Broome to Katherine NT

Wed 3 July – As we only planned for a short trip today, we returned to Cable Beach at Broome for another couple of swims in this great surf. After lunch we headed north for 110kms to a rest area and sat in the shade. Caravans arrived all afternoon and we had a drink with a couple from the Hunter Valley.

Thurs 4 July – Everyone had gone before we left. Most people are doing 600kms a day. NOT US however!! Lots of roadworks today and a head wind (E). We drove thru different country with boab trees, grasslands and termite mounds. We thought it must be very much like the African plains and almost expected to see zebras or giraffes wandering by. Our overnight stop was at a rest area beside a huge Boab Tree. Look carefully. I am in the picture at the bottom!!

Fri 5 July – Another short drive but again the country is beautiful. We stopped at one of the two small towns between Broome and Kununura at Fitzroy Crossing. As suggest by the name this is where we crossed the huge but dry Fitzroy River. In the wet season this is one of the largest rivers in the world! Fitzroy Crossing is an Aboriginal town and there have been trouble with kids throwing rocks lately. We chose the flashest resort to camp in! They even had a great swimming pool which we made use of. In the evening we went to the bar for a pizza and were joined by a couple of miners from a lead mine 1 ½ hours flight time from Darwin with interesting tales. They were having their break (15 days on, 13 days off) and were doing a “roadie” around the Kimberley.

Sat 6 July – It was much cooler this morning, back on the road east towards the other town in this area, Halls Creek. We stopped at the Mary Pool rest area before the town. The bridge has been replaced and the old road provided a great camping area away from the main road. There were a huge number of campers, vans and motorhomes in the shade of the gum trees on the banks of the river. We sat in the shade and listen to the Crusaders win the Super Rugby final on I-heart radio. Most campers here were more interested getting their generators going to watch the AFL West Coast Eagles v Fremantle Dockers game!

Sun 7 July – Fuelled up at Halls Creek and drove on to a much smaller rest area much like last night. This is not an official 24 hour rest area so there were very few here to share the flies and some dust. The country has changed to low hills and the odd red rocky outcrop. It is 1000kms from Broome to Kununurra and the only 2 towns on the trip are tiny about Waikuku size!

Mon 8 July – Another great drive thru undulating country with larger hills all around. We went over a pass and down to the Warmun Roadhouse for the night. The small camp out the back was full. This roadhouse had a small pool and we cooled off as the it was around 34C.

Tues 9 July – More lovely country with more hills and the road was quite windy. (Aussie windy not NZ windy!) Our last overnight stop before Kununurra was at the Dunham River rest area. We found a nice shady site and joined a couple from Melbourne for drinks. They were heading south and we swapped best overnight stopping places. They also gave us some tips for places not to miss on the east coast.

Wed 10 July – Just a short drive to Kununurra. What a great drive this has been from Broome, with the scenery changing all the way. We went to the visitors centre and checked out the sights to see, shopped, pick up alcohol, fuel and went to our pre-booked camp. The town was busy and it was good to get out of the heat and onto our site overlooking Lake Kununurra. It is the school holidays and were lucky to get a spot. We will spend 2 nights here.

Thurs 11 July – I wiped the red dust off our bikes and we rode along the lake and thru the town to the Mirima National Park. We locked our bikes and walked into the Hidden Valley. This is called the Kununurra version of the Bungles. We missed the real Bungles as the only way to get to them is either by air or a long 4WD drive. The short walks thru the park were great with views into the red rock valleys. Back at ‘Andy’ we relaxed in the shade.

Fri 12 July – We set the alarm as we are driving to the Lake Argyle Resort, where you cannot book, and the suggestion is that you arrive early to secure a site. We were meeting Marty and Lyn Cunninghame from Kaiapoi and have been co-ordinating a stay with them. They are travelling from Darwin south in their mini Winnebago motorhome and we are going north and it all worked out at Lake Argyle where we met. The camp was able to give us adjoining sites. After a swim in the amazing infinity pool and lunch, we rode our bikes for some views of the lake and the gorge. Lake Kununurra and Lake Argyle are man-made for irrigation of the area. Marty used my ladder to wash his roof and I cleaned ‘Andy’. We all cooled off in the pool before drinks.

Sat 13 July – An early start again today as we are all (Marty, Lyn, Val and I) booked on the early morning boat cruise on Lake Argyle. A bus took us a short drive to the boat. The camp is away above the lake and it was a steep downhill access road. The boat was about ½ full (25) and we cruised firstly to an area of rock wallabies who live on a very steep cliff. In another bay we saw fresh water crocodiles. There are about 25,000 in this lake and the largest we saw was around 2m. We then fed fish from the boat. The fish spit at the offered bread to make it land in the water. The lake is huge (60kms long, 45kms wide) and we eventually cruised to a cliff area and jumped in for a swim in the warm water. (No crocs in this area seemly!) Marty jumped off the cliffs (about 20m high) I did not! Lyn stayed on the boat as the official photographer. Back at camp we relaxed and compared notes on the best overnight camping sites. Before evening drinks Marty and I had another swim in the spectacular infinity pool.

Sun 14 July – We farewell Marty and Lyn, they were heading south west to their son’s family in Karratha. It has been great spending a couple of days with them. We drove out of Lake Argyle and crossed the border between Western Australia and The Northern Territory. We have been in W.A. for 4 months total when we crossed the border in Eucla, on the Nullabor last year and back into the N.T. today. We stopped at a dusty rest area for the night and wound our clocks forward 1 ½ hours to Aussie Central Time. Sunset is now at a decent time! (6:30pm).

Mon 15 July – We are now following the Victoria Highway driving towards Katherine. We drove 100kms to Timber creek, fuelled up and continued for 60kms into the Gregory National Park following the large Victoria River to an overnight rest area beside a lovely billabong. It was a small camp and soon filled up.

Tues 16 July – Another 170kms on to Katherine where the Victoria Highway meets the Stuart Highway (the main road between Darwin and Adelaide). We got the last unpowered site in the camp and continued into the town to shop. This is a very busy town with caravans and campers taking up all possible parking places. We stored the food away and had lunch waiting for the bottle store to open at 2:00pm, police and all the usual security checks! (Welcome back into the Northern Territory). Eventually we got back to the camp and Val caught up with the laundry. We have a week before we are booked into Darwin and have a couple of National Parks we will visit.

Out of the Pilbara and into the Kimberley

Mon 17 June – Drove out to Karratha for diesel and continued out on a detour to Cape Lambert and our camp at Point Samson.  We stopped at Wickham to buy wine, but casks are not allowed in this area, so we ended up with 6 bottles. The camp was full of retired oldies, but it had a nice beach and a swimming pool which we made good use of. Early in the evening we watched the full moon rise over the ocean. The effect is called the “staircase to the moon”.

Tues 18 June – We left the camp and hoped to drive to an overlook of the ships loading iron ore. All we found was a security gate (NO ENTRY) and no view.  Back down the cape for a couple of kms to the historic town of Cossack. We had booked a night at Settlers Beach and met the host at 11:00am to fill in a permit, as we were in an aboriginal reserve. The town of Cossack was fascinating with many of the original buildings including a huge court house, now long since abandoned. There were only two permits issued for Settlers Beach. Our camp was right on the beach which was beautiful stretched for miles. In the distance we could see the iron ore ships waiting for their turn to go to the docks and load. At low tide in the evening we joined the other couple for a walk out onto the beach to get the view of the “staircase to the moon”. It was a better view than last night but still not quite living up to expectations.

Wed 19 June – We will be isolated for the next 7 days, so we picked up a few things going thru Wickham, tried to get water but failed, and drove 150kms to the Yule River, another great overnight free camp in the gum trees. A very hot day. The temperatures are now around 30C during the day. We joined two other couples for a great camp fire.

Thurs 20 June – This was our longest drive this year, made even longer by having to go 52kms off track to top up on fuel. We turned south and inland down the Great Northern Highway as we are doing a 700km detour down into the Karijini National Park. We stopped for the night at the Auski Roadhouse. There were many road trains heading north to Port Hedland full of iron ore. Truck plus 4 trailers. At one stage a road train showered us with gravel. We now have a crack in our windscreen! Will try and get thru this year’s trip before getting it fixed. Windscreens for “Andy” could be a bit hard to source in this part of Aussie! The Roadhouse is another base for the mine workers, transported to and from the mine sites in buses. In the evening it started to rain.

Fri 21 June – We had a bit more rain in the night and it was much cooler. Only bore water available, so we filled our buckets (washing and dishes only) and drove 88kms into the Karijini National Park. We had booked 3 nights there. After the Auski Roadhouse the country changed from flat scrub to rugged red rock hills reminding us of the red rocks and buttes of Utah. We were surprised by the amount of water on the road and were told by the hosts that they had had 40mm of rain overnight.

 We walked down to look at the Fortescue Falls accessed by a long steel staircase into the Dale Gorge. The pools in the gorge were very muddy. Hopefully this will clear before we leave.

Sat 22 June – A much warmer morning with breakfast outside. We checked the weather forecast and found that it is on the improve. We decided to delay our long walk down into the Dale Gorge until tomorrow. We walked the rim of the gorge to the Circular Pool, also fairly discoloured.

Sun 23 June – Left for our walk around 11:00am setting off along the rim track in the opposite direction from yesterday. Access down into the gorge was via a steep but well formed track with a steel ladder at one stage. We walked up to Circular Pool which had cleared and was very lovely. Back down the gorge. 

A great walk over slabs of rock and thru some shallow pools. The red rocks above were spectacular. Back at Fortescue Falls we walked the short track to the Fern Pool. The whole day was a great walk of 6.5kms making the trip into the National Park worth the drive.

Mon 24 June – Back on the road out of the park, passed Auski Roadhouse and on to a beautiful roadside stop for the night. We were away from the road overlooking the gum trees and bush. About 10 vans in for the night.

Tues 25 June – We followed a road train for most of our drive to Port Hedland. Fortunately, they travel at about the same speed as us. They would be a bugger to pass! We shopped before driving to the Council sponsored free RV park beside the local race course. There were about 60 vans in for the night. Great for the local business.

Wed 26 June – We biked thru the residential areas and along the waterfront to the port. This is the biggest iron ore exporting port. We counted 22 ships out on the horizon waiting their turn to come into the wharves and load. The noise of the iron ore loading and the huge trains bringing the ore was quite loud especially at night. Just before we locked our bikes and went to the Esplanade Hotel for lunch, Val’s bike got a puncture. Several “bindies” (hard little thorns) in the front tyre. The lunch was great with beers, out in the garden. Back to the puncture! We wheeled the bikes to a nearby Beaurepaires and managed to inflate it as much as we dared and rode fast until it was flat again. Fortunately, we were only a couple of 100 meters from a service station and repeated the process and managed to get all the way back to “Andy”.

Thurs 27 June – Headed out of Port Hedland to South Hedland where we managed to buy a tube. We are off to Broome, 600kms north east and will take 3 days for the trip. Only a short drive of 150kms today. Had to stop at a railway crossing for an iron ore train. 4 engines and 208 wagons. It took some time to pass!! The Pardoo Roadhouse was great as we needed to do a huge laundry and it even had a small cooling swimming pool. I fitted the tube and gave the bottom half of “Andy” a rough wash.

Fri 28 June – A longer drive today (242kms) over very flat country. In the cyclone/wet season this road floods, isolating Broome. It was the hottest day yet (35C) and calm so we kept driving to our overnight stop at a rest area. At sunset we joined a group where one guy playing a guitar. He was a good guitarist but he managed to butcher every song, even “Pub With No Beer” which I thought that would be impossible!

Sat 29 June – A strong head wind for most of our drive to Broome. We had booked a camp and got the last site. We will be here for at least 3 nights. After swapping our gas bottle we eventually pulled into the camp on a nice shady site. Many of the campers here are grey nomads escaping the cold winter in Perth. We walked thru the camp which is situated on Town Beach. Looks good for a swim when the tide is in.

Sun 30 June – It is now quite hot in the night and the fan I installed last year over our bed may come into play shortly. We have decided to stay 4 nights here so extended our booking. I climbed onto our roof, cleaned the solar panel, reinstalled a vent seal and checked the TV aerial. Broome is on a peninsular with Town Beach on one side and Cable Beach on the other. Unusually, the peninsula is cut in half by the airport.

 We drove across to Cable Beach as we had booked a camel ride this afternoon. Eventually the camels arrived in a long line and we were allocated a camel by the camel master. Our camel was called Spartacus. The camels all kneeled and we mounted up one at a time. They warn you that as the camel stands you get thrown forward. They were not kidding!! The motion of the camels walking is very unusual and takes some getting used to. Eventually you relax and go with the motion. The front camel is lead and the other 13 camels, all tied together, follow. The only slight down side is that cars are allowed on this beach and it slightly spoils the experience. Young men run beside the camels and use your camera to take pictures. All in all, a great experience but only a oncer!

Mon 1 July – We biked into town before it got too hot but forgot our bike lock so could not leave the bikes anywhere. We will have to return later. Back at camp we walked to the Town Beach and had a couple of good swims. The water was great but there are huge tides here and the swimming is only good 2 hours either side of high tide.

 Back in the shade of our site during the heat of the day and then back on our bikes at around 4:00pm for the short ride to town (with our bike lock this time.) Broome was established around the pearl trade. Originally mainly Asians were brave enough to dive for the pearls. The Asian influence is still reflected in the town. The pearls are now all cultivated and there are several shops selling expensive examples of pearl jewellery. Because many Perth oldies winter-over here and there are cruise ships visits, there are quite a lot of tourist shops. We stopped off at a boutique brewery for a beer on the way back.

Tues 2 July – Laundry and cleaning this morning and then we drove Cable Beach. The tide was in and we enjoyed several swims in the clear cooler water. This beach is very popular and even has permanent life guards. By lunch time we were “cooked” and sat in the shade. This will be the last time we see the sea until we get to Darwin. We are leaving tomorrow and will be at least 7 days before we pass any towns, so we had a shop-up on our way back to camp for this trip N/E and inland.