A few days off

We’ve been on the road for over two months.  We’ve travelled something over twelve thousand kilometres, much of it on dirt roads.  We’ve experienced some damage to Vin rouge but nothing so far that has caused us any real difficulties.  However, Mike has developed some back problems and we’re feeling a little travel weary. 

The answer is to take a couple of days out and check into a decent hotel.  This we’ve done in Broome, at the Kimberley Sands.  Ah joy, a real bed, air conditioning, swimming pools, even a personal one just outside the door, and a bus stop a few steps away.

Our most stressful activity has been to take the 20 minute walk to Cable Beach each evening to watch the sun go down over the Indian Ocean.  Of course, doing this over a drink and something to eat.  Sheer bliss.  And the sunsets have been pretty good too.

We did take another look at how oysters and their pearls were once collected.  It wasn’t easy.

But basically we’ve been taking it easy and enjoying the sea views.

Tomorrow it’s back to reality, goodbye to a real bed, hello to the roof top tent and back to travelling.  I guess we’re secretly looking forward to it.

All at sea

OK, it was a tad extravagant but we told ourselves that we are unlikely to come this way again and what’s more, David Attenborough had said that it was “one of the greatest natural wonders of the world” so we decided to find out for ourselves.  What?  Oh yes, I’ve not yet said what it is.  You’ll just have to read on J

It seems odd taking off in a light airplane equipped with floats from the regular runway at Derby Airport, but that’s what we did.  Just us and eight others for the 45 minute flight over a coast line of truly amazing, rivers, coastal inlets, mangroves and sand banks passed by so quickly that it was difficult to take it all in.  We landed on the calm tranquil waters of Talbot Bay motoring up to the floating hotel where we would stay overnight.  . 

Within minutes we were aboard the fast boat, and fast it was.  Three 300 horse power motors propelled us through the water at breakneck speed to see what is known as the Horizontal Falls.  As it was near to the last of the tide, frankly the falls were not too impressive but the boat ride was a thrill.  Back on the hotel it shark feeding time when eight nurse sharks, a tiger shark and a bull shark came close for what was obviously a regular event for them.

After all this activity it was time to watch the sun go down over the hills over the top of a glass of wine before dinner was served, wild caught barramundi and salads, food in abundance with congenial company.  No-one stayed up very late.  The sea air and excitement of the day caught up as the gently rocking sent everyone into slumber land.

Next morning, most of us were awake to watch the sun rise, colouring the hillsides with a golden glow.  This was the view from our cabin window.

The fast boat was once again pressed into service and this time the Horizontal Falls was flowing strongly.  I should perhaps explain that the Horizontal Falls are a fast-moving tidal flow through two narrow, closely aligned gorges. The direction of the flow reverses with each change of tide.  As tides in the Kimberley can reach 10 m (33 ft), a peak tide gives rise to a significant difference in the sea level on either side of each gorge.  When we went through, the difference in height was about one and a half metres.  That 900 horsepower really came into play holding the boat stationary, we were moving at 15 knots against the flow.

Then sadly it was over.  The seaplane took us back to Derby passing over some of the thousands of islands (Buccaneer Archipelago) that litter the coastline and contribute to some of the most dangerous sailing waters anywhere. 

As an adventure it was hard to beat, and the experience will last for a very long time in our memories.  But it was time to move on and, oh joy, a tarmac road all the way from Derby to Broome, the home of South Sea Pearls.  Not that we took in pearls straight away.  We went to the world’s oldest picture gardens, the Sun, opened in 1916 and still going.  The Australian film ‘Last Cab to Darwin’ was good, made more interesting because we have been to most of the locations where the film was shot. 

Kim decided that on the basis of recommendations from other travellers, we should go to Cape Leveque, a couple of hundred kilometres north west of Broome.  We knew the road was unsealed but it must rank as one of the weirdest roads we’ve ever driven.  Mostly sand, some hard and some very soft, the track was in many places as half-tunnel.  Driving was hard.  The wheels on one side would run easily on a hard surface whilst the wheels on the other side bogged in the soft stuff.  Add to that the concave shape with the vehicle tipped sideways and it was not a comfortable drive.  The 85 kilometres of track took us nearly two hours.

We were disappointed with the rather surly staff at the Kooljaman Resort but views over the Indian Ocean were spectacular (I’m beginning to run out of superlatives!!) especially at sunset.  No I’m not putting up another sunset photo.  

Next morning we visited the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm and what a contrast.  Welcomed as soon as we arrived, and great coffee before we took a tour around the land based part of the operation.  We saw how oysters were ‘seeded’ to encourage the growing of a pearl before placement in the nutrient-rich waters off shore.  Ben, our guide demonstrated how a pearl was recovered but unfortunately, ‘our pearl’ was black and dull, and of no quality whatsoever.  The tour ended with us looking at different colours and lustres of pearls which was a fascinating end to a really interesting and informative tour.

Back down the track to Broome and we decided a couple of days R&R were in order.  Mike’s back has been giving him some problems, exacerbated by the off road conditions and so we’ve checked into an hotel next to the world famous Cable Beach.  Which is where we’ll leave you as we’re off for a civilised breakfast.

The Gibb River Road

The Gibb River Road is roughly 670 kilometres long, stretching from Kununurra in the east, westward to Derby on the Fitzroy River. Rough it most certainly is. Apart from a bit of tarmac near to Derby it’s unsealed with a loose stone surface that varies from tolerable to buttock-clenching. And there’s dust! But I’ve written about dust before so will not go into it again, although the dust does get into everything.

The scenery is wild and splendid, although there can be great distances between points of real interest. Those distances we found comprised pretty much the same things. Scrub, stunted gum trees, spinifex grass and boulders. But when a special place was reached, it was just that – very special.

First stop was El Questro Station. It sounds Spanish although the story goes that the person who was registering the title of the new cattle station a century ago had rather too many sherbets and could barely speak coherently by the time he arrived at the registry. The clerk wrote down what he thought he heard and it’s been El Questro ever since. The property includes Zebedee Springs (yes, it’s named after the ‘Magic Roundabout’ character) and we found it idyllic. Lazing in a series of small rock pools with warm spring water bubbling by was near paradise for a pair of dusty travellers. However, Mike managed to find a leech attached to him which was not in the sales blurb!

Emma Gorge was next. Half way along the trail we came across the evocatively named Turquoise Pool – and you can see why!

We took a boat trip through the dramatic Chamberlain Gorge and saw angler fish spitting water to catch insects up to a metre above them. The real highlight was the gorge itself which looked wonderful in the rays of the setting sun.

Although El Questro had wonderful scenery, we thought the camp site/resort a bit commercialised and were pleased to move on not too many kilometres to Home Valley Station where we changed from four wheel drive to four legged drive. Certainly a great way to experience the country but hard on the nether regions!

Then we slipped up. Instead of taking on fuel at Mount Barnett, we decided to carry on to the next fuel stop, only to find that it was closed. After a bit of a discussion we decided to push on to Derby, fuel up there and then back track on the Gibb to visit the places we would have to miss out. It was a bit of a nuisance but it did enable us to book for the Horizontal Falls (more of that in a later blog) get some provisions and also a replacement thermal cut-out which had been wrecked by the corrugations. So all in all, things worked out reasonably well.

At Ellenbrae Station, noted for its freshly baked scones (which we enjoyed) we spotted these banded finches. They’re cute little birds, very active and acrobatic.

The dunny was interesting too, with spectacular views across the valley but with limited privacy and, shall we say, not exactly the most up to date plumbing.

These delights aside, we rattled on over the corrugations, free camping at the Lennard River crossing, a lovely spot with grand views from well above the river. A scramble over rocks was well worth the effort when we finally arrived at picturesque Bell Creek. We didn’t have a swim but contented ourselves with dangling our feet in the gently running stream whilst taking in the scenery. What do you think?

Overnight we camped at the aptly named Silent Grove, then next morning we explored Tunnel Creek. Wading and walking through a natural tunnel carved by a stream over millions of years, the rock formations created fantastic shapes in the torchlight. Wading past a fresh water crocodile which was completely undisturbed by a procession of visitors we reached daylight and another tunnel formed of trees. We lingered for a while before returning through the tunnel, noting the ghost bats roosting in the cave roof.

Our last stopover was Windjana Gorge, another lovely spot amongst sheer cliff faces. Slightly worrying was the number of fresh water crocodiles. The rock pools gradually get smaller as the water evaporates during the dry season, the crocs congregate in large numbers in what’s left. Pity the smaller ones that will probably become dinner for the larger ones. We saw dozens. Here’s a small sample. Anyone for a swim?

Finally we’re on to Derby (again) to finish the Gibb River Road, or to quote the bumper stickers on sale, ‘we survived the Gibb River Road’ and we’re all gorged and crocodiled out!

Diamonds are Forever!

Kim set her sights on a pink diamond.  Now with a few exceptions, pink diamonds come only from the Argyle Mine which is a couple of hundred kilometres south of Kununurra reached by a rough dirt track.  Not that there’s a lot of point in driving it, the mine is securely locked against visitors.

However.  There is a way.  An air tour is permitted that also takes in Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles.  Our thinking was that we could combine these adventures into the one trip.  And so it turned out.  Views of Lake Argyle from the air were impressive.  The sheer scale of the man-made reservoir is staggering.  From the ground the lake is so large it disappears into the distance.  From the air it does exactly the same thing.  It’s enormous.

The next wonder is known as the Bungle Bungles, another extraordinary natural rock formation that looks as though it was dreamed up by a deranged geologist.  These beehive shaped mounds stretch over a large area and look quite out of place with the surrounding terrain. Each beehive appears to be striped, formed by layer upon layer of compressed sediment from ancient seas and shaped by wind and rain over millions of years.  The effect from the air was bizarre and quite different from the limited view possible on the ground.

We’d been in the air for about 90 minutes when the pilot announced that landing was imminent at the Argyle Mine airport.  Mike particularly enjoyed the landing as he was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat.  Here he is pretending that he’s really been flying it!!

Lunch at the mine was followed by a tour around the old open cast mine which has been worked out.  Mining now takes place about a kilometre underground, well beneath the open cast.  We were told that the largest diamond found at the mine was caught in the tread of a tyre of one of the giant trucks used to move the rock.  We found it in the display area but as it is of industrial quality, it’s worth only a few hundred dollars.  Pink diamonds are very rare.  In a year only enough gem quality stones to three-quarters fill a champagne glass are found.  Hence their astronomical price.

We learned how tons of massive rock pieces were gradually ground down to a coarse powder to find the tiny quantities of stones, how these were graded and marketed.  The we visited what must be a unique shop.  It did sell diamonds but also sold sweets, nuts and other ‘corner shop’ products which we found amusing.

The return flight was enhanced by the presentation to every passenger (seven of us actually) of a diamond and piece of lamponite.  We weren’t too excited as we’d seen these for sale at $25 a set.  Still, it remains a memento of a very memorable day.

Did Kim get her pink diamond?  You’ll have to ask her!!!  She’s smiling here, but is it because of the waterfall?

A brief update

We thought a brief update might be in order.  This is our route so far.  It doesn't look a great distance but we've actually driven nearly 12,000 kilometres (or 7,456 miles in real money).  That's about a third of our journey.  We'll be travelling down the west coast to Perth, then across the Nullarbor before heading up the middle and then across to Brisbane. 

Lake Argyle

What holds twenty one times the amount of water that is in Sydney Harbour?  The answer we were told is Lake Argyle.  This man-made reservoir was originally created 1971 by the construction of the Ord River Dam.  It was opened the following year when in just one wet season it filled.  In 1996, the spillway wall was raised by 6 metres, which doubled the lake’s capacity.  Spectacular certainly with mountain tops showing through the water.  Its main purpose is to irrigate farm land, although the local population has an excellent water supply, the envy of many parts of north Australia.

We stayed at the Lake Argyle Resort.  Sounds posh but it’s only a camp site.  The view across the lake from the infinity pool was lovely, but we avoided it as it was cold.  Some hardy folk braved it though.

We contented ourselves with some sightseeing, taking this picture of Vin Rouge against a backdrop of the lake.

For the last few weeks, all had been going rather well.  We’d helped Glynn with this electrical problems that turned out to be a failing second battery.  Now I’m not really certain t hat Land Rovers talk to one another, but it does seem strange that a couple of days after Glynn departed the fault light on the fridge came on.  The cause?  A failing second battery!  Fortunately in the small town of Kununurra we found a tyre shop that had the correct battery in stock and even fitted it for us.  So once again ‘we’re all good’  as the Aussies say.  Travelling tip for anyone planning on staying over at Kununurra.  Avoid it.  The local indigenous population decided to have a bit of a shindig and blasted out rap music from 8pm until 6.45am – nonstop.  Somewhat grumpy today we set off for Wyndham (the most northern town in WA), an easy 100km away and hopefully a peaceful night.

That’s not the end of today’s lessons.  We’re now talking Boab trees, or baobab as some people call them or upside down trees as others call them.  We thought that these trees were natives of Africa, but it seems they are also native to northern Australia.  We’ve seen a lot of the swollen trunks of these tree, many of the ages old.  This one was inscribed on July 2 1854, during Augustus Gregory’s exploration of the territory.

Boab trees grow quite large, some even a lot larger than this one. 

The area is now a major producer of chia (a healthy seed apparently) and over 90 percent of the world’s production of sandalwood.  We discovered that sandalwood is a parasitic tree, taking its nutrients from a host tree.  The wood is used in the making of incense and for religious rites.  The extracted oil, known as liquid gold, it’s that valuable, is used in pharmaceuticals and of course, perfumes.  Here’s chia in the foreground with sandalwood trees behind.

Enough of the scholastics.  I’ll finish here in Wyndham after a G&T and one of Kim’s chicken curry dinners.  And it look like it’ll be a quiet night!

Darwin

Darwin is a strange town, although I guess the inhabitants would probably call it a city.  Although the capital of the Northern Territories, it has a town feel about it.  It’s definitely has a laid back atmosphere.  There’s not much in the way of chasing about and rush hour seems to have by-passed the place.  Although named after Charles Darwin, it’s a very modern place.  There’s few buildings older than about forty years, and for a very good reason.  On Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy tore through the area and virtually destroyed Darwin.  Hardly a building remained standing.  Thousands were evacuated and for a while there was some doubt about whether Darwin would simply be abandoned.  However, the Government House, built 1883, managed to survive, and very elegant it looks too.

  

Despite the disaster, Darwin rebuilt itself and now has a population somewhat larger than it was before Tracy. 

With wonderfully clean air and a gloriously tropical coastline, the azure sea beckons.  But, and it’s a big but, nobody goes in the water.  There’s too many estuarine crocodiles.  Even sitting on the beach is unadvisable.  In response, the town has created a very attractive harbour area with wave pool, swimming, dining and shopping areas.

We arrived on Saturday in tandem with Glynn.  He had arranged to store his Land Rover and would be back to continue his Aussie travels later in the year.  As his flight left shortly after midnight, we had part of the day to do a spot of sightseeing, so toured the Esplanade and checked out the town centre.  It was quiet.  Apparently Darwin had a horse race meeting and most of the population seemed to have gone there.  Sunday, Kim and I visited the museum to see the very well presented exhibit on the cyclone.  We also found the museum cafe did a mean iced coffee too.  Sunday night and the Mindil Market was the place to be seen.  It was surprisingly busy, but very similar to hundreds of other markets so we didn’t stay long.

Monday, it transpired was a public holiday – Picnic Day – and to escape the heat we opted for the cinema, watching the excellent film ‘Mr Holmes’, then toured the Botanic Gardens.  Tuesday morning and Vin Rouge went in for a service, after which we’d had enough of towns and traffic lights, and escaped south towards Katherine, staying overnight at Bridge Creek, a free camp site.

Tuesday and it’s coffee at The Finch run by the CWA (Kim’s favourite) topped up with diesel and head back on the Savannah Way once again.  Vin Rouge seemed eager to go and so we rolled along on terrific tarmac roads, completing almost 450 kilometres before making camp at Timber Creek. 

Tomorrow we would be crossing the border into Western Australia, where it’s not permitted to take fresh fruit and vegetables, so Kim conjured up a rather splendid stir fry using the last of our fresh supplies.

As night fell, the moon appeared a perfect sphere.  Later the wind blew, but we were snug in our rooftop tent and woke only a couple of times when a particularly sharp gust caused a bit of movement.  Happy dreams.

Some downs and some ups

We left Kakadu on a high note and headed towards Darwin. Now this wasn’t really the plan but Glynn’s electrics were beginning to play up and Vin Rouge needs a service. We headed towards Darwin to make arrangements with the local LR expert. Being Saturday of course we had to fill in a bit of time and an overnight stop at Mary River seemed to fit the bill. We also picked up a positive message on Glynn’s sat phone that Chuck was safely ensconced in hospital, had surgery on his spine and was chatting to anyone within earshot. That was a big up for all of us.

Between Kakadu and Darwin is an area known at the wetlands and we took the opportunity to spend time in a rather large and grand hide watching a variety of large and small birdlife feeding on the marshes. Then it was back to the crocodiles. We’d met several people who had recommended the ‘jumping crocodiles’ trip on the Adelaide River and these recommendations were well made. The tour was terrific. We saw a variety of crocodiles, from a massive grizzled old veteran nicknamed ‘Stumpy’ (due to a partly missing foot) to a really rather elegant young female with beautiful colourings on her back. We even managed a shot of them both together, a situation that could easily lead to a disaster for the younger croc.

Under certain circumstances crocs will ‘jump’, in reality swim upwards projecting themselves out of the water. We witnessed this several times as tempting bait was dangled from a pole. A spectacular sight and a real crocodile highlight. Chuck so wanted to see a real live croc and had of course missed this opportunity, but we sent him photos as a poor substitute.

By now we were all a bit crocodile out and wanted a place where we could actually enter with water with safety. Fortunately such a place was not too far away. Monday morning found us sorting out the Land Rovers. Glynn’s, being the more urgent, was fitted in for the following day and ours a week later. Glynn carried a spare alternator which was fitted but didn’t seem to be working too well. As it was old, the opinion was that it might bed in but that proved not to be the case and quite soon Glynn found himself stopped at the side of the road. With a combination of battery swopping, solar panel charging, reverting to the old alternator and the occasional bump start and jump start, Glynn kept his vehicle on the road. I guess that was a sort of a mixture of ups and downs. Then we heard that poor Chuck would require further surgery but remained his cheery self. This was definitely one of the ‘down’ times.

With a few days before Glynn’s return flight to the US and having provisioned in Darwin (more of Darwin later) we all trooped off to the Litchfield National Park where we found the glorious Florence Falls. At last we could cool off in the cool waters. Perhaps not quite so good was the bus tour that arrived just after us, disgorging a whole crowd of tourist into the waters. Is nothing sacred? Don’t these people know that the experience should be as remote as the land we are in?

After a bit of a drive and some wading through we found another, the Wangi Falls and these we good too. Refreshing but cold water in a temperature in the mid thirties centigrade. Have I mentioned that we’ve seen no sign of rain or chilly nights since we arrived in the far north. I’m not moaning, hot is good, even without air conditioning.

Next day we found the absolute pinnacle of rock pools. Mind you, we scrambled over rocks for nearly an hour to reach the Cascades but it was certainly worthwhile. Here’s Kim doing her Esther Williams impression!

This same routine kept us busy for a couple of days – get up, take a walk to some falls or a rock pool, laze around in the water until fingers became full of wrinkles, drip dry and slowly wander back before downing a couple of G&Ts before dinner. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it.