Week 11 – Coral Bay to Perth – 1625 kms
Day 71 we left beautiful Coral Bay behind and headed for Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. On the way we detoured into Carnarvon for a quick look, a large service town for the Coral Coast. Finally we reached Shark Bay, a fantastic peninsula with white sands and lovely turquoise water. As time was getting away from us, we decided to only stop at the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites and Telegraph station. Stromatolites are the oldest living organism on the planet. The water in Hamelin Bay is twice as salty as usual sea water, caused by a sand bar across the bay’s entrance and rapid evaporation from the shallow water. Stromatolites are composed of bacteria and algae and animals that feed off these substances cannot tolerate such salty conditions, as a result stromatolities grow here undistributed. They are extremely slow growing and only grow at a maximum of 0.3mm a year. Our stop for the night was the Monkey Mia Dolphin resort, an outdated resort located on a beautiful clear turquoise bay. Thus we quickly set up the van and then watched the sunset over the bay.
Day 72 we participated in what Monkey Mia is famous for, the daily beach feeding of the wild dolphins. This consists of a very orchestrated show, commencing with entry into the water to approximately 40cm depth of approximately 200 people in a straight line to watch the rangers wade in the water being followed by the dolphins along the line for all to see, whilst explain all about the history of the dolphins visiting the beach and the dolphins habits. After approximately 40 minutes of this five people at random, are chosen from the crowd to hand feed one dolphin each. Luckily for Adelaide she was one of the chosen ones. This is repeated up to 3 times a morning depending on how often the dolphins decide to come in. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the resort; playing beach volleyball, riding a pedal boat, watching the dolphins and turtles playing in the water, swimming, participating in happy hour and reading a book, life is pretty tough.
Day 73, again it was time to move on, this time to Kalbarrie. However, prior to leaving Shark Bay there were still a number of attractions to visit. The first was a quick visit into Francois Peron National Park to visit the old station shearing shed and shearer quarters and to learn about Project Eden, a project to try and eradicate feral animals in the area to allow the native flora and fauna to once again thrive. Secondly it was into Denham the only town in Shark Bay, a town that in the next few years I am sure will double if not triple in size to support the increase in tourism. Finally Shell Beach, shell beach is made up of countless tiny cockle shells up to 10m in depth in places and stretching some 120kms. The shells were once quarried and used as building bricks in some of the early buildings.
Day 74 am, was spent learning about the locals wildflowers through a guided tour at the local wildflower centre, which is contained within the Kalbarrie National Park. There is over 8,000 different species of wildflowers in the surrounding area. The afternoon was spent exploring Kalbarrie National Park and relaxing at the caravan. The exploring of the national park took shorter than expected as we are all feeling very gorged and lookout over exposed and given the weather was very warm elected not to even undertaken the short walk to Z-bend lookout. However given that we had driven to the park we did make the effort to visit Natures Window and the Loop lookout. Natures window was well worth the short walk as through a natural rock arch the gorge of the Murchison River below is beautiful framed.
Day 75 saw us all wake up flat, the mornings are cold and today is to be our last night on the road before Perth, which signals the end of our trip. Not looking forward to another long day driving and the approach of Perth we slowly packed up and headed off. First stop on the way to Jurien Bay was the Principality of Hutt River. The Principality of Hutt River is not considered to be part of Australia and has its own ruler Prince Leonard, passport, currency and stamps. Leonard Casley a farmer who was appalled by new wheat quotas, succeeded from the state of Western Australia in 1970. Leonard understood the Australian constitution to a tee and managed to negotiate his way through a number of loop holes to form the principality. Leonard and the other citizens of Hutt River are no longer required to pay any taxes to the Australian Government as they are not considered to be Australian citizens. We were fortunate enough to be given a guided tour of the Principality of Hutt River by Prince Leonard himself and his lovely wife Princess Shirley. Prince Leonard was a very interesting and unassuming man now in his mid-eighties. The children thought this experience was great and loved buying stamps and obtaining the required visa to enter Hutt River. The second stop was the Pink Lakes, the water of the lakes is pink due to the naturally produced carotene in the water. Final stop for the day was Jurien Bay, a small seaside village approximately 250kms from Perth.
Day 76 saw us pack up the van for the final time and head off to the Pinnacles, natural limestone formations formed many of million of years ago contained within a sandy like desert environment in the middle of nowhere. Then it was onto Perth, specifically Coogee Beach, the car and van hand-over location. The afternoon was spent walking along the beach, setting up the van for the final time and watching the AFL grand final, go The Saints.
Day 77, a day spent exploring Fremantle and cleaning and packing up the van, ready for the hand-over to the Jefferies. The signal of the end of the van experience, an experience that hopefully gives all of us, especially the children long lasting happy memories, that’s living the dream.
Showing posts with label Living the dream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Living the dream. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Week 9 – Cape Leveque to Karijini National Park – 880kms
Week 9 – Cape Leveque to Karijini National Park – 880kms
Days 57 and 58 were spent exploring Cape Leveque and the surrounding Dampier Peninsula. First stop was at Cygnet Bar Pearl Farm, a family run pearling operation which has been operating since the early sixties. It was very informative to learn about the process used to culture pearls. However the highlight of the visit was trying on a $53,000 pearl necklace, unfortunately Pete wasn’t feeling very generous and thus I had to hand it back. I spent the afternoon lazying around the safari tent, whilst the others went on an Aboriginal spear making tour. The children got to cut down the branch for their spears, strip the branch, fire the spear, shape it and then final paint it. Once the spears were finished they were given a demonstration on how to catch fish using their spears. Their guide was successful in his fishing attempts and thus they then all sat around a camp fire cooking and then eating the fish. Unfortunately upon their return they got bogged in the sand and had to be pushed out, this set the theme for Cape Leveque. Whilst they were getting themselves out of trouble, I was relaxing with our new friends the Hopton’s and DeGasson’s having a quite wine watching the sunset.
The next day saw us visit the One Arm Point Hatchery where they culture Troche shells for sale to Italy to be made into beautiful buttons. This was followed by a wonderful swim at Cape Leveque and final a mud crab tour. The mud crab tour turned out to be the tour from hell. First we got bogged getting into the mud crabbing location and had to be pulled out, secondly mud crabbing involved wondering through mangroves digging for mud crabs whilst being eaten alive by sand flies and mosquitoes. Our Aboriginal guide took off without providing any instruction on what we were looking for, how to catch them and finally where we meant to go. After 1.5 hours covered in mud and bites we decided to call it quits and walked ourselves back to the car. The first group was already back cooking their catch over a fire, disgusted with the tour I was in no mood to hang around and thus we headed off home ahead of the group. This plan back fired as only about 5 minutes later we became seriously bogged and had to wait for over 45 mins for the rest of the group to arrive to tow us out. Tail between our legs we kindly accepted their help and then ventured home without further incident. The one highlight was catching up with Roger Chomley an old acutance who now runs specialized tours to Cape Leveque.
Day 59 saw us have a relax morning swimming again in the beautiful bay at Cape Leveque before heading back to Broome to pick up the van and to settle ourselves once again into the Cable Beach Caravan Park. After 6 nights out of the van, we were all very pleased to be back in our home away from home.
Day 60 saw Adelaide and I treat ourselves to a horizontal falls tour. After getting up at 5am, we were picked up and driven to the airport to board our seaplane for a 1hours flight to King Sound to experience the horizontal falls. The tour was fantastic. It started with landing on water which was like landing on marshmallows’, next we were transferred to a cruise boat where we were served breakfast whilst motoring around King Sound, Beside our tour group of 10 there was no-one else around, it was so beautiful and untouched. It would be wonderful to be able to spend more time just cruising around the area. Next we were transferred onto the mother ship to go swimming with the sharks. They lowered an open shark cage approx 5 foot into the water and then we swam next to Lemon Sharks. Next was the highlight of the adventure, speeding through the horizontal falls on a 500hp boat. The horizontal falls are caused by the large tides in the area being squeezed through two narrow gorges, causing very turbulent water with whirlpools and rapids. Final it was the flight home, a very scenic flight over the Buccaneer Archipelago, Cape Leveque, the Dampier Peninsula, and finally Cable Beach. Over Cape Leveque we managed to spot our friends and take a wonderful photo showing their camp sites. Whilst Adelaide and I were off being adventurers the others were relaxing at the caravan park and writing their daily journals.
Day 61 saw Pete once again head off on a Fishing Charter and come home as the successful hunter/gatherer. He proudly again fed our friends and we spent a very enjoyable evening sharing a meal, whilst the children watched a movie. The children and I completed the items on our things to list and relaxing around the pool.
Day 62 started with a walk out to the Flying Boat wrecks in Roebuck Bay, which are only visible on low tide approximately 3 times a year. In 1942, many Dutch people were being evacuated out of Indonesia via Broome to Freemantle as the Japanese were fast approaching. Given Broome’s limited accommodation, they were often kept on the Flying Boats in the bay overnight. Moored in the bay overnight were also a number of fighters. The Japanese struck early and bombed all boats moored in the bay, unfortunately approximately 150 women and children were killed. Broome had no defence as it was believed that the Japanese would not be able to attack so far south. After our lovely morning stroll we settled in for the long drive to Port Hedland. A short lunch stop was taken at 80 mile beach a great fishing stretch approximately 300kms south of Broome. In Port Hedland we faced rain for the first time since the end of week 3 and the need for jumpers, a real shock to the system and strong signal that we were entering the final stage of our adventure.
Day 63 started with a tour of Port Hedland and its large shipping port where we watched a ship being loaded with Iron Ore bound for China. The whole town centres around the mining industry and every second car is owned by BHP Bilton. Packing up in the rain was unpleasant and we hoped that this was not to be a signal of the weather to come. The majority of the day was spent driving to Karijini National Park, reportedly the best national park in WA. After setting up the van we went on a walk of Dales Gorge, swimming in Fern Pool and Fortescue Falls returning along the Gorge rim walk back to the van whilst the sun was setting, that’s living the dream.
Days 57 and 58 were spent exploring Cape Leveque and the surrounding Dampier Peninsula. First stop was at Cygnet Bar Pearl Farm, a family run pearling operation which has been operating since the early sixties. It was very informative to learn about the process used to culture pearls. However the highlight of the visit was trying on a $53,000 pearl necklace, unfortunately Pete wasn’t feeling very generous and thus I had to hand it back. I spent the afternoon lazying around the safari tent, whilst the others went on an Aboriginal spear making tour. The children got to cut down the branch for their spears, strip the branch, fire the spear, shape it and then final paint it. Once the spears were finished they were given a demonstration on how to catch fish using their spears. Their guide was successful in his fishing attempts and thus they then all sat around a camp fire cooking and then eating the fish. Unfortunately upon their return they got bogged in the sand and had to be pushed out, this set the theme for Cape Leveque. Whilst they were getting themselves out of trouble, I was relaxing with our new friends the Hopton’s and DeGasson’s having a quite wine watching the sunset.
The next day saw us visit the One Arm Point Hatchery where they culture Troche shells for sale to Italy to be made into beautiful buttons. This was followed by a wonderful swim at Cape Leveque and final a mud crab tour. The mud crab tour turned out to be the tour from hell. First we got bogged getting into the mud crabbing location and had to be pulled out, secondly mud crabbing involved wondering through mangroves digging for mud crabs whilst being eaten alive by sand flies and mosquitoes. Our Aboriginal guide took off without providing any instruction on what we were looking for, how to catch them and finally where we meant to go. After 1.5 hours covered in mud and bites we decided to call it quits and walked ourselves back to the car. The first group was already back cooking their catch over a fire, disgusted with the tour I was in no mood to hang around and thus we headed off home ahead of the group. This plan back fired as only about 5 minutes later we became seriously bogged and had to wait for over 45 mins for the rest of the group to arrive to tow us out. Tail between our legs we kindly accepted their help and then ventured home without further incident. The one highlight was catching up with Roger Chomley an old acutance who now runs specialized tours to Cape Leveque.
Day 59 saw us have a relax morning swimming again in the beautiful bay at Cape Leveque before heading back to Broome to pick up the van and to settle ourselves once again into the Cable Beach Caravan Park. After 6 nights out of the van, we were all very pleased to be back in our home away from home.
Day 60 saw Adelaide and I treat ourselves to a horizontal falls tour. After getting up at 5am, we were picked up and driven to the airport to board our seaplane for a 1hours flight to King Sound to experience the horizontal falls. The tour was fantastic. It started with landing on water which was like landing on marshmallows’, next we were transferred to a cruise boat where we were served breakfast whilst motoring around King Sound, Beside our tour group of 10 there was no-one else around, it was so beautiful and untouched. It would be wonderful to be able to spend more time just cruising around the area. Next we were transferred onto the mother ship to go swimming with the sharks. They lowered an open shark cage approx 5 foot into the water and then we swam next to Lemon Sharks. Next was the highlight of the adventure, speeding through the horizontal falls on a 500hp boat. The horizontal falls are caused by the large tides in the area being squeezed through two narrow gorges, causing very turbulent water with whirlpools and rapids. Final it was the flight home, a very scenic flight over the Buccaneer Archipelago, Cape Leveque, the Dampier Peninsula, and finally Cable Beach. Over Cape Leveque we managed to spot our friends and take a wonderful photo showing their camp sites. Whilst Adelaide and I were off being adventurers the others were relaxing at the caravan park and writing their daily journals.
Day 61 saw Pete once again head off on a Fishing Charter and come home as the successful hunter/gatherer. He proudly again fed our friends and we spent a very enjoyable evening sharing a meal, whilst the children watched a movie. The children and I completed the items on our things to list and relaxing around the pool.
Day 62 started with a walk out to the Flying Boat wrecks in Roebuck Bay, which are only visible on low tide approximately 3 times a year. In 1942, many Dutch people were being evacuated out of Indonesia via Broome to Freemantle as the Japanese were fast approaching. Given Broome’s limited accommodation, they were often kept on the Flying Boats in the bay overnight. Moored in the bay overnight were also a number of fighters. The Japanese struck early and bombed all boats moored in the bay, unfortunately approximately 150 women and children were killed. Broome had no defence as it was believed that the Japanese would not be able to attack so far south. After our lovely morning stroll we settled in for the long drive to Port Hedland. A short lunch stop was taken at 80 mile beach a great fishing stretch approximately 300kms south of Broome. In Port Hedland we faced rain for the first time since the end of week 3 and the need for jumpers, a real shock to the system and strong signal that we were entering the final stage of our adventure.
Day 63 started with a tour of Port Hedland and its large shipping port where we watched a ship being loaded with Iron Ore bound for China. The whole town centres around the mining industry and every second car is owned by BHP Bilton. Packing up in the rain was unpleasant and we hoped that this was not to be a signal of the weather to come. The majority of the day was spent driving to Karijini National Park, reportedly the best national park in WA. After setting up the van we went on a walk of Dales Gorge, swimming in Fern Pool and Fortescue Falls returning along the Gorge rim walk back to the van whilst the sun was setting, that’s living the dream.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Week 8 – Fitzroy Crossing to Cape Leveque via a number of very lazy days in Broome – 1,400 kms
Week 8 – Fitzroy Crossing to Cape Leveque via a number of very lazy days in Broome – 1,400 kms
Days 43 to 48 wind down time in Broome, the holiday within a holiday.
Day 43 saw us leave the dry and dusty Kimberley region behind us and head for the slightly cooler weather on the coast at Broome. Desperate to see the coast and unwind the family voted to skip the side trip to Derby and to push on as fast as we could to Broome.
Ah, five and half days of just relaxing. The first 3 nights in Broome were spent in the Cable Beach Caravan Park, we then ditched the van and headed into pure luxury, the Oaks apartments for the next 3 nights. Fred couldn’t believe his luck 3 TV’s and 2 DVD players. Besides TV and DVD, the apartment had 2 bathrooms, 3 rooms and no red dust. To top it off the apartment block had 2 very big swimming pools.
Occasionally we managed to pull ourselves away from the pool and the apartment and venture out. The family went exploring for the Dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume point, watched the sunset over Cable Beach and star gazed with our friendly APT tour guide, Sam, that we befriended in the Bungle Bungles, The girls and I wandered through the Courthouse Market and rode camels along Cable Beach. Pete went off on a fishing charter adventure and caught more fish than he had in all previous fishing trips in total over the last 45 years and brought home 3 very large fish to eat. Given the rest of the family doesn’t really eat fish, Pete fed two other families, that we had become friends with, over the next two nights and was proud of being able to fulfill the Hunter role. Fred got his TV and DVD fix, often refusing to see daylight. All in all everyone had a great time and left Broome ready for our final 4 weeks of adventure.
Day 49 we left the luxury of the Oaks behind and headed into the luxury of the Safari tents at Kooljaman, Cape Leveque. The safari tents aren’t quite the Oaks apartments but who can complain as I sit here on the balcony starring across the white sands and blue waters of the Dampier Peninsula. On the way to Cape Leveque we made 2 small detours, one to Beagle Bay to see the church built by the Pallotive Monks around 1918, which has a beautiful altar made from pearl shells and the second to Middle Lagoon for a refreshing dip. As the sun was setting we spent the early evening collecting shells and swimming in the beautiful clear still waters, that’s living the dream!
Days 43 to 48 wind down time in Broome, the holiday within a holiday.
Day 43 saw us leave the dry and dusty Kimberley region behind us and head for the slightly cooler weather on the coast at Broome. Desperate to see the coast and unwind the family voted to skip the side trip to Derby and to push on as fast as we could to Broome.
Ah, five and half days of just relaxing. The first 3 nights in Broome were spent in the Cable Beach Caravan Park, we then ditched the van and headed into pure luxury, the Oaks apartments for the next 3 nights. Fred couldn’t believe his luck 3 TV’s and 2 DVD players. Besides TV and DVD, the apartment had 2 bathrooms, 3 rooms and no red dust. To top it off the apartment block had 2 very big swimming pools.
Occasionally we managed to pull ourselves away from the pool and the apartment and venture out. The family went exploring for the Dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume point, watched the sunset over Cable Beach and star gazed with our friendly APT tour guide, Sam, that we befriended in the Bungle Bungles, The girls and I wandered through the Courthouse Market and rode camels along Cable Beach. Pete went off on a fishing charter adventure and caught more fish than he had in all previous fishing trips in total over the last 45 years and brought home 3 very large fish to eat. Given the rest of the family doesn’t really eat fish, Pete fed two other families, that we had become friends with, over the next two nights and was proud of being able to fulfill the Hunter role. Fred got his TV and DVD fix, often refusing to see daylight. All in all everyone had a great time and left Broome ready for our final 4 weeks of adventure.
Day 49 we left the luxury of the Oaks behind and headed into the luxury of the Safari tents at Kooljaman, Cape Leveque. The safari tents aren’t quite the Oaks apartments but who can complain as I sit here on the balcony starring across the white sands and blue waters of the Dampier Peninsula. On the way to Cape Leveque we made 2 small detours, one to Beagle Bay to see the church built by the Pallotive Monks around 1918, which has a beautiful altar made from pearl shells and the second to Middle Lagoon for a refreshing dip. As the sun was setting we spent the early evening collecting shells and swimming in the beautiful clear still waters, that’s living the dream!
Week 7 – Home Valley to Fitzroy Crossing
Week 7 – Home Valley to Fitzroy Crossing – 868 kms
Day 43 saw us move on from Home Valley to El Questro station. The first stop was Zebedee Springs, a series of small rock pools fed from a hot water spring, a great spot to refresh ourselves. Next it was onto the station village to select a campsite and pitch the tents. Given the sweltering night we had just experienced in our tents we had very little enthusiasm to repeat it again, however given we had no other accommodation choices, we all sat around pulling long faces watching Pete complete the set-up. All suffering from the heat, we quickly sought a waterhole which didn’t require a hike to get to, Moonshine Gorge river was the choice. After feeling suitable refreshed and rested we tackled Emma Gorge, a beautiful walk through a gorge to a very large water hole, a great reward after the 1 hour walk. We had a lovely dinner in the restaurant at the village and then retired to our special accommodation and once again spent a night sweltering in our tents through the heat.
Day 44, time to leave El Questro, head back to Kununurra to pick up the van and drive to Turkey Creek/Warmun to spend the night prior to heading into the Purnululu National Park, the home of the Bungle Bungles. Prior to leaving El Questro we had one more gorge to tackle, the El Questro gorge. This was a beautiful 4.5 hour return walk through another gorge with a number of great swimming holes along the way and of course a fantastic one at the end. The walk was very challenging for the last 1 hour with lots of large rocks to scramble over and a waterfall to climb, the children thought it was a great adventure. Unfortunately the walk was somewhat soured with Octavia getting stung be a bee on the toe, thankfully after a few tears, and no sign of a reaction we were able to continue without issue.
Days 45 and 46 involved exploring the Purnululu National Park, and treating ourselves to some home comforts by staying in the Bungle Bungle Wilderness Safari Tents run by APT. The safari tents had an ensuite and both breakfast and dinner was provided, so after life in the van it was pure luxury. Once again we tackled a number of walk; Echidna Chasm, Osmond, Kungkalatayi and Piccaninny Creek lookouts, Cathedral gorge and the Domes walk. Unfortunately our usual reward of a swim in a beautiful waterhole at the end of a long walk was not to be as the National Park at this time of the year is dry so we had to settle for a nice clean shower instead. The highlight of this part of the trip was the helicopter ride over the park especially the Domes.
Day 47 was once again a travelling day back to Turkey Creek to pick up the van and then onto Halls Creek just for an over night stop. Halls Creek was just hot and dirty and unfortunately the caravan park is very close to the hotel so we had loud music playing away to 1am and then the locals entertaining themselves on the street until about 3am, a pleasant spot to stay!
Days 48 and 49 were spent at Fitzroy Crossing and exploring the National parks nearby. Geike Gorge National park was first, where we took a boat cruise along the Fitzroy river and had many animals especially freshwater crocodiles pointed out and a very informative explanation of how the area was formed by the local Aboriginal ranger. The next day saw us drive to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek National Parks. The Windjana Gorge walk was quite disappointing, after the first 15 minutes the walk was through scrub and you couldn’t get a good look at the gorge or the river so we decided to turnout back after about 1 hour of walking, our decision was also prompted by the fact that there was no swimming. The one highlight of the walk was the number of freshwater crocodiles you saw sunning themselves on the banks of the river. As a contrast Tunnel Creek was fun, a walk through sandbanks and a river contained within a 750m tunnel. The tunnel got very dark in parts and due to the strength of our one and only torch (we forget to bring the other 6 which were back in the van) at times we could only see about 2 feet in front of ourselves, which led to a lot of screams from Adelaide. Along the way we saw some small fish and many bats, apparently there was also eels and 2 small freshwater crocodiles that we missed due to our torch strength. I am sure if we had seen them we would have been joining in the screaming with Adelaide. In the evening the girls and I ventured out to the Tin Can Cinema, on old galvanised iron shed set-up as a theatre for a private viewing of “Bran Nue Dae”, no-one else turned up. Bran Nue Dae is a story based in Broome, which was totally appropriate given it is the next stop on our itinerary. The boys stayed back at the van watching a Simpsons DVD, that’s living the dream!
Day 43 saw us move on from Home Valley to El Questro station. The first stop was Zebedee Springs, a series of small rock pools fed from a hot water spring, a great spot to refresh ourselves. Next it was onto the station village to select a campsite and pitch the tents. Given the sweltering night we had just experienced in our tents we had very little enthusiasm to repeat it again, however given we had no other accommodation choices, we all sat around pulling long faces watching Pete complete the set-up. All suffering from the heat, we quickly sought a waterhole which didn’t require a hike to get to, Moonshine Gorge river was the choice. After feeling suitable refreshed and rested we tackled Emma Gorge, a beautiful walk through a gorge to a very large water hole, a great reward after the 1 hour walk. We had a lovely dinner in the restaurant at the village and then retired to our special accommodation and once again spent a night sweltering in our tents through the heat.
Day 44, time to leave El Questro, head back to Kununurra to pick up the van and drive to Turkey Creek/Warmun to spend the night prior to heading into the Purnululu National Park, the home of the Bungle Bungles. Prior to leaving El Questro we had one more gorge to tackle, the El Questro gorge. This was a beautiful 4.5 hour return walk through another gorge with a number of great swimming holes along the way and of course a fantastic one at the end. The walk was very challenging for the last 1 hour with lots of large rocks to scramble over and a waterfall to climb, the children thought it was a great adventure. Unfortunately the walk was somewhat soured with Octavia getting stung be a bee on the toe, thankfully after a few tears, and no sign of a reaction we were able to continue without issue.
Days 45 and 46 involved exploring the Purnululu National Park, and treating ourselves to some home comforts by staying in the Bungle Bungle Wilderness Safari Tents run by APT. The safari tents had an ensuite and both breakfast and dinner was provided, so after life in the van it was pure luxury. Once again we tackled a number of walk; Echidna Chasm, Osmond, Kungkalatayi and Piccaninny Creek lookouts, Cathedral gorge and the Domes walk. Unfortunately our usual reward of a swim in a beautiful waterhole at the end of a long walk was not to be as the National Park at this time of the year is dry so we had to settle for a nice clean shower instead. The highlight of this part of the trip was the helicopter ride over the park especially the Domes.
Day 47 was once again a travelling day back to Turkey Creek to pick up the van and then onto Halls Creek just for an over night stop. Halls Creek was just hot and dirty and unfortunately the caravan park is very close to the hotel so we had loud music playing away to 1am and then the locals entertaining themselves on the street until about 3am, a pleasant spot to stay!
Days 48 and 49 were spent at Fitzroy Crossing and exploring the National parks nearby. Geike Gorge National park was first, where we took a boat cruise along the Fitzroy river and had many animals especially freshwater crocodiles pointed out and a very informative explanation of how the area was formed by the local Aboriginal ranger. The next day saw us drive to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek National Parks. The Windjana Gorge walk was quite disappointing, after the first 15 minutes the walk was through scrub and you couldn’t get a good look at the gorge or the river so we decided to turnout back after about 1 hour of walking, our decision was also prompted by the fact that there was no swimming. The one highlight of the walk was the number of freshwater crocodiles you saw sunning themselves on the banks of the river. As a contrast Tunnel Creek was fun, a walk through sandbanks and a river contained within a 750m tunnel. The tunnel got very dark in parts and due to the strength of our one and only torch (we forget to bring the other 6 which were back in the van) at times we could only see about 2 feet in front of ourselves, which led to a lot of screams from Adelaide. Along the way we saw some small fish and many bats, apparently there was also eels and 2 small freshwater crocodiles that we missed due to our torch strength. I am sure if we had seen them we would have been joining in the screaming with Adelaide. In the evening the girls and I ventured out to the Tin Can Cinema, on old galvanised iron shed set-up as a theatre for a private viewing of “Bran Nue Dae”, no-one else turned up. Bran Nue Dae is a story based in Broome, which was totally appropriate given it is the next stop on our itinerary. The boys stayed back at the van watching a Simpsons DVD, that’s living the dream!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Week 5 – Darwin to Mt Martha return – (by Adelaide)
Week 5
Day 29 – Today we had a look around Darwin We went to one of Darwin’s greatest attractions the Darwin wave lagoon. At the wave lagoon we rode the Big Blue Humpies on a boggie board or a donut. We were at the wave pool for around 3 hours and not once did we get out. After the wave pool we started to get a bit hungry so we had lunch at a café and then we went to the Darwin museum were we saw Sweet heat a 17 foot crocodile found in Darwin water. We also saw an exhibition on Cyclone Tracy. Cyclone Tracy was a devastating natural disaster that occurred in Christmas Eve 1974, the cyclone wiped out most of Darwin. After the museum we drive back to the caravan, we swam in the pool until dark and that’s living the dream.
Day 30 to Day 32 (Mt Martha) – Elia – A quick divert off the Living the Dream tour for the family to attend Dad’s funeral. A beautiful ending for a wonderful father.
Day 33 – Today we had a really lazy day which included having a big sleep in and staying at the caravan park the whole day. This morning was the only time we went out, we went out for breakfast at Cullen Bay. We had a quick look around Cullen Bay but Tav wanted to eat so we had to go straight to the café. After breakfast we went for a quick food shop and then we went back to the caravan park where we spent the rest of the day playing with Rachel and Ryan swimming in the pool that’s living the dream.
Day 34 – Today we went to Crocosaurus Cove where we got to hold and get our picture taken with a baby croc and swim with juvenile crocs, but there was a glass wall between us, At Crocosaurus Cove we also got watch the Barra feeding and the Big Croc feeding. We got to feed the juvenile crocs from the end of a fishing rod. After Crocosaurus Cove we had lunch and then went to a small but really fun waterslide park. At the water park there was 3 big waterslides, a swimming pool and a water playground. We went on all 3 slides over and over again, the red slide was pitch black and you had to go in a tube with a partner but the yellow and blue slides you went by yourself. My favourite slide was the yellow slide because it was the fastest, but the blue slide twisted and turned around in. After the water park we got changed and went out for dinner at the Darwin Sailing Club, that’s living the dream.
Day 35 – Today we had a good look around Darwin finding out a bit about the history of Darwin. First we went to the World War 2 oil storage tanks. The oil storage tanks were built during the second world war after the Japanese bombed the city of Darwin in 1942, just 6 weeks after pearl harbour was bombed. After the oil tanks we had a quick walk up to a lookout and then had lunch at Stokes wharf. After lunch we went to the Fannie Bay jail, were we found out about the history of the jail and the prisoners that were kept there until the jail closed in 1979. After the jail we went home and swam in the pool until it was time to go to the Mindil markets. At the market we had dinner on the beach and watched the sunset on the beach, that’s living the dream.
Day 29 – Today we had a look around Darwin We went to one of Darwin’s greatest attractions the Darwin wave lagoon. At the wave lagoon we rode the Big Blue Humpies on a boggie board or a donut. We were at the wave pool for around 3 hours and not once did we get out. After the wave pool we started to get a bit hungry so we had lunch at a café and then we went to the Darwin museum were we saw Sweet heat a 17 foot crocodile found in Darwin water. We also saw an exhibition on Cyclone Tracy. Cyclone Tracy was a devastating natural disaster that occurred in Christmas Eve 1974, the cyclone wiped out most of Darwin. After the museum we drive back to the caravan, we swam in the pool until dark and that’s living the dream.
Day 30 to Day 32 (Mt Martha) – Elia – A quick divert off the Living the Dream tour for the family to attend Dad’s funeral. A beautiful ending for a wonderful father.
Day 33 – Today we had a really lazy day which included having a big sleep in and staying at the caravan park the whole day. This morning was the only time we went out, we went out for breakfast at Cullen Bay. We had a quick look around Cullen Bay but Tav wanted to eat so we had to go straight to the café. After breakfast we went for a quick food shop and then we went back to the caravan park where we spent the rest of the day playing with Rachel and Ryan swimming in the pool that’s living the dream.
Day 34 – Today we went to Crocosaurus Cove where we got to hold and get our picture taken with a baby croc and swim with juvenile crocs, but there was a glass wall between us, At Crocosaurus Cove we also got watch the Barra feeding and the Big Croc feeding. We got to feed the juvenile crocs from the end of a fishing rod. After Crocosaurus Cove we had lunch and then went to a small but really fun waterslide park. At the water park there was 3 big waterslides, a swimming pool and a water playground. We went on all 3 slides over and over again, the red slide was pitch black and you had to go in a tube with a partner but the yellow and blue slides you went by yourself. My favourite slide was the yellow slide because it was the fastest, but the blue slide twisted and turned around in. After the water park we got changed and went out for dinner at the Darwin Sailing Club, that’s living the dream.
Day 35 – Today we had a good look around Darwin finding out a bit about the history of Darwin. First we went to the World War 2 oil storage tanks. The oil storage tanks were built during the second world war after the Japanese bombed the city of Darwin in 1942, just 6 weeks after pearl harbour was bombed. After the oil tanks we had a quick walk up to a lookout and then had lunch at Stokes wharf. After lunch we went to the Fannie Bay jail, were we found out about the history of the jail and the prisoners that were kept there until the jail closed in 1979. After the jail we went home and swam in the pool until it was time to go to the Mindil markets. At the market we had dinner on the beach and watched the sunset on the beach, that’s living the dream.
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