I Forgot the Camera

As explained in the previous blog it was off to the Tom Price Mines "Single mens Quarters" for dinner last night. After much buffing and polishing we headed off in our best shorts, T-shirts and sandels ready for a big Saturday night at the Bistro. We entered with great anticipation at the fun for the night ahead. The Bistro was WELL lite with flouros (not a good sign) everything gleamed with cleanliness and even the staff had gloves and hats on (this really isn't Vue de Monde is it) Straight to the bar we headed - we needed a drink.

Do you have a wine list? Ron asked, "WHAT!!! errrr we have those bottles over there on the counter", was the reply from the over clothed young LADY . Oh dear this is not starting out as planned. After much hesitation we selected the bottle with the blue label and proceeded to check out the food. Amazing, Asian, Roasts, Steaks, fresh fish, lots of salads, roast vegies, 6 or so deserts including puddings, custards and everything in between. Hmmmmm we could put weight on in here.

The the much anticipated arrivals of the single men. You know in a country that is pretty well balanced in gender (us excluded) there has to be a reason for soooooo many single men in one place - NO ONE WANTS THEM (mothers excluded). So we ate and ate and ate some more.

To get ourselves ready for last nights gourmet feast we climbed (yes, climbed from the bottom) WA's tallest mountain, which is named Mt. Nameless (as its next to the Rio Tinto Iron Ore mine and is next in line). This is a pic from the top.

Mission Impossible Tom Price

Our mission should we accept it, is to infiltrate the mines "Single Mens Quarters" Bistro for dinner tonight. This puts a whole new slant on smorgesboard.

WE ACCEPT

"Going where no man has gone before"

Scaling walls, crossing fast flowing streams, Indiana Watkins finds the fabled entrance into the "Circle Pool" at Weano Gorge, yes another gorgeous gorge.

It's Spring

We are back in the real world. We stayed at karijini nat. Park for three nights and walked and walked and walked up and down all those gorgeous gorges. We stayed at the "Eco Retreat" which we now know is code for solar showers (that only work between 1pm - 3pm), no power, no water, no rubbish bins, actually you dont get much for your money apart from acres and acres of red dust which becomes MUD in the wet. YES it rained for the first time in 5 months. Poor Miss Guided, red from one end to the other. The National Park is fantastic and the Gorges really are spectacular and if you want I will load some pics on here. We are in Tom Price for a couple of nights to clean up. stock up and wash everything down. As you can see from the above pic Spring has Sprung and the wildflowers are in full bloom.

Our one day at Port Hedland

With only one day to see the place we headed off with great anticipation of the adventure to come. First port of call was the Art Gallery - Closed on weekends, well the museum will be open - closed on weekends, well how about one of the seafood restaurants - closed, ok lets go whale watching, you can only book with the tourist bureau, you must have at least 12 people and give them days of notice - closed, turtle watching off the coast - water tooo dirty - going home to start a new painting - sigh. But all was not lost as you can see from the pic above, last night we had the most spectacular sunset and it was free (I think).

It's just another long beach LOL
Port Smith was ok but everyone kept telling us that we had to go to 80 mile Beach, so off we headed again. 300 kms further south and back into the dirt with a really rough road into the park. After setting up on the first day we headed down to the beach to continue our "Shell" collection for Bailey, (it's getting quite good I'm sure she will love it) and this part of the beach is a shell collectors paradise. The beach itself is amazing, white sand as far as you can see. Crystal clear aqua water with gentle waves - heaven.

Day two and here comes the wind again, it started about 1am and continued for most of the day. At one stage we were getting a little concerned as our beds were starting to lift in the wind. It was at that point we decided that we would continue on the next day and go to Port Hedland to stock up. But before doing that it was dinner party 2 and Ron cooked a great meal of Veal Rack, the girls cooked the spuds and bought nibbles and desert and yes again a few more drinks. This morning we parted company with the lynnes as they are heading down the coast and we are turning inland to go to karajini National Park.

We're back

After almost a week in isolation we are back in communication be it ever so briefly. Our last night in Broome was the night of the "Stairway to the moon" which only happens a couple of times a year and was definitely the most popular event we have encountered so far. Thousands turned out to watch the moon rise over the beach at low tide.

The next day we headed down the highway to Port Smith which was about a 150km drive south which is a direction we are not rushing in as the temp even in Perth is still only around 17. At port Smith we got our first real bit of weather - wind. We have been so blessed with great weather for months that it came as quite a shock. The two Lynnes were also there so we had the first of two formal dinner parties and our neighbour donated fresh salmon caught that afternoon for the main course. It was a fun night and yes a couple of drinks we had.

Satdee night in Broome

We arrived early to make sure we had front row parking. The esky was full, the Lynne's were next to us and the starter was ready to wave the flag. This is Saturday night in Broome.

With a surge of power two Charrades crawled around the track as the Broome Juniors hit the dirt. One girl and one boy, ages 10 and 12 - this was the lead up to the excitement of the night.
However after sitting on the bonnet of the 4wds for and hour getting mud and dirt thrown at you every time a car went around the corner the Lynnes called it a night LOL. Ron and I stuck it out for another half hour before giving up - oh well it was our first Saturday night out in months LOL.
Tomorrow we are off to Point Smith on 80 mile beach which apparently is great for bird watchers !!!!!! good for fishing (ok for him) and hopefully good for sea shells which will be good for Bailey (God Daughter). I am happy just laying around at the beach with a good book and the ipod.

James and Dave will be happy to know that YES we have actually had some bad weather, today is windy, still 30 and clear skies but a bit windy, good reason to leave. Tonight is the "Stairs to the Moon" so hopefully I will get a good pic and post it tomorrow. Love to all

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY BAILEY

Have I got a boat for you !!!!!!
Now I came across this USED boat yard and I thought you might be interested. Rumour has it that they are all one owner, only sailed on Sundays and only in illegal waters LOL. This little beauty is high and dry and waiting for the can of petrol, seems a shame as it's in pretty good condition and this little vegie would just love something this size.

and after dinner..............

it was off to the beach (which we have both longed for since Darwin) to get D'luded off RT and play. Now Dave and James appear to be a bit bitter and twisted about us having a good time in the sun - SAD LOL.

Today's schedule:

7.30am Wake up

8am - Breakfast

9am - Paint for an hour or so

11am - decide whether to pack the swimmers and water into D'luded

1am - Lunch with the girls (real ones) and check out the new rock on the finger

4pm - get D'luded into water at Cable Beach, and paddle around until sunset

6.30pm - crack bottle of Pinot Gris

7.30pm - dinner

Everyday is just the same - DAM

Pension Dinner 2

Good morning from down town Broome WA. What a strange place. Yesterday someone said "5 star place with 2 star standards" LOL which is pretty much on the ball. But, there are some real gems up here and as you can see from the pic above it didn't take us long to find the best Thai in town and they have the BEST Chillie Mud Crab in the world. Admittedly it was at the end of the "International" airport runway and I'm sure people flying over could reach out the window and help themselves to our dinner LOL.

And this is what all the fuss was about

This is the horizontal falls. The height of the water at tide changes can be up to 3 meters different either side of the gaps in the mountains. this pic is taken from above our boat and looking at the tide coming in. The first gap which is clearly seen here is about a meter difference from one side to the other and you can clearly see the white water. The second gap in the furtherest range is the really good one. They rarely take boats through this one as it is very narrow and the turbulence creates large whirlpools that can easily upend a boat. We were lucky and got the ride of a lifetime through this gap with a 4 - 5 ft difference in water levels. 1.5 million gallons flows through the gap every minute.

Horizontal Falls

Well we have returned from a wonderful trip to the horizontal falls in Talbot bay. As you can see from the above pic the top left is the ship we spent the night in and had dinner/breakfast, the pic alongside is what we cruised the bay in and had more than one bubbly, the bottom plane pic is our plane coming to pick us up and the bottom right is the waste disposal unit LOL. (7 - 8 ft of hungry shark)

Points awarded for persistence

The hunter/gatherer is still out there trying his heart out with the rod. We know those little buggers are down there and they are starting to dine better than us. Last night at sunset (which will be the next painting) with millions of tourists with cameras, there he was feeding the local barras prawns - I DON'T EVEN GET PRAWNS.

Now only in WA, we have been dropping into the local pool each afternoon for a cool off as the temp is 35 + everyday but the council in its wisdom has decided that nobody is interested in swimming and cooling off on a Friday or Saturday !!!!!!!!!!!! Yep they close the pool on Fri/Sat. It wouldn't be so bad if you could swim in the ocean but up here we still have crocs, sharks and snakes. Oh well that's life LOL

Always walk on the bright side of life

Hello from Derby WA. we have been in Fitzroy Crossing for the last couple of days and it was a great change from the "Free Park". Yesterday we went out to Winjara Gorge and Tunnel Creek which were interesting but not the greatest we've seen. When we arrived at Tunnel Creek and entered the caves we discovered that you needed to have a torch and as we were 100klms of dirt away from anywhere we were in trouble. Never fear along came a women from South Africa with her personal guide, so we pleaded for help and ended up joining them and getting a free tour.LOL I wonder what a personal guide 100klms from anywhere would cost ??

We arrived back at the park just after sunset to be greeted by the neighbours who were getting concerned that "The boys" might have got into trouble in the big bad outback LOL, after a couple of beers and a good laugh we restored their faith in the fact they we could look after ourselves and that we had done MUCH worse roads than that, but it was funny that they were concerned.

Saturday we are off on a flight over the horizontal falls, a jet boat ride through the falls and a night on a catamaran in Talbot bay, cant wait.

A Friendly Face (the first one in the last 24 hours)

Well good morning from Fitzroy Crossing. We just made it here as last night we decided to try "Free Camping " for the first time. Why is it called Free Camping ? well it's free and every penny pinching freeloader is there taking advantage. Unfortunately along this long long long road there are not many towns and the thoughtful authorities have set up these 24 hour camp sites that may or may not have drop toilets. After doing our research and checking out with people who had come down the road in the last couple of days we decided that a shady little overnighter at "Marys Pool 24 hour", was the order of the day, so off we set. We arrived at about 3pm to be greeted by about 60 - 70 other vans, buses, tents etc parked under every bit of shade and only two drop toilets which had not seen any attention since installation in 1890. Little did we know that the entire freeloader population of WA was here in residence and some had been there for some days as we were to learn. We were greeted by some ol' sticky beak who had decided it was her goal in life to see how many she could squeeze under each tree - including us and of course I rebeled. It was only after we had set up that we realised that this place should be renamed "Geriatrics with generators that have purchased all there country and western CD's from the Shell service station". Because the noise of grinding generators and dumbed down C and W went all night.

NEVER AGAIN.

Needless to say that after very little sleep there is some tension in the van this morning, I might just mozie off to the pool and ignore the world for the rest of the day.