Rocked in to Alice Springs on Sunday 26 June. Rest day Monday – much needed break with a few minor repairs done – though the sliding door still continues to beat us. Tuesday was spent ‘doing’ Alice. Continue reading →

Well here it is Sunday night at Jabiru,  8.30pm and still 28.2C with  forecast 20-32C. Continue reading →

Monday (18th) morning 6am. Roadside camp beside highway in the Eastern Kimberleys. Morning has broken; birds (black?) singing; shorts and T-shirt already. One of the benefits(?) of reaching WA is the sun now rises before 6am and it is dark by 5.30pm. Continue reading →

We were cold last night!…. Thank you fellow Tasmanians for that groan of sympathy.

Here we are in Derby, on the coast about 200k north of Broome, so how did we get cold? Well we attended a community ‘Long table dinner’ on the mud flats at the Dinner Tree; a huge boab where the old time drovers used to rest for dinner before the 5km cattle drive up to the port. We did think to wear long trousers, shoes and socks, but a jacket – of course not; we put them away about 3 weeks ago. As for the people from Darwin in shorts, thongs and t shirts!
It was a very good night; good meal, good entertainment and a huge bonfire, but still we had to head home about 9pm to thaw out.

Last week we left you as we were heading in to Halls Creek. Oh dear, another testament to the failure of Europeans to come to grips with the isolation and weather of northern Australia.

Quickly on to Fitzroy Crossing and a boat trip up Geike Gorge. Gorged out we might have been; but this gorge is carved out of a Devonian (200m years ago?) reef so presented a picture of weather and water carved limestone. You start to realize how ‘small’ Sydney Harbour must be – we keep getting interesting comparisons. For example the water flow through Geike Gorge last wet would have filled it in 12 hours! In the attached picture you will note a distinct change in colour of the cliffs. Up until about 10m above the current river level the cliffs are basically white. This is the average river height during the wet. The recent wet was around 1m above that!

At least Fitzroy Crossing offered some of the trappings of civilisation, including a good tourist information centre (the IC at Halls Creek was a shambles). As a result we have made our booking for the ‘Horizontal Falls’ trip on Tuesday 2 August (first available date) and also back tracked about 100km to see the Mimbi Caves.

We were the only visitors to the caves that Thursday, and got the full treatment from our aboriginal guide, Ronnie. Terrific morning! They are located in the same Devonian reef and is an important aboriginal site – so we found not only interesting geology, but also saw rock paintings and were told stories of the aboriginal heritage. We also enjoyed a couple of songs from Ronnie over our morning tea of tea and damper.

Arrived in Derby (population 5000) on Friday, and here we are resting until Tuesday. Not a real lot to the town; I am thinking the 5000 consists 1500 tourists; 3000 aboriginals and 500 other. Biggest tidal range of any Australian port (11.8m). Our list of little repair items grows, but they won’t get looked at here – “Oh, you can probably get that done in Broome” is the catch cry.

Only one planned item next week – The theater production ‘Jandamarra’ in some nearby gorge! Google him if you can not wait until next week! Week after is the Horizontal Falls ex Derby. So we will be hanging around here for another 10 days or so.

A number of vans have names on them – many associated with Spending the Kids Inheritance. But we really liked one we have seen here; ‘What Inheritance?’. With apologies to Nathan, Ryan, David, Alison & Simon!

The navigator blew it again! Fair dinkum, we had around 400k of dirt this week. And what did we get out of it? A play, a creek, and a riverside camp. Not forgetting more little broken things, and our hairiest river crossing to date.
The play “Jandamarra” was the aboriginal perspective of a young aboriginal leader  in the late C19th. He killed a white police officer and then led the settlers a merry dance for a few years until his ultimate shooting at Tunnel Creek in 1897. This was an open air production in another magnificent Gorge- Windjana.
Next day we visited Tunnel Creek. Sue actually followed the underground water course for some .5km or so – she reckoned it superb.
About 30k short of the bitumen we came to THE river crossing! Onwards or backtrack 180km of dirt?  The driver actually felt the wheels slip for a very long 5 to 10 seconds! Or maybe it was 1-2 seconds,but still – all you can do is  nothing except keep calm, keep it straight and maintain constant revs on the engine!

Back to the bitumen and overnight at The Boab rest area. Possibly the biggest we have seen to date. But next day we were in the dirt again to Myroodah Crossing on the Fitzroy River. This was not one we were game to tackle – think we have done our last one, at least until the driver can afford new underwear. Across the river mustering was in full swing on two properties; so we were treated to a stream of 4 wheel drives and road trains tackling the crossing. We just watched whilst Geoff tried his hand at barra fishing (nil result).
Overnight Friday was at Willare Station. Geoff tackled a Kimberley scotch fillet steak. Bloody big and bloody beautiful. Thought of Dale & Ross as he consumed it. Noticed a slashed sidewall on a tyre in the morning. Reckon we must have been within a mm or two of a blow out.
Saturday we hit  Broome (population 13200; July average 12-27C]. It is a bit of a reconnoiter as we have to back track to  Derby (240k) for the Horizontal Falls  adventure on Tuesday.  It is race weekend this weekend so many retailers, including tyre dealers, are shut!  Already checked out Cable Beach, the dinosaur footprints and the weekend markets. Also trying to arrange some accommodation for later next week – not easy! Today (Sunday) we had a swim at Cable Beach and then watched the famous sunset.

Had thought we might hang around here for a week or so; but Sue is still suffering from the night life – apparently it is midges which cause her rashes – so maybe we will have to head a little more south instead.  But hopefully the cooler overnight temps in Broome might do the trick anyway.
Still can not buy casks of wine here, none since Alice Springs (which was in the process of banning them when we were there) and none likely before Geraldton – 1000k or more south.

But at least in Broome there is some wine in bottle shops at bottle shop prices not restaurant prices! All this rubbish about limiting supplies and/or trading hours plus ludicrous service rules is a futile attempt to limit the supply of alcohol to a subsection of the aboriginal population. Thought society had already learnt a number of times over the years that attempting to control this kind of problem by limiting supply does not work.   No wonder the locals get a bit stroppy on the subject. (And by all accounts there are a few Al Capones out there making their fortune.)

Still having a fantastic time over here; but August is nearly upon us already! Heard you had a warm one in Hobart today. Hope you enjoyed it.