The Kimberleys and on to Katherine in the Northern Territory

Already another week has passed since my last post, so I guess its time for an other update.

After spending 4 nights at Kununurra, I drove north to Wyndham for a look at "Five Rivers Lookout", which turned out very nice with panoramic views along the coastline.

The Graffiti on the Boab reads "PISSHEADS"

Part of the view of Wyndham Harbour

I ended up at a place called Parry Creek, actually a kind of farm stay with large lawn areas for camping.  I am told there are lots  of midgees (sand flies), although tiny, but inflict a vicious bite that will be itching for weeks, so I put on my insect repellant before spending my evening at the campfire with two young French travellers and another Australian/Hungarian couple.  I had zero bites by the time I turned in.  This made me think that there were no midgees after all, so the following evening I did not put on any insect stopper and as a result got bitten all over.
More about Wyndham...
After 2 days at Parry Creek I returned to Kununurra for yet another 2 nights, then driving up to Lake Argyle, another beautiful scenic drive in the soft morning light.  Because of the recent late finish of the "wet Season" (monsoon) everything still looks green, even the spiky spinifex is looking like soft green cushions on the red earth background.

Camping at Parry Creek

Lake Argyle, more info...
When I leave the following morning I am driving toward the Northern Territory border and notice that the prominence of the Boab trees continues all the way to Timber Creek, where I re-fuel.  It is a bit of a myth that Boabs only grow in the Kimberleys as they are highly evident along the highway with its many floodways that obviously must be the carriers of the seeds during the wet season.  After Timber Creek, the ground rises and Boab trees have disappeared from my view, except for one tree I spot shortly before passing through Fitzroy.  The Northern Territory has a different time zone which means that I have to put my watch forward by one and a half hours, then being just 30 minutes behind the East coast time instead of the two hour time difference to Eastern Standard Time from Western Australia.
About Timber Creek..
The next rest area is too small and right by the highway, so I keep going for the next one which is much more spacious, but slowly begins to fill up by late afternoon.  I meet a nice lady who is travelling by bike, with a small trailer in the opposite direction as I.  She tells me her name is Lissy, she is in her 70s, lives in Melbourne with her husband.  She wants to travel all the way to the west coast again and then follow it down to Perth.  I am impressed, that someone that age still has such determination and stamina for such a strenuous endeavour.  She carries all her belongings on her trailer, so I can imagine that her life has to be reduced to absolute basics.  I invite her over to my house-on-wheels to share a nice chicken curry with me.  It turns out a very enjoyable evening as we share some of our travel experiences.  By the time I get up this morning I see that her tent is gone.  I wish her safe travels!

Life after Broome

Broome the Pearl Diving Town from yesteryear seems to still be booming, quite busy for what is becoming a fairly large town, lots of new roads going in, still full of tourists, most arriving by caravan but also those that fly in for a long weekend from as far away as Sydney or Melbourne.  Still there are pearls for sale at the local outlets, the shop fronts all looking similar with that 'corrugated iron' look, obviously doing allright from the tourist trade.   Read More about Broome

Viewed from my perspective, some of it looks a bit over-the-top, yet I must say they have done a good job over the years in publicising the town right across Australia, as it is well known even in the eastern States.  Famous Cable Beach certainly leaves beaches like Bondi far behind, not only because of its white sands, the long sweep of the beach, but also because of its turquoise warm waters capped with a bit of white surf.

Famous Cable Beach at Broome

Sunset on Cable Beach

We spend 2 days at Broome, my friends leaving for the more challenging roads to Cape Leveque, which, unfortunately I am going to have to miss, my Motorhome being the wrong kind of vehicle to go onto the sand tracks etc.  I drive instead to the town of Derby, further north on the coast where I spend the next two nights.  The weather has been perfect all along, also cooling down at night, so when I drive on, going east toward Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek and finally to Kununurra, a large fruit growing town, surrounded by irrigation channels, as there is abundant water supply from Lake Argyle.
More about Fitzroy Crossing

On my drive east I make several stops at rest areas on the way, most of them very nice, places where I meet and catch up with fellow travellers, spend some nights at various camp fires talking, joking, exchanging information.  On one occasion even spend half the night singing along with Colin from New Zealand who has a great voice and knows how to play a guitar.  It was a great night.

Mudflats in Derby

Someone tried his luck on the wet mud

I am also quite surprised on my drive east, just how green the country still looks, this mostly due to the late ending of the so called "Wet Season", still also some remnants of water standing in various rivers and creeks I cross on my way.  

 A great camping spot along the way

There are also many stray cattle along the highway, grazing happily on the still green grass growing along the road.  Naturally, its important to slow down as its not easy to predict if they should decide to cross the highway in front of you.  Unfortunately, some of them get killed running into road trains, those 52 metre monsters that travel the highways up here.  About 20km south of Derby lay a grotesquely bloated carcass of a dead bull, even his testicles standing up in a bloated fashion, all of it looking much like a bloated balloon.  More about Kununurra...

 Check out the size of that tree !!

A flock of Cockatoos about to land in the trees

A week after leaving Broome I arrive at Kununurra which I have visited previously and much enjoyed.

Broome and Derby and the Kimberley region

When we leave Karijini the next place to stay is Port Hedland, a large port from which much of the iron ore from Newman and Tom Price is shipped overseas.  More info about Newman  The high quality ore arrives at Port Hedland by trains which stretch over several kilometres in length. Info about Tom Price

Being a large Port, Port Hedland is a large sprawling place, rail yards with shunting facilities for those long, long trains which seem to take up quite a large area on the outskirts.  There is also Sea Salt Mining with large evaporation lakes near a storage facility where mountains of white salt are visible from a long distance away.  If it wasn't hot one could almost believe the stuff was snow.

Barn Hill at sunset

I leave the following morning while Eckhard and Suki have to attend to personal stuff with their vehicle.  I drive to Eighty Mile Beach, about 8km of dirt road from the Highway, but well worth the drive.  The campground has been hit by a cyclone, back last December.  The trees have all been stripped and needed to be cut back so they could recover.  The place now looks quite bare compared to last year when I came through in August.  According to a Local Person windspeeds of 300km/h have been recorded, in fact, a large shipping container has been blown by the cyclone for several kilometres.

The white sand on that beach is beautiful as I remember from my last visit.  I am spending 3 days relaxing, my friends arriving after 2 days.  When we leave we follow the Coast Highway and spend the next 2 nights at a rest area, under the shade of a large tree.  Fellow travellers, Trish & Lenny have invited us to come to their campfire where we spent a delightful evening with many a yarn being spun...

Rock Formation at Barn Hill Beach

When we leave its just about 70km up the highway then 9km of dirt to the coast again where we put down at Barn Hill for another 2 days.  More...

Toward the town of Tom Price and Karijini National Park

When we leave Learmonth Jetty there are clouds looking north-east, the direction in which we will travel.  By the time we reach the coast highway driving north, there are a few showers.  At Nanutarra Roadhouse we top up fuel to get to Paraburdoo.  There is light rain when we drive on, which increases the further east we drive.  

The rain we left behind

We pull over at our planned rest area.  Its raining quite strongly, but looking brighter toward Paraburdoo, so we keep going.  Sure enough, its getting brighter and the rain has stopped by the time we arrive in town.  As it turns out, no camping facilities, so we just keep going to Tom Price, where I know, we can go into a caravan park.

All the grass and spinifex burned off after a lightening strike in Karijini National Park

  We are in the southern Kimberleys, lots of red mountains, today decorated with heavy clouds, but also sunshine in places, a part rainbow, looking so real you feel you can also touch it.

Looking up to the rim of the Gorge

Water at the bottom of the Gorge

The following morning we drive on into the Karijini National Park with all its gorges, strongly coloured rock formations, pools of water, really a feast for my eyes.  So much to photograph, even though I have been here before twice, the shutter on my camera keeps clicking away.   More about Karijini National Park...