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.

El Questro

The name means absolutely nothing as far as anyone knows, it just sounded good when they were trying to work up a good marketing name - it worked LOL. It is full of grand palm lined canyons with the most perfect emerald pools just waiting to be jumped in, and yes we did and Ron even tried to scare the natives by skinny dipping, I have pics but on the grounds of decency (and my health) they wont make it on the net LOL. There is the compulsory Gorgeous gorges, and like everywhere else up here you have to be careful of those pesky crocs.

The set up is quite amazing, there is the "Homestead" which is about $3000 per person per night and unfortunately us paupers dont even get the chance to get close to have a look, from what we could tell the only way into there was by air. Then there were the apartments which are about $500 per night, then the tents at $158 per night and then if you look right down the bottom of the creek just next to the cattle (oh it still trades as a ranch, they get some kind of benefits from the state government if they are a working ranch) there's us LOL. The facilities are very good with a Steakhouse open from 7am each day, an A la Carte Restaurant about 30klms away which is at the Emilie Gorge resort, tours of every type, helicopters, 4WD tours, boats, you name it and it's there. We walked Moonshine, ElQuestro and Emilie Gorges and sailed up Champagne Gorge all totally different and great in their own ways.

This is the Road

Now just to dispell any doubts about whether we really go off road, well here's the proof. This is the road to El Questro (and Hans it gets worse the further you go) and this was one of many river/creek crossings. As you can see Ron has just done the walk across to see if we can make it and yes we did - JUST, the water was laping up the doors, we worked it out that we can go to just above knee level without getting wet inside. Easy and cheap way to get that bloody dust out of the brakes/wheels/step LOL

" Whiteman Dreaming"

The luxury of having a week at lake Argyle and here at Kununurra meant I could start and finish something quite quickly. it represents the first rays of sun catching the sand dunes over the simpson desert with dreams.

Argyles' Biggest Diamond

Yep, it is the real Mc Coy, this little baby was found in a truck tyre, one of those BIG trucks, it is about 1 inch high and almost as wide and would look very nice alongside the baguettes LOl. I have been asked who "Sister Helen" is and before anyone jumps to the wrong answer, it is Rons' sister and she is very handy in the garden LOL, especially at weed extermination. Welcome aboard Helen.

WOW

It was sooooo hard to pick a pic for the blog. I decided on this one as it shows the Bungle "Beehives" as well as one of the gorges. When took the all day flight and Diamond package yesterday and what a day. To start Ron cancelled my credit cards, took my wallet and banished me to the back of the plane so that I couldn't get out without his noticing LOL. But truefully it was an amazing trip to the mine, the security is outrageous as you might imagine. It is so strict that if you drop something you are not allowed to pick it up, you must call security and a guard will be dispatched to do the picking up. You are not allowed into any of the buildings but instead you get a bus tour through the whole facility including the pit, crushers and past the 1 in 400 pile, this is the pile of rubble that has a hit rate for diamonds of one rock in every 400 (I want to ply in that sandpit).

From there it was back in the air and off to the Bungle Bungles. As you can see it is a wonderful sight. We have decided not to go there on this trip as it is a pretty rugged road in and then only very basic camp grounds and you can only access two or three places, so we will live with the memories of the flight.

Tomorrow we are off to El Questro on the "Gibb River Road", which is famous for killing all sorts of cars, trucks, vans, bikes and people. Hans asked awhile ago if we were doing all the road and we have debated the question for several months and decided not to. It is 750klms of absolutely torturous roads and you must carry at least two spares and spare petrol, there are no camping grounds, no shops, no petrol stations, just miles and miles of great scenery. So we are going to cheat - El Questro is about 100klms from the start of the road at this end so we will do 3 -4 days there and expect to be off the air, then we will come back here to Kununurra for a night to re stock and head off down the highway towards Fitzory Crossing where we will turn right and head on back to the GRR and do the last 150klms at the other end. WA is proving to be very difficult because of the huge distances between everything.

It's Twins

After a long and stressful labour it's twins. The waters broke with the arrival of some parsley on Sunday straight from the IGA Tuckerbox here in Kununurra and from then on there was no turning back. Labour pains started in earnest yesterday morning with the discovery of window boxes at the Mitre 10, we then rushed to emergency at the Flametree nursery to be told that they only had Oregano and that the last surviving chives and chillies had just been delivered to the IGA downtown, so off we raced to try and beat those native mothers to these rare and valuable commodities. After beating off shoeless children, drunks on the footpath, families laying around the parks and the queues at the bottleshop we snatched the chives only to find they also contained Thyme - Oh bliss. Safely at home in the Miss Guided nursery they had a peaceful night getting used to their new world. AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH real food again.

Sometimes you just have to wonder - "WHY"

This is the Prision tree, and yes it was used as a prison to lock up the locals when they got a little out of control back when you could do that sort of thing.

Sometimes it's a little hard to find the bottleshop

Like all well laid plans sometimes you just miscalculate on the number of bottles required to get from point A to B. In this case we were many many many miles from anything that resembled a grape, oh well thank god for the gin. LOL

Art and Kulture

Well now we havn't been driving all over the place without doing the local galleries. Here is a small example of some of the offerings that have been served up to us. Makes me feel better about some of mine LOL.