Kununurra - Darwin

Wednesday we had the tow bar fitted, it's certainly a lot stronger than the previous version but it would still benefit from having a plate welded to take in the threaded bolt holes on the chassis for added strength. We treated ourselves to two meals at the Kununurra Hotel which were nice and Vickie cannot leave Kununurra without a visit to the Lovell Art Galley, we already own a few paintings by Nadeen Lovell & Kimberley Kohan and we have just added another to the collection. Both artists have different styles and it's hard to decide which we like the best, the predominant theme is Boab Tree's and the Kimberley colours. This time Vick choose a Nadeen Lovell Ltd Ed print, #3 of 50.

I felt bad i didn't let a mate know we were in town, sorry Dick if you read this, we were not intending to stop in town untill we realised we had the tow bar to replace. As it turned out I did bump into another couple of blokes i know, Phil who bought our 80 Series Cruiser many years ago and Doug a bloke i know through the Western Angler Forum.





Heading onto NT our destination was Katherine & then Darwin with stops along the way. We free camped along the way untill we got to Litchfield National Park where we camped at Wangi Falls, we were lucky we scored the last camp site and we only just fitted in, $6.60PPPN and we had the beautiful Wangi Falls just a couple of hundred metres away. We went for a couple of swims whilst we were camped there, unfortunately so did a few hundred other people!! Bloody amazing so many people came out for a swim, it was like Bondi Beach without the Surf or the lifeguards!







When we left we travelled the loop to Berry Springs, no camping here but the springs were beautiful with crystal clear water holes and small waterfalls, water temps were warmer than at Wangi Falls.

Had a roadside camp and met Allan & Rosemary [ Bushtracker owners ] who were friends with Heather & Lloyd whom we know from Streaky Bay, small World when your travelling. Another couple Keith & Sandy joined us around the campfire for a night of chat & yarns.

We were thinking of staying a week in Darwin but have reassessed and decided 4 nights is plenty, neither of us are into tours, we are at Lee Point Caravan Park and though its a fairly casual van park, at $40pn we would rather be out in the bush.
We visited the Museum which we thought was small but interesting, we were given a talk on what it was like living through Cyclone Tracy in 1974 and also a talk about Sweetheart the rogue Crocodile that had a habit of biting outboard motors, an attempt to relocate Sweetheart failed when the Croc drowned after being aneathesised. A visit to the Skycity Casino was worth it for the fantastic buffet meal on offer, best value buffet we have been to with a large variety of food on offer including prawns & crabs. Of course they also took $50 of Vickie as she attempted to bust the bank on the pokies.

A visit to the Mindil Markets hasn't changed much in 10 years, great for tasting some Asian food but not so good for the art's & crafts. And that was about the extent of our stay in Darwin, we are reknown for doing things over and i'm sure we will be back one day and 'Do Darwin Proper'.





I keep telling myself we are moving too fast as usual but just can't get my head around staying in places that are either too busy, too expensive or are dust bowls, we will know that special spot when we find it and hopefully / maybe stay around longer.

The Gibb River Road

Another trip along the Gibb River Road has been completed, this is the 5th time in 10 years we have traveled this iconic road in the magnificent Kimberley. Our trip started with an overnight stay at Derby Caravan Park, there was quite a queue up as we waited in line to be attended to, and Ian the Park Owner oozed efficiency and it was pleasant to see his unflappable attitude as he processed the many travelers’ details and sorted out sites for them. We had a nice site for the night, no grass but the lovely shade trees were welcomed, we did have a 240v power problem with the main circuit board tripping out but after resetting it a few times it then behaved itself.

We refueled, drove down to the Jetty, bought an ice cream and watched some people fishing off the Jetty. The tide around here can be 11 metre’s high and it was high and ripping through when we saw it, unfortunately I had left my camera back in the van so it was for our eyes only. Not much else to report about Derby, we have been here before and seen all we wanted to.

Actually that could describe the GRR for us, having driven the road previously we knew what we had seen and wanted to see again and also there were a few stations that had opened up since our last visit. Places like Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek, Leonard Gorge, and Galvan’s Gorge are all lovely places to visit but we didn't bother stopping, instead we headed to Mt Hart Station where we heard that they were looking for some volunteer Camp Hosts. Even though we haven't done this type of work before we have house & farm 'sat' and thought this could be interesting and suit our style of travels, we know the pride we take in looking after other people's property and the chance to stop and really check out an area would be a good opportunity.

Unfortunately we arrived two days late as the position had just been filled, there was a chance that should we hang around for nine days until the current hosts left we could then have our chance but we decided to stay two nights, get a feel of the place and perhaps in the future look at staying for a month or two next season.





Mt Hart is a 50klm drive in to the Homestead, the road is dirt but in excellent condition when we visited, the camp ground area is large and has basic amenities that were clean. Sprinklers were operating for most of the day light hours trying to get the grass established and there were many large shade trees, a lovely creek abounds the camp ground and a rough jetty and ladder enabled a relatively easy access for a swim. Freshwater Crocs are around but no Salty's at all, there is a Canoe available to paddle the short distance up the creek.





The Homestead and gardens are lush & green, it caters for travelers wanting accommodation and has a restaurant and bar, we went across for an evening meal on our 2nd night and enjoyed a lovely 3 course meal for $35 each. They have some pet dingo's and one came and paid us a visit in the bar. The day was spent driving around some of the million acre property, checking out some of the water holes and small gorges; it would be interesting to see the Station after a decent wet season.





The GRR was in excellent condition, the best we have seen in the times we have traveled it, we were thinking about stopping for a coffee and came upon March Fly Glen, we remembered this place from one of our first trips and we were literally attacked by March Fly's, we thought it was still worth another visit to boil the kettle. We were pleasantly surprised to see the area was March Fly free and the area had spread a bit with some lovely flat clean grassy area's to park the van. It was only around 9.30am but we decided to stay the night here. I set about finding some firewood which wasn't that easy as most had been scavenged by previous travelers, I just walked further into the bush and eventually came across a large fallen branch that I was able to roll end over end and get it back to the camp, there is used the chain saw and cut it into good sized pieces in preparation for our camp oven roast that night.




The day was spent going for a few walks, but mainly we just relaxed and read, a mate had given me a lot of books to take with us and it was nice to do nothing and just relax in the bush and read a good book. A few travelers drove in for their smoko stops during the day but it wasn't until late arvo our peaceful little camp was overtaken by others, majority of them stayed down around the main area but late in the day we had another Car & Camper arrive and I waved them down to a spot past us, they actually had one of the better area's if only the other's had known.

Matt & Kylie and their 3 kids were from Newcastle, they were traveling quickly and apart from a visit into El Questro they hadn't stopped anywhere else on the GRR. After our delicious roast lamb dinner we had an evening around the campfire with Matt giving me some harmonica lessons, I need many more to get to his level ... like 20 years worth!

Next day everyone vacated and we called into Imiji Store, diesel was $1.95 per litre. We had heard that Mt Barnett's fuel was dearer and they were empty and waiting on a delivery so we topped up a tank and I bought myself a Kangaroo Pie which was nice and meaty.

Our next stop was Mt Barnett and Manning Gorge, fuel price on the pumps were $2.05 a litre so we did save a few dollars; we spent that saving plus some for the $12.50pp per night camp fee. Another place we have been before but enjoyed the river so worth another stay, we paid for two nights and headed down the track to set up camp. No grass here, just fine red dust, not many other campers when we arrived so we found a nice spot to camp up and got the Kayak off the Ute, we decided to share the one Kayak as the swimming area wasn't that large to warrant the effort getting the inflatable set up. I must add that so far we haven’t met many other friendly travelers other than Matt & Kylie, we have only seen 3 other caravans and we got the distinct feeling that most camper trailer people wouldn't be seen dead taking to a caravaner even if it is an Off Roader and in the 'outback', certainly different to other trips we have been on where we have met many wonderful people.






Our next stop was to be Ellenbrae Station but 30klms before we came across Russ Creek and decided to stay there the night, it took us a while to work out where we would camp with Vickie making the decision easy by saying HERE, so that's where it was. A quick collection of firewood and a walk around the area and then it was relax and open the book, later in the afternoon we were joined by a cyclist, Alexander was from the Netherlands and was riding down the Gibb River Road, he had been in Australia two months and already had traveled 5000klm along the Great Central Road and Sturt Highway, he was averaging 60klm per day and absolutely loved what he was doing. Alex was a nice guy and we had him over for dinner that night, Vickie was a bit embarrassed to offer him Spaghetti Bog as Spaghetti noodles was his main energy food and he eats them nearly every day. BUT not like Vickie makes and he devoured two large bowls, he told us the next morning it was the best he had ever had but even with that amount of food in his 65kg frame he awoke at 2AM and ate some more food. Traveling on a mountain bike uses up a large amount of energy and his body needed all it could eat.



Another two couples also camped in the area and we had a chat with them in the morning, they were heading to Kulumburu with a 4.5mt Boat and older Jayco Camper, they were concerned about rough road conditions on the Drysdale road but were going to attempt it anyway. Alan was a Cop from Tennant Creek and made the offer to call in should we get that way.

Ellenbrae Station was an easy 3-5klm drive in, the Homestead was different to how we remembered it 10 years ago when we called in. Lush green grass and lovely maintained gardens, they have a small cafe offering Scone's Jam & Cream and toasted sandwiches, we paid our $12.50 pp and got directions to the camp area. We were disappointed in what we found, another dusty dead grass camp ground. Surely it cannot be that hard to water the grounds, there is no shortage of water in the area. If I hadn't of got the Kayak off the Ute and paddled up the river I would have given it the thumbs down but the river was lovely and I saw a half dozen freshwater crocodiles and plenty of bird life.






Once the GRR went past the Mitchell Plateau / Kulumburu Roads the road did become corrugated and rocky, compared the road near Mt Barnett which could only be described as a 4 lane highway with the amount of road works going on. We hope that the GRR is never bituminous completely but we do think it's just a matter of time before it is.

Home Valley Station is another of those places we previously tried to visit but was closed at the time, 6 years later it is an oasis in the bush, a true resort Aussie Bush Style. It is owned & managed by the Indigenous Land Council and is well worth the visit. Dusty Bar is the main eating and Bar area and is large and full of character with rustic use of materials. We had a couple of drinks at the bar whilst listening to the entertainers singing and playing the didgeridoo. HV8 has two camping areas, close to the main restaurant and pool and another 4klms out along the banks of the Pentecost River, we choose to stay the two nights on the green grass and drive out to the river a couple of times to watch the sunset which was beautiful.







We were camped next to a nice family, John & Bronwyn from NSW; they had a Windsor Rapid Caravan and well set up Land cruiser. They had some problems with the van with some welding work needing down at Drysdale Station, the welder must have been very inexperienced in welding as the job looked very amateurish. John was going to buy an Inverter welder and complete the job himself. As we chatted we realised that we were almost neighbours back at Ningaloo when they were camped in the same area as us, it's a small World.







The final drive crossing the Pentecost River and driving past El Questro was some of the roughest stony sections on the road, pleased to say we had no punctures though we spoke to many travelers that had multiple blow out's, I always lower the tyre pressures by 10psi on Car & Van when driving on dirt roads and has proven to work for us. Hitting the bitumen we decided to drive to Wyndham and refuel and have lunch at the Bakery, Fuel was $1.49 per litre but the Bakery had now changed to a Cafe and sourced all their pies from Perth of all places, The person serving told us they had a cook but not a baker, wha-tha ... how hard can it be ? A Cook cannot make Pie’s?? I just couldn't understand it.

We are now at Kununurra, staying at Kimberly Land Caravan Park; it's ok but not as lush as we remember it from previous stays. I have been to the local Toyota dealer to get our cracked tow bar looked at; this is a fairly common problem with many being reported on the forums of the internet. Of course the service person I dealt with had never heard of it and I had the feeling they were going to make my life hard in obtaining a new 'revised' tow bar under warranty. It wasn't until the man in charge came and looked and stated that he has seen 3 bars cracked and he would get it replaced. What is it with the front line staff? Do they have instructions to try and fob customers off if they can? Why it is thousands of owners can know about these problems but yet when you make an inquiry the Dealers service staff do not.

Yesterday afternoon we got both Kayaks out and spent a nice hour peddling around the dead tree's that make up a large area on Lake Kununurra, it was lovely and relaxing with many Cormorants on the branches. Today it's windy as hell and the water rough, not inviting at all, the Internet signal though high is dropping in and out and making it difficult to even catch up on our web site and answer emails.



Three nights here and its head to NT.

80 Mile Beach - Port Smith

80 Mile beach, It's a pity i dont have any before photo's to show the amount of damage caused by the cyclone on the 21st December 2009 but the aftermath is easily seen on the 9klm drive in, the scrub land has been flattened and barely a tree left standing in the park itself.




The Van park is large and reasonably spacious, we asked to stay two night's and were given a site where we found two other Bushtracker Vans already set up opposite and beside our site, i wondered whether this was a coincidence or they group people together rated on what they towed ... As things turned out one couple kept completely to themselves whilst the other couple made the effort to say hello, we did feel the 'odd Man' out.

We had heard from other campers that a 4WD had been submerged on the beach that afternoon and another 4WD had rolled on the beach, a walk to the car park revealed the rolled 4WD, luckily no one was hurt as it had extensive damage to the roof and glass damage, most certainly an expensive repair bill if not a write off. The submerged 4wd was definately a write off, being left overnight due to the high 6mt tides it surprised me that it was still sitting on it's wheel's the next low tide more than 20 hours later. At first all we could see was the shape of the roof rippling on the outgoing tide, as the time ticked by it revealed itself with very little noticeable damage visually from a distance, of course being submerged in salt water for any time let alone nearly a day meant it was destined for the scrap heap but the owners were responsible to have the vehicle removed at their expense. I heard prices mentioned of $5k recovery and though it wasn't my decision to give it a go in salvaging it, i was one of many that leant some muscle in dragging it out of it's salty grave.








I didn't bother fishing at 80 Mile, i did see one Giant Threadfin Salmon caught of a decent size but that was it. I helped another Caravanner check his electric brakes and found the magnet had broken so it was disabled, sufficient enough to get them down to Port Hedland where it could be repaired properly.

Next stop was Port Smith, we have stayed here before and liked it enough to come back, we remembered the sand flies were bad back then and things were the same this time. Last time i paid my $2 and went on the Park's boat trip across to the point and spent 4 hours fishing before being picked up, Vickie was laid up with a sore back so didn't do it, this time all was good so we both took the ride over. The fishing wasn't as good this time but i did manage to catch two GT's and 1/2 dozen Longtom's which i released to swim another day.






With temperatures in the high 30's we found a lovely tidal creek and had a refreshing dip :-)



Interesting patterns in the sand as the tide went out took on the appearance of tree's



Having visited all of these places before we tossed the idea of staying longer and putting the Kayak's in but decided not to, instead we drove onto Broome where we intend staying a couple of days & re-stock before heading up the Gibb River Road.
We always give Broome Caravan Park a go 1st and have never been turned away by Graham the owner, he remembers us from previous visit's, even remembering what vehicle we drove at the time. The park is busy and site's are cramped but we are happy that we were not turned away, but two days here in Broome is enough and it's onto the GRR where hopefully things are less hectic.

Ningaloo - Karatha

We stuck it out another week, such hardships we have to endure ..... the last three days were very windy and overcast but we did manage to get the Yak's out for one last fish. This time it was Trev's turn to catch the only fish caught and with the water getting rougher we left it at that. Back at camp it was pack up time and we were on the track out the next day, stopping at the Homestead to say our thanks and collect our key deposit back we were soon on the blacktop and heading further North.

We took the Burkett Road which saves us going back to Minilya and comes out on the North Coastal Highway further up, we stayed the night at a free camp site alongside the [......] river, we noticed a cross in the bush and went and checked it out, a simple white cross with PANDA written on it, Vickie also noticed another cross further away that had Colin & Panda written on it, it wasn't untill we were talking to our mates Allan & Joyce at Karratha that we were told the story and how Colin was a friend of theirs & Panda was his beloved dog and they died after being hit & killed in a car accident whilst slowing or turning into the camp area. [The Details are sketchy as to how it exactly happened]

With that news and also hearing that a good friend of ours in Sydney was not travelling well health wise made us think just how fortunate we are to be able to live the life that we do.

We plan to only stay a couple of nights here, long enough to re-stock with food and catch up with our mail and then move further North, possibly 80 Mile beach.

Camped Up Ningaloo

The past couple of weeks has involved the School holiday's so the South Lefroy Bay area has been very busy with campers with kids, the past two days things have settled back to 'normal' though what is normal up here? The wind is annoying, each day we hope that it stops so we can get back out on the water but the Wind God is not listening to us. Not much we can do about it so we have been doing lot's of reading & sitting around.

Our Nephew Trevor and his girlfriend Ashley arrived last Friday, they were up here camped with Trev's parents Dave & Jo before we arrived but had to return to Perth to finish work and organize affairs before embarking on the Around Australia Trip, what a life 25 years of age, secure trade's behind them and the exciting adventure of travelling around Oz. Trev has a F250 and a camper trailer and they are getting better set up each spot they stay.

Not much else is new other than our internet connection has finally been established with the new modem that BigPond sent us, signal is not 24 hour reliable but it does enable me to check the email and update the Blog each evening and morning.

Fishing has been quiet due to us not being able to get out on the water, Vickie has hooked onto a few Golden Trevally and i caught a good sized Queeny which put up a good jumping fight. We are planning on staying another week and then move on unless the weather improves.

Camped up Ningaloo

Camped up Ningaloo June – July 2010

Three weeks have passed since arriving at South Lefroy Bay, Ningaloo. The weather has been a mixed bag of beautiful sunny day’s to overcast rainy & windy weather, but that is the West Australian Coast and we don’t let it bother us much, we always find something to do even if it’s just refilling the water tanks or taking a drive along the Coastal Track to Coral Bay like we did last Friday.

It’s a full day drive even though it’s only around 70klm to Coral Bay, by the time we drive down every side track and walk up and down the deserted beaches finding many treasures such as washed up numerous fishing lures, a boogy board and Vickie found a fishing knife still in it’s sheaf. The track is rough & corrugated in places but nothing any 4wd couldn’t handle easily. Of course a day to Coral Bay is not complete without having lunch at the Bakery, some of the best pie’s and cake’s can be found here.


Around 4pm we decided to head on back to camp, Dave accidently locked his keys in his Landcruiser. It took us an hour to finally get the rear door’s open using wire and relayed information as to where to place the wire as the ‘wire holder’ Dave couldn’t see what he was doing.

We managed to get out on the water with the Kayak’s on Saturday, it was a lovely day with crystal clear water but not many fish about. Vickie caught some large Chinaman Cod or Charlie Courts as they are more known as here, I caught some small Redthroat and Dave had fun with some Long Tom’s.

Other than that it’s our son’s Birthday today the 27th , Best Wishes to you Dan we would love to be able to give you a hug but a phone call will have to do.
Another week has passed and we have settled into the routine of fishing from the beach, fishing from the Kayak’s, collecting water, emptying the loo, eating & happy hour’s. We had one fantastic day where Dave & I were fishing off the beach and doing well with a mixture of Trevally & Spangled Emperor, and Vickie out in her Kayak having a ball catching 4 large Golden Trevally, it was great to see her finally catch some fish that gave her a tussle, she did extremely well fighting them and getting them into the Yak, she has some bruises to prove how hard they fought.
We all drove into Exmouth to attend a World Heritage meeting at the Rec Centre, apparently the Ningaloo Coastline and the Cape Range has been put up for World Heritage listing by the Federal & State Govt, this has been done with minimal consultation with the local Shire, Pastoral lease owners & the general public and there has been an angry backlash, the meeting we went to was attended by over 100 people with another meeting that evening having 400 + people going along. Plenty of questions were asked and no definate answers were given, from what i could understand is, ‘If the area meets the criteria of the World Heritage Council’ then it’s just a rubber stamp and hand balled over to DEC [CALM] to manage, if that happens we can all say goodbye to the Coast as we know it.

Saturday the 3rd, The Billy’s were leaving for home after camping here for two Months and we had to break camp and move 600mts up the beach to another camp site as our camp was booked out, it was sad seeing them go as they are good company and even though they are family they are great mates and we enjoyed camping with them. Our new camp is out in the open on the beach flats, it’s ok but not as nice as where we were. We spent the day setting up camp again and dissapointed that we don’t get reliable phone or internet signal, even a drive up into the dunes where i have received signal before didn’t work so not sure when i will get to upload the latest blog.

Photo's to follow