Broome to Coral Bay

Broome

While in Broome we went to the Sun Pictures, another outdoor cinema but with a difference. An occasional plane flying over at close range. (Kate: I love these outdoor cinemas, watching a movie under the stars. We watched Hairspray, which is a fab feel good film and even Jamie liked it!). Anyway we did the manly thing and went to the pub and got talking to few people we met at the camp site. They were all watching the rugby against Australia. When we got in the pub, the game had just finished and there were a few miserable looking Aussies there crying into their beers.

On our last day, Kate had some quality beach time. I spent most of the time untangling the kite strings. then we went to watch the sunset at Gantheaume Point just north of town. (Kate: We sipped our red wine and clinked our glasses - cheap pink plastic ones - as the waves crashed onto the rocks below us and the red sun set over the Indian Ocean. V romantic). I think Kate wants to be a romantic novelist.

The next morning we headed west 600km to Port Hedland

Port Hedland

We stopped for a night at this industrial town. Theres nothing much to see except the 2km long trains. We had to wait for 2 of these to pass before we could get to our camp site. The price we paid for the camping was crap considering we had to camp on a tatty patch of ground next to the stinky bins. So all in all, Port Hedland, we loved it!!! From Port Crapland we headed south inland to another mining town called Tom Price.

Tom Price

On the way down to Tom, we drove through Karijini National Park and I went for a swim in Fortescue Falls.


A view near the falls.



Fortescue Falls.



Kate wondering what i'm doing at the top of the falls.

The next day we went for a tour to the local iron ore mine, complete with hard hats and really big tonka trucks, good stuff!


Kate dons the hard hat.


A big hole in the ground!


A big 'Tonka' truck.

Later on, we returned to Karijini NP and we went to the gorges area of the park. Firstly we went to Oxers Lookout which looks over where 4 gorges meet. These are Weano, Red, Joffre and Hancock gorges. We decided to go down Weano gorge as this was the easier of the gorges to get into. Kate waited for me as I went further in to the gorge, wading through pools and jumping between big boulders as the gorge got really narrow. I got as far as the Handrail Pool. To get any further, I would have had to swim across the pool and use ropes to abseil down the next section - proper canyonning stuff! We were advised not to go on the dirt road to the gorges and it was supposed to be quite bad, so I ignored that and drove down it and it was not worse that what we have driven on before.


A look into one of the gorges.


Inside Weano Gorge.


Further down Weano Gorge


As far as I could get at Handrail Pool.


One of the endless trains.


The dirt roads of Karijini.

Once we left Tom, we travelled another long tiring 600km west to Coral Bay on the west coast.

Coral Bay

As it was our 'unoffical' anniversary, we decided to splash out on a room at the Ningaloo Club, one of the hostels in town. It was very nice to have a break from camping and sleep in a bed with some give in it for the first time in 2 months!

On the first evening, we had a few drinks at the hostel bar and ended up joining in a game of giant jenga. Later we went on to another bar, then after it closed, one of the local Aussie guys invited a group of us down to the beach to drink more beer. We walked to a small cave and joined some people sat around a small campfire. There were 2 young guys playing guitars (one was only 14) and they sang loads of song we knew. We also ended up singing some oasis songs, maybe we had a little too much drink! No one joined in so it ended up being a duet. It was a great night. Its often the things that are not planned that end up being the best experiences.


The group in the second pub.

The next morning we went out on aglass bottom boat to see Ningaloo Reef. We also did some more snorkelling although the water seemed quite cold. Seeing all the fish was great but Kate was very wary of the rather large group af big fish swimming around the boat. She didn't want them to touch her. (Kate: Actually I thought I might get nibbled by the fish!!!)


Me snorkelling.


Kate snorkelling without the fish.



Here's the fish Kate didn't want to go near.

In the evening, we played some pool and chilled out in the bar. We met Australias sweetest boy. He was dancing to the music vidoes on the TV. When he had to go to bed, he hugged everyone in the bar and said goodnight. (Kate: V cute!)

In the morning we moved up the coast to explore more of Ningaloo Reef so we stayed at the larger town of Exmouth.

Cutta Cutta Caves to Broome

Cutta Cutta Caves

Once we left Katherine Gorge, we headed west towards Timber Creek, but we took a slight diversion south to Cutta Cutta Caves first. We did a tour of the limestone caves, which was really enjoyable especially after the disappointing cruise at Katherine Gorge. The tour guide was very charismatic and his passion for the caves was infectious. It was impressive to see the crystals sparkling in the limestone. The name 'Cutta' means star and 'Cutta Cutta' means lots of stars. The crystals in the cave twinkle like the stars.

Limestone formations above the cave.

A dragon in the cave.

Elvis also lives here.

Timber Creek

Not much to do here except sleep. The next day it was Kununurra.

Kununurra

On the way, we visited the Gregory Tree - named after Augustus Charles Gregory, an explorer who had a base camp beside this boab tree in the 19th Century. Members of the party carved their initials and the date on the bark of the tree.

The Gregory Tree.

We also visited Keep River National Park before we reached the Western Australia border. The park had some aboriginal art at the Nganalam Art Site.

Painting of 2 spirit people - Aboriginal people of this region believe that spirit beings were the first to inhabit the earth.

We crossed the border into Western Australia, after having our onion confiscated by the border patrol as onions are illegal in WA. No not really! But seriously, you can't take fruit, veg or honey into WA to prevent the spread of diseases. WA time is 1.5 hours behind Northern Territory, which makes us 7 hours ahead of the UK until the clocks change.

Just before we said farewell to our onions.

As we were only a few kms into WA, the sun rose an hour or so earlier so it was getting hotter even earlier. We had gotten into the habit of doing things early before it got too hot, but now that would mean getting up at 5am!

After spending the night in Kununurra, we went to the nearby Hidden Valley (AKA Mirima National Park). We did a couple of short walks, including a nature trail with a fabulously fat boab tree amongst other things. We missed out the walk with the 'moderate' climb because it was so bloody hot! Originally we intended to reach this point in Australia a few weeks earlier so the heat wouldn't be so unbearable. We probably shouldn't have spent so much time in Cooroy, but we loved it in the 'Wee Hoose'. We then drove further west to Halls Creek.

It's hot work all this walking.

Halls Creek

On the way we had a brief stop at Turkey Creek Roadhouse for lunch where the thermometer was at 37 degrees in the shade! We also drove past a bush fire on the way.

Fire.

Once at Halls Creek, we visited the nearby 'China' wall, which is a natural formation of quartzite. We think it is supposed to resemble the Great Wall of China.

At the China Wall.

Cute roo.

Fitzroy Crossing

The following day it was further west to Fitzroy Crossing. This campsite had TV in the kitchen - luxury, we had not set eyes on a TV for weeks! There was also a shaded pool, which was just the cure for the hot and sweaty weather.

We paid a visit to Geikie Gorge National Park in the afternoon. We did an hour long walk and saw a fair few roos as the sun started to go down. I don't think I could ever get bored of seeing the wild roos.

Geikie Gorge.

Broome

The next day we drove to the coastal town of Broome. It's by the Indian Ocean. En route, we took a detour to Derby to see the Boab Prison Tree and stop for lunch. The tree has a girth of 14.7m and is about 1500 years old. It was used as an overnight prison for aboriginals who had been captured by Europeans to be used in the pearling industry. It now has a fence around it because it has religious significance to the local aboriginals and it serves as a reminder of a sad history.

The Prison Boab Tree.

We have decided to stay in Broome to have a break from driving hundreds of kms a day, plus it's great to be back by the sea. We sat on Cable Beach last night to watch the sunset. It wasn't the best we have seen, but the cool breeze was lovely.

Sunset at Cable Beach - random couple in the way of pic.

Darwin to Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge)

Darwin and Litchfield National Park

On our third day in Darwin we drove to Litchfield National Park. We saw the magnetic termite mounds - not actually magnetic, but they line up on a north/south axis. They are quite bizarre things. There were also other termite mounds which were huge called cathedral termite mounds. Some were up to 10m tall.

The magnetic termite mounds.


J doesn't quite measure up to a big cathedral termite mound.

Another big one.

Tolmer Falls (you couldn't swim here).

We then checked out some pretty waterfalls (Wangi and Florence Falls), where we had a much needed cool dip. We also had a quick swim in one of the water holes at Buley Rockhole.

Wangi Falls.

Me having a nice dip.

Florence Falls.

J about to take a plunge.

Me!

A rock wallaby on the way back from Florence Falls. We can see you!

Buley Rockhole. (Trying to take a timed picture of us together, with not much success.)


J being silly.

Kakadu National Park

After another hot and sweaty night we travelled to Kakadu National Park. On the we did the Adelaide River jumping croc cruise. A woman dangled pork chops over the side of the boat and the crocs jumped up to get them basically.

Video of one of the jumping crocs.

One female croc had had one of her legs bitten off by a male croc during mating one year; then had the other bitten off the following year by the same male. Some women like bad boys, I guess! We also got to see a white bellied sea eagle and some kites grabbing meat. On the way we also stopped at one of the wetland areas of Kakadu and had a look at the large amounts of birds gathered around the lake.

The legless female. (Not drunk!)

Sea eagle grabbing some pork.

Loads of kite flying over the boat.

The wetlands.

Once we'd set the tent up, we went to a place called Ubirr to catch the sunset, though it was a bit cloudy.

Rock art at Ubirr.

Sunset over Kakadu from the lookout at Ubirr.

The next day, we went for a walk around a place called Nourlangie to see some aboriginal rock art and listened to a couple of ranger talks about aboriginal culture and the geology of the land. Some of the paintings could be thousands of years old and some were recently repainted in the 60s and 70s. Many of them show images of the creation (Dreamtime), hunting and ceremonies. We also went to Anbangbang Billabong, which featured in Crocodile Dundee. By the time we had done this, it was only about midday, but it was too hot, so we went back to the campsite and cooled off in the pool.

Two pictures of rock art at Nourlangie.

Anbangbang Billabong.

Before heading to Katherine Gorge, we went on a cruise starting on the Yellow Water Billabong, then out on to the South Alligator River. It's quite a badly named river because there are no alligators... but there are plenty of crocs! So we had the chance to do some croc spotting and as we did the early morning cruise, we saw a few of them basking in the sun on the banks of the river. We also saw quite a few birds. The river was lovely and tranquil and the scenery was amazing. The boat guide told us the story of why there are now warnings not to swim in any of the waterways in Kakadu. In 2002, a tour guide took some tourists swimming at night in a well known croc inhabited billabong. Inevitably, a small German lady (the easiest prey) was killed by a croc. The croc was harpooned the next morning, with the body still in its jaws. And that is just one more lovely, sweet Aussie horror story that they just can't wait to tell you!!

Sunrise at Yellow Water.


The South Alligator River.

Paperbark swamp.

A Jabiru bird.


This is a Saltwater Crocodile (or Saltie) - Quick fact: They can live in fresh or salt water, but they have a gland that can secrete salt.

Nitmiluk National Park

On the way to Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge section), we went to Edith Falls in the north of the park and J had a quick swim in the plunge pool at the base of the falls.

J having a dip at Edith Falls.

The next morning, we went on the Nitnit Dreaming 2 gorge cultural cruise. It was quite disappointing for the price we paid. The gorge was nice, but the tour commentary was poor: it seemed kind of rushed and there wasn't much cultural info - considering it was a cultural cruise.

Mr Roo at the campsite.

Me in the middle of the 2 gorges.


Katherine gorge.