Gibb River Road - Broome to Darwin

8th July to 19th July 2012
Gibb River Road here we come. Wet season each year (Nov -Apr) the road is closed, and opens in about May for the dry. We were early enough in the season for the Gibb to not have become too chopped up, but travelling was still slow and dusty... very dusty! After a quick look around Derby and a refuel we hit the Gibb for a bone shaking trip across gravel roads to Darwin.

Boab Prison Tree Derby

Our first nights camp at Windjana gorge, provided several close up sightings of the freshwater crocodile. They spend their days sunning themselves along the banks or lurking underwater in the gorges.
Luckily when we explored the 800m Tunnel Creek, wading through knee deep water with only the illumination of a headlamp... we didn't see any beady eyes staring back at us. According to the local aboriginal children red eyes are OK as they are freshie's. Yellow eye's are bad news as they belong to salt water crocks.... There are reportedly 4 freshwater croc's living in Tunnel Creek.

Tunnel Creek

In this part of the Kimberly there are plenty of gorges, each with it's own unique features. Windjana was open cliffs with large billabongs of permanent water, grass and sandy banks. When we drove onto Silent Grove and Bell gorge, it was rock pools and waterfalls. No crocks here so we could swim which was a welcome relief after 30C days. The Gibb is a remote road to drive, where only 4WD's and the well prepared venture. Most of the camping areas are either in remote national parks or Station stays. 

Johnston freshwater crocodile

From the Kalumburu road turnoff to Drysdale Station the road was an absolute disaster. It was closed all of last season, and although open this season, the grader hadn't been through. We took over 2 hours to travel  the 60km of shuddering corrugations. We were fortunate as we made it in one piece, however in our 2 day stay at Drysdale we saw a number of 4WD's and a camper trailer being shipped out on the back of tilt trays. With Derby 470km in one direction and Kununurra 360km in the other direction I can only imaging the towing bill! 



Back on the Gibb, Ellenbrea station was a lovely surprise, with a swimming hole, and plenty of bird life including some very pretty double bar, masked and long tail finches. The amenities consisted of a shower and toilet constructed in stone and iron, very rustic but not very private.

Ellenbrea shower

Home Valley

At Home Valley Jane was able to see the Pentecost river on horseback, a great morning ride. Kevin's dislike of horses saw him stay at the campsite and patch up the camper trailer suspension which had taken a beating on the Kalumburu road. He managed the job with a kitchen knife, hacksaw and 3/4inch open end spanner.

Lake Argyle wetlands

We refueled and resupplied in Kununurra, and went to Zebra Rock mine on the eastern side of Lake Argyle in NT for a couple of nights. Lake Argyle is more a man made freshwater inland sea than lake, as it covers 980square km's and contains over 18 times the water of Sydney harbour. It was built for the Ord river irrigation scheme, which never really took off and only uses 1-2% of the lakes capacity.
The zebra rocks are a stripy formation, thus the name, and are mined for jewelry and ornaments. The area is also the home of the Argyle diamond mine, though we were too busy on the fabulous wetland tour to do any serious shopping.


Heading to Darwin now to get the Land Rover Serviced.

Broome

17 June to 5 July 2012

Marble Bar to Broome is about 600km, and we took a leisurely 4 days to drive the distance travelling via Cape Keraudren nature reserve and Barn Hill Cattle Station. Both places were headland camping upon long white beaches, where the main pastime was fishing and swimming. Once again the fish alluded us, but the water was just the right temperature for swimming. At Barn Hill we watched a huge scrub fire with about a 10km front burn slowly towards us over about a 2 day period, but we were onto Broome before it caught up with us.

Broome was originally established as a pearling town, with the original divers being Japanese, Chinese and Malay. Chinatown is the original part of Broome with Cable Beach a newer addition. The pearl divers were mainly harvesting the mother of pearl for buttons up until the early 1940's when plastics took over. The pearling industry wained until cultured pearl technique were perfected by Mikimoto. Pearls are now big business here!

Japanese pearl divers cemetery

So how was Broome you ask?.... after a horrifically noisy first three nights at Broome Vacation Village .. if you'd like to read more on that have a look at the review we posted on TripAdvisor... we moved to the delightful, friendly, tropical Cable Beach Caravan Park for the remainder of our stay.

Cable Beach

Cable beach is one long stretch of white sand, where the sun sets over the water of an evening, and as a result is a mecca for tourists and locals alike.

Being only a few minutes walk from where we were staying we spent many an evening having a drink as the sun disappeared over Cable Beach.

Cable Beach bar

sunset cable beach

There were three different companies offering camel rides along the beach at sunset... red, blue and black... and we happily sat in the bar and watched them pass by.

camel ride

Our original plan was for 4-5 days in Broome before heading out along the Gibb River Road, but unfortunately, or luckily, the Land Rover early warning light started flashing 'suspension fault' while we were driving around town, and a trip to the Land Rover Dealership proved necessary. If you have to be 'stuck' somewhere Broome's not a bad place.

Staircase to the Moon

For our first few days in Broome our friends Gary and Jane from Sydney were here, so we enjoyed their company with dinners, market shopping trips and drinks most nights, it was good to see someone from home.


After that we patiently waited for the Land Rover and became tourists. We now know all about pearls, and are experts on the tourist bus route around town. We are also tanned and relaxed spending our time between the pool and beach. Luckily the days are 26C-30C.

Staircase to the Moon (king low tide & full moon) over Roebuck Bay happens only 2 nights in July and we were lucky enough to be here to see that occur.

The Land Rover is now back on the road, the camper trailer is packed, and we head out tomorrow for Windjana Gorge National Park.