Sunday 31 July 2016

19. TO BROOME AND CAPE LEVEQUE

One of our favourite trees grows up here in the North so I thought I'd start this Blog with a picture.
A Boab of course.
Quite a few cafe's and roadhouses like to claim they are famous for something. At Roeburne roadhouse, just out to Broome they claim fame for their Home Made Sausage Rolls so we had to try one.
It was definately the biggest sausage roll we have had, and the first time we have ever shared one.
From here we moved on to Broome, and headed for the ocean and the jetty.

But we couldn't walk along the jetty as it was closed for repairs.
From here we checked out the famous Cable beach.

A lot like Surfers Paradise, Sand sea and People!

We set up camp at a farm on the outskirts of Broome and from here had our own road down to Cable Beach.

It was a bit rougher but well worth the effort when we came out here.

All to ourselves, Beautiful smooth white sand, blue sea and clear skies.....this way
and


Rocks and the odd beachcomber the other.
After spending a few days here we decided to head for Cape Leveque. This meant we were back in the dust!
but as it is only dirt for part of the way it also meant stopping to air up for the bitumen.


We arrived at Gambannon and decided to get a few chores done.

Travelling in the red dust means there's always washing to do.
As we were camping on traditional owners land we were lucky enough to have one of the native fish traps just below the camp.

This picture was taken about mid tide. At high tide all the rocks are covered, but at low tide, the locals can just walk down and pick up the fish trapped by the low water level.
We went up to the community at One Arm Point and went out to see the hatchery and its rugged coastline.

And on the way back came across this sign.

I can't quite get my tongue around the traditional words though.
While on Cape Leveque we also visited a Pearl Farm with its technology...old


and new.

Then it was back to camp to enjoy our last Cape Leveque sunset before we head off for more adventures.

Sunday 10 July 2016

18. OUR HORIZONTAL FALLS ADVENTURE

We spent a week or so in Derby, cleaning off the dust of the Gibb and enjoying the many exciting events and places in and around Derby.  
They even had a Mardi Gras for the Boab Festival while we were there:


This float carried the Boab Queen entrants.  Most of the crowd were made up of tourists, as I think somehow all the locals were on the floats.  The local football club were having a ball!


We checked out the Prison Boab not far out of town.  It is believed to be about 1500 years old.....amazing!  It was used as a staging point for prisoners being walked into Derby in the early days.

And right alongside this was the longest trough, 120 metres long and could handle 500 bullocks at a time!


As you head back into Derby from here there is another unusual piece of history, being 'Frosty's Pool'
Built in 1944 as a bathing area for troops stationed here during WW2. It was named after one of the members of the platoon that constructed it.


As you can see its pretty much abandoned and left to the elements now, but I bet it would have been a much sought after place to cool off in the heat up here.

At last the reason for our waiting here had arrived and we were off on our Horizontal falls trip.
We had packed up the truck and camper and left them at the caravan park and were picked up and taken to the airport to board our plane.

Ok, so far so good....Never been a huge fan of flying but will give it a go! Meanwhile Dave is having fun watching the apprehension on my face.  Next we get the safety run down before we board and have to put on our life jackets?????

The life jackets are those little bags strapped around our waists.  We have to wear them as we are flying over water. But you don't really want to inflate them if you land in the water because its full of crocodiles and sharks, so it would be better to cling to the plane if we go down.  
That's not exactly what he said but that's what I got out of the talk!
So we all climbed aboard and took our seats.


Little bit squeezy I think.  
Then it was up in the air and leaving Derby behind.


I soon forgot my nerves once we were in the air as the views were just so spectacular!


With the sun on the water it was hard to see where the sea finished and the sky started.


And the patterns in the landscape from the waterways was fascinating.
At last we arrived at the place we had flown out to see, the Horizontal Falls.
Those two gaps in the the mountain ranges are where we are headed.


But first we have to land.  There is our destination....in the bottom right hand corner of the picture.....a long way down!


Pretty soon after a few circuits of the area and a bit more sightseeing, we were landing beside the pontoons.

and checking out our transport, with 2 x 300 Horsepower engines, it could go 56 knots or 100 klm an hour. 

and our Skipper Adrian.....What he couldn't do with this boat!!


As soon as we got on board, we were racing a sea plane that was taking off.


Then it was over to our houseboat for the night to dump our gear, put on bathers and head off for the falls and a cruise around the bays.

The scenery up here is just beautiful and the structure and patterns in some of the rocks are amazing.  It makes you wonder what sort of forces could do this?


Then it was time to head for the falls, Adrian held off till it was the right time of the tide to get a thrilling run through, and he didn't disappoint us.


Hard to take a picture while you are hanging on and blasting through the turbulence  but trust me it was great fun.


This is just hanging off the smaller gap....the power of that water is amazing and it continues to a depth of 50 metres.  The reason for these falls is that there are such huge tide variances up here (up to 11 metres) that when the tide turns, the water has only a very small gap to get through and the pressure build up in each gap is incredible..........but it does make for a lot of fun!!

You can see here by the dark marks how high the tides come up.

Then it was back to the boat for a few drinks while we watched a lovely Kimberley sunset.


The next morning we had another boat ride and  through the falls and it was time to head home, so had to get a quick tourist pic.

So back to Derby, pick up the vehicles and....

Next stop Broome..........

Saturday 2 July 2016

17. GIBB RIVER ROAD PART 2

There were so many places that we really enjoyed along the Gibb that I couldn't possibly put them all on one blog so I am taking this time to include mainly Dave's photography, which is much better than mine, of some of our favourites.

A big drawcard along here is to travel up to the Mitchell River Falls, or Punamii- Umpunu.  We camped in the National Park and then hiked out to the falls. There is usually some sort of guide to indicate what the track is like.


And we had the Wanjina's to help show us the trail.

Sometimes it was very pleasant.


but a lot of the trail was pretty challenging.


and these were the easier parts!!  Bit hard to take pics while climbing up bloody great boulders!
But we did manage to see some great things along the way.


This guy had a really cheeky face and when he took off he had beautiful bright red markings on his tail. There were quite a few and looked spectacular.

Finally reached the top of the falls and Dave took about 2 mins to get into the water.  It was freezing cold and I decided not to go in.  Not clever in hindsight.
We then went across the top and around the corner to be confronted with this!


Just magnificent, and as we climbed all around the top of the cliffs we got so many different views


It really was well worth the hike.  A lot of  people choose to chopper out from here but we decided to hike.  I really should have had that swim as I ended up with heat stroke and was very very happy to fall into the cold water when we finally got back to Little Merton.  Won't make that mistake again!!

On the way back to the Kalumburu road we stopped at a couple of sites where you can see Aboriginal Art.  It was like an open air art gallery, round another corner and another rock painting,  Its hard to believe they have been here for 100's of years.


This was yet another place that we had to ourselves for almost the whole time.  And nothing is done for you, you have to search for yourself to find it.  Only one small area was indicated by a pathway and this was the painting it led to.


Another of our favourites was Galvin's Gorge.  Dave went for a swim here and found a snake curled up on a ledge on the far side of the pool.


There are so many Gorges that you can visit that sometimes it's hard to remember where you actually are.   Think this was Adcock's Gorge?


But I think Dave and I agree that our favourite was Bell's Gorge.  When you arrive after only a half hour hike you reach the natural infinity pool at the top of the falls.  We both went for a swim here.


And then headed up the cliffs on the left of the picture and then down to the bottom to look at the top pool from a different perspective.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We spent quite a while swimming here, and Dave and a mate went further downstream exploring as well, but unfortunately without the camera.



Another favourite was Winjana Gorge in Winjana National Park.  It looks pretty unassuming from the entrance to the gorge. 


But when you get inside it opens up to a beautiful big private beach with a river running through.  Don't think we'll be swimming here though - must have seen about 20 or 30 Freshwater Crocs at least in the water.


It was late afternoon so some of the pics are a bit dark but others are great in the dying light.


Our last stop before getting back on the bitumen was a place called Tunnel Creek.  I had never heard of it before but we had been assured it was a must see place!

There was some information on boards in the parking lot, but once down the pathway it was find your own way??  Looks like a bit more rock climbing to do!


But once past these we found the entrance to the underwater cave.  The really black part at the back is where we have to head. and through that water.  Wonder what is in it?


We saw fish, a little crayfish thing, and a freshwater croc by the time we were half way through, oh! and a bat.  There was a section of the tunnell which had collapsed at some time which gave us some respite from the dark.

Then it was back into the dark.  We were checking out the stalagmites and looking for bats when Dave noticed this in the darkness up ahead.


Bit hard to see in the flash from the camera, but even harder to see in the dark!  He would have been nearly 2 metres long!  Luckily just a freshie and he didn't seem to want to bother us.  We just passed him by and kept heading to the other end.


Apparently This place was a favourite hideaway for a famous aboriginal criminal back in the 1800's
Not a bad place to while away the time.
Then it was back through the cave, the croc was no longer on the sand so was probably in the water we had to wade through.  Then back to the entrance again.


It was a really pretty place and when you look at it from the outside you wonder how anyone would have found it in the first place.


So it was back to the bitumen and on to Derby where we are planning another exciting little side trip, but first we will just enjoy the night sky up here.