The Broome stopover

Having pushed on with stormy weather seeming to follow behind us, we arrived in Broome to clear skies and hot days. We decided to spend a few days here. Broome has changed a bit since we were last here. Admittedly that was 26 years ago, so it would have been surprising to find it still the same! Then the caravan park at Cable Beach was right by the beach and there was very little else there. Now there are several expensive caravan parks, set back a bit from the beach and there are loads of "resorts" and clubs and restaurants. The camels are still there, giving their rides along the beach towards sunset, which is usually glorious.

Very docile camels on their way home from the beach.

Looking across to Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point, about 5 kilometres away, where there are some dinosaur footprints visible at low tide.

Chinatown, contrary to the picture that the name usually conjures up of hustle and bustle, is very quiet. Even the usual Chinese restaurants are hard to find, so it is not entirely due to the time of year. We were a little disappointed.

In spite of the weather maps consistently showing Broome under cloud, we have seen very little of it. In the afternoon the cumulus clouds build up a bit, then dissipate during the evening to leave starry skies. The humidity is high and a bit trying. With that and temperatures in the 30s we are grateful for our air-conditioning. It is, however, lovely to sit out in the evenings and we even went to the open-air cinema one evening. We sat in deck-chairs in a big garden, in front of a large screen to watch "Red Dog", the true story of a dog that roamed the Pilbara region of Western Australia. There is a statue of him in Dampier, where he finally adopted a master. It is a lovely film although a bit of a tear-jerker. We will visit him in Dampier as we pass through.

It has been very pleasant just to take it easy for a few days, swim either at the beach (stingers are not here yet) or at the shadier caravan park pool, catch up with the washing where there is no queue for the laundry and (today) get the pump fixed on the Winnebago. It suddenly died the other day and we refuse to travel without the possibility of getting water out of the taps unless we are connected to mains water. Someone is due to come to us to fix it today, but the 10 o'clock appointment has suddenly become 1 o'clock. Good thing we had no special plans.

Our next stop will be South Hedland, where Isobel has a second-cousin. Keith and his wife Mary are still with Golden Eagle Airlines. It will be interesting to catch up with them after a few years.

Across The Top through boab country

From Lake Argyle it was a short hop to Kununurra, where we decided to have two nights and eventually extended it to three. This was due to waiting at the hospital for half the day for a prescription which had become necessary. There was nowhere else to do it and one just has to be very patient. It is the way of the outback.

Kununurra is a town that grew up around the building of the Ord Diversion Dam and then the main Ord River Dam and has since flourished due to the effects of the dam on agriculture. Irrigation schemes are being extended, which allows for the opening up of more agricultural land. It was a busy place. The campsites by the lake were very pleasant and we celebrated Warwick's birthday with a meal in the caravan park's restaurant by the pool. Very nice.

There is already quite a lot of water in the Ord River, which meant that Ivanhoe Crossing was already closed. Isobel is sure that this is the causeway we crossed back in 1985 when we did our trip with the kids in a Hi-ace pop-up. It would not be one to cross with this beast at the best of times, but in fact it was running too fast for anything to be able to cross. It seems to be good for fishing, though.

Ivanhoe Crossing with a couple of hopefuls

Our intention was to detour to Wyndham and a rather smart-looking "wilderness retreat" called El Questro, but the weather was looking distinctly stormy and El Questro meant quite a stretch on unsealed road. Perhaps we would get there OK but if a real storm struck, maybe the return would be doubtful. So reluctantly but probably wisely, we missed out that detour and headed straight for Halls Creek. A boring road at the best of times, it was made quite irritating by the amount of roadworks. A couple of roadhouses on the way broke the monotony a bit.

Halls Creek boasts a pioneer by the name of Russian Jack, who is said to have carted a sick mate in a wheelbarrow all the way to Wyndham to the nearest doctor -- a distance of some 300 kilometres! One cannot help being amazed at the stories of pioneers and the conditions in which they lived.

Russian Jack. It seems his mate survived.

Next stop Fitzroy Crossing, another largely Aboriginal community. This town is involved in a lot of interesting medical research. We had our first real rain for many months during the night, which caused us to abandon the idea of the only tour still open on Geikie Gorge. The real splendour of Geikie needs clear skies and sunshine and we still had grey skies and rain. This will be for another trip.

So it was on towards Derby, past scores of boab trees. These trees are variously described as bottle trees or upside-down trees, due to their extraordinary shape and to the fact that they store water in their trunks, which causes them to swell into odd shapes. Near Derby, we visited a particularly famous tree called the "Prison Boab Tree", which in years gone by was used to hold some of the prisoners who were being forcibly moved for sentencing in Derby.

The Prison Boab Tree near Derby

Derby is known for its extraordinary tides and we walked out on the wharf as the tide was racing in. That particular day it was 11 metres and the way it was racing in was impressive.

We still had time to make it to Broome so we pushed on, with boabs of all shapes and sizes all the way.

A line of boabs down the middle of Derby's main street.

Litchfield National Park and the Northern Territory to the WA border and Lake Argyle

Everyone told us we must go to Litchfield. When we got there we realised why. There is a series of waterfalls in different parks of the park, many of them with a plunge pool in which swimming is safe. Hot and sticky as we were it was a joy to swim in the cool water. We met so many young Germans still on the road. It is very quiet now as it gets close to the Wet but the only disadvantage to travelling at this time is the heat. Otherwise it is delightful to have caravan parks almost to ourselves.

Wangi Falls with their plunge pool

Buley Rockholes

Florence Falls from the lookout above ........

......... and the plunge pool below. Not so easy to get into this one.

We left the Park the way we had come in, through a little place called Batchelor. There was a little general store that we went into and were amazed to hear a lively conversation going on between the shopkeeper and some clients in Swiss German. It was the second time that day we had heard Swiss German and it sounded odd in such a lost corner of the Northern Territory!

A brief stop at Adelaide River allowed us to look at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery where, among others, the victims of the bombing of Darwin in 1942 are buried. As always, the cemetery is immaculately tended.  At Hayes Creek, in mining country, there was a constant stream of road trains passing but it was nonetheless a peaceful night in an almost empty roadhouse caravan park. There was mail waiting for us in Katherine, and also a very convenient carwash suitable for our, by this time, very dirty Winnebago. We wanted to push on so, having dealt with those, we drove on to Victoria River. It was stormy-looking and cloudy the whole day, which took a lot of the heat away, and when we arrived at the roadhouse it was clear there had been heavy rain. Again we had escaped it. The sign at the roadhouse amused us.

Typical Aussie humour

There was not much to stop for before the border, so Isobel was up early cooking the remaining vegies  for the freezer and cutting fruit to eat on the way. Quarantine restrictions are enforced between NT and WA and we knew the van would be inspected. No fresh fruit or vegetables are allowed in. There is only so much one can consume, however, so at our lunchtime picnic spot a passing nomad going in the opposite direction gladly accepted the remaining tomato, avocado and cos lettuce, while we had left a quantity of garlic at the roadhouse. (That was supposed to have been left with Patsy and Richard but the bed episode put it out of our minds.)

Even before the border, the scenery had changed to the impressive red rock formations so typical of the WA Kimberley. It can be breathtaking against a clear blue sky, which there was as the storms had passed. There are so many deep gorges and it is interesting to speculate on what the countryside must have been like in the Ord River valley before the dam was built in the '70s. Even now, the huge lake that has been formed by the dam has steep sides and cliffs. For those who are familiar with Australian history, this is Durack country, settled by the pioneering Durack family from Ireland, and described in several books by Mary Durack, notably "Kings in Grass Castles" and "Sons in the Saddle". The Argyle Downs Homestead, which was moved when the Ord dam was built, is now a museum, but it is already closed for the wet season. We have actually been there before, back in 1985.

The caravan park at Lake Argyle was also very quiet. It is a beautiful site, with an infinity pool from which there is a view over parts of the lake. A swim there at 7:30 in the morning made a great start to the day.

The infinity pool at Lake Argyle caravan park

One of the views from in the pool

Looking down on Lake Argyle from the lookout

The dam from below

The outlet valves below the dam

The Ord is still a mighty river below the dam

The road across the dam, looking down from another lookout above

Kakadu and Darwin in the pre-monsoon build-up

Kakadu is magic. Not only is it teeming with birdlife and crocs but it is steeped in Aboriginal lore as well. We were lucky to be able to visit the main rock art sites before the real heat of the day as walking becomes such an effort and it seems impossible to put water back into the system as fast as it is pouring out. After Cooinda we did spend one night bushcamping -- no power for AC therefore. Isobel thought she was going to die of heat!! We chose a caravan park in Jabiru for the next two nights. It also had a delightful swimming pool.

Now we are in Darwin with Patsy and Richard, their son Ben and his delightful Korean partner, Seonja. Warwick and Patsy grew up at opposite ends of the world and even during Warwick's visits to Australia they didn't see each other as Patsy was not in Perth, so it is fun now to get to know each other. They have a most amazing house, ideal for the tropics and there is even a resident snake in the bathroom!

He often lies right inside the jar beside the plant with just his head sticking out. Otherwise he is sometimes stretched out along the louvre windows.

Patsy is a keen gardener so one of the highlights was a visit to the Botanical Garden's annual plant sale. It was a good thing we went in the ute to bring back the spoils! Great plants, though, at very good prices. People were leaving with barrowloads. Now she has the job of planting them -- a big job in the present heat. They keep hoping for rain and several times it looked as if it could happen, but so far nothing.

My favourite part of the garden, where we had breakfast ay Patsy's mosaic table overlooking the lagoon. It is dry at the moment but will fill as the wet season starts and will have water lilies growing.

Patsy also took us to the museum, which had some interesting art and photographic displays, as well as a whole section on Cyclone Tracy, which of course devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Sweetheart the infamous big crocodile that used to attack boats is also there. He came to a sad end by accidentally drowning while being captured. The maritime part with its collection of boats, many Indonesian, was also interesting.

Our last evening there we all had dinner out at a restaurant on the wharf and were joined by Eamonn, Warwick's cousin Robin's husband, who was passing through Darwin. Eamonn does a lot of work out in the sticks at the mines. It was great seeing him.

Our Winnebago excelled itself while parked in the driveway. For reasons best known to itself, the bed broke free from its moorings when Isobel was putting it down. (The end lifts up to offer storage space underneath and it goes up and down on gas struts.) When the hinges broke loose the bed rocketed forward under the force of the gas struts and pinned Isobel by the knees to the wall. She was alone in the van and took a few minutes to make herself heard. Her knees of course are not up to taking that kind of treatment. We are hoping that bruising is going to be the extent of the damage. The right one is OK but the left one is giving a certain amount of grief. The next Winnebago dealer is in Perth so we will have to manage with the bed loose until we get back. It is more of a nuisance than anything else as it now takes both of us to store or retrieve anything from under the bed (chairs, table, etc.) The Winnebago people were on the phone immediately they received our email account of the incident and were rather concerned about the state of the knees. Perhaps they were afraid of an impending lawsuit!

All this happened as we were preparing to leave Darwin. Patsy and Richard will not easily forget our visit as getting the Winnebago into their driveway was one thing, but getting it out was another. Richard ended up cutting down branches with an electric saw as Patsy and Isobel hauled them out of the way to let Warwick edge the Beast out. It was such a wonderful visit, though, and we are so glad we were able to keep Darwin on our itinerary.