Friday 21st May
We’re retracing our steps north towards Shay Gap, about 15ks, as this is our planned route up onto the highway again.
We have another 80ks of dirt before we hit the highway. Before heading out onto the tar the tyres need re-inflating back up to 40psi. This takes about 15mins and morning tea is taken when all is complete.
We could make Broome from here today but we’re in no hurry. The road for the rest of the run into Broome is pretty flat and we still have the wind on our starboard bow which is the worst angle for us and we are using a lot of fuel, as we have been doing virtually since we left, 23 l/100k is about 25% more than we would usually use.
Fortunately we’re not in a hurry and can back off to around 80 which eases it by about 8%. We’ll stay at a rest area called Goldwire tonight and then we will have about an hour and a half run into the caravan park tomorrow. Goldwire is one of many official rest areas, designed with travellers in mind, having toilets and rubbish bins. They also ‘dump points’, these are a bit like septic tanks enabling the emptying of the caravan toilet cassettes. Unfortunately, there is no water with which to flush out the cassette but its not usually a problem. We carry two cassettes anyway.
Saturday 22nd May
This morning we will get to our ‘outskirts of Broome’ caravan park where we are meeting up with our friends who will be our travelling companions for the next couple of months. We’ve been to this caravan park before and it serves our purpose. We don’t really like Broome very much, everyone tries to rip you off which is a pity ‘cos it is a quite nice spot. There are a couple of really nice eating houses.
This next piece of video is to show that we can spend literally hours driving through an unchanging landscape. As Pat says on the video, 310 to Broome, largely through this flood plain. So apart from the fuel consumption the driving is very easy, traffic, the particularly heavy stuff is significantly reduced and cruise, once set, stays in with breaks for morning tea and lunch.
Saturday 23rd May
We are staying at a caravan park 30ks out of Broome for three nights whilst the girls do some washing, shopping and Richard’s 200 goes in for a service. We have been here before and arrive around midday . R&M arrived 10 mins before us, we have a quick reunion and then both get our camp sites set up. After lunch its time for a natter and a catch up.
Its decided that there are some urgent supplies needed so we all pile into the 200 and head off into Broome. We are surprised to find that in just about every street the walkways are all being refurbished, it’ll probably look very nice but to start this at the beginning of the tourist season seems a little odd!
Sunday 23rd May
We decided on a stay in camp day today, so i’ve adjusted the brakes on the caravan, replaced the seal round the water / dust, put up our new bug mesh screen in the caravan doorway, this is actually not quite the right size but we do a good job of making it fit. It may not seem much but in this land of flying , crawling and jumping bugs, this screen is worth it weight in gold.
There is a suggestion that we go in to Broome and Cable Beach to watch the sunset and then get some fish ‘n chips. Unfortunately, the time of the sunset is misinterpreted and so it means we go straight to the fish and chip shop. They are very nice!
Monday 24th May
Big shopping day today, there is supposed to be a Woolies in Derby but how big it is we have no idea. So this morning we’re of to town fairly early, R&M have alrady left to get the 200 in for its service.
We have a fairly big shop but have to go back to camp because of the perishables, unfortunately at this stage of a trip the freezer in the back of the Troopie is full up.
We are meeting at Zanders on Cable Beach for lunch, its my birthday tomorrow but we’ll be back in the bush tomorrow so we’re fitting one in today.
A plate of seafood and a very nice SSB together with backdrop of Cable Beach and good friends make for a rather enjoyable lunch. Sadly I’m driving so the top has to go back on the bottle ’til later!
A bit more shopping at the butcher’s on the way back to the campsite and we’re largely set up for the next month or so exploring the Kimberly.
Tuesday 25th May
So this morning we set out for a campsite somewhere on the Fitzroy River, neither of us have been into the Kimberley before but area is in WiKi Camps – Pat’s ‘finding somewhere to stop, bible’.
We helped this guy get round us and then we heard on the radio that he’d lost a tyre, when we stopped for morning tea he was changing his wheels. This a pretty standard road train for the northern roads, he’s 56m long and close on 100 tonnes (a relative lightweight!).
We are back on the highway for about 45 mins and then find a place to turn off towards the river. We know that the track in is a bit rough so we let the the tyres down to about 25psi.
This is boab tree country and they are everywhere, sometimes called the ‘upside down tree’ for obvious reasons.
The track down to the river is a bit rough and we take it easy, we have to open a couple of gates and then we get to the beginning of the camping area. There are a few vans here, so we move on down river for another ten ks where we find a really nice spot. Only thing is that there are some patches of very soft, small, river shingle and we have to pick a route in, so we don’t get bogged. If we were on our own we wouldn’t have chanced it but because we’re in convoy.
We had to be a bit careful getting in here because there is quite a bit of soft sand and we don’t particularly want to get bogged, although when there are two vehicles you can be a bit more adventurous
The site is great a couple of metres above the water level so the crocs are unlikely to come wandering around at night!
First a cuppa and a look round and meet the locals!
Fortunately this part of the river is fresh and these are freshies (freshwater crocs). they are also on the other side of the river!
Having got ourselves settled we can evaluate the site.
After establishing ourselves Pat cooked me a special dinner.
Wednesday 26th May was a really lazy day, a bit of blogging, a bit of fishing and a lot of reading.
In the evening we were treated to a total eclipse of the moon. The sky cleared nicely for the start but threatened later during the eclipse but stayed away, it was an awesome spectacle.
The moon on the water made a nice picture too
Thursday 27th May
We were sorry to have to leave this spot and had we not had a commitment in Derby we may well have stayed another couple of days…………………
……………..but when you gotta go, you gotta go and so we made are way back to the track and then the 15ks back to the main road where we put some air back in the tyres. Richard thought it was taking quite a while and discovered a leak in his pressure hose, a job for Derby.
Its only about 70ks into Derby so there’s no rush
Our progress is pretty much according to plan at the moment. We need to be in Derby for our trip out to the Horizontal Falls on Saturday.
Derby is a grab for us so we’ll have a good look round at anything that there is to see while we’re here.
We also have to stock up on supplies for a potential six week trip through the Kimberley.
We’re staying on a caravan park in Derby, no choice really but it is handy for Pat to get some washing done and the pick-up point for the HF trip is outside the gate.
We have decided on an extra day here because we have to provision for roughly six weeks as we have no idea what, if anything, will be available between here and Kunanurra.
Derby is a very small place and doesn’t have too many attractions. its most important feature was the jetty, first built in 1886, rebuilt several times until the present one was built. A railway line transported produce and minerals over the years but it is no longer used. The main use is for rod and line fishermen.
The jetty runs out into King Sound, a relatively shallow waterway with converging banks which make for some fast moving water, particularly at the moment with tides of 11 metres, only a place in Canada and the Severn Bore have higher tides.
The jetty is surrounded by mangroves.
It is these tides which create the Horizontal Falls that we are going to see today.
Saturday 29th May 2021
I’m a bit annoyed because the internet is so slow here that i just cannot upload any video, so you’ll have to wait until we can do better, probably about 5-6 weeks!
Today is the day and we’re off to catch the bus outside the gate at 1400 to begin our Horizontal Falls experience!
Sunday 30th May
WOW, an absolutely amazing, incredible experience!
We’ve just been dropped back at the caravan park and most people are still very quiet because we did a second visit to the falls this morning when they they were even more spectacular than yesterday but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’ll finish off Derby first and publish this post and I will try and put together a separate post for the Horizontal Falls because there just has to be video.
We went out to have a look at the the Prison boab, this is a fairly large boab (although we have seen larger) but this one has a history of being used as a ‘holding’ point, mostly for aboriginals it seems.
Monday 31st May
Richard and Marge get their first jabs tomorrow and we have some shopping to do, as previously stated. We would also like to visit the museum which, so far, hasn’t been open at the right time (for us that is!).
We need to refuel diesel and wine, this afternoon.
I’m going to try and publish this now and put together something on the Horizontal Falls trip.
Alloveroz 