Chapter 7 - Western Australia - West Kimberley

From 12 July 2011 

To     28 July 2011 

We are now moving to the western side of the Kimberley (and have been for a few days I guess).  On Tuesday we headed off to Derby – a trip of about 260 km.  About 90 km down the road we reached an overturned fuel tanker that had flipped over in trying to avoid some recalcitrant motorist.  This caused a stoppage of around two hours while they transferred the fuel to another tanker.  When we got to move again the line up on our side of the blockage was as follows (approx), 18 caravans, three motor homes, one bus decked out as a motor home, three 4WD with holiday stuff, two 4WD with holiday trailers, two other 4WD, ONE sedan.  

Our estimate was 75% had Victoria number plates. When we pulled into the caravan park in Derby two hours later (after some serious highway jostling) Daryl and I had moved from positions 10 and 12 to positions 1 and 2 – not counting the non-towing or small trailered cars (who were miles in front).  The need for coffee and toilet stops was shelved. The caravan park had eleven arrivals in around five minutes.

We found a bottle shop in Derby whose beer prices could compete with Dan Murphy’s in Melbourne.  Dinner was barra and chips ($23.50 for two people) from the local “greasy’s shop”.  It was pretty good – straight out of the paper under the stars.  Tonight was probably our warmest night on the trip.

Horizontal Waterfalls

An amazing sight

Our first full day in Derby was superb.  I was in the co-pilot seat on a 14 seat sea plane for the 35 minute flight to the coast due north of Derby. We took off from land and landed on water in a location that cannot be reached by road.  We then had an unbelievable jet boat ride at speeds up to 60 knots (about 100 km/h I think) though a narrow rock pass called the horizontal waterfall.  It is a quirk of nature that the change of tides causes a lot of water to need to get through an opening that is too small to allow easy flow.  

So, depending on which tide it is, there is a strong flow from one side to another – among awesome scenery.  We had Barra for lunch then swim with sharks in a cage (sharks outside, us inside).  We even had a visit from a huge groper.  Then another jet boat ride (we have a video) and a demo of friendly fish (see photo) where the fish was content to swim into the hand of our guide – and then be lifted out of the water – quite amazing.  I patted one of the sharks (about 1.6 m long) – very quickly of course.  To complete the day we had a take off from water, lots of scenic views, then a landing on terra firma.  It was a costly day but worth every cent.

To finish off a great day we took some photos of the sunset at Derby pier.

  

Sunset at Derby

Our final day in Derby was a day of culture, starting with “scone a clock” where yours truly cooked the scones for morning tea, then we went for a drive and witnessed such national treasures as the ‘boab prison tree’ (the 2^nd of this trip) and a water trough that can water 500 head of cattle at one time.  All ‘serious’ towns need to have a ‘biggest’ of some sort.

Boab Prison Tree

At 5:15 Shirley, Fay and I headed off to the Mowanjum festival which is an aboriginal celebration of their roots.  It includes a number of tribes, one of which was responsible for the aboriginal component at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  It was notable for the fact that all management was performed by white people, the amount of dust that was raised by the performers, the enormous fun that was had by the huge number of young aboriginal kids and the quality (or lack) of the crocodile kebab that I consumed.  Still, we engaged in some local culture and witnessed a corroboree.

Our next stop was Broome and a reunion with friends who now live in Merimbula.  Broome has changed significantly since Shirley and I spent four days here in 1995.

Broome has changed significantly since Shirley and I spent four days here in 1995.  It is a bustling and vibrant tourist precinct.  Not sure what that means but I read it somewhere and it sounded good.  On Saturday we had a leisurely day with our only real activity being to check out the “stairway to the moon”. Alas it was too cloudy and we had to settle for a quiet drink and nibbles under the stars.  On Sunday we visited the Broome brewery and had a few schooners while we listed to some live jazz/country music.

Try http://www.davidrivettmusic.com/ for a sample. Shirley had some alcoholic ginger beer.  The beer and wedges were excellent.

We have suddenly slipped from travelling mode into relaxing mode – our first real break since home. With the weather being pretty warm it is easy to be lazy.  We had an enjoyable, lazy week in Broome with relaxation being the key activity.  However, we did enjoy the sights and benefits of 'stairway to the moon', famous cable beach, Willy Creek Pearl farm, various walks, various coffee venues (although hard to find after 2pm).  The other notable achievement was my first pizza since leaving Melbourne.   The days were warm to hot and the nights were balmy.  Some of the mornings were cool enough for a track suit top – until 8am anyway.

 

 

So far, for every 1000 km towing the caravan we have done and extra 450 km without the caravan, visiting local sights once we set up camp.  Minor glitches on the trip have included the following (in chronological order):

·     A broken part on the awning (fixed by me with the help of John and Darryl),

·     Lost plug for the sink (bought two so we now have a backup),

·     An “allen key” embedded in a car tyre – not good (lucky it happened in Katherine),

·     Air bed # 1 going flat,

·     Air intake hole in new airbed too big for pump attachment, and

·     Air bed # 2 going flat.

To cap it off, a second tyre issue, this time a split on the inner wall – possibly caused by a sharp rock somewhere around Broome (lucky it happened in Broome).

 

All part of travelling.

Anyway back to Broome.  As you do when in Broome we visited Cable Beach and caught a few waves.  Brought back memories of July 1995 when Shirley and I were last here.  And, as it the right thing to do, we sat on the beach (Coronas in hand) and watched the sunset (see photo).  

Eventually we retired back to the camp ground where the BBQ was gunned up to cook some fish, which was followed by pancakes/fruit salad/maple syrup/ice cream. How hard is this life?  On another day I cooked scones for 9 (with cream & jam) and then we had a group spaghetti dinner (for 6) with crispy bread, following by fresh fruit salad and let over whipped cream. As you can see we are doing it pretty hard. Of course we had our 5 pm session between scones and dinner, i.e. a few coronas with lime.

 

The pace has been so hectic that Shirley and I decided to stay another 3 days in Broome to get some rest (said with tongue in cheek).  Darryl and Kay decided on another week.  John and Fay hit the road – off to Eighty Mile Beach.  However we had to shift sites, going from 60% shade to 80% shade – so that was OK.  Also closer to the pool.   Of course this also gave us a chance for a second visit to the brewery to try a couple more beers and visit the place up the road that had half price prawns on a Sunday. 

Another thing - there was a crocodile in the Cable Beach waters yesterday - just where we were swimming a few days ago.

By the time we leave Broome (maybe tomorrow) we will have spent about 4 weeks in the Kimberley and will have covered just under 3000 km – 60% of it without the caravan – 450 km on dirt roads. It has been a wonderful four weeks with lots of memories to take away – not to mention the number of photos that I have taken.  It will be hard to leave Broome.

Next stop will be the start of the Pilbara. Please stay tuned.

Jump to the next chapter