Campfires in the Kimberleys

Finally in Western Australia.  I have always wanted to see the other side of our enormous country and watch the sunset over the ocean.   The state is huge!  We have already needed to use our spare fuel, just driving on the main route’s.   Thinking we were very experienced now – before heading down a dirt road John wisely gaff taped the vents outside the van to keep the red dust out – but three kilometres down the road we realised we had left a window open.  Lesson learnt.

Crossing the boarded to WA our caravan was searched by quarantine, we handed over a few pieces of left over fruit and a jar of honey, which left poor Sam in tears.  Hard concept for a little by to understand.  We did try to eat as much honey as we could in the days leading up to the boarder, but I was running out of ideas of things to put honey on.  

Western Australia greeted us with giant red rock ranges of the Kimberley’s sprinkled with boab trees.  It looks like the earth has opened up and pushed it's crust through cracks in the mountains to make long rocky shelves along it’s walls.

Our first stop after the boarder were Lake Argyle a stunning gorge lake.  They wanted to charge us over $50 for an unpowered campsite there, so we just had a quick picnic lunch, and left for Kunnunurra.  Weeks later we were at a free campspot and I heard Joshua say to some new arrivals 'this place is too expensive, you'll just have to have your lunch and then go'.  Budget travel has left an impression on him. 

Somewhere between on the road between Lake Argyle and Kunnunurra we lost Amy’s ‘Lambie’ – her precious little stuffed toy.  But thankfully after a sleepless night we found her the next morning at the local tourist information centre.

Lake Kunnunurra

From there we had intended on making a straight run for Broome but found a beautiful spot outside the Bungle Bungles to stop and camp for a while, with a lovely flowing stream for the kids to play in, and campfires every night.  I had been coping really well with pit toilets until one night my torch spotted a dozen large cockroaches crawling around inside the bowl.  From now on all my night time toilet trips will be done in our caravan toilet.

After a 900km outback drive west, we arrived at Broome and enjoyed our morning coffee on Cable Beach.  Voted number one beach in the world it has a long stretch of white sand and crystal clear water.  We returned to the beach that day to watch the sunset, and again the next morning for breakfast.  We also went searching for dinosaur footprints on the rocks which can be seen at very low tide. 

Cable Beach

Broome is where the dessert meets the sea.  It is stunning to see red outback dust turn into clean white sand.   As an old Pearling town and a casualty of bombing in WW2 Broome has a great history.  It has maintained a very multicultural feel from it’s pearling days with a great mix of people, and a retro little china town.  This is very unique for such a small country town.  John took the kids to look at the pearling boats while I window shopped in the jewellery store and enjoyed being dazzled by the pearl displays.  (John picked up a great little pearl treasure which he has tucked away for my birthday).

From the Kimberelys you enter  the Pilbara region which is rich in natural resouces and houses the mining towns of Port Headland, Karatha, and Tom Price.  The area has it's own beauty with red rock ranges, salt pools, mine plants, mud flats, red dirt, and white salt mountains.  We had commented to ourselves that the red rocks seemed like we were on Mars, and read a few days later in the paper that NASA was using the area to do some testing.  At night the plants are covered in lights, and appear beautiful in the distance.

We were looking forward to Karratha to catch up with the precious Sarah and Ben Morris and there two gorgeous munchkin boys.  It was a much needed half way stop for us, so we enjoyed the luxury of a home and great friendship.  Wonderful for the kids to all play together.  A big big thank you Sarah – at 31 weeks pregnant you were the most gracious host – thank you Fin and Fletch for sharing your toys, and Ben for washing our car and taking my hubby for a fish.

We had some great memories together, Dolphins in Dampier cove, Cossack Carnival, great Chinese takeaway, and watching the Staircase to the moon.  

Before leaving home we had read about the ‘Stair case to the moon’ – a rare phenomenon seen only in a few locations on the west coast at a certain time of the year.  The full moon rises over the ocean.  It was an amazing thing to see and so good to share the experience with Sarah and Ben.   We sat on the beach looking into the black night sky, then suddenly a bright orange moon peers into the horizon and rises over the water, leaving a silver trail on the sea.  The moon gradually changes in colour to yellow then white as it moves higher into the night sky.

Moon rising over the ocean

Hanging out with our friends in their lovely house, really gave me a taste for going home again.  First time I have really been looking forward to home since we left.  We are a few weeks ahead of schedule, so home is really not that far away.

Where the desert meets the sea

Endless Summer

At home in Newcastle it is mid winter, with so much rain that our bathroom ceiling is caving in!  Hard to imagine here as we sweat through 30 degrees, swimming in beautiful waterfalls, kyacking through gorges, and soaking up the culture and beauty of the Northern Territory.   John had planned the trip so that we left home before winter set in, to chase summer as we travelled North.   

Also spent a week in Darwin, a modern city with a deep history.  It has suffered the greatest of tragedies.  The first locaI I spoke – (for those that have been following our story, he was the technician fixing our caravan fridge) had said he and his family fled Darwin after Cyclone Tracey when he was a young boy, and he didn’t return until he was in his thirties. (The government order the evacuation of about 40,000 people from the city after the cyclone – I can’t fathom what that would have been like).  Since then the city has been gradually rebuilt.    A tough task as only thirty years earlier they were rebuilding after the world war 2 bombing of Darwin.  This creates incredible contrasts with most buildings built in the last thirty years, shadowed by a few monumental ruins from both the bombing and the cyclone. 

I hadn’t realised how strong the war history is in Darwin, particularly the trail up on the Stuart Highway
from Adelaide River.  It still has a strong military presence with an army base.   We took a walk through the oil tunnels built to store oil in 1942.  They were wet and we walked in puddles.  Joshua told other passing tourists ‘This is where they made water’ – somehow I think he’s a bit confused after all the educational exhibits we’ve dragged them through.

The greatest highlight of Darwin was catching up with our travelling Newcastle friends we’d met in Atherton.  The kids were thrilled to catch up, and the adults enjoyed a meal of fresh mud crab (great cooking Tony).    The Mindel Markets held at sunset by the beach are a cultural sensation.  Stalls of crafts and international cuisine, with a hundred people all on the beach to watch a perfect orange ball slowly fall and disappear over the horizon, lighting up the sky.   I had taken Amy for a walk around the markets, she found something pink and decided it was hers.  It took me a long time to find the stall it came from to return it.

Darwin’s waterprecinct beachfront was fun for the kids, with a crocodile free netted beach area, and a wave pool.  It reminded me of Newcastle’s honeysuckle with café’s restaurants and accommodation overlooking wharf and beach.  We also enjoyed the war monuments, botanical gardens, art gallery and museum.  So nice to be in a city again.

 Finally ready to leave Darwin we drive off to the sound of a V8 engine revving, and discovered it was us – that sound doesn’t normally come out of a Ford Territory.  It was the same problem we had had with our exhaust back in Tamworth.  We tried every exhaust place in Darwin, but they couldn’t fit us in.  With one last try before heading back to the caravan park John stopped into a tyre centre that looked quiet.  They were fabulous, put the car on the hoist, tightened our loose exhaust screws and sent us on our way for free!  Thanks Darwin we had a great stay.

There is a strong mix of aboriginal people in NT, it is still there home.  The cultural displacement is strongly evident.  They are beautiful, but there is a minority who spoil their reputation and create trouble in the community.   You can tell alcohol is a real problem, even older women - grandmothes - drunk in the streets through the day.   Young men drinking, shouting, wandering and loitering.  There is a lot of iddleness.  It is all product of the western society breaking down and in some cases destroying generations of cultural structure.  A long time ago we also moved in herds of or cattle to destroy the eco system they really on.  When you head into Kakadu, on the border of Arnhem Land, and you see the pride of the people start to emerge, the incredible rock art and stories help you appreciate the deep heritage cultivated over many thousands of years. I don’t know the answers, but I greatful to see all this with my own eyes and grow in understanding - with much more to learn.

At one of the Information centres there is a library and we take the chance to read the boys stories about the aboriginal narratives.  Joshua is taken by the rainbow snake, and spends the next few weeks talking about it, and we chase rainbow snake tracks on our walks.

The kids did some amazing bush walks.  We were told that the sunset at Ubir lookout was not to be missed.  Although sunset is 6.30, the kids bedtime, but we decide to push through on the walk.  The kids were bounding with energy on the climb up, but it was so late, they were really set for a big display of tired tantrums by the time we were headed back.  Sometimes three little kids on the road is a bit of circus, and we don’t know whether to laugh or have a break down.   I am taking photo’s of a magnificent sunset vista across the wetlands, while John is chasing after Josh who has run off to the cliff, Amy is crying for sheer tired, and Sam is having a melt down over not wanting his picture taken. 

 

Our last day in NT was 2^nd of July, and we take a walk to see a boab tree with a date carved in it by explorer Augustus Charles Gregory after he was shipwrecked there in 1855.  To our suprise the date on the tree also happened to be 2^nd of July only about 160 years earlier.  We are in the middle of our trip now, and we feel like we are in the centre of Gods will.

Now we are heading across to WA.  I am very excited, but also a little nervous.  I have been told the spaces are vast, and you have no idea until you experience it.  Meeting other famlies travelling on the road with their kids they have decided not to go across.   Still we head on excited about the adventure.