Trip to South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales #9

#9

Wed 7^th.  Darryl’s cousin Lee was having a birthday today.

We headed into Broome early and went to the visitor centre for information.  The only tour that MIGHT be operating is the hovercraft to go and see the dinosaur prints in the rock.  All the others have ceased as of 1^st November.  When we rang the business, it was to find that their hovercraft was in the shop having some repairs made and they were HOPING it would be ready for the afternoon tide – she would ring us.  Unfortunately, there was no return phone call. 

To fill in the day, we visited Roebuck Bay and the BLUE, blue water, before visiting the Museum.

 

  A great day learning about Broome and its history.  

 Pink frangipani  Mother of Pearl carve

 etching on Mother of Pearl shell

red and white frangipani flower

 a lovely big Sturt's Desert Rose bush

 native Morning Glory along the ocean front

We then visited the Port Jetty as there was a cruise ship in.  The Sun Princess was in town for the day and its 3000 passengers were doing various tours in and around the town.

 

We made our way to Matzo’s microbrewery for lunch 

 Darryl taste testing the beers.  He preferred the one at the right which was Ginger beer with an alcohol content of 3.5%

  really enjoying his ribs

and then visited the Sobrane Art Gallery, located behind the brewery.  

 You were permitted to photograph the artwork on the floor but not those for purchase

What an amazing artist.  She has also done art on a Silo in Victoria and on a wall of the Cradle Mountain Hotel in Tasmania.

We made our way into Chinatown and witnessed a display at one of the Pearl shops of harvesting a pearl.  The talk on the industry went for about ½ an hour before the lady opened the oyster to find the pearl. 

 

It was a 10.5mm, B1+ grade [it had some small imperfections on the surface but buffed up beautifully], valued at $250.

We then found the Coles supermarket and got a few groceries before heading back to the van and then spent an hour in the pool cooling off.  We had a good chat to a couple of the chaps that have been working on repairing the roads after last years floods in the wet season.

Thur 8^th. Up and out of the park by 9am and heading North EAST this time.  Our first stop was at Willare River Roadhouse to top up with fuel and then continued East.  

 Pretty purple flowers on the roadside

 

 The ant/termite hills have some amazing shapes

 these termite/ant hills are a different shape

 a large BOAB tree

We arrived in Fitzroy Crossing at about 1.30pm and called into the information Centre.  We registered to do the Cultural Boat tour of Geikie Gorge at 4pm and then headed across the Fitzroy River to Fitzroy Crossing Lodge and booked into their van park.  42 degrees outside so opened all the windows and vents and turned on the aircon to shoot most of the hot air out, then slowly closed the windows and pushed the hot air up, then closed the top vents to get the van to cool.  We headed out to the Gorge at 3.15pm arriving at 3.45pm (some crazy potholes at the second last grid) and made our way to the meeting point.  BILL was there, and we waited until 4pm before heading down to the boat.  

 Looking towards the North with the East wall on the right

  

  

  Our tour guide - BILL

 This is the West wall facing south

 Amazing geology   This looks like a face

The East wall facing South.

We had a great tour – just the two of us and Bill – and returned after 1 ½ hours.  A brilliant, insightful, tour of the gorge.

We visited the lodge for a cool beverage and then adjourned to the van for dinner.  There are thousands of little wallabies at the lodge, so you must be very careful when driving. 

 mother with joey

 Frilled neck lizard - just missed him having his frill out

 Lovely yellow flowering tree

some of the wallabies

Fri 9^th.  Topped up the fuel at the Lodge before heading eastward.  We stopped at Halls Creek for fuel and visited the information Centre.  The centre was closed for lunch, so we went to the attached café for a coffee and a light meal. 

 some of the cliffs before Hall's Creek

 Ant hills trying to grow beside the road

 amazing countryside

Plaque to Russian Jack

 statue to Russian Jack

 artwork inside the information Centre

interesting  roof top

We then found that there are no tours operating out of Hall’s Creek, as it is too late in the season.  The young lady did recommend a plane flight out of Kununurra that will go over the Bungle Bungles, Lake Argyle and the Argyle Diamond Mine.  So we booked onto that.

We then continued to Warmun (Turkey Creek), where we topped up the tank before continuing to Doon Doon Roadhouse.  Here we went into the caravan park and connected to power to cool the van down.  42 degrees at 5pm.  Got down to 29degrees before bed [inside the van].

 BOAB with flowers

 Boab flower front on

Boab flower side on

 Our setup at Doon Doon Roadhouse

  an interesting sunset

Sat 10^th. Awake at 6.30am as you could feel the heat coming in from outside [thermometer reading 34 degrees already].  So, we packed up and headed out at 8am and arrived in Kununurra at 10am.  Booked into the van park at Kimberleyland (on the lake) and got the aircon started to try and cool the van.  It was already reading 42degrees outside with 39degrees in the van.

We left the van and headed out to the Sandalwood plantation, before heading out to Ivanhoe crossing.  An arced concrete crossing of the river where there was 25cm of water flowing across the causeway.  The council put concrete blocks at each end to prevent people from driving across it, after a fellow drowned whilst drunk.  Was interesting watching the children soaking in the slowly moving shallows (with adults in there watching them) and also the birds waiting for a feed of fish coming through the water.

We then headed back into the town and got some supplies before heading back to the van and going for a swim.  The water was tepid but very refreshing, but again the pool closes at 6pm but does reopen at 7.30am.  We have to be up and ready for pick up at 5.15am tomorrow, so better go for now.