Exploring the Bungles

Breakfast at 5.00 am for a 5.30 departure!  Our camp for last night and tonight is a large caravan park on Mabel Downs, near to the main entrance to the Bungles National Park. There is even a bar area here with tables and chairs and fairy lights. Our tents were waiting for us and dinner was prepared as we all went for a shower. Tonight was Mexican : Chilli con Carne followed by trifle.

The long drive into the National Park took over 2 hours: a sandy track with lots of bends and water crossings. Finally we reached a car park (with toilets!) and set off to walk to the Piccaninny Lookout and the Cathedral Gorge. I didn’t go the whole way as it was really hot, but I found some shady spots to rest whilst the more energetic people rushed ahead.

Tommo, our guide, waits for us at a signpost.

Some people went for a helicopter ride, but I decided $1000 plus was too much for a short flight! The day was busy enough as it was.



Cathedral Gorge was spectacular:

This pic shows the built up of conglomerates:

In the afternoon we drove to the north end of the park and walked up to Echidna Gorge:

These rocks were treacherous to walk on. Luckily I had brought my stick!

Gools and Tommo laid out on the rocks. We have been working them too hard!

Morning preparations for departure at 7.15 am. Swags are going on top. They are a devil to roll up!

FC to Bungle Bungles

Swimming in a billabong yesterday:

Information boards at Geike:





On the road to Halls Creek:



Free wi-fi at Halls Creek- yay!!

To backtrack, I slept very well in my tent, in spite of many diverse animal sounds in the night. I thought it was cattle chomping, and in the morning I was told there had been wild boar. It was very bumpy on the road. The 4WD bus jolted along and it was really hard to write on my iPhone. I need a stylus!

After Halls Creek and its amazing free wi-fi at the Visitors Centre, the next stop was “China Wall”. This is a natural geological formation of quartz, but everyone thinks it’s a human construct. 

After that we drove past Old Halls Creek settlement on a very bumpy road (Duncan Road) to a billabong at Palm Springs. We had lunch in the shade then I had a chat with an old indigenous lady who was exactly my age. She was part of the stolen generation and after being in the orphanage was sent to work as a servant on a station.

Broome to Fitzroy Crossing area

Tour

We started with a grand tour of Broome picking up all 16 passengers, ending at the house of Simone, the owner of Adventure Wild. She wanted to take a group photo to put on Facebook, as this is the first tour of the season. There were none last year because of COVID. The tour is going in reverse order of what was first announced, because the Gibb River Road is still being graded after the wet season.

On the road, our first stop was Willare Bridge for refuelling. We were now in Boab country and there lots on both sides of the road after the Logue River. Plenty of water in that and also in the “mighty” Fitzroy. We stopped to admire the biggest Boab which is said to be 1500 years old.

We are now at Brooking Springs Station, which is on the road between Fitzroy Crossing and Geike Gorge. Our tents are already set up waiting for us, but most people headed straight for the billabong for a swim. It was heaven to cool off! Then there was a demo of how to open up and then close up the swag in the morning. No time to linger as we were soon off to Geike Gorge for a boat trip on the Fitzroy, which is the 2nd largest river in the world.

Small croc on a rock.

There is an inverter on the bus, so that in theory we can plug in our mobiles as we go along - but it’s currently out of action, so we are hoping that Thommo, our guide, can repair it while we are cruising the gorge. His wife, Gools, is back at camp getting our drinks iced ready for our return.

Dinner was Asian salad with chicken, followed by Rocky Road.

Broometime2

This is my last day in civilisation with good internet access. Tomorrow at 6.30 am I’m setting off for a 4WD camping trip around the Kimberley with Adventure Wild Tours. I may not be able to post much in the coming days; but I’ll be keeping a good written record of my doings!

I also want to say to everyone out there in the blogosphere that I seem unable to post comments. I read lots of blogs regularly and really really want to reply, but my words just disappear- even on my own blog. I’ve had this happen before and eventually worked out the problem, but I’m too short of time just now.

This morning I went for the traditional walk on Cable Beach at 7.00 am ( should have been earlier!). This year there were fewer people doing the same thing: and there are fewer people staying at Bali Hai. Not that I’m complaining as it’s quieter at the pool. However, it’s obvious that businesses have suffered. I drove out to the port and found the famous Wharf Restaurant was all closed up and its furniture removed. It was sad to see, as we’ve enjoyed many delicious  meals there in the past.

I resumed my search for missing items for the trip. I asked the manager of Bali Hai if he would sell me a pair of uniform shorts that all the girls wear who work in the resort. He told me to go to Totally WorkWear in the industrial estate. There were plenty of shorts to be had, but I had to settle for a black pair : not the best for this part of the world.

Broometime

When I woke up this morning, there was a heavy mist and 98 % humidity. I had to get some exercise though, so I set off at 7.15 am to walk down the road from the Continental Hotel to Town Beach. This is about a 15 minute walk. There has been a lot of development since I was last here a year ago and it is still ongoing. The sky looked ominous!

This reinforcement has been done with beautiful Kimberley stone. The next photo shows a shaded picnic area with strong steel cables to hold it down in the event of a cyclone:

I don’t think I’ll be going for a swim here!  Back at my hotel, there was a safer option:



 I had to check out at 10.00 am, so it was time to head into town to buy a few things. I really needed some shorts for my 4WD camping trip round the Kimberley. I went to a big Outdoor/Camping/Fishing store which had rows and rows of men’s shorts, hundreds of them, and only THREE pairs of women’s shorts, all size 8! How ridiculous is that?  Should I write to the local MP about gender inequality?  Next, I tried the Red Cross charity shop: no luck there with a suitable style and size, though I did pick up a Kathmandu shirt, treated with anti-bug material, which was quite a bargain. This will teach me a lesson about leaving home in a hurry!

Time for a coffee in Chinatown:

A day in Broome can only end with a sunset drink at Cable Beach. It feels great to be back here:

I even caught the red camels returning home:

Port Hedland to Broome

Before leaving PH, I wanted to have a look at the port area. There were just two large container ships that I could see, the Atlantic Lion and the Golden Cirrus:

The tide was out, so the water level was very low in this area of big tides. This difference between high and low tide can be seen by the construction of the boat launching ramp:

The second photo shows a red pilot boat heading out to sea in order to assist another container ship to enter the harbour. There was also an unusual sea mist drifting in.

Watching all this was an NZ couple who were going round Australia in their self-converted campervan. They were going south, so I told them not to miss Monkey Mia.

Leaving town, it was impossible to miss the huge piles of salt, reclaimed from solar ponds:

It had been my intention to stay overnight at one of the roadhouses, in order to break the long journey to Broome. In the end I decided to keep going. It was such a hot day again, there would be nothing to do if I stopped.  Also, I managed to get behind a wide load travelling at only 85 kmh. It had a pilot vehicle in front and behind and the two were in radio contact to signal when the road was clear to overtake. It took me a while to understand this, and I was scared of a flying stone hitting my windscreen again. It pulled in for a lunch break at Sandfire Roadhouse, so I did the same and watched carefully so that I could set off in front:

The driver went round tapping all the wheels ( and there were a lot!) ; he decided he needed to change one so this allowed me to get away first.

As I was eating my sandwich, a group of hungry peacocks were hanging around hoping for crumbs. They were quite intimidating. When I didn’t give them anything (bread is not suitable for birds and smoked salmon and cream cheese was too good for them) more of the flock arrived and surrounded my car, first the males and then some females:



When I finally got to Broome, I had to find somewhere to stay, as my booking at Bali Hai starts tomorrow. The Continental had rooms: an old style hotel which has seen better days, but they gave me a room next to the pool, which was exactly what I needed after a long day at the wheel.

Point Samson to Port Hedland

Another early morning walk took me in the opposite direction from Honeymoon Pool. In this part of the world the sun rises over the ocean which is quite unusual in WA. I made a short video of this on my Instagram account. This is a morning shot of the Cape Lambert jetty, and a nicely decorated public toilet:

Back on the road, my first stop was Wickham where a Woolies provided a few supplies - everything is really expensive in these remote areas, especially fruit and veg. But I need to eat! I paid $7.50 for blueberries which have travelled from NZ.

Today was an easy day driving: just over 200 kms. Each day seems to get a few degrees hotter; it reached 37 today. The aircon goes full blast in the car and dries my eyes out. I made a stop for coffee ( my own) at the old Whim Creek Hotel. It is long since closed and falling into disrepair, but I remember camping here with the Nats years ago. The barmaid had adopted an orphaned baby kangaroo, which she carried around with her as she did her work.

I arrived at Port Hedland caravan park in time to make lunch in my cabin. This place used to be called Cooke Point park, but has been taken over by Discovery Parks. I was a bit worried as to where I had actually booked, but all was well. After a siesta, I explored the beach and took some pics of the Pretty Pool area:

The tide was well out:

In the dunes I spotted some of the nasty “double gees” which Rocky got stuck in his paw in York:

Also, many Birdflowers which are prolific in this area:

I managed to fit in a swim in the small pool, just as the sun was going down: