. The children could walk from the camp site to the beach independently and they simply loved playing in the sand and shoveling away. Swimming in the rock pools was indeed fantastic and they enjoyed it very much. The nearest other campsite was at least 100 metres away……. Just the way we like it! We stayed 2 nights because we really loved it.
private beach resort
Private sunsets to die for
In the afternoon of the second day we drove up to the end of the road and just enjoyed the scenery whilst the children were asleep in the car. It was absolutely fantastic and really relaxing. The campsite itself had nothing, but just the beautiful scenery. This was more than enough for us. It also gave us some peace and quiet to do some artwork with the children: painting rocks, paper and of course the table wasn’t left alone.
Remote area education - the bush way! you need stones, paint and a smile...
We followed the way up the Cape Leveque road (not too bad, even though the corrugations were horrendous at times!) and because the Kooljaman Resort was fully booked for the next 3 weeks and because people recommended Gumbalum to us, we decided to stay just 4 km out of One Arm point at the Gumbalum camp site. Also run by Aboriginals like Kooljaman, but a lot simpler. The scenery wasn’t any less though and we had the 1 million dollar spot, right at the water. The only down side was that the amenities were about 600 meter walk……..
Before
reaching the camp ground we went to the little church at Beagle Bay. It
has a gorgeous altar made of mother of pearl. Stunning to see and fantastic to
see a church completely made by the local people in the local style, but still a
church.
We stayed 2 nights at Gumbalum, simply because it was fantastic. We were able to arrange a boat trip in a tinny into the Dampier archipelago with Robert, the cousin of the owner of the camp site. A fantastic boat trip which brought us to the horizontal falls and to Sunday Island. The children enjoyed it very much, even though they fell asleep on our way back. It was simply fantastic and relaxing.
Oyster altar I haven't got a clue how they got there....
The perfect campsite......Gumbalum way!
We also visited the hatchery at One Arm Point and one of the guys gave us a private tour and showed us all the fish in the tanks and explained things about them. Nothing fancy, just good stuff to watch.
One of the days we went to Lombardina. The funny thing is (as with One Arm Point) you have to pay an entrance fee to visit the village….. I wonder what happens when we ask people who do not live in Sydney CBD to pay an entrance fee to get into the city to protect intellectual property. We’re probably missing something essential in the thinking here. In Lombardina it is possible to buy freshly baked bread…, that is, ... if you pre-order, which we didn’t…… So we ordered bread for the Friday. In Lombardina is also a nice church completely made out of local materials and corrugated iron. Intriguing. The local handicraft ‘museum’ isn’t really worth visiting. More like the DIY that we did at primary school.
The drive back towards Broome was uneventful and we ended at the same caravan Park as before: Broome caravan Park 5 k out of town. Even though we had a bad time the time before it looked much better than the overflow caravan parks. Amazing that people want to stay in a parking lot like those!
After we did the last shopping at the super market we headed down south.
At the Gumbalun camp site someone had advised us to go to Barn Hill station, just 150 km south of Broome. It had a fantastic beach side location, but……… about 250 other campers were also there. It was so busy, that it wasn’t funny anymore. We stayed in the generator area and our neighbour decided to run his diesel generator from 6 to 9 in the evening… according to him a silent one, according to us it sounded more like a bus running his motor stationary! Even though the surroundings were beautiful we only stayed one night. It is just not nice to be at a beautiful spot with so many people with generators. It spoils it!
The following morning we packed up early and tried to get as close to Port Hedland as possible. We ended up at Cape Keraudren National Park. And boy, was it beautiful there. Absolutely fantastic! Again we had a fantastic spot right on the water side with the nearest camp site about 75 metres away from us. The children had a ball playing in the sand and simply loved it. Despite the fantastic spot, we decided to stay only 1 night. It was very windy and we really wanted to come closer to Karijini National Park. After we unbogged ourselves from the sand we headed towards Port Hedland.
We were (un)lucky enough to arrive in Port Hedland on the day of the Hedland cup. And thus a long weekend Monday…. Everything was closed. Lucky for us, the supermarket was still open, so we could get some necessary things like fresh veggies and fruit. Unfortunately the Toyota dealer and caravan repairers were closed, so we couldn’t get some spare parts and ask an expert to have a look at the tires of the trailer which were squeeking immensely. Because we didn’t think it was worth to wait in Port till the following morning, we decided to continue our journey that day and ended up at Indee station. Outback station sunsets
Our intention was to stay only 1 night at Indee station because we were still on our way to Karijini Ntl Park, but they told us that someone might be able to have a look at the tires of the trailer, so we decided to stay 2 nights. Indee station is really worth the stop. They have “Happy Hour” in the evening where everyone from the station + the campers have some nibblies and BYO drinks. Nice to catch up with people and exchange some camping experience. Always nice to hear from others what could camp spots are.
A (dirty) smile to die for...
A (dirty) smile to die for...
At the station itself it is possible to do some 4WD tracks, which we did. We drove out to Red Rock which looks a bit like Uluru. It has Aboriginal rock engravings all over it and it is simply fantastic just to be at the top of the Rock and have a 360 degree view over the surroundings. Magnificent!
Rock
art on Mini Uluru 
Mini Uluru
After 2 nights at Indee and after someone had a look at the tyres of the trailer (they are not squeeking anymore) we finally did the last lap to Karijini. Very interesting country and we could see Aboriginal rock engravings in several rocks along the way whilst driving! After topping up the fuel tank at Auski road house we arrived at Karijini National Park.
Karijini is apparently one of the biggest National Parks in WA. And it is a very popular one too! We pulled up at the camp ground around 3.30 pm and we had one of the last sites (which are allocated by camp hosts) at the Dales campground in the Kangaroo area. Not a bad site at all and all very well maintained. Of course no showers, only pit toilets but that was okay.
We stayed 2 nights at Karijini and visited many of the gorges: Oxley, Joffre, Knox, Weano, Dales, Fortescue Falls and it was simply beautiful and fantastic. They indicate very well how long a walk would take (we found that it usually takes less than indicated) and how difficult the walk is. The children had a ball in the Weano Gorge pool while Rogier continued the walk to the hand rail pool. That last bit was a bit too tough with children on shoulders, so we decided not to go that far with them. Of course they didn’t mind as long as there was water around.
Views over waterfall in Karijini NP (we climbed down and up again, sitting to
rest)
Gorges..... tight ones!
Where there is water.....
The nights were bloody cold in Karijini. Probably between 0 and 3 degrees Celcius, so we ended up splitting up and sleeping with one child each to keep them warm. Ykki especially does not like the cold whatsoever, and wakes up about 5 times a night because she slipped from underneath the doona.
Even though we hadn’t seen all the things in Karijini we thought it was time to leave after 2 nights, simply because of the cold. Therefore we continued to the town called Tom Price. Tom Price is a mining town, specifically build for the mining industry over there. It is a relatively new town purpose built in the sixties. Everything is there. And the town is growing whilst the demand of iron is increasing. We did a mine tour, which was very interesting. The children were intrigued by the enormous skippers and other machinery.
The Tom Price caravan Park is okay. The showers are good, but the sites are ridiculously small. At least the one that we got allocated. The neighbors were practically in our bed! After 1 night that was more than enough intimacy with the neighbors so we left. After we finished the mine tour and did some last minute shopping we went on our way to Exmouth.
Back off.... you huge nasty thing.... and they look so small when you look from above...
Knowing that we would not be able to get there in one go, we pulled up at the Wooroconda bush camp somewhere in between Tom Price and Exmouth 60 km east of the North West Coastal highway. A great spot and we were lucky to find a couple of very nice campers there too. We had a great chat around the fire and the following morning it took us at least an hour more to leave because it was just nice to chat with them. They decided to stay another night, but even though the spot was great, we really wanted to waste no time and go to Exmouth.
The drive (partly unsealed road) to Exmouth was very interesting and certainly not boring at all!
When we arrived in Exmouth we found that all campgrounds were full except the Yardee Creek Station. So after we did some shopping at the local IGA that is where we went. It was very convenient to stay there because it was just 10 km north of the entrance to Cape Range National Park. Convenient…. Yes, because we had to be at the entrance before 8 o’clock to be able to get a site at the National Park. We were 12th in line at 7 o’clock with the first people pulling up there earlier than 5 am!!!! Ridiculous! We have a campsite at the Lakeside campground. Not too far from the visitor centre. A good spot where the children can swim safely at low tide. And apparently it is good snorkeling here too. Today we’ve just been lazy and after setting up camp, we just had a coffee, had lunch, played on the beach, the children had a swim and we could read our book/magazine. Really relaxing!
Saturday, August 23rd 2008
Boy, oh boy we had some adventures the past few days. We’ve learnt to deal with the elements, stayed in campgrounds, bushcamps and at stations…….
But
let’s first go bac
k to Cape Range National Park. Initially we wanted to stay
only 2 nights. But, during the first night it rained. About half an inch.
Not too much you would say, but it meant that the road to the camp site was closed for incoming cars. Those who wanted to leave the campground were free to go, but would not be able to return to the campground by car. In the morning the children had lots of fun in the mud pools in the day visitor’s area created by the rain. So glad there are washing machines! Because we couldn’t go out or in, it meant we were not able to explore Cape Range National Park that day. So, another lazy day. The children went for a swim, we built sand castles, had a coffee, read a book and simply enjoyed that we had the place to ourselves because there were no day visitors either.
The following day we hired some snorkel gear at the visitors centre and snorkeled just 200 m south of the campground. Less than 15 metres from the beach beautiful fish could be spotted. It was pretty cold though, so the snorkel sessions were short. We took turns, so one of us could stay with the kids who enjoyed playing in the sand.
After 3 nights at the Lakeside campground we thought it was time to leave. Not in the last place because our neighbours were slightly noisy with tv and radio and visitors…..
We managed to pack our gear before 8 o’clock and took off towards Exmouth. Some last shopping at the IGA and a cup of real coffee at the health food shop where they also served gluten free slices for Quentin and off we went. We had lunch at the shrimp fishing factory (called something else) and I had some fantastic shrimps for lunch. A real treat!
The
idea was to go to Coral Bay, but because we left Exmouth a bit to late to cover
that amount of ground, we stayed at the Minilya Roadhouse after crossing
the Tropic of Capricorn.
Definitely nothing to tell about the roadhouse, except that the showers were good and that the sites were clean.
The following day we took the right hand turn into Coral Bay…….. O my God…… so many people, such crowded caravan parks…….. unbelievable that people really want to stay there. Seriously! The corner of caravan 1 almost touched the corner of the caravan at the opposite site. No way that we were going to stay there of course. We probably wouldn’t even been able to get in, because of course we did not book in advance.
We left Coral Bay without even leaving the car and headed more south. Around 4 we came in the neighborhood of Gladstone Station. According to our camping book they did have facilities where people could camp. After we opened the gate (with a notice that if a car needed to be recovered it would cost $550,- and that there was no phone on the property) and followed the bad dirt road we came to a fantastic spot. Much to our surprise we only had to pay $1 per adult per night! It was good to camp there with views over the bay and relatively clean pit toilets. Much better than Coral Bay we thought.
Tropics......... of Capricorn
No mobile phone coverage and nearest phone is 20km away; just pray you don't get stuck...
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