WA...What a beautiful place

Wednesday 11 September

We are leaving Broome today and decided to head into Barn Hill (a few people have suggested we stay here…so beautiful. We drive to the turn off and take the 10km into the station. There are lots of travelers arriving this morning and we line the car up and I walk over to book in but I have to wait my turn. I call Steve over and while we wait we walk around and the place doesn’t impress us much, ok to stay but it's early in the day and we couldn't be bothered waiting so we get in the car and drive to 80 Mile Beach Caravan Park. We did find out later that unpowered at Barn Hill if $22/night, so that may be why it is so busy. 80 Mile Beach is lovely, big grass spaces and we found a spot for 3 nights unpowered $34/night. Very windy so we went and hand picked a site to suit the van in the wind but at least the sun is out and the temps are not too high and we are under the doona again at night. Thursday we went down on the beach for a walk and I’ve never seen so many shells on a beach.

The beach is not patrolled and swimming is at your own risk and the sand is quite silty so the water close to shore is a milky colour and you can’t see into the water so we stay on the sand. Lots of things on the beach to look at…shells, broken off corals soft and hard and other things we could not recognize.

The tide was coming in so the lots of activity on the beach with cars, and quad bikes and fishermen/women. After lunch back to the beach to see if there were any big catches and the beach was covered up and down the beach with people fishing, so we sat on the sand and watched for a while and watched a few fish being caught but still pretty windy, we would need bigger tackle. We went to the water’s edge and had a blokes catch of a threadfin and catfish and a big star sinker and line big enough to tow a boat!!! Steve and I were wading in the shallows and we saw a shark fin only a couple of metres off the beach…ahhhh that’s why swimming is not recommended. We went up to the kiosk/shop (well stocked) and bought pilchards, star sinkers, and heavier line and got organized to fish tomorrow. Feeling all hot and sticky I decided to have an early shower and looking in the mirror I realized I got a bit too much sun today and I had bandicoot eyes from wearing my sunglasses…I looked like Rhonda in the AAMI commercial on tv (haha sorry no photos).
An older couple camped behind us on our second night (sleeping in the back of their suburu) from Carina in Brissy and they were bird watches and they were completing their travels around Australia (Broome to Perth).  Lovely couple the gentleman was up to 630 different species of bird sightings!!! We have met so many different people. Another night under the doona, we got news the temps in Perth are 16-22 and lots of rain in the south west. So we are enjoying the sunshine while we have it. Friday it is 16C when we wake but half hour later it is up to 19C, doesn’t take long to warm up. The wind is still with us and worse than yesterday…no fishing today, pillies will have to stay on ice for now. I got up this morning and people have got jumpers on…what the! It’s not that cold. Well no fishing so the van gets an airing out and the bed gets stripped and turns into a day of domestic chores. The wind doesn’t change, SW and not good for fishing for me any way; I’d probably hit someone in the back of the head while casting and knock someone out with the star sinkers we bought…safer for all if I stay off the beach. So we sit in the shade all day and do a lot of nothing. Steve cooked an awesome roast beef for dinner and it was ready early so I made a no bake lemon slice…yum. Blew a gale all night had a shocking sleep. Canvas shook, zip toogles rattles and the whole Tvan was moving through the night.
Being on the roads we have travelled it certainly takes a toll on the car and the Tvan. Steve has discovered the bushes on the tvan have had it after being replaced back in April by Track Trailer. Steve is back on the forum and finds a guy uses bushes that come in two pieces that can be bought at Repco (ie 4 pieces per shocky) so off to Port Hedland after our stay at 80 Mile. We are driving into a head wind all the way down the coast and we stopped at Pardoo Roadhouse for a snack and a cuppa. I came out to the car and a huge gust of orange dust came in off the road and totally engulfed everyone outside including myself, all I could do was close my eyes with my back to the wind and stay clear of the cars coming in off the highway. Then Steve comes out and says, ”did you see that big gust of dust come through, I stayed inside until it passed”. “Oh really”, I say as I’m spitting dust and my hair looks like I just stuck my finger in a power socket. This is one of the joys of travelling.
We rang Repco Port Hedland from here and found they had the bushes Steve was after, so we refuelled and we were off.  After our visit to Repco, refuelling again and bought some groceries we were making our way to a free camp on our way to Marble Bar. I worked out the mileage to the turn off for the free camps, we were getting close so I told Steve to slow down and there goes one free camp, slow down so we don’t miss the next one…vrrroooom…there goes the next turn off and there is the last turn off to the last free camp. Straight into Marble Bar and into the caravan park…I am not happy to be staying in another caravan park but at least we can have a hot shower and the place is so small we are not bothered by anybody, but I did then have a night of Steve snoring and to top it off we forget to put the rubbish away and I was jumping up at midnight to find something had clawed into the rubbish bag…another one of those joys of travelling…it’s all good Sunday morning Steve replaced the bushes on the Tvan and we were off to see the sights of Marble Bar, a few historical buildings in town,

out to Chinaman’s Pool

and Marble Bar Pool where the Jasper (rock) is...very impressive piece of rock

and then to the Jasper Deposit where we could did up our own little piece of jasper.

 

while Steve was digging I took some pics of the wild flowers and found this little bloke in the spinifex  (spinifex pigeon)

 

Next was Flying Fox Lookout with a view over Marble Bar Pool

and then to comet Gold Mine ($3 entry) which is full of history and gemstones and jewellery for sale.

Then a 2 hour off road drive back to the Great Northern Hwy, there are plenty of mines around here

so all we pass are a few workers in their utes and crossed the BHP rail and waited at the rail crossing for the longest train I’ve ever seen. Back on the highway about 2pm…ahhhhh bitumen….and we pulled over to have some lunch and we drive toward Karijini National Park, many people have told us not to miss this park but it was getting late and on the hwy it is road trains non stop and Steve pulls off to Albert Tognalini Lookout and we find a huge area of free camping on the ridge of a gorge, a bit breezy but beautiful so we stayed. 6pm the sun has disappeared over the Hammersley Ranges and we have to dig out the flanny shirts.

Cold again!!!

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

We made it to the WA coast but first...

We went on our overnight tour to the Horizontal Falls and it was quite special!
We were picked up at our caravan park in Derby by a little bus and taken to the airport, and we didn't have to wait long for our sea plane to arrive.  Our pilot Steve gave us all name stickers and a briefing before we took our seats for our 45 min flight to the houseboat in Talbot Bay.

Getting a birds eye view is always amazing but over King Sound and out to the Buccaneer Archipelago was even more amazing.

 

 

Steve and I got the back seat to ourselves, bit warm in the back but plenty of leg room.  Before our water landing our pilot flew us through the walls of rock, so close we could almost touch the rock and then we came onto the water with a smooth landing in the sea beside the houseboat.

 

 

 

 

 

We got off the plane very carefully, you do not want to fall in these waters, and were greeted by the staff and given another briefing about the house boat.
As soon as our feet touched the platform our agenda started and didn't stop the whole time we were there.
Shown to our lovely cabins, queen bed and air con, then a change into swimmers for a dip in the shark proof cage to watch the local tawny nurse sharks and the Qld groper being feed,

then out for a dry off and into the boat for our first ride to the horizontal falls.

There are two falls, a wide gap and a narrow gap; first a smooth ride through the wide gap, we were on an out going tide so the falls were running towards us and the water was like being in a washing machine with whirlpools forming all around us.  Then our boat captain, Adrian, held the boat in the wide gap for a while and we got tossed around for a while then we went close to the narrow gap which is about 10metres wide but this was a no go the wall of water coming towards us was a little big and treacherous but we got tossed around in the white water in front of the narrow gap as well, then a couple more times through the wide gap and a smooth ride through the east end of Talbot Bay which is where they put the houseboat and everything else when the close down for the summer and it is as safe as houses from the weather.

We were back on the house boat and the evening was fast approaching with the Barra on the BBQ for dinner.  We had 5 couples on our tour and we chatted away till the dinner bell and ate a hearty bbq barra and salad and then had dessert after and all the while our friends in the water were swimming below.

We all sat together and found a little bit out about each other and 'partied' till 9.30pm.
We had an early start the next morning with a 6am wake up.  A Continental brekky for us all and then back on the boat for another at the falls before our leave.  The tide was a little lower this morning, actually about 3metres lower and the corals were exposed as well as a few rocks and sandbars.  The wide gap was a little more tame this morning but the wall of water coming through the narrow gap was even higher than yesterday and we got to sit in the silence of the massive rock walls and listen to nothing but nature. 
While we were enjoying the ambiance of the place a saltwater crocs decides to show him or herself.  I was surprised the boat came right up close and personal and the croc stayed on the surface.  Then Adrian decided to show us how a croc can surf through the horizontal falls and he herded the croc with the boat towards the falls and off he went through the gap and popped up on the other side.  The croc had enough and disappeared never to be seen again.
Back to the house boat and two sea planes arrived and the staff were ready to do it all over again with the day visitors and we boarded one of the seaplanes and Steve flew us back to Derby.

It was a short but great tour, I sure could have stayed a few days on that houseboat!!!
Back in Derby we had packed up the van the day before so we were ready to be on our next part of our trip...this was a drive to the local high school to do our civil duty and vote!  We spoke to a man, a liberal man, about voting for interstate visitors and we got to chatting about travelling as he was also a traveller, John Hart and it turns out we have mutual friends, Frank and Helen Sarri. We seem to bumping into people who know people more and more. Also met a couple in Kununurra who sold a piece of furniture to my cousin Brian in Burrum Heads, the world is a very small place.
Anyway we didn't have to wait long to vote we got to jump the queue because we were interstate voters and we were soon on the road again...this time to the Windmill Café for brunch.  After a yummy egg and bacon wrap we were definitely on the road heading out of Derby and on our way t o Middle Lagoon (on the Cape Leveque Rd).
We were told about a back track that takes about 80km off the main road and we come out on the upper end of the Cape Leveque Rd where it is bitumen.  We found the turn off on the other side of the Fitzroy River and we had to go through a gate and the track was great, wide and the grader had been through...nice.

About two hours along a Prado came up behind us and Steve pulled over to let him pass and we poked along for about 30 min and hear is the Prado stopped on the track with its bonnet up...Mmmmm we can't get passed so we stop to help and there water hose had come loose and the car had over heated and they needed water.  After a while of kicking the sand around with my feet and Steve supplying them with a few litres of water and worrying about the cigarette butts they threw in the dry on the sides of the track the 2 blokes, the pregnant women and 3 kids were in the car and driving off in a cloud of dust.
We get going and about 50metres up the track we get stuck in some soft sand, so out and let down the tyre pressure and we get another 50metres and we let the tyres down a bit more and we were on our way again and about another 50 metres and we were back on a hard surface.  After that the track was good but we came to some water, a marshy soak, and there were no tyre tracks going into the water so we back tracked and followed fresh tracks into the bush on a dry track with our fingers crossed.  We wind around and through trees and come out on the other side of the water...phew.  Heading off again and track starts to get narrow and we end up in a tunnel of shrubs

with branches banging the car from both sides and top.  Steve and I found ourselves ducking when we came to a low branch...stupid us. Finally out to the bitumen and it was a slow drive the rest of the way because we were driving on 15 psi but we finally arrived to Middle lagoon at 5.03pm and the office closed at 5pm...Arghhh
A young aboriginal girl came up to us and said just find a camping spot over there and fix us up in the morning, so that's what we did.  I cooked a stew in the dreampot and Steve set up the tvan and then we sat with a beautiful sea breeze blowing through our hair, sipping drinks, watching the sun set over the sea.

Next morning, Sunday, we paid our fees and asked about going to Beagle Bay and would it be ok because yesterday there was a very funeral on (which is where our aboriginal friends we helped were going too) and no worries...take the track down the road, all tracks cross each other and they all lead to Beagle Bay but you will have a water crossing to go over the aboriginal man tells us. So off we go, we missed the first track but we will get the 2nd one.  Well we like to take the roads less travelled but this was a track not travelled for a very long time, it was a narrow tunnel of trees and branches were hanging down in front of our faces we were driving over and around trees and braches on the ground and ... oh blast...(that's not what we really said) we ran over a big ball of barb wire but came out unscathed.  Then luckily we had the GPS on because not all roads cross and lead to Beagle Bay.
We back tracked a bit and found another track that lead us to a water crossing but no where to cross.

Back track a bit more and found a dry place to cross as this water was coming in from the sea, and another car was coming towards us and they did not cross the water they went straight ahead toward the mangroves, they obviously new the track to take because it wasn't the way we came.  No wonder she gave us a funny look as she drove past...probably thinking where have they come from...silly white fella!
The historic church in Beagle Bay has an alter decorated with mother of pearl and shells and just awesome.

It took the two years to decorate but with the church built with bricks that were not fired the rising damp is a problem and there were two volunteers working on the altar floor while we were there but I think it is a never ending job.  The church is one of a kind.
Nothing much happening in Beagle Bay on a Sunday and after a big night after the funeral that went till 4.30am apparently.  Our next stop straight to Bardi (One Arm Point) to fuel up, we had a black fella ask if we were going to Broome and I said no do you need to get to Broome and he nodded.  Another car load came in to fuel up and they told this bloke to go home, go on get home and after a bit of talk off he went.
We drove out toward the hatchery but nothing going on here either so we watched the sea were the big tide meets the two rivers and flows in like a torrent and some locals dived in off the rocks

and we saw a turtle in the water as well.  We bumped into a couple we met at Lake Argyle and then it was onto Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm where Steve and I shared a lovely lunch.  Into Cape Leveque and we had to pay for a day visit and it was hot and we had lunch and we were not going to go on any walks and we thought; pay to see beach and orange rocks...maybe another time

Next was the community of Lombadina, nice place and you can tell the difference between a dry community and where alcohol is allowed.  Lombadina is clean with green grass and sprinklers on with no rubbish...We were supposed to get permits for some of these communities but there was no one around and everything was closed so we drove around and drove out again. and we drove back to camp grabbed a drink and went to the edge of the camp site and watched the sun set with everyone else.

Monday 9 September and we were on our way to Broome on the rough end of the Cape Leveque Rd and it was not to bad.  We got to Willie Creek turn off and there are 3 free camps in here and we drove to the one at Willie Creek which was lovely turquoise water but can't swim...crocs and not much room left  to camp and sand flies.  Steve also wanted to get a noise checked out in the front suspension of the car so we went straight into Broome.
Broome has grown since we were here 19 years ago, it is huge, they even have a  Macca's.  We found a place to check the car on Tuesday and the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park was recommended to us by a couple on Derby.  So we booked in there for a couple of nights. Nothing like a water view

Tuesday we took the car down and nothing broken or out of place just a dry bush as Steve suspected and we walked around town, hardly recognised the place but did find Steve's Mum's shop back in the 90's it is now a book store.

Stocked up on a few groceries and fuel and bought some fins, snorkel and mask for both of us, hopefully we will stop for long enough to use them on the coast, and we will be off tomorrow to who knows where.

Cheers