Tuesday 18th September - Wednesday 19th September 2012 - Broome and heading South!

We discovered a fuel leak late yesterday so Ed got that looked at and patched up before we left town. It was a leak in the hose between the tanks apparently. We got out of town around lunchtime and drove down to the 80 Mile Beach and stayed the night at the caravan park. The beach was endless and there was some amazing shells which we collected that day and early the next morning.

The endless 80 Mile Beach

Ed and Charlotte went out early and got caught in an early morning fog whilst collecting shells

The next day we drove down to Port Hedland (where we stopped for lunch) and then we drove onto a campsite at Balla Balla Inlet for the night. There wasn't much there except for lots of mud and some cute little red crabs.

Saturday 15th September - Tuesday 18th September 2012 - Broome

We drove straight back to Broome from Cape Leveque. We camped at the Cable Beach Caravan Park close to the large swimming pool - much to the delight of the kids.
Although our visit did not coincide with the viewing of the Staircase to the moon, there was very low tides so we could see the dinosaur prints at Gantheaume Point.

We went and visited Cygnet Bay Pearls at their shop in town and the kids were really excited to see the worlds largest, best quality round pearl which was collected in 2204 I think at the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm.

The kids enjoyed a camel ride before sunset on Cable Beach whilst Ed and I took photos. They had a ball!

We enjoyed our last night in town watching a Cable Beach Sunset and enjoyed a cold beer.

Monday 10th September 2012 - Saturday 15th September 2012 - The Dampier Peninsular (North of Broome)

Quondong Point
We packed up and left Derby for Broome. Just out of town there was another large boat tree that was used as a prison tree. It was very large - but it is still hard to comprehend that it would be used in this way.

We continued driving into Broome where we stopped at the Visitor Centre and hit the shops for some supplies. We drove out of Broome to the north to start exploring the Dampier Peninsular up to Cape Leveque.
Our first stop was Quondong Point with was only about 40km north of Broome. It was a lovely elevated site to camp with direct access to the beach. We enjoyed a swim and collecting shells and of course fishing! The amazing thing about this place was the hundreds of hermit crabs that surrounded us that evening. I have never seen so many in my life. They were amazing! The sunset was also great...yes I know that it is hard to believe!!!

I will never forget the Kimberly sunsets - I just wish we could capture them in a photo. They look better  in real life.

Middle Lagoon

Our next stop on the way up to Cape Leveque was Middle Lagoon. It was a sandy drive in there but worth it when we arrived. After setting up we got on our bathers an hit the beach. It was really lovely.

We enjoyed fishing, playing in the sand, swimming, the sunsets, shell collecting and playing in the sand. One of the things I love about the WA coast is the Red rocks, the white sand and the blue water all close together. It's just such a beautiful sight to see.

Charlotte dancing on the beach

Olivia doing cartwheels

A sand croc

A sand mermaid

Another beautiful sunset

Cape Leveque

We drove  up to Cape Leveque via Beagle Bay. It was an easy drive up - a sealed road most of the way. The Beagle Bay Church was built and decorated by some spanish monks in the early 1900's. What makes it unique is the decorations of local shells and mother of pearl shells decorating the altar and the rest of the church. It is really a quaint place to visit.

We then moved onto Cape Leveque to stay up at Kooljaman Wilderness Camp. The beaches were beautiful. Ed and the kids had a snorkel and Ed also had a fish. We also caught up with a family who are travelling around Australia for 3 years! The girls got along well with Elizabeth and Kate who were around the same age as them.

The red rocks on Western Beach at Cape Leveque

Ed in action fishing. He caught a reef shark but he let it live another day!

Sunset over Western Beach

One Arm Point

We went for a drive up to One Arm Point. I remembered that I went to school with a girl from here. She is now a teacher in Derby but her parents still live there so I left them a note which I hope finds its way to Kylie and she gets in touch with me.

We visited a hatchery rugby an older man who had many good stories to tell. There were tanks with Barra and turtles and clown fish. The kids loved it - especially when the opportunity came to feed them.

They also polished up beautiful troches shells and the girl each got a necklace made of parts of a shell.

We drove out to a beach near the hatchery where they launch boats and we saw 7 Lemon Sharks swimming close to shore. It was amazing to see. Ed got in with a mask and snorkel to get up close. The colour of the water was amazing!

We did not get into Lombadina as it was virtually closed down due to a big wedding happening in town so it was the only place we didn't get to.

Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm
We did a tour of Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm which was really interesting. As it's close to the end of the season we went on the tour with only us. It was very informative learning about the pearling business. I was very tempted to buy a pearl (my favourite was the golden pearls) however I held back (just!). The funny thing is that loads of people go on a tour of the Willie Creek Pearl Farm and it is a fake. It is just set up for tourists and is not a working pearl farm!

We had a great time exploring up around the Dampier Peninsular and we were very glad we came up here. Off to Broome for a few days before heading south on the homeward stretch.

Friday 31st August - Sunday 9th September 2012 - The Gibb River Road

El Questro
We left Kununurra around lunchtime and drove to El Questro. Along the way we stopped in at Emma Gorge which is where our friends Nicole and Brad had their wedding reception. It looked beautiful however, as we hadn't started out early enough it was way too hot to attempt the 3 hour walk into the gorge (even with the swim at the end) so we gave it a miss.
We continued onto the campground at El Questro. Shane and Rose booked a cabin for the night so we joined them for dinner. There were a couple of musicians playing at the shop/bar area which all the girls enjoyed listening to. Shane cooked us a fab pasta carbonara.
Ed and Shane together with Miles and Thomas went looking for cherebin for the fishing the next day.
The boating adventure up Chamberlain Gorge was not a raging success - the motor on the boat died and Shane and Ed had to row back with Charlotte and Miles in support.

Chamberlain Gorge

We were very relaxed staying there. After Friday night Shane and Rose set up camp next to us and we all chilled out together. The kids spent loads of time in the water keeping cool. 

Rose and I took a drive with Olivia, Esther and Amelia to see Moonshine Gorge. We didn't walk through the whole gorge as after a short walk we stopped for a lovely swim. Rose did some super 4wding to get into the gorge.

For Fathers Day we got up earlyish and went to Zebedee Springs. It was only a short drive front he campsite. It was a lovely warm swim. They was several levels of pools to enjoy.

Charlotte under one of the waterfalls

We returned back to the campsite for a Fathers Day cook up breakie before the kids went off for another swim and Shane and Rose packed up.

We were sad to say goodbye as they had been great hosts for our time up in Kununurra.

Thomas caught his first Barra - shame it wasn't size and had to go back!

The Durack Tree

Home Valley Station

After a new tyre for the trailer was fitted we drove the short distance to Home Valley Station where we camped for 2 nights on the Penticost River. It was pretty warm there so the swim back at the homestead was very welcome. We did some fishing there and Ed swears that he had a 1m + barra on the line before it was gone taking his lure and line with him! The kids and I also had a bit of a fish with no luck.

Charlotte (on Midnight) and Olivia (on Zoro) enjoyed a horse ride around the Home Valley Homestead.

Mitchell Falls

We drove further along the Gibb River Road before turning off to go up to the Mitchell Falls on the Kalumbaru Road. We had lunch at Drysdale Station followed by another few hours of driving on a  bumpy, corrugated road to the Kind Edward River campsite. This was a lovely spot close to water that you could swim in. It was a nice cool off in the water after setting up.

The next day we took off early and drove for nearly 2 hours into the Mitchell River National Park. We walked in up to the top near the falls and had a swim straight away. It was super slippery on the rocks and a bit of a challenge to get back out!

We then crossed the water and walked around to the viewing points for the falls. It was handy that a tour group had flown in via helicopter so we followed them to the 3 different viewing spots. The falls we beautiful and I was so glad that I had pushed to come up here despite all the bad road stories that we had been told.

The King Edward River - a nice place to camp!

The top pool where we had our first swim

Standing near the edge at the top of the Mitchell Falls

The Beautiful falls - the only way they would look better is in the wet with tonnes more water!

On the walk down we stopped at Big Merton Falls and had lunch and a swim in the lagoon which was very refreshing.

There were a couple of aboriginal art sites but as the kids said..'Thats nothing. The art at Kakadu is much better!'

 Our last stop of the day was a Little Merton Falls. They were a series of smaller cascading pools. A lovely refreshing end to the days walk. Walking these tracks is so much better when there are swimming spots along the way.

We finished the day with a 2 hour drive back to our campsite. We had a wonderful day at the falls. The good thing about camping away from the falls was that it was 2 hours less driving the next day.

Manning Gorge

We drove back out to the Gibb River Road and onto the Mt. Barnett Roadhouse. We camped at the campground there and immediately jumped into the water to cool down. Unfortunately we were unable to walk into the gorge as a woman had broken her leg and they closed the track until she came out.

There was a large bushfire burning along the roads approaching the roadhouse which Ed kept an eye on. We could smell the smoke throughout the night.

The next day we swam across the water and then did a 2km walk into Manning Gorge. It was quite rocky but worth it as the view was fantastic and it ended with us having a swim under a waterfall.

This was one of my favourite walks as you had a swim at the start, the middle and at the end.

After our refreshing walk we hit the road again and stopped in at Galvins Gorge. It was a short walk into a lovely swimming hole with a cascading waterfall surrounded by palms.

We camped that night beside the Leonard River. It was ok except for the massive amount of flies - welcome back to WA. They were the worse we had seen on the whole trip!

The next day we explored Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek before finishing the Gibb River Road in Derby. 

The soaring high, coloured cliff walls of Windjana Gorge were spectacular to walk through. Couple that with the legend of Jundamurra also known as Pigeon. It is a fantastic story also made famous by Paul Kelly. There are lots of fresh water crocs in the gorge and they were all out catching the morning sun.

We headed down to Tunnel Creek to explore it. Unfortunately we had packed all our torches bar one small mag light into the camper. We managed to have enough light to explore it through to the end. There were fresh water crocs there but we didn't see them We did see some small bats and spiders along they way in the dark.

We drove into Derby very dirty after a week on the Gibb River Road, but very happy that we did it with no damage to the car or trailer.