The previous posting was from Port Hedland before we started the long treck North to Broome and beyond. We are now in Darwin and have been here for three weeks after having decided to extend our stay to see some of the Darwin Festival shows. The adventure continues to go well. We have now been away from Sydney for almost 8 months. From here we will go to Kakadu, back to Katherine and then on to N. Qld or down to Ayres Rock….. (We are as decisive as ever).
We stay in Port Hedland for one night which quite honestly was one night too many, We had been told to avoid the place. The park we wanted to stay was full and they recommended we try the “Black Rock” park. The name should have been a warning. It could have been a set location for “Breaking Bad” – anyway we survived and got out early the next morning.
I have started reading Paul Theroux – The Pillars of Hercules (A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean) so if you notice a change in blogging style that may be the reason. He tends to play the people rather than the places…. Half a paragraph on his visit to Barcelona – has to fill the book up with something…..
Our destination was Broome which is about 600km from Port Hedland. This has to be the most boring 600km road, leaves the Nullabour for dead. We stay one night at Eighty Mile Beach, which as the name implies is a beach 80 miles long. It’s a beach with no redeeming feature except the usual white powdery sand and crystal clear blue waters and brilliant sunsets. William has become very cynical about sunsets, refusing to photograph them and if there’s one thing WA does well it’s sunsets…
Next day we arrive in Broome. Again we had heard very mixed reports with many hardened travellers hating the commercialisation of the place “I remember it 30 years ago when it was a fishing village full of pearl divers etc etc” and other who really enjoyed it.
We were both looking forward being able to go out and get a decent cup of coffee without the layer of red dust. On the way in we saw what looked like some nuclear explosion but turned out to be burn-off somewhere near Broome.
 |  |  |
We check into a caravan park on the Cable Beach side of town; as they say in “The Castle” it’s handy for the airport. We seem to be rather near the flight path. Not a great deal to do so we basically mooch around. In the evening we go into town and plan on going to the movies.
Camels on Cable Beach, Broome, WA
Broome has the world’s oldest operating “garden cinema” it really is quite lovely and whats more they are showing “Breath” so should be the perfect setting. However when we go into town, the place is almost deserted. We end up having a not very good Thai meal and giving the cinema a miss. I managed to get the time wrong and also we feel rather unsure about leaving the bikes locked up while in the cinema. We both get chased by a dog on the way back to the van. All in all not the greatest advert for Broome. I think the residents of the very upmarket hotels and resorts don’t leave their compounds at night – that’s the way it feels.
On the Monday sign up for a trip to Cape Leveque. Before we left Sydney several people had said that this was a must. Cape Leveque or Koolijaman is at the very top of the Dampier Peninsular, 200km North of Broome. The road is being sealed but that’s still 2-3 years away so it’s 80k of unsealed followed by 120Km of sealed. No way that Marge would make that.
It is interesting to see how Aboriginal place names are being used more and more. This has to be good. It reminds me of Wales in the 1960’s when Welsh started to make a come back – now the Welsh name is first on signposts! Don’t think i’ll be around when Aboriginal becomes the first name – not with the current governments’ outright rejection of the Uluru Statement.
 |  |  |
To travel up the Dampier Peninsular, you need permission from the native title holders and there is a charge which goes towards the communities. There are several different peoples each managing a different community. On the way up we visited Beagle Bay (so much for my knowledge of aboriginal place names) which has had a missionary presence for many years. and therefore a church the alter of which is inlaid with mother of pearl, many of the images are obviously based on aboriginals people rather than the usual western figures.
The area is famous for pearling so there’s a trip to a pearl farm which was surprisingly interesting – the tour was given by a New Zealander who talking about “chupping your tuth” when testing for pearls.. There’s also a visit to a fish nursery which is run by the community – I see my first stone fish. Wouldn’t like to meet one in the wild…
The final stop is Koolijaman itself which is rather beautiful especially the west side. If you remember the old QF advert with a choir on a red beach – this is where it was filmed.
We end up staying in Broome until Wednesday 11th July. I visited the museum and the Japanese Cemetery. The contrast between the Japanese Cemetery and the other areas (Anglican, Catholic, Malay and Muslim) was amazing. The Japanese was exactly has you would expect it to be neat, orderly, freshly racked gravel while the other areas were overgrown with rubbish everywhere. If I had a choice I think I’d go the Japanese bit but then it probably just re-enforces the “scattering to the wind” the way to go.
We leave Broome mid-day Wednesday for Derby which is about 200km from Broome on the Northern Highway. We are now far into the Kimberly’s.
 |  |  |
There are two roads across to Darwin, the Northern Highway and the Gibbs River Road. Unfortunately the GRR is 4WD only so at least that one less decision we have to make.
Stay 2 nights in Derby long enough to check out the Jetty. Derby (it’s a “e” not an “a”) was a cattle exporting port but that stopped many years ago. Earlier it played a large part in “Blackbirding”, capturing native aboriginals for labour in the pearling industry. It still has a port which moves concentrated zinc and copper and also has the second highest tidal movement in the world – 11 metres.
The campsite at Derby had two resident white peacock. We thought they must be albinos but apparently they are bred as white peacocks. Think it must be terrible to be a peacock and then turn out all white. Have a look at the video, the peacock is a young chick (Andrew) practising scaring off birds.
Perhaps the name is a clue to why he’s so ineffectual.
From Derby we move on Friday July 13th and stay overnight at Lake Ellerdale campsite about 50km short of Fitzroy Crossing. The camping area is on one side of a lake. After we parked and looked across to the other side of the lake we could see a very large crocodile lazing under a tree being annoyed by a crow. William assures me that fresh water crocs are harmless – but there is no one swimming.
Sometime while we were there the farmer obviously herded some cows into the same area so the next day we were visited by beautiful brown brahman cows. They were incredible inquisitive and very gentle if a little on the slobbery side.
 |  |  |
Whilst in Derby we had visited the Norval Art Gallery and on the way out we stopped at the Mowanjum Arts Centre. They are both galleries/workshop for indigenous artists. A favourite figure in the painting is “The Wandjina“. The Wandjina are spirits believed in by several of the aboriginal groups living in the Kimberleys. Think we may pick up a bit of aboriginal art on our way. It’s much too easy to be cynical about Aboriginal art, but then when you consider there are cave paintings of the same spirits dating back some 35,000 years you realise just how different and enduring aboriginal culture really is.
It’s terrible to admit but I’ve never really been interested in aboriginal culture. Now, having spent some time in this part of WA where there are very strong aboriginal communities you begin understand just how rich and ancient their culture is. I think it’s so important Indigenous Australians are accepted as the first Australians and we give them a way of having input into the way Australian society develops if not they will remain as marginalised as ever.
We stay two nights at Lake Ellerdale campsite then moved on to Ngumban Cliff for one night on Sunday 15th July. These are all free camps. We pass through Fitzroy Crossing and stop to get some fuel and also some odds and ends from the supermarket.
I had an image of these towns being places to avoid or at least get through as quickly as possible. They are in fact surprising hospitable, yes there are problems for all to see, but they seem to be diverse communities working together. Obviously the grey nomads are important for their communities survival. The tourist information centres are always incredibly helpful and normally a good source of local information and also fresh water. $9 for 100 litres – seems good value to me.
From Ngumban Cliffs we move on to another free camping site at Mary Pool in the Mueller Ranges. This was on the site of an almost dried up creek with the most prolific bird life. There was a Bower Bird complete with display area of all things blue. They are incredibly tame – William got some good shots of the male showing his collection. William also managed to find a spot for his hammock near the creek and made a video selfie – worth looking/listening at/to if just for the sounds of the birdlife.
From Mary Pool we moved for two nights to the Purnululu National Park. This NP is the home of the Bungle Bungles. There’s no way you can actually get to the BB’s without a 4WD and then it’s a bit iffy. We booked a day tour from the campsite and took in two absolutely tremendous sites – Cathederal Gorge and Echinda Chasm.
 |  |  |
The only downer was that the area is dry (as in no alcohol) so poor William was a little distraught. The strongest thing you can buy is light beer with an alcohol percents of 2.4%. Personally can’t see anything wrong with that!
 |  |  |
Next stop on Thursday July 19th was Wyndham which is on Cambridge Gulf which I think is part of the Ord River system. We are now well into very nasty salt water crocodile country. The campsite, which is very good, is on a creek!
William is so overjoyed to find a bottle shop that he manages to lose his wallet. We didn’t discover this until we were back at the camp ground. After turning the van upside down (William never loses anything) decide it must be at the bottle shop. Back we go and apparently he dropped it as he was getting into the van. A local found it and handed it into the man from the bottle shop – it was complete with credit cards and cash. Sort of restores your faith in people….
 |  |  |
We spend 2 nights at Wyndham and the only crocodile we saw was in a pie that William bought on the way out. I managed to fulfill a fifty year old dream in the pie shop when I was able to say to the person behind the counter – “one crocodile pie and make it snappy” . Unfortunately she was hard of hearing but the customer next to me found it hilarious as did I.
From Wyndham we took off for Lake Argyle which is just in WA and part of the Ord River irrigation system. We spent two nights at a free camp in a gorge on the river bank about 10k from the dam itself.
 |  |  |
Crossing the border into to NT the roads seem to deteriorate and the speed limit increases to 130kph rather than 110kph. We decide to stay two nights at a bush camp at Zebra Rock Mines. We had heard about it and wanted to do the evening bird watching trip.
 |  |
The trip was great, saw lots of wading birds, including Jabirus, Sea Eagles and Brolgas plus lots and lots of crocodiles.
The only down side was the racist tour guide who happened to own the lease on the Zebra Rock Mine deposit. He was racist everyone including Australians. However, he was very much in touch with the environment and was keen to keep the small deposits of Zebra Rock, which is globally unique to this area, in the ground for future generations.
On Monday 25th July we left heading for Darwin stopping one night at Timber Creek. From Timber Creek we moved to Katherine again for just one night. There were a couple of things to do in Katherine but think we were both feeling a bit “Gorged Out” after all the gorges we had seen both in the Pilbara and The Kimberleys so decided to keep going on to Darwin.
On the way we managed to crack the windscreen – this is what happens when you take the scenic route. The road was sealed but had some very bad dips and we (or rather I) missed a bad dip and grounded the suspension. We’ve done it before but this time was obviously harder. As far as we know there’s no other damage.
Fortunately it’s covered by insurance and whats more we are allowed one claim per 12 months when the access is ignored and the no claims bonus isn’t affected. So hopefully we will get it fixed in Darwin within a couple of days at no cost.
We decided to stop at Humpty Do for a couple of nights at a rather nice park in the bush, nothing to do so just relaxed. From Humpty Do on Monday 30th July we moved into a park nearer to Darwin – the park was about 8km from the CBD with a cycle path all the way into the city. Went into Darwin a couple of times and visited the Museum and Art Gallery of NT which was OK except the main exhibition of indigenous was closed. Cycled around the coast line of the city and went to the movies to see “The Breaker Uppers” – I quite enjoyed it, William enjoyed it very much. If your’re into quirky New Zealand humour this could be the movie from you.
I finished “Dirt Music” several times having to re-read the last chapter a couple of times. Checking with Google my confusion over the ending is OK – I’m not yet completely gaga. It’s a good read, especially with it being set in the region we had just left, it covers the area from Perth through the Kimberleys which made Winton’s description of the countryside that much more real. Think I will leave Tim Winton alone for a while. I had picked up a copy of “Of Mice & Men” at the same time as I got the Tim Winton so will re-read that.
When we arrived in Darwin late July we discovered that The Darwin Festival was starting on August 9th. The program is good with several things we want to see. We book for Australia Dance Theatre, Sam Simmons and a Cabaret – Limbo on the 9th, 10th & 11th August. That gives us a week so we decided to go to the Lichfield National Park for several days and then return to Darwin for the festival on the 9th.
Stay 2 nights at Florence Falls and then another 2 nights at Wangi Falls. Both are great swimming holes complete with waterfalls and only fresh water crocs which you never see. Apparently if one does attack, you deserve it because you must have been doing something wrong.
As we leave we do the lower and upper Cascades Walk which again is really nice following the stream to some small plug pools so we managed to get one to ourselves.
Can thoroughly recommend the Lichfield National Park, the only problem being the heat. Marge was registering 47º in the sun. This is really too hot to walk, the evenings are just OK but the swimming pools and campsites are great.
 |  |  |
Finished “Of Mice and Men” – it’s a great short story. Think I have read it before but really enjoyed it. Swapped it for “My family and other Animals” by Gerald Durrell.
The scrabble situation has deteriorated, lost three games in a row. The biggest mistake I made was buying the scrabble dictionary. I’m not sure whats happened but there seems to be hundreds of new words since the last time I played. I have several problems; (a) William will ask me how to spell a word and I tell him so challenges are few and far between cos it’s like challenging myself. (b) He always gets “v” and “w” mixed up so I can’t penalise him on those as English is his second language, (c) he guesses and frequently the word exists in the scrabble dictionary, these are words that I would never have considered using. So all in all it’s not good.
From Litchfield National Park we moved back towards Darwin staying at the AAOK park which is sort of OK, but had the best value for money restaurant we have seen for a long time. Flathead and chips $12 and really good too. From there we head back to Darwin and go back to the same camp we stayed at before – will stay until after the visits to the Darwin Festival.
We stay in Darwin from Thursday 9th Aug until Tuesday 14th August and visit the Darwin Festival seeing The Australian Dance Co (Modern Dance with an Aboriginal theme and music, Sam Simmonds (comedy) and Limbo (circus/cabaret). Sam Simmonds is decidedly weird so William enjoyed much more than me….
Looks like there may be a change of plan. We can’t decide wether to head East (Mount Isa & Cairns) after Kakadu or head South and do Uluru and Kings Canyon. The later is a 2,000km detour but we do have time….We don’t have to be in Cairns until early October.