Aug 8, 2009 - 7 Days to travel 316km!!

Gosh only knows what goes on! I type away with all we have done - go to save & wham!! the darn thing disappears. After a few expletives I close the computer & don't come back to my trip journal for a few days. So hence here we are on 11 August & I am now retyping what I did on 8 August... So we left Katherine on Fri 31 July & only managed to get 62kms up the road (46km to turn off & 16kms in) to Edith Falls. These falls are part of the Katherine Gorge. You are not allowed to camp/visit here if you have a dog - Dog!! What dog!! Poor old...

Jul 29, 2009 - Kununurra to Katherine

We left Kununurra last Saturday & headed off across the WA/NT Border. Goodbye WA Hello NT. Destination was Katherine, but as is our norm, we were in no hurry to cover the 513km. In fact it took us 3 nights on the road before arriving in Katherine. The travellers "Bible" - Camps Australia 5 - was again put to good use for our stops along the way. Our 1st night was spent at East Baines River (minus the river). This stop was 169km east of Kununurra. 2nd night was spent at Victoria River Roadhouse. This was a caravan park so a cost involved...

Jul 22, 2009 - Last stop in WA

Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!! I just wrote our trip journal for the past 10 days - went to save it & the darn thing wiped the lot off!!! Not happy Jan... Now to start again. So after leaving Fitzroy Crossing we drove to Mary Pool (on Mary River) which is 180km E of Fitzroy. This was a good rest spot although would have been much prettier in the Wet Season as there was no water in the river bed. From Mary Pool we travelled on to Leycesters Rest - Ord River. Another good rest site & once again would be nicer with water in the river bed. At...

Jul 13, 2009 - 9 Weeks & we've made it to Fitzroy Crossing

Well after the most spectacular sight of the "Staircase to the Moon" on both Wednesday & Thursday nights we packed up and left Broome on the Friday morning. I am sure that we will at some stage come back to visit Broome again - be it as caravanners or flying up for a holiday. Anyway out intention was to camp on the road one night before we got to Derby but there wasn't really anything suitable & we decided it wasn't worthwhile to pay to stay at the Willare Bridge Roadhouse when we were only 57 kms out of Derby. So on to Derby we went. We...

Jul 7, 2009 - Relaxing in Paradise

Been a while since I have updated our site - but we have been living in Paradise.... Well we have been in Broome just over 2 weeks & will be here until Friday morning. The days are magical - a lovely 31 degrees most days!! Some of the nights have been a bit cool but most times a sheet is enough cover at bedtime. We have had 3 moves whilst here - 2 spots in the caravan park & now at the PCYC overflow park (which takes dogs). Broome, for those that don't know, was originally a pearling town. Now, although pearling still plays an important...

Jun 23, 2009 - The road from Port Hedland to Broome

Port Hedland was okay but nothing out of the ordinary. It was good to have a look at the port and watching an empty iron ore carrier come in, 1 being filled & 1 full one leave port. Amazing. The main shopping area seemed to be more in South Hedland than Port Hedland. After getting a few supplies at the shopping centre in South Hedland we set off to our next destination. The plan was that we would stop for lunch at DeGray River & then continue onto Pardoo Roadhouse where a friend of Pat's now owns this with her partner. On arrival at DeGray...

Jun 14, 2009 - Karajini's Beauty & onto Port Hedland

Thursday 11 June dawned with drizzle & an overcast day. Bugger we thought - we're off on a tour of Karajini so we don't need this sort of weather. The drizzle did eventually go away but it wasn't the warmest day we have encountered. Anyway, Jeff our tour guide picked up 3 couples from the caravan park & then another 4 people joined us at the Karajini Visitors Centre. Two things were mandatory on the tour - morning tea & lunch - all home made by Jeff's wife Bev. Not hard to follow those instructions especially after all the climbing &...

Jun 10, 2009 - Red dirt, feeling grubby - but what a great country!!

We left Onslow and headed back towards the Nanutarra Roadhouse - about 120kms back to take the turn off towards Paraburdoo. The country side is of very red dirt which seems to cover everything. I hate the feeling of being covered in dirt/dust but a good hot shower makes me feel human again. Why oh why did I bring some white tshirts!!! Anyway we made it to our campsite (House Creek Bridge) about 2pm. This was a good site - most people were more interested in going onto Beasley River. We stopped there for lunch the next day but are glad we...

Jun 6, 2009 - Exmouth to Onslow

We had a very relaxing week in Exmouth. We met up with Pat's Aunty Ronnie & Uncle Max & also Anne Johnson (Quairading). The weather was beautiful. We actually felt we could have probably stayed longer but there are still lots of places to visit that we are sure will be just as good. So with that in mind off we headed for Onslow. As is our intention, we try not to travel more than, at the most, 200 kms in a day. With that in mind we decided on another off road camp site, Barradale. This is situated on Yannarie River (well there was a little...

May 29, 2009 - Exmouth

What a wonderful day we had today. We were able to leave the dog at the caravan park with people 2 vans up keeping an eye on him whilst we went off to see some of the National Park (Ningaloo Reef Area). The dog sitters told us to try and get on the Yardi Creek Gorge cruise. We were lucky enough to get the 12.30pm cruise & took off from Exmouth town site for the 90 kilometre drive to Yardi Creek. The road is bitumin all the way. The cruise went for 1-1/2 hours & Tony (our guide) was very informative. Yardi Creek is home to the black footed...

May 28, 2009 - From Carnarvon to Coral Bay to Exmouth

Well after 4 nights in Carnarvon it was time to move on. We eventually got away just after lunch. We decided to make our stop for the day at a place called Lyndon River West. This is another one of the free camp sites along the way. Once again these stops prove popular with 5 caravans, 1 wicked van, 1 4 wd (with 3 people using tents) & 1 bus all stopped there for the night. We once again met nice people (1 who turned out to be Reg Humphreyson's brother - small world) & enjoyed a few drinks with them & a sit around an open fire. The days...

May 21, 2009 - Carnarvon

Gee the Camps Australia 5 book is fabulous. We are able to find all these camp sites that you just would not know about if you were just driving along the highway. Some are free, some charge per person per night, some per caravan, etc. We are thoroughly enjoying the camp site situation. After spending 2 nights in Hamelin Bay we continued our journey to Gladstone. So far we haven't found a camp site that we haven't enjoyed. The cost to stay at Gladstone was $1/person/night!! This was an honesty system payment. There were about 10 campers...