17th July. Free Camping Nth of Broome

There are so many Free camping sights between Broome and Cape Leveque so we will make the most of the beautiful weather as long as we can.

This is the view of our van sight from the waters edge. Our van is not in the front line but we can still see the ocean from our lounge room!

The water is beautiful, so far I have only been game to paddle.

It has been quite windy, one night Brian got up at 1am to take down the awning & shade screens, it was a wild night. (Wind!)

One couple here have been coming here 16 years & said it was the windiest it has ever been.

Every night someone lights a campfire and anyone can come and join the circle. Last night was the first time I put on my jacket this trip.......why go south and be cold when we can stay up this end of the country?

Today was a big day the the life of our home Church, Bulleen Baptist Church. Today has seen the joining of 2 congregations, ours and Son Life, the new Name has not yet been announced, but it is still to be a member Church of The Baptist Union of Victoria. The next 6 months will establish working arrangements as the 2 become 1. There will still be 2 Services and 2 Senior Pastors in the meantime.

May God's richest blessing be on this merger.

We are able to get phone and TV at this sight, time will tell when we move. The satellite dish is working perfectly, it has a directional finder that is called "A Marriage Saver" a very appropriate name........when SOMEONE loves his football (AFL)

A young family have just pulled in beside us , 2 little bikes on the back. I will have to go & investigate!

14 July. Broome.

Well we did move, morning of thr 13th we packed up and came into Broome for 2 nights at the Broome Caravan Park, a big park, well organised and full, site 52. We had just got set up then I opening my phone and had a message from the couple we camped next to at The Causeway near Bundaberg. Monika had been reading my Blog & found were were camped about 200 meters away at Quondong Point & could we meet for coffee! I phoned her and as it happened she had a Dental appointment in Broome this morning, so they came here (it was the identical site they had stayed in 5 weeks ago!) we have arranged to go back to Quondong Point & stay with them for a couple of weeks. They are from Philltp Island & we were going to look them up in January.

Now back to the beginning, it's a 48k drive in, the first bit is a sand track, then it's the corrugated road AGAIN.  Where we meet the highway there are a row of garbage bins, so all the vans line up to get rid of their Rubbish.

Broome is on a little peninsula with the Indian Ocean on one side 'Cable Beach' and 'Roebuck Bay' on the other side. It is the Pearl capital of Australia & cultures extremely high quality pearls (I know because I have been in 'Willie's Pearl shop' prices start from $1,000 and rise at alarming speed!)

We went on a drive around the area just to get a feel for the place. It is Pearls and Tourists & the latter are here by the 1,000s. Any type of accommodation needs to be booked in advance. 

To day was our sight seeing day and it's been wonderful. After coffee with Monika and Fred, we set out for 'China Town' which is the main town, it's is a place full of colour, shops, clothes, and people of all nationalities. We had been told to go to 'Shady Lanre' and have a mango smoothie, yum it was so good. (thanks Jan) The Japanese were the early pearl divers & they have there own cemetery where 900 divers are buried. Also Broome was bombed during WW11 and the harbour was the target where a lot of Dutch (particularly women & children) were refugees from the Dutch East Indies, on flying boats anchored in the harbour.

The wharf is right at the end of the peninsula and the ocean is not blue but turquoise, the colour is breathtaking. 

On then to Cable Beach, no wonder everyone raves about it.

The area overlooking the beach.

Yes it was WINDY.

The beautiful people were enjoying the white sand, oh to be younger and fit!

Then we spotted a Camel train going down to the beach

This called for further investigation, into the car and drive down to the beach in fact onto the beach

Then we saw 2 a Camel trains all sitting down waiting for their passengers to mount and walk all beach. Seeing them on the sunset tour is supposed to be something special. I hope we can see it when we come back to Broome. The gold team.

The blue team.

There were endless tours being taking around, People in long flowing cool dresses of brilliant colours and others in the miniest of bikinis. All languages being spoken, it's SO interesting.

We called at Bunnings to get 2 more water jerry cans & cloth adhesive tape to tape cupboard doors etc when driving corrugated roads. Who should be there but Fred & Monika (minus her tooth)  getting a new gas bottle.

One more stop, Coles Supermarket, the biggest I have ever seen, and I spent the most I have ever spent at one time. Everything is dearer due to cost of transport & this area is in high tourist season. Where we are going there is no corner store or ANYTHING. IT IS THAT 90k return trip to get anything.

The next 2 weeks will be quiet as we are Quondong Point & not sure of phone reception. Blessings to all.

11th July. Quondong Point, North of Broome.

A great road east, lots of caravans going both ways....the Grey Nomads are sure moving, plus schools holidays are over which puts a lot on the roads. We picked up the Satellite Dish at the Post Office that we had ordered from Perth & added it to the bedspread! Ready to unpack and assemble at our next stop.

9k east of Broome we tuned right onto the Cape Leveque Road...... Did I sa ROAD.....silly me. The first 10k were paved then it turned to corrugated red dust/sand and rocks, within 2k there was a sign to a Pearl Farm & other places.BUT....we didn't read it!!!!! What felt like 100k further north (well, perhaps I am exaggerating) Dearly Beloved decided to ask someone the direction......."Remember the turn to the Pearl Farm? That sign says to Quondong Point!".....Well Dearly Beloved did a a 10 point turn, blocking some vehicles both ways! And then we returned the 100k corrugated red dust/sand and rocks to the turn off (do I ever exaggerate?) then in another 15k to the Indian Ocean, Western Australia.its a case of choose a spot & park there.

We were in a dip but old see the ocean but only got spasmodic phone reception & set to TRYING to set up the Satellite Dish. OK no success but good practice..

Great sleep, gently lulled by the waves.

About 11.30am next day, Brian suggested we move to a spot 200 meters away with a beautiful view of the ocean.......pack up, drive, unpack, set up, try the Satellite Dish again & find we need registration. Did this with help from Christy in Melbourne but it appears we are missing one cable!!! Dearly Beloved is very calm over it all, and we will go to Broome soon & stay a couple of days and get it sorted out. Also I've been told to have a 'Mango Smoothie' while there!

Our position is lovely, quite a wind today and we have seen both high & low tides. As Grandaughter Sheena would say "Sigh......This is the life"

The next 2 photos were taken from the one spot, back to back.

Why move?

.

8th July Derby.

We have had 3 days here at Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park. It's huge, 200 powered sights as well as all the other types of accommodation. We have had a beautiful site, very close to 1st class ammenities so we get to see plenty of passers by. Next door were very friendly & Tobin & I talked for ....well a long time!

Day 1 drove round to get our bearings, s very unusual town, in fact I still haven't found a consolidated shopping area. Woolworths & a fuel station & Mitre 10 as you enter, still on the main highway & 1&1/2 k along the road there is an IGA a Butcher, a Coffee shop, a Home Hardware, Pharmacy & I think a gift shop. This latter group are very near our Park! Then it's straight on to the port. There is a school, police station & sports field. The 1&1/2k strip is duel highway with Boab trees along it, magnificent.

It is predominantly an Aboriginal town and has some sad history of the whit mans treatment of these people.

Day 2 We were on the road at 8am heading out the Gibb River Road, we expected it to be rough, but most of the 100k was paved, then we turned right to go to Windjana Gorge. Now that road was a different story!!! My delicate body has been shaken, jolted, battered & bruised in every area. My intrepid leader drove with the skill of Stirling Moss, but thank goodness not the speed. Windjana Gorge was worth it all. We, with, Tour Busses, campers, tourists of all ages read all the information signs and followed the trail into the a Gorge. The Kimberleys are a mountainous area with amazing rock formations.

We had to go through a short tunnel of rock before we saw the water.

Keep walking we were told, there are about 38 fresh water crocodile just lazing along the bank or floating around.

All the dark marks are crocodile 

I did the 1k return trip (using a stick for this sort of walk) & Brian went a bit further on , but there was nothing different.

A successful 'selfie'

We had our lunch at picnic tables in the 34 degrees then set off for Tunnel Creek.

This was as we expected, to difficult for me and Brian didn't have the correct footwear ( you will be walking in water in the Tunnel. He had a good excuse. We read up on the big protracted battle between White & Aboriginal? One particular man used this tunnel as his hideout from Police but was eventually killed at the entrance on the other side of the mountain. I had a good excuse for not even attempting it.....there were 2 Ambulances & a Volunteer Emergency Service vehicle in the parking lot.

The day before a person had a broken leg, there had been another one in the morning and now they were going in to get another patient (don't know what for)

Now we had to face the 170k back THE SAME WAY!!!. 

Passed a ute & camper on the side of the road, broken front axle, they had already contacted help.

I am convinced that Dinosaur walked this area......here is the 'poo' to prove it.

Actually they are Termite mounds of all size and shapes.

Our beautiful Izusu doesn't look as if it is loved any more.

Today was another round of sight seeing, the wharf at low tide

Now I will show youths end of the day, high tide

It's like the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. Amazing. Canada has 15 meter tides, here is only 11 meters 

We went to the Prision Boab Tree, it was where they tied Aboriginal men prior to building prisons. Not a nice story.

This Biab tree is though to be around 1500 years old.

Near this area is the longest water trough because it was where cattle rested to be watered and fed before being shipped out at the port.

During WW11 this was also a base for Soldiers defending Australia. & we say the  6foot square concrete swimming pool that made for themselves.

On our travels we got 'lost' in the dessert!!

Just another thing to try. Much nicer than the trip to Windjara Gorge!

Well our stay in Derby is over, I'm stocked up for at least 6 nights free camping near Broome on the road to Cape Laveque. No communication for that time unless we go into Broome.

5th July. 150 k south of Derby WA

It's been very quiet since my last update. We have been Free Campimg, no electricity, no water, we have had a toilet and garbage bins at each stop and have met nice people. Like today when the couple pulled in beside us who we had chatted to 2 days ago. Often cows wander around us but have only seen one or two kangaroo. It's sad to see dead cows on the road side that have been killed during the night. It's foolish to drive after dark.

Our stop at Mary Pool was good, huge area on the banks of what is the Mary River but at this time of year it only puddles. It's quite easy to imagine the mighty flood of water over the concrete ford that we had to cross because it's in pretty rough shape and the bushes are all leaning one way....down stream!

I didn't jump, couldn't make a splash on rocks!

the most water we could see from the crossing. The camp site is to the right and the garbage bins are on the highway to the left. There were always people walking back & forth across the ford with their garbage. There would have been about 100 vans there over night.

We are at a very clean site today, the paths are paved so we are not in 5cm of powered dust. It was even worth washing the floor! Liz, you would hate it, hands and knees 2 or 3 times a day! Just teasing.

The sunsets have been magnificent.

Last night we had a young family next to us, with 2 boys. Father is Seventh Day Adventist Pastor from Broome. The family getting tea before darkness at 5.30. It makes for a long evening.

I won at Yhatzee last night, Brian tonight. Into a caravan park tomorrow in Derby so we will have TV. We have been following the Election on our iPads......need TV!

2ndJuly. The Great Northern Highway

Let me talk about yesterday first.

Chores done, now pleasure, sightseeing. We had heard about Sandalwood trees but knew nothing about the industry. We had actually seen them but didn't know what they were. They are such a beautiful green a neat tree.

Went to the Sandalwood Cafe/information centre, watched an 8 min film and saw the beautiful cosmetics & souvenirs. The trees take 14 years to mature then the process of getting the oil has various methods of extraction. This area uses water because it's available, irrigation everywhere, the Ord river that created Lake Argyle is the supplier. I'm cross with myself for not buying Sandalwood body lotion, it was beautiful. A dab on my hands lasted for hours and felt so soft. Sandalwood export is one of the main industries up here & prices continue to rise. Good for employment also as there is continual planting.

Next stop was the Ivanhoe River Crossing. It was spectacular. No way was Brian driving his pristine IZUSU through that river......it has saltwater crocodile in it. It was 'Drive at your own risk'. We were very happy to watch others do it. There were more spectators then daring drivers.

Back home, quietly reading & drinking coffee when I remembered it was time to get our monthly pills, off into town. The Pharmacy was so busy it took 1/2 hr, then home again to pack for early departure tomorrow (today) then more importantly, for Brian to catch the shuttle bus in to watch Richmond......(lose.....again!!!) The only consolation was Melbourne Storm won.

Up at 6am & on the road 7.15 for 220k to a free camp. We know to be early to pick a good sight, level ground, face south, not tooooo far from the toilet, then watch everyone else circle around looking for their site. This is by the 'dry' portion of the Ord River and we even had visitors wander through this evening.

It has been a very nice day, not so hot and a lovely breeze.

Jocelyn, Mark, Sheena & Roy have flown up to Coffs Harbour for 5 day in our Accor Hotel (using our points because we couldn't fit it in this year. (This travelling is taking all our time!!.....how sad 😪😰) Jamie has sent a message to Brian, 'Come home, I need you to work' He's looking into a flight to bring him back home......HaHa!

Tomorrow another early start to choose another free site in another park.