Judy & Brian Tour Oz

We took the one hour boat cruise up the Fitzroy River to view the Geikie Gorge, which despite being in the dry season, is a huge body of water, a bit like a giant billabong. The rocks lining both side are the same Devonian reef system that we saw at Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek, except here it is in the river itself. It's been raining for a few days and apparently the wildlife are straying in bed. We saw one or two crocs instead of 'hundreds' and one goanna instead of heaps. The Rock Martin birds are sitting in the trees instead of building their nests and basically the whole wildlife population is confused as to wether its the dry or the wet. They say it was a dry wet and that we now have a wet dry, if that makes and sense. During the wet season, this whole place floods, every year, never misses. The biggest flood was last year when it was 2 metres above the gazebo (see photos). I had to laugh, you know how everything water wise is measured in multiples of Sydney Harb...

We were pretty happy to leave Derby this morning, the humidity got to 99.9 and stayed there. You walk to the loo and back and are sweating like a pig. Just got to be too oppressive. Took the Savannah way back down to Fitzroy Crossing, dodging roos and stray cattle. It rained most of the way. Every road leading off the highway looked like a quagmire. Here's a snap of the river crossing, and that was just the driveway into the van park: Whoosh!

Rest day today. Wow but its hot, and humid. You sweat just moving around. We went and had a look at the tourist things: Boab prison tree, Myall's bore and cattle trough, Mowanjum aboriginal art gallery, pioneer cemetery and then had lunch at a funny place called the Windmill. You sit out the back in a 'beer garden' surrounded by demountable accommodation, like right next to you. Judy retired to the van saying it was too hot. I went back on the sightseeing trail and picked up the old Derby goal, the wharfinger's house, and some old junk around the jetty including parts of the tram that once rolled down the main street and all the way out onto the jetty. At least it's cooler now that the sun has gone down and a nice little breeze has sprung up. We're off tomorrow and I suspect that it will be a good thing to get away from the humidity. Here's a snap from todays lot. Start of the Gibb River Road. Derby, WA

Well, yes I know I said never, never ever again, but there we were, waiting for the luxury 4x4 bus to take us out for the day. At least it's only 140km and a fair bit of that on sealed road. Naturally, we assumed that the Derby Town Bus, a 20 seater Toyota pulling into to the van park, would be ours. It was. At least it was neat and clean, appeared to be roadworthy and potentially more comfortable than the last one. Just out of town we turn onto the world famous (i'm not over using that am i?) Gibb River Road that runs for almost 900km from Derby to Whyndam and was originally conceived as a stock route in the 1860's. It is feared by caravanners who unless they have the ruggedised off road van, universally take the highway back through Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. The first 100km takes us out to the Windjana Gorge turnoff and doesn't seem so bad: it is a patchwork of proper sealed road, corrugated dirt road and 'developmental' road. Developmental means...

Well, here we are, on the move again. Left Broome and headed up and over to Derby, some 210km north. It's a very small, very quiet looking town, first established in 1883. Derby features prominently in all WA and Kimberly history as being the starting point for expeditions and the port  to get goods in and cows and sheep out. The first of the famous jetties was built in 1885. Derby, like Broome, boasts a rise and fall in the sea level of 10 metres, every 6 1/2 hours. That, as they say, is a lot of water. The water comes rushing in and spreads out over these huge mud flats. You can literally stand there and watch the bay filling up. Unbelievable but true, they drive road trains out onto the jetty. During the day you can drive out and park there and do some fishing. Doesn't leave a hell of a lot of room for that big old truck to come out! Had to have a nap this arvo, then decided the best thing to do was go for a swim at the local pool, which apart from being 'fresh' ...

Our last day here. We picked up the tour of the pearl luggers, which was a quick walk around the two old crocks they have on display and then a fascinating talk and movie all about pearl diving that ran for an hour. After they gave us some 'pearl meat', the adductor muscle from a Pinctada Maxima, to try and stressed how exotic and expensive it was. All i could taste for the next 4 hours was the chilli that it had been marinaded in, but it has distinct possibilities.  Judy couldn't contain herself and bought yet more pearl bits, a hair clip thing this time. Mind you she was not right impressed when yesterdays purchase of an elasticised bracelet snapped and sent pearls everywhere. It's al god though as they replaced it right away Last thing on the must do list was the Stairway to the Moon, a phenomena caused when the sun is just setting in the west, the moon is just rising in the east and the tide is right out exposing the mudflats.  We're off in the morning, he...

Hi, well, I'm out of sync with the days as they roll on by but hey, what can one do? I'm just a little annoyed at Google right now because they have arbitrarily forced me over from Picasa web albums to Google+. Now I don't like or need Google+, so I've spend some time finding out how to get back to Picasa. Highlight of yesterday was a camel ride along Cable Beach at sunset. After the test drive in Alice, I was pretty happy not to repeat the event as it's just damn uncomfortable. But somehow here we were saddling up for the one hour trek. Most interesting part was the cameleer, who at 18 seemed to have a an opinion on everything that was wrong with the world and politics and didn't mind sharing. God bless the zealots of the world. Today we went and ogled the Dawn Princess that came into town. I was on the beach this morning as it rounded the headland - you could still see half of the superstructure as it slid by on the other side! Took advantage of the loca...

What? Huh? Oh yeah, we're in Broome. We have had two very relaxing days recovering from the trip to the Cape. We had a massage each, treated ourselves to lunch and generally wandered about doing not very much for two days. The lunch speciality up here appears to big burgers, huge. And if they are Barramundi burgers then even the better. Had a nice surprise in that a visit to the local museum was very pleasant and informative. One of the best 'little' museums I can think of. The highlight for me, and I'm still in shocked amazement, is that they have on display, in a pretty ordinary looking cabinet, a book. No ordinary book. This one was written by William Dampier (1651-1715), A new voyage around the world , 1697.   It has an inscription on the flyleaf 'Letitia Harbord, 1697'. You could spend a fascinating hour googling both of these names. Even more fascinating would be to find out how come the book, given to a nice English young lady, has ended up out here in ...

Imagine if you will: you're up at 6am all excited about the big trip planned for the day. You booked weeks ago so as to not miss out. You are waiting patiently out the front of the van park as the sun breaks the morning sky. A rusty, dirty, pile of Toyota nuts and bolts clunks to a halt across the road. Apart from the filthy, nondescript 4x4, there is an equally dirty and scruffy looking trailer attached. No one in our party moves: we are expecting a luxury air-conditioned coach. This could not be ours. Eventually a man ambles across to us. he is dressed in nondescript khaki shirt and jeans. He fails to introduce himself and we are obliged to enquire of him if he has really come for us - in that. Crestfallen, we approach the orange box used as a step up into the less than salubrious looking interior. Bent double I follow Judy to a pair of seats and drop into one of them. The driver, still speechless, assumes his place and coaxes the engine into life for what would become a heart...

Happy 40th Anniversary to US! Spent the day out on the water aboard Intombi, a 1903 Pearly lugger. (Its a lot like grandad's axe though, not an awful lot of the original in her these days) which was a perfectly delightful way to spend some time together. We had champers, jumped in and enjoyed boom netting, ate food, more food, drank more wine, more food and then watched the fabulous sunset. A truly great day out. Sunset aboard Intombi.Broome, WA Our plans of dinner fell apart when we got back, neither of us could be bothered and as we have a 7am start for the Cape Levique tour tomorrow, elected to dine in.

We had a lovely relaxing day today, with no travel except to get a new lightbulb for the chariot and to sightsee at a few spots around town. Ended up at the top of Cable Beach where we had a big long walk, watched the camels,wondered at the bods with their $80k Toyomotors on the beach and then strolled back to Zeebar to sip champagne (or a pina colada in Judy's case,) chomped away at some lovely string fries and watched the sun set not so slowly into the Indian Ocean. Trouble is, it's now dark and it's only 5:30pm, yet feels like 8. Me. He man!

OMG! We made it! Who’d have thought, just took 17 days and 5250 kilometres , but we is here, in Broome in Western Australia. Found our van park, the Palm Grove Holiday Resort, right up near the world famous Cable Beach.   Pretty nice actually, even if it looks like more than a few are here for the Perth winter. Funny thing though, we’ve come all this way and seen 2 BMWs on the way, an X3 and a 1 series. Right here in this park there are now 3 BMW X5’s within 5 vans of each other. (Good, I thinks to myself, maybe I can borrow some bits to get my headlights working again!)  Drove into ‘town’, and bought a few supplies and had a poke about. You have to laugh at this, there are signs all over the place that pedestrians must give way to cars, yet they still have pedestrian crossings. Why bother? Who knows or cares. We’ve booked a cruise for our anniversary, out and up the coast on an old pearling lugger to drink wine and eat canapés while watching the sunset over the I...

Got away early for our big run of 480k, and ran right into roadworks for the first 100 – rats. Took 1:30 instead of 1 hour, made it a longer than necessary day. Stopped for fuel at Halls Creeks and slid right on out of a rather seedy looking town. Just kept going and going, the road from HC to FC is actually rather good, they probably got sick of rebuilding it after every flood and built it up and proper instead. We keep checking out the free camps along the way, some are no more than a dirt carpark, others are a bit more elaborate with a single long drop toilet even! We heard that one of them, Mary’s Pool, had 100 vans in it last night – don’t even think about how that long drop coped. The smell! The flies! The filth! Ergh.. Only for the desperate I’d reckon.  Anyhow, we did finally get to stop and take some snaps at a place called Ngumban Cliffs, although I’m sorry to have missed a few along the way. Couldn’t even find our park at Fitzroy Crossing. We rang them and t...

Crossed over into WA this morning, but this time we were ready for the strict quarantine, having eaten and disposed of all plant matter and or bottle of honey. We stopped in Kununurra to replenish the car and the caravan; and ourselves of course with coffee and rock-cakes. Judy checked out Nina, and decided that if we fail to get pearls in Broome, then another champagne diamond, perhaps necklace, will do. Suitably refuelled, we ventured out where we had not been before, taking the road out toward Wyndham but turning south at the only junction, toward Halls Creek. The scenery continued to be spectacular with escarpments on either side and that glowing red rock and dirt contrasting with the vivid lime green foliage of the trees. You drive the entire way through a series of mountain ranges, collectively called: the Kimberly. We finally made it into our park, about 100 km north of Halls Creek, and which resembles a MASH set with its array of red-dust coloured canvas tents; ...

Couldn’t resist an early morning dip in the spring, so our 730am start was a bit later. We had planned to get to Katherine about 830, grab one of the big van spots at the information centre carpark and then hit the shops for a few things we were out of. By the time we go there, the place was packed with vans and rigs and trucks of every size. Luck was with us though and as one drove out, we drove in. With stocks replenished, I thought I’d be clever and get fuel as well. Pulled into the Shell, only to realize too late that they were petrol-only pumps and that getting out was going to be a problem. Fabulous how everyone stops to watch the fun! No harm done, we did without the fuel and headed out for Victoria River some 200km to the west.  All the way up from Blackall, though the Isa, The Barkly tablelands and up through the middle to Katherine had a slight air of familiarity to us, and except for the rocky outcrops near the Isa is pretty boring monotonous. But, driving west...