Leaving Broome and visiting Derby

We were sad to leave Broome as we loved it. I had seen the "Staircase to the Moon" so was very happy. I had a look at prices of property in Broome -almost equivalent to Perth. We also decided that the wet season could be pretty uncomfortable so we decided we'd better move on!

We drove onto Derby as I knew a teacher who worked there and wanted to see it for myself. The red rocks of Broome's landscape slowly disappeared and changed to kms and kms of savanna (all lovely and green) and termite mounds that look like mini versions of the Pinnacles.

Derby was a good place to use our bikes - very flat and accessible. Sad to say but alcohol has ruined the lives of many of the Aborigines we saw walking the streets as we rode around. Groups of beautiful children play in the streets and on the perfectly manicured sports field but you can probably guess what they go home to!! Too sad.

Derby has one of the highest tides in Australia - close to 12m! - after a low tide of 2m. Tides come in and out twice a day. It was amazing going down to the jetty to see these tides. We rode around and spoke to various fishermen trying to catch mud-crabs or barramundi. I think that is about all you could do in Derby on a weekend! You could play golf and leave your green fees in the honour box! Looking at the many boabs is also fun.

The caravan park was right on the edge of the mud flats that are luckily dry because of the dry season. We keep saying how lucky we have been travelling at the beginning of the dry season though there has been some unseasonal rain and the 4 Wheel Drives coming off the Gibb River Road are proof! Many of the roads have had to be closed and people are waiting around in campsites until the rains stop.

Because we don't have an off-road caravan rain does not affect us - though I think it would be fun driving along the Gibb River Road. Maybe next time!

We had a very interesting drive today on the red, red, red, soil (yet again) to a pearl farm on one of Broome's tidal estuaries. We sailed in a small boat belonging to the farm on the high-tide waters of the estuary finding out how pearls are cultured - quite a process. The water in the estuary was the blue-est I have ever seen. Crocodiles often line the banks but we didn't see one today. We saw a beautiful egret instead. Unfortunately buying a cultured pearl was not part of the budget but understanding the process of getting them to a finished state makes one look at them with different eyes. Mother of pearl shells are my favourite. I just stand and admire.

"The Staircase to the moon" met all my expectations! The full moon slowly becoming visible on the horizon was magical as was the reflection of the moon on the tidal flats. Absolutely beautiful. The darker it got and the further the moon rose in the sky more and more "steps" became visible. It is an image I will always treasure in my memory. My Samsung digital camera did well too. I didn't think the photos would turn out but I am impressed - they have!! Chris was having a competition with me on his camera!! He got some good ones too.

It was so good I organised our caravan site for this past week as every caravan park in Broome seems to have signs saying, No caravan sites! Right now, Broome seems to be buzzing with visitors. Every "hippie" motorhome and Wicked camper must be here! I would have been very disappointed to have not seen "The Staircase".

We also had to go for a drive one last time to see the sunset and camels on Cable Beach. It's just the most spectacular sight seeing the expanse of beach when the tide goes out. We took our beer and lemonade and did the sunset thing - again taking photos for the competition we are having between the Samsung and the Kodak! Go Samsung!!

I will be sad leaving Broome. We have met so many lovely people and had so many interesting chats with local people. A special conversation we had was with a lady named Pearl whose mum was a "stolen generation child". What she had to say about the Aborigines today actually made her cry as she was speaking to us. She is a special person.

Chris also spent a fair bit of time with the nicest guys at the Telstra shop helping him to get our broadband account onto direct debit. Took them three hours over three days, and we're still not sure it's ok! Telstra has been very trying for Chris. If we get cut off, as they did my mobile, we will be in big trouble - because Telstra is definitely not good!! Their website must be worst in the world specially as their staff can't even understand it.!

We loved it in Broome and will just have to come and visit again.

(Photos I have posted not in order but hopefully self explanatory.)

Broome

We originally planned to stay in Broome for one week but love it so much that we are staying for another week. Besides loving the laid back, tropical atmosphere we are also looking forward to seeing "The Staircase to the Moon".

We go exploring on our bikes in the early evenings when the days become a bit cooler. We decided to ride into Broome town one morning and discovered that it was a bit further away than we thought. Gosh, did we come back drenched - not from a rain storm! Chris was desperate. I seem to manage the humidity a bit better than him. Luckily we've had some gorgeous rain which cools everything down for a short while.

Chris isn't too keen on the heat and humidity but luckily we have a gorgeous, tropical pool that is a few meters away from our caravan!!

We drive our car onto Cable Beach - definitely one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - to see the sunsets and the camels. The lines of camels against the sunset are beautiful and it's everyone's aim to get the BEST "camels at sunset" pictures.

We seem to often bump into The Extraordinary Taxi Ride making it's way through WA. There's always much action with TV cameras and crew all over the place.

We've been very busy!!! We've visited some beautiful pearl shops, been for a ride in a hovercraft (Chris's passion), visited Aboriginal art galleries, had delicious ginger-beer at the Broome brewery, had coffee in the Turkish Kebab shop with the most amazing photographs on the wall, stroked a python and chatted with a wildlife officer who rescues native animals and showed us her baby fruit bat and 2 week old rare, nail tailed wallaby, walked in a beautiful garden called "Buddha's Sanctuary" with an amazing carving of the female Buddha, had our American friends over at our place for dinner - South African sausage, we called it, made and bought in Broome. They loved the Broome boerewors!

We've just been having a ball!!! If you haven't been to Broome you should come - anytime after mid-May until end Oct. The red cliffs, mud and tidal flats, azure seas, frangipanis and boab trees are a sight to behold!

The people here are great too.

80 Mile Beach

We stopped here on our way to Broome after leaving Port Hedland where we wanted to see the iron-ore ships being loaded - which we did. After turning off the main highway we had to travel 9 kms on some more corrugated, red road where we reached yet another oasis - 80 Mile beach.

We were going to use it as a one night stop over but were, once again, in AWE of yet another beautiful sight - so stayed for 3 nights. There was miles and miles of white sandy beach, littered with all sorts of beautiful shells from mother of pearl to brightly coloured cowies. I could not resist doing the granny thing collecting shells that I know Eva, Eloise and Ali will treasure. Not sure what Australia Post may think when I post them all. (I posted a whole container of dead butterflies that I collected at Coral Bay which I knew Eloise would love. I didn't manage to post a live dolphin to Eva and Ali which I know they love, though found some good plastic ones!)

When the tide was in the waves almost covered the beach. Fishermen then littered the beach. I loved watching couples pull in fish after fish on their sometimes very precarious lines. When the tide went back out almost a km or 2 of beach became visible. It was absolutely amazing walking "into" the ocean. As for the sunsets, again no words can do justice to the beauty.

It was lucky that we were able to use as much water as we wanted here - artesian wells underground. Chris spent a good while cleaning the car, caravan and our outside mat getting rid of all the red dirt from Karijini.

The N-W coast of W A must truly be one of the world's best kept secrets.

Karajini National Park

After leaving Tom Price we decided to spend 3 days and 2 nights camping in Karajini National Park - at a vast area set aside for caravans, motor homes and tents. There was no power, bush toilets only and we had to bring our own water. We set up our van in the red, red, red, red sand. (I chose to spend the 3 days hiking and climbing in my red socks so I didn't need to change them! Together with my pink T-shirt all I needed was my purple hat and then walk around spitting!!) We were very lucky as our caravan spot had a good bush toilet en-suite!!

We absolutely loved the big open space between each caravan and sat in awe under the stars at night. We have never seen the milky way look like that. We played our music on Chris's precious ipod as loud as we wanted - we were that far away from our fellow campers. Again, we had made 4 new friends from Philip Island and we spent a great evening chatting and chatting .... and once again, Chris fixed one of their TV set-ups. (We have a special folder of contact details of all our "new friends" that have invited us to visit when we pass by their way - must be Chris's technical abilites as no-one would go for me in my red socks and pink T-shirt!- I don't think???). We even used the generator to power the microwave and air conditioner for a short while...(some bush-camping)???!!!

As for the gorges - well we just had a complete ball. We read all the safety information, kept to the tracks and walked along tops of gorges and deep down along the bottoms. Getting to Fern Pool at the bottom of Dales Gorge and diving into the pure mountain water and feeling the force of the waterfall was amazing. We absolutely loved it.
We walked to circular Pool but didn't swim because it was far too cold.

It's almost impossible to describe the size and height of the gorges - a picture doesn't do them justice either. It's just something you have to do!!

We had fun and games driving along the corrugated, red, sandy roads to get to some of the gorges. Our car was almost unrecognisable but handled the corrugations in its stride. Chris is very impressed with our Kia!! Me too, as it just keeps going like a bird and is perfectly sealed. No dust inside!!

The huge termite mounds are also amazing and one wonders what goes on inside and deep under the mound.

At Fern Pool we met a couple, Scott and Mary from Florida USA, who are photographers. They are travelling around WA, and like us, are in awe of some of the beautiful sights they have seen. We will definitely be catching up with them as they, and us, make our ways further on through the Pilbara and the Kimberleys. They moored their home (the Egret) in Fremantle harbour. .. have a look at: http://www.nordhavn.com/egret/index.php4. They have also checked in to the same caravan park as us in Broome in 4 x 4 van lent to them by a friend from Freemantle.

Drive to Tom Price via Paraburdoo

Driving to Tom Price in the Pilbara felt as if we were driving through a huge Aboriginal painting of spinifex and the endless Hamersley Ranges. We were in awe of the scenery as we hadn't driven through a mountain range similar to the Drakensberg for years.

We took a very short detour into Paraburdoo which I have always wanted to visit just because I love the name!!

I am so glad we are travelling in the dry season as we don't have to look out for cyclones which this area is prone to experiencing.

When we arrived at Tom Price we could not believe what an oasis the caravan park was. We stayed for 3 nights as it was so inviting. Tom Price is almost completely maintained by Rio Tinto - a good Coles, the greenest sportsfields we have ever seen, a great visitors centre and the nicest, friendliest people. Almost everyone is a part of the Rio Tinto workforce.

Our new neighbours (we have had SO many great neighbours!) at the caravan park were a family of 3 children with a lovely mum, and a radiographer dad who was doing work all over outback Western Australia. We really got on well with them and were invited for a piece of cake for the mum's birthday. Again we swopped some music and chatted lots. They were great and were off to Broome for 6 months once the dad's stint as radiographer at Tom Price hospital was over. They were thrilled to have him as there was no resident radiographer - a pity for all the climbers who fall in Karijini! Apparantly there had been a few recent accidents that required a radiographer.

We also had great fun driving to the top of Mt Nameless - the highest vehicle accessible mountain in WA. It was a pretty extreme 4 wheel drive track but the car was great. From the top we could see amazing views and the huge Rio Tinto open cut iron-ore mine which we visited the next day. Chris was not too keen to visit the mine but found it very interesting once we got beyond the front admin offices. Seeing the huge trucks reminded Chris of real, giant Tonka toys and me of mechanical dinosaurs!! We stood together in the bucket of one of the excavators and realised how minute we were in comparison to the equipment used by the mine. There was red dust everywhere!!!

It was sad leaving Tom Price as it was so green and well maintained. I did all my washing and Chris was able to measure and fill our water tanks with enough water for 3 days bush camping in Karijini. The journey continues!

Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef

Oh my goodness! How beautiful is the place!!! It's almost as if no words can describe the beauty.

We were so lucky to get a spot for 6 days at Coral Bay on an ocean front site. The angels were looking after us as everyone kept saying that most sites need to be booked years ahead! We could not believe that we could fall out of our caravan, cross the street and snorkel in one of the world's most beautiful bays - until we discovered Turquoise Bay in the Cape Range National Park when we took a drive to Exmouth. Totally awesome!!

As we had not done any huge amounts of snorkeling before we were like 2 kids playing in an aquarium. We could not believe that anyone could ever eat snapper after swimming with schools of them in and out of our feet and legs!! We felt that we were rudely invading their space. It is just so good that everything is declared a marine sanctuary.

We had great neighbours who kindly shared their freshly caught fish with us. We made some great friends where mutual helping occured - fixing computers and piggy backing off satellite dishes. We shared a meal at the Ningaloo Reef resort with them where we heard a great guitarist and were surrounded by hundreds of young backpackers and travellers. Happy Hour it was!!

We were really sad to leave the Ningaloo Reef area and WILL DEFINITELY go back.

Even though Coral Bay was full (of people) it's amazing the way everyone shares and respects each other's space. On the beach at Turquoise Bay you could count the people swimming and snorkeling on one hand.

We didn't use our car for 5 days only our bikes which was good for saving petrol money - $1.74 per litre.

My only sadness was that we had never come here before!