Broome to Katherine

Total Km: somewhere around the 15000 km mark
Ipod game: on hold / more likely cancelled due to technical difficulties. Unfortunately the world shall now never know if my music collection, when played a-z, would last 4 months on the road


Stop 35, Cable Beach Caravan Park, Broome
So after the trauma of catching and eating our own fish we arrived the next day at the sprawling metropolis of Broome – at a population of 14'000 it's the biggest town we've seen since Adelaide.
You hear a lot about Broome on the road, everyone travelling WA seems to be heading there. It has to be said it's hard not to like it when you get there, it's a chilled out little seaside town where the main activity is making your way down to Cable Beach with a few cold beers to watch the sunset.



The main event at Cable Beach










"Muddy" the croc at the park. In case you can't read the sign behind it says "extremely dangerous, stay away from the fence"










Our neighbours friendly eclectus parrot






We treated to ourselves to a visit to the pub, a film at the open air cinema ( accompanied by special sound effects when the low flying aircraft come over mid film, great place , shame about the film – 10'000 BC) and a trip to the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile park. We getting into Croc territory now so we thought it prudent to go and learn a little more about them. It's worth a trip as they got a couple of big 5m fellas in there. It's amazing how well even a croc of that size can conceal itself in a small pool of muddy water.




This one was giving us some lip so I had to slap the noogie on him, teach him a bit of respect etc...












mini croc's






Broome's a cool little place, it's got a vibrant social scene going on and is chocka full of backpackers. We checked out the cheap(er) campsite (24 bucks - nothings cheap in Broome) but declined after deciding it looked more like glastonbury than the kind of quieter family & older folks places we were used to. Given our average bedtime has developed into half eight or somewhere around there we didn't r really fancy having to put up with bad drunken guitar playing at two in the morning form the tent next to us.





Travelling in style - check out the converted bus







Stop 36 Windjana Gorge National Park, Gibb River Road

So suitably refreshed and croc educated we headed out onto the Gibb River Road, the 700k unsealed road cutting right through the heart of the Kimberley Savannah Region.
It's probably one of the most travelled dirt roads in Oz, by tourists and road trains like, so we'd heard it get's cut up pretty bad. However a couple of calls to the local council made us realise mid May the perfect time to be doing this, grading work had just been completed, the road had just been fully opened a couple of weeks ago(it's closed during the whole wet season) and the many creeks and rivers it crosses were down to a civilised level.



The Boab tree - used as a prison cell when they used to trek aboriginal prisoners across the kimberley









Stopped up heading into the kimberley






Our first stop is was camping at the Windjana Gorge National Park site. We walked into the Gorge late afternoon and it is a simply magical sight. Scores of little freshwater croc's line the banks of the river and float about soaking up the afternoon sun, the gorge was also home to hundreds of white corrella's (parrots) flying all around with the noise of their cries echoing off the gorge walls.




Windjana Gorge (possibly the best photo we've taken to date), can you spot the croc head ?








Croc Mania








Stop 37 Bell Creek National Park

The next day we drove 20k down the road to do the well known “Tunnel Creek” walk – a 1k walk following a creek through a long, dark croc and bat infested cave. In all fairness I don't think any croc's were inhabiting it at the time but it makes it sound more exciting.




Heading into tunnel creek





The Bell Gorge National Park was another pleasant camping spot with a croc free pool to swim in at the end of the Gorge. We ended up sitting round a campfire with a couple of Ozzie families till the grand old time of half nine in the evening! We feel pleased with ourselves as everyone here has their 4x4's and off-road camper trailers etc.. but after what we've done we held our own in the campfire conversation about touring tips and locations! We've definitely picked up a bit of respect for having taken on the Gunbarrel !





Swimming in the pool at the top of the falls - Bell Creek






Stop 38 & 39 Random Bushcamp and the El Questro Wilderness Resort


Leaving Bell Gorge we stopped at the magical Galvens gorge for a morning swim ( and then continued East along the Gibb River Road taking a short detour into Barnett River Gorge is there a theme developing here?) where we contemplated driving the truck over some serious boulders and across the river but satisfied ourselves with a sit, rest and cheese and crackers instead. Overnight was a rest area which we had to ourselves.






Galveins Gorge








The next day we set off early with the scenery staying rough and rugged but we made reasonable progress despite the numerous creek crossings (graded by us from puddle to river) with the Durack and Pentecost rivers definitely being at the more serious end, we went through the wrong side of the Durack and got water in through our passenger door – forgetting our own golden rule of clear everything out the passenger footwell as it tends to be a bit leaky as soon as we're passing through a foot or so. The Pentecost was low but at a good 2oom it was by far the longest crossing we'd done to date.






Checking out the pentecost crossing




We kept bumping into this old german couple who obviously had no idea how to use their shiny new patrol and would shout 'Vat gear ja?” at us from the other side of the creek. “Four high oder four low” - we found it hilarious. We safely helped them through and they arrived shortly after us at the El Questro Wilderness Resort.













Above - Gorge walking at El Questro

More resort than wilderness it was clear who their target market was by reading the steakhouse restaurant menu however they were well set with numerous self guided walking trails, 4wd treks, hot springs and a really pleasant camping ground. There was plenty to do so we set up camp for a couple of nights. I tend to object to any place that wants to charge us thirty bucks to put a tent up but you gotta hand it to them here, they've made the “wilderness” a nice place to stay for a while.














Above - 4wd trek to some stunning views

It was at El Questro that our funniest (for me – Simon) incident to date happened. We were crossing a particularly scenic creek, not deep but a long rocky crossing protected form the main river by tree's and rocks. I suggested Charl nipped out the car to take a photo as I thought is looked pretty cool, needless to say this met some crocodile inspired resistance, “go on” I said “it's only 20cm deep or so - there's nowhere for a big croc to hide”. Anyway Charl reluctantly left the motor and got a couple of metres before there was a big splash in the water in front of her, coincidentally there was actually a croc in front of us – only a little fella but enough to make a splash. I've never ever seen Charl move so fast, she was back in the car without seeming to move! The croc has stopped just under my car window, he was probably just under a metre so not huge but certainly enough to give Charl the fright of her life. I was laughing for the rest of the day.














Above - the "croc incident" in pics

Stop 40 Keep River National Park

After an exhilarating swim in the icy plunge pool at the end of Emma Gorge we headed towards Kunnunurra – a chance to drop a quick note home & get some supplies
About 40km out of Kunnunura we hit the NT (Northern Territory) border and jumped forward 1.5hours as we made our way to the Keep River NP. Just off the highway it was a spot chosen for its convenience and cheap camping more than anything but we arrived and it was a little gem. We just shared the campsite with a German family (Germans - you can't get away from them out here!) and some mega sized ants, it had good camp fires with clean hot plates and non-stinky toilets. The little things that become important on the road.














Above - scenes from the Keep River

More than any of that though we were surrounded by the most incredible sandstone rock formations. Almost resembling some ancient lost city, fallen into disrepair it was different to anything else we'd seen. A short circular walk from the campsite was one of the most scenic and interesting walks we've done on the trip.


Stop 50 Bullita Campground, Gregory National Park
Now this place is a huge, huge expanse of rugged limestone country that has been turned into a venue for remote and difficult 4x4 touring. The access track in is relatively easy gravel track which ends in a restored homestead that gives you a good impression of the tough lives that people led out here 100 years ago or so. Even by local standards this was considered a tough place to farm.





Just to prove I can do arty photo's as well - mangroves on the bank of east baines






The campground nearby is a lovely spot in it's own right and worth a trip in. The emerald waters of east baines river runs by, lined with mangroves and palms. I tried chucking a line in but as per usual had forgot to buy bait and the no one seem interested in the tuna flakes I subbed in.
The plan was to take on the well known and difficult Bullita Stock Route, an 90k but 8 hour drive involving a couple of pretty serious river crossings and 10k section of seriously steep limestone steps. Luckily, as with most of my sillier ideas, Charlotte managed to talk me out of this one. Some routes are just better done in convoy (or at least with a satphone – we'd given ours back by now) and this is probably one of them.



Fritz following us over the rough stuff








The following day though we took the Tawa something route back out the park, a 30k trip taking a mere 2 ½ hours. We invited this German guy who was also at the campground with us along, travelling by himself in a hire 4x4 he probably had to take less chances than we did on these routes so it was good to have another car in tow. The route turned of into the forest and following barely discernible tracks we drove off until we hit several large limestone boulder fields. This turned into very slow going with charl out in front of the car guiding my wheels so I didn't end up tonking my underside too hard. All technical exciting stuff although when we got to the end we found the razor sharp limestone had put a two inch gash into one of our tires so we didn't quite make it through without casualties.






This is what driving over limestone flakes does to your tires!





Stop 51 Katherine

Then to Katherine (well named eh mum, & charlotte's mum!), the Northern Territory's third biggest town at the lofty population of 9000 or something similar. I love the NT – it's real cowboy hat stuff and if you haven't got a dog in your ute you simply don't fit in!
In all fairness it's a pleasant little town with some nice hot springs to relax in. Largely populated by the local indigenous folks it, like a lot of the small regional towns, has alcohol restrictions in place to stop people drinking themselves off the face of the planet. (Charlotte: more seriously: the whole indigenous 'situation' has only really hit home whilst being in northern WA, NT and on into parts of Queensland. A personal view is that while people have to want to help themselves these guys have been seriously let down and mistreated in the past and we don't really know enough about what is and isn't being done at the moment to comment any further – although we have seen a lot of individuals and couples running roadhouses and community facilities and obviously trying in their own small way to improve life in these remote communities, much respect).













The main thing to do here is visit the Nitmilulk or Katherine Gorge National Park. I know, another gorge, yawn.. to be honest we were quite gorged out ourselves by this stage. Katherine Gorge however is a much bigger landmark then anything else we'd been to. To mix it up a bit and try and get a bit of exercise we took the option of seeing the first part of the gorge by kayak, much better then sitting on a tour boat with fifty other people.
We picked up a copy of the Northern Territory Daily in Katherine. Front page headline “Croc vs. Shark”, sheer journalistic brilliance. A 3 m Croc had been spotted with a small shark in its mouth in an estuary. It caught it, brought it out the water, bashed it about a bit then left it out to suffocate on the bank. Might have a brain the size of a pea and not be much good at calculus but they sure know how to kill stuff. They pulled a 33ft croc out the gulf in 1999, 33ft! That's bigger than the boat eh Dad ? You wouldn't want that popping up behind you when you're out in your dinghy.

Carnavon to Broome

Stop 25, 26 and 27 Carnarvon, Red Bluff, Carnarvon

Although it'd been another long drive, and felt somewhat like a chore, broken up with cold bolognaise alla chilli concarne at the Kennedy Ranges which would have been worth a stopover if we'd been in the right frame of mind, but getting to the west coast had been just too enticing the previous few days.



Crossing the Gascoigne River (thankfully quite low)







Bug Mania







We'd heard mixed reports about Canarvon but we unexpectedly got the opportunity to get to know it quite well. The warrior truck went in for her service the day after we arrived and came out with a broken injector pump. You'll remember that we knew it had a leak back on the Gunbarrel but were assured at the garage that it'd probably be okay up to Broome where we thought we'd put it into a 4x4 specialist for a good check over. Unfortunately in changing the fuel filter during the service and bleeding the engine (or something like that) it put a bit too much strain on the injector pump and it went. All in all it was going to be probably a week delay as the pump had to be sent to Perth and a fair proportion of our contingency fund gone.
Not to let little things distress us too much though or put paid to our plans we rented Troopy (Old School Toyota Landcruiser) for a few days and headed up the coast a little over 100km to an undeveloped rural haven – Red Bluff and the joys of Gnaraloo Bay.





Arty photo of the shore break in action at the Bluffs beach








We received the friendliest of welcomes from the station family, got to cuddle the orphaned joeys they were hand raising and received a lump if tuna steak (because they had too much) that fed us for 3 nights. Our first experience of the Western Austrlian coast lived upto expectations with crystal clear waters & beautiful deserted beaches, Si got to surf with turtles (They were swimming in the same water – not actually surfing – obviously that would have been a bit silly) and I enjoyed gently drifting along the coral reef admiring the huge variety of marine life. Including my first octopus at close quarters – which I moved away from very quickly. Simon helpfully suggested that next time I should put it on my head for a photo opportunity. Yep. You first then Si.



The road into Red Bluff - the point has a well known left hand surf break. However given a local surfer broke his jaw on the reef the day i got there i thought i'd give it a miss











Camped up at the Bluff







So, one way or another we managed to pass five nights camped out by the beach, surfing and swimming by day, eating fresh fish and drinking godawful red wine at $12 for 4 litres while philosophising over the milky way and the universe and life at night ....




Osprey with take away meal










One of the stations little Joey's - far cuter and much less hassle than real children







Unfortunately the dream life by the beach had to end and we headed back to Canarvon exactly a week after first arriving. The following day the heavens opened with a tropical downpouring that in part flooded the campsite and gave us an excuse to sit in the TV room all day watching episodes of 24. We liked Canarvon. It's not the prettiest (but not unattractive), isn't the most happening place (but we don't need that most of the time) and had all we needed for the 3 nights we spent back there before retreiving the truck (fixed) and heading further north up the coast.




Checking out the bountiful surf and preparing for a beating










Fishing (Unsuccessfully)












The "dreads"look after five days with no freshwater supply








A note on Troopy
It was quite a treat to have a brand new troop carrier to drive around in, it went faster when you accelerated, didn't squeak in quite so many places over the corrugations and we had slightly more confidence she wouldn't fall apart. That said we were also worried about every bush and rock scratching or banging her.

Stops 28 and 29 Warrorah Station & Ningaloo Homestead
We had a night at each of Warrorah Station and Ningaloo Homestead on the way north. We loved these settings, either just on the beach or behind the dunes, with sandy tracks linking the various places. Seems that these are the places that the locals come to to get away from some of the more touristy areas up the north west coast. En route we had a lunch time stop at Coral Bay for a quick snorkel but our ultimate destination was the Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Marine Park. We'd wanted to take the coast raod but on advice from Ningaloo homestead we retreated to the main road. The big rains we'd had (while we were in Canarvon) had washed away a sand bank at Yardie Creek and so the creek crossing had become impassable (at least for anyone without HUGE tyres and less to lose than us). If we couldn't take the advice of locals then whose could we and the advice proved well founded as we later heard during some campsite BBQ chat that a guy that day had bogged his nice new land cruiser in the creek and no doubt given his engine a salt water bath as a consequence.

A Few littel bones we found kicking about

Looks like the locals have a termite problem

Sunrise - Again, unbelievably seeing a suprising amount of these!

Stop 30 Yardie Homestead
We got to Exmouth reasonably early Saturday morning and had a chance to replace the nut that had shaken itself out of the bullbar on one of the less than fun tracks north we took. The weather was really heating up and the tropical heat was leaving us tired and desperate for a dip in the sea! The whole area is renowned for the Ningaloo reef – about 250km of coral reef that is in some places just a few metres off shore and so easy to get out and snorkel around. So the plan for the next couple of days was to snorkel, surf and see the whale sharks and also enjoy a Sunday roast dinner put on by the Yardie Homestead where we decided to set up camp. Brilliant!

The Cape Range National park backing onto the Ningaloo Marine Park

The whale sharks are one of the big draws for the area – between May and July they are predictably there and 7 operators run trips from Exmouth to snorkel with these gentle giants. At up to 12m long there are few other creatures that we would ever get the chance to see in such close quarters (and no other shark I would happily get so close to).
We booked to do the trip with Ningaloo Reef Dreaming – the one operator in town that runs its own spotting plane and is doing a lot of conservation work as well. (The other operators share a plane – which means when they spot a shark, the 6 boats also share the shark). The morning started with a regular scuba dive which reminded us how much we enjoy diving and got Simon practising his nudibranch spotting (small psychedelic coloured sea slugs) – he spotted 3, I still have never spotted one first.

The little fish we all paid so much money to go and see

The day proper got underway as soon as we surfaced from the dive with the guys on the boat shouting for us to come back quickly as we were 'on' a shark!! Action stations and the boat roared off towards the shark's location. Unfortunately it had dived before we got to it but a little while later another shark was spotted and we were lucky enough to stay with this shark for over an hour. It's a bit of a military operation. They split us into 2 groups – 6 in each (with Simon winning scissor, paper, stone for our group to go first) – and each group has a spotter. When we're near the shark (and they swim just a bit under the water so from the boat they are pretty hard to see) the spotter goes in and heads off to where the shark in swimming towards him, when he has the shark he sticks his arm up and swims with it. That's the signal for us to get in. We are all lined up on the rear of the boat – fins on, mask and snorkel and we get an order to go,go go! - navy Seal style. At which point we all jump in and swim madly towards the spotter until suddenly, a little blurred at first but then there's no mistaking it, this giant wide mouth appears and you head off to one side of its body or the other and there's the whale shark. Grey and spotted, powerful and sleek and a truly splendid sight. The first swim was quite brief, maybe a minute and then we stopped and the other group went in, the boat picked us up and brought us back round in front of the shark and then we got another signal to go, go go! We were lucky and in total had nearly an hour swimming with this one shark with the time in the water getting progressively longer as some people didn't want to go back in and it just being one group swimming along. It's tiring though! First the dash from the boat to the shark then swimming alongside and keeping up with her really gave us a workout. Everyone has to maintain a distance of 3 metres and not swim in front of them. She didn't seem to mind us being there and everyone was very respectful, not interfering with her natural journey through the sea, feeding on the plankton and bits floating near the surface.

Charl doing her Urusua Le Guin (think that's spelling) impression

Our roast dinner was exactly what was called for after that trip and the following day Simon got to surf – some nice gentle stuff which he'd needed when we first got to the coast – again with turtles millingsaround and we spent the rest of the day snorkelling a couple of reef sites. The abundance of life was fantastic, the beaches were white and clean and we were glad we'd caught the area before tourist season really hits in later on in May.

Stop 31 Random Rest Area
Next up we were heading back inland a little to the Karijini National Park. Originally we were going to follow the coast but had heard great things about this National Park and we'd had no particular desire to see some of the other northwest coast towns. It was a two day trip though so after 5 hours driving on the first day we pulled into a roadside rest area in Pilbara on the Nanutarra – Paraburoo Road (Cheela Plains). A friendly couple offered us their fire after they'd finished with it and we cooked up steaks and sweet potato before bedding down for our second night's sleep in the truck.

Stop 32 Dales Gorge – Karijini National Park
Not having had the tent up gave us a quick getaway in the morning – the earliest we've had at about quarter to 8! - and we headed towards the town of Tom Price and a 4wd track up Mt Nameless. This provided some good views over the massive iron ore works and kilometre long trains taking the iron ore up to the northern port cities.

The view fomr Mt Nameless - huge trains moving iron ore to the coast

the 4WD track up Mt Nameless - time for a bit of low range action

We quite quickly moved on though to Karijini. A stunning park where the main attractions are gorges that literally fall away in the landscape with waterfalls, pools and some stunning rock colours and shapes. The reds, terracottas and orchres of the rocks against the deep blue sky and lush greens (from the good wet season that had just finished) really sum up this part of Australia. We camped at the National Park site at Dales Gorge and spent the next day and a half walking, hiking, scrambling, climbing, swimming, jumping, splashing, wading and generally having a good time through the gorges. My particular favourite was Circular pool, at the end of a gorge and simply magical. Ferns surrounding it, a wonderful warm shower trickling from the rocks on the far side and deliciously refreshing deep water to swim in. Just what was needed after the heat of the day outside the gorge.

Gorges and Gorge walking are what people come here for

Simon enjoyed the spider walk and proceeded to sing Spider Charlotte, Spider Charlotte – to the tune of Spider Pig as I tried not to fall into the slippery stream below.
The camp was fine despite the howling pack of dingos we were woken up by at night and we were happily free of flies! We wouldn't have though twice about spending a couple more days but given the time we'd lost around Canarvon we felt we had to move on.

Spider Charlotte, Spider Charlotte, does whatever, a spider charlotte does

Above: The emerald pools of the Karijini Park (and Charl doing her Timotei ad audition)

Friendly neighborhood Dingo

Stop 33 & 34 Pardoo Roadhouse and Barn Hill Station
Leaving Karijini our next destination was Broome a good 900 km and probably 2 overnights away. Rather than take the main bitumen road north from Karijini though, we decided to head off piste towards Australia's hottest town – Marble Bar – and some mining tracks north. We were so pleased we did this as the scenary was just incredible. Rugged and winding and peaceful with no other traffic for most of the 400 or so km we did to the Pardoo Roadhouse and back onto the main Northern Highway. Marble Bar itself had a wonderful natural pool with incongruous lawned banks where we sat and had a picnic before kindly feeding our apple cores to a horse. The horse then decided to tfollow us back to the truck and try and eat our rubbish bag. We both love animals but big horses not fenced in kind of scare both of us a bit and we made a quick retreat.

The mandatory abandoned goldmine, proper ozzie outback stuff

Hm.. you can't turn your back for a minute

Lunchtime picnic

Pardoo Roadhouse did what it said on the tin – grass to camp on, fish and chip dinner, swim in the pool and we set off again in the morning heat of the north west (this time along the tarmac) towards Broome.
Apart from the odd road train, Simon commenting that the road looked like it had glitter on and the occasional crackle of ABC local radio on AM it was dull. And reinforced our decision to stay away from the tarmac beforehand. It's hard to comprehend from the UK and even from Sydney – we were on the main highway connecting WA with the Northern Territory and there is no mobile signal (in fact we had had no mobile signal since Canarvon), for 99% of the time no radio to pick up, there is little traffic (maybe 2 or 3 vehicles an hour coming the other way) and there is literally nothing but vast flat plains divided by the long staight tarmac with a hazy mirage on the horizon from the heat. Unfortunately there simply was no choice as to road now and so we were straight lining it with the sun bearing down and no ipod.

Ipod Interlude
That's right – the ipod decided to start playing up around Exmouth, seemed to fix itself and went weird again on the way to Karijini. We ran the battery down – which had fixed it last time, charged it back up, switched it on – all working perfectly – except that every track, every single itsy, bitsy bit of music had been wiped. And anyone who has had the pleasure of Simon's ipod knows just how much music that is. And the laptop with the back up? In England. Arghhh!!!!!
So, we're attempting, intelligent conversation, have been reading tourist leaflets to the whoever s driving, doing crosswords but whether we manage to complete the trip without the ipod is another matter! Watch this space.

The Marble Bar road

Barn Hill
We'd had a recommendation that there was this campsite by the beach which was populated by grey nomads and other more senior folk looking to get away from things and fish that was well worth the visit. Being just over 100km from Broome it made for the perfect second overnight on our journey and an easy launchpad for the next morning into the biggest town / city we would have been to since Adelaide!
It didn't disappoint. Complete with bowls lawn, open air showers, a panoramic view of the sea and friendly dogs we happily stopped our driving for the day at lunch time and set up camp on the magnificent red rocks overlooking the white sand beach and Indian ocean beyond. After a short siesta we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach and try our hand at fishing again.

At last - a silver Trevally, bout a foot long. Tasted good

I found a dog to play stick with and Simon boldly launched his prawn bait into the sea expecting an hour or so of standing around before we went back and cooked tinned tuna pasta out of our rations box. Within 5 minutes though a startled Si had yelled for me to stop running up and down the beach with 'Rosie' and get a bucket of water for the fish! This hadn't really been in the plan but to cut a not very exciting story short we had a Trevally for dinner and learnt how to quickly end a poor fish's suffering. At least we know better for next time.
As an aside we are getting slightly concerned that we enjoy, indeed prefer, chatting to retired Australians than 'backpackers' and would rather sleep in the middle of nowhere in peace and quiet than in a busy town campsite. What is to become of us!