Karijini National Park

After completing the Gibb River Road we headed to Karatha and spent a couple of great nights with our friends Pieter and Phyllis Zeitsman attending their local church. After this it was straight on to Karijini National park. The gorges in Karijini while different from those in the Kimberley were by no means less beautiful and the outstanding rock formations were a sight to behold. These couple of clips give you a window in to the gorges of Karijini.

Gibb River Road in the wet

While we were on the Gibb River road the Kimberley received a very unseasonal downpour which resulted in the closure of the road and even the great northern highway. Oblivious to this (as there is no radio or mobile phone coverage) we headed out of the Gibb River road and this video clip gives you a taste of what you could drive through if you are caught in the Kimberley after some rain.

Bell Gorge was gorgeous

This place was truly spectacular. Hope you enjoy this snippet of one of the highlights of the Gibb River road.

Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge.

Check out this video of these two tourist hotspots along the western end of the Gibb River road.

The beautiful flora of the northwest.

Here are some of the flowers found nestling discretely among the rocks up north. The most beautiful in my view is the deep red Sturt's desert pea found growing on alongside the road from Karatha to Karijini.

Wandering through Wunnumurra Gorge.

After Bell Gorge we visited Mt Elisabeth station, and went bush along a very rough and rocky 10 km track which took an hour to traverse. At it’s end however was another wonderfully spectacular gorge, known as Wunnumurra Gorge. Swimming in this gorge would be a wonderful way to finish of a hard week’s work on the station. The gorge also contained some beautifully preserved aboriginal artwork, some of which you can see below. The crystal clear pandanas lined rivers and creeks in the Kimberley set against their backdrop of red cliffs and rock formations are hugely impressive and each new gorge offers a new vista to marvel at and appreciate. I’m so thankful to be able to take it in and enjoy the wonder of this part of God’s good creation.

Return to the Gibb River Road.

After having our car repaired in Broome (an expensive exercise), we set off again for the Gibb River road to complete the section that we missed. We waded through Tunnel Creek (a large and dark limestone cave through which a creek passes), ambled through Windjana Gorge (where we saw our first fresh water crocodiles) and after camping alongside Bell Creek, journeyed into Bell Gorge. As you will see by the photos and video this gorge was certainly one of the most beautiful that we visited on our Kimberley trek. Our journey through the Gibb included many memorable events; one was driving past two large road trains (with three trailers each) bogged in the center of the Gibb River road. One obviously got bogged and the other tried to go around him and got bogged also. Unfortunately we didn’t get a photo of this, but these two rigs ended up closing the Gibb River road to all traffic. Graders had to be sent from Derby to extract them. Another notable near misadventure was the sudden appearance of a huge big black wild boar. It rushed up the side of the road and directly in front of our Prado. I hit the brakes and then watched as it, seeing us, increased it’s speed and with a piggy snort dashed off the other side of the road and within 10 seconds was at least 50 meters away and safely hidden in the bush. I wouldn’t like to be facing one racing toward me on foot that’s for sure.

Mud Crabbing at Mudnunn

Check out our mud crabbing adventures with Vincent, our local aboriginal guide at Cape Leveque. Sarah and Peter braved the mangroves and mud to discover the adventure of bush life up north down under. Hope you enjoy this clip as much as we did. Please let us know your reaction to this post by giving us your comments. Looking forward to them.

regards

Peter and Sarah.

Broome and her camels

Hi all,

Find below our video clips of our Broome Camel ride. It was a heap of fun. Especially too, since Sarah had joined us that morning.

Peter and Suz

Picturesque Cape Leveque

On Sunday afternoon we drove up the corrugated road to Cape Leveque 220 kms north of Broome. We were delighted to discover that only 120 kms of these were unsealed road. We are staying at Kooljaman which is at the northern tip of the cape so we can enjoy morning sunrise and sunsets over the turquoise waters of the Timor Sea and Indian Ocean. The contrasting red dirt soils and fine white sand beaches against the deep blues of sea make this a place of great dramatic contrast and beauty. We are here for the week and have caught a few little fish but are hoping for some bigger ones. The warm waters of this region make for great swimming and snorkelling. We hope to have a guided mud crabbing tour. We’ll keep you posted. Till next time, Peter, Suzanne, Sarah and Sophie.

The best of Broome

We spent a few days in Broome having our car repaired and serviced. During this time we saw the Dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume point; met the only free range chicken in the caravan park (whom we named Jemima puddle chook) who fell in love with Sophie’s tent and laid us three wonderful eggs (which we ate with bacon on our last morning); and enjoyed an afternoon Camel ride on Cable beach. Our time in Broome was a welcome relief from the routine of setting up, packing up and travelling to the next destination. Sarah arrived on Saturday and provided some much needed company for Sophie. We had a wonderful time worshipping on Sunday with the Anglican church in Broome where a number of the young people from our church at Gateway have served in past years running a holiday club. From Broome we set off for the beauty and serenity of Cape Leveque.

Pentecost River and the Cockburn Range

One of the most picturesque rivers on the Gibb River Road is the Pentecost. Check out this short video of it with the Cockburn Ranges in the background and us crossing it in the white Prado. This is the country where Baz Lurhmann shot the movie "Australia". You can see why he came here.

El Questro Gibb River Road

El Questro was certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far. The gorges were spectacular. This video clip begins with a 400 metre water crossing we did on the station across the Pentecost River. The beauty of God's good creation up north down under is breath taking. Hope you enjoy these short clips of it. Peter

Video of the Bungle Bungle's

Hi everyone,

Just a short video of the Bungle's to give you a taste of the Kimberley. Hope you enjoy it. Feel free to post a comment.

Peter and Suz.

Ode to Kalumburu Road.

This dreadful acrostic poem was penned in scrawly handwriting to pass the time as we bounced along the corrugations of the Kalumburu Road on our return trip after being defeated by this road. It is our attempt to describe for you the fiendish Kalumburu Road. From the photo you can see the stabilizing bar that was snapped by those corrugations.

Agitating,

Bashing,

Crunching,

Damaging,

Egg Shattering and Endless,

Furious,

Gnashing,

Horrific,

Irritating,

Jostling,

Knobbly,

Languishing,

Mashing,

Nasty,

Obliterating,

Pummelling,

Quaking,

Repetitiously rotten,

Shearing,

Treacherous,

Ugly and Undergraded,

Vexing,

Wretched,

Xtreme,

Yucky,

Zerrifying (which means terrifying with a “z”).

Mitchell Falls Dreaming: so close and yet so far away.

After Durack we took the Kalumburu Road toward the Mitchell Plateau and the Mitchell Falls. The Kalumburu road can only be described as extremely nasty 4WDing. This road puts any 4WD to the test. One Nissan 4WD lost all its wheel studs on one wheel and left its owners stranded. Another Toyota 200 series 2 year old vehicle had its power steering fail and needed to be trucked back to Kununurra. At Drysdale station the mechanic diagnosed an oil leak Peter discovered as a leaking power steering seal. He said it would be OK to drive as long as we topped up the oil regularly so we continued on our way.

Another two hours of 10 to 15 cm corrugations found us at the beautiful King Edward River, where we camped over night. Next morning we set off for the Mitchell falls only to get 10 kms down the bumpy track to hear loud clunking noises under the car.

Crawling under the car Peter discovered a snapped stabilizing bar as well as a leaking fuel tank (a long story for another day). 60 kms we made the decision to return to Drysdale Station where the mechanic suggested we get back to Broome for repairs. A full days drive from Drysdale to Broome found us at the Toyota repair shop, parts ordered from Perth and a relaxing weeks wait for the parts to arrive in Broome (what a hardship!) We hope to resume our trip on the weekend when Sarah flys into Broome to spend the next three weeks with us. Till next time, sayonara from Broome.

The Gibb River Road.

The first stop in our Gibb River road trip was the El Questro Station. We had a private campsite along the Pentecost River where we stayed for three nights; such spectacular country. We feasted our eyes on crystal clear emerald and azure coloured pools, fantastic gorges with cascading waterfalls, abounding in Pandanus, Livistona palms and ferns. All of this set in the amazing red cliffs and the towering Cockburn range. We also relaxed in the Zebedee Springs, 31 degrees of crystal clear water flowing from the base of a towering gorge into natural rock pools. We braved the Pentecost river crossing in our 4WD and many other water crossings, the longest one being 400 metres with water lapping up to the doors, very exciting!

From there we had a night at Home Valley Station, where Peter caught, not a barramundi, but a catfish on the rapidly rising incoming tide on the Pentecost river. This literally rose meters in the course of an hour and a half. Then an overnight bush camp on the banks of the Durack River (more fishing – unsuccessful), then headed to Mitchell falls.

On to the Gibb River road plus more photos.

Just a short note to say that we are now heading off to the Gibb River Road, there are so many gorges, homesteads, bush and off the beaten tracks up here, we can't wait to show you something of them after we hope to arrive in Broome in a couple of weeks. We've placed some more photo's up of what we've seen.

Till later

Peter, Suz and Soph.

At the top -Kununurra

After leaving Broome we traveled east to Fitzroy Crossing, a quick look at Geiki Gorge and then on to Halls creek. We visited the China wall, a natural rock wall formation of quartz. From there we stayed at yet another beautiful gorge called Saw Pit, east of Halls Creek. 'Ah the serenity'. From there we visited Kundat Djaru aborginal community at Ringer Soak about 170 kms south east of Halls Creek, on the edge of the Tanami desert. The Tourist Bureau man, suggested that we visit it and check out their art work. It was a highlight to visit the community and talk to Rosie a beautiful 80 year old woman who walked around on her knees and painted every day. From there we visited Purnululu National Park, (the Bungle Bungle mountain range). This was staggeringly beautiful. We stood below towering red cliffs soaring 200 meters into the air above us. Camera photo's simply cannot do justice to the scale. As I said to Sophie it is mega normus. We've given you a pictorial sample of our trip so far. From here we're off down the Gibb River road. And will be incommunicado for a couple of weeks.

We are enjoying every bit of God's great creation. I keep thinking of the Psalmist words...

O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth! When I consider the work of your fingers... O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth. (Psalm 8)

That's it for now from the top end.

Love Peter, Suzie and Sophie.

Zoom to Broome

Yep we've arrived in sunny Broome. The weather is a nice 30 degrees. Definitely T shirt and shorts stuff. We drove up from Pardoo station, (about 100 kms north of Port Hedland). The overnight stop at Pardoo included a quick trip out to the beach to throw a line in the water. The aim was to be there at high tide the best time to fish (so I hear) but alas, the tide was quickly running out. Every time we went back to our bait we had to walk further and further back to the water as the tide receded. In between repairing Sophie's line which continually bird nested, I had a couple of casts but decided it was time to put the gear away for another day. The trip from Port Hedland to Broome was entirely different to the one up to Hedland. Notable was the absence of mining vehicles and the dramatic increase of cars towing caravans. I've attached a photo of the long straight road that you stare at into the horizon to give you a feel for it.

On arriving at Broome we had a quick survey of the town, a trip to the fishing tackle shop, and a short dash to Cable Beach to watch (and photograph) the sunset. We look forward to the trip to Purnululu National Park (better known as Bungle Bungles). Hope to pin up some photos of that for you too. Till next time. Peter, Suz and Soph.