Thursday, May 26, 2011

Port Smith



Port Smith Lagoon Caravan Park is 140ks south of Broome on the Great Northern Highway, then a further 23ks of unsealed red sand into the park. The park itself is on Aboriginal land and surrounded by three communities-Bidyadanga being the largest of them and the largest community in WA. Other than that, there is nothing here.

Port Smith is actually a tidal estury with a number of creeks and inlets and is subject to some pretty amazing tides-9 metres when we first arrived but it's reduced drastically now.

The variance in tides means we have to be always rethinking where we launch and retrieve the boat and where we park the car and trailer. In the first week, we had a lovely clear swimming spot, now it's a 4wd track we cross to launch the boat and the tide won't come in high enough to re-cover it before we leave.


This is the second time we've been here and it's lost none of it's appeal; in fact with less people in the park, we're enjoying it more and it seems like there is more fish around. Russ also managed to catch us a mud crab, the first we've ever caught here. He certainly made for a yummy entree!


The downside to Port Smith is the limited TV, phone and internet. We can only get very snowy ABC 1 and the internet and phone were dropping in and out until we went to town on Tuesday and bought an antenna. I've got it mounted on a surf rod and it works a treat. I don't care about the TV now I'm back in internet land!

It's a pity the sandfly problem can't be solved as easily! We spend all day doing battle with them-making sure we have enough insect repellant on, then dabbing all the bites in all the places we missed with Sting Goes. A shower after fishing aggrevates the bites, but an anti-histamine before bed makes for a good scratchless sleep. Bushman's repellant it good but I find it melts my vinyl boat seat and the grips of fishing rods!

We'll be leaving here on Monday and making our way down to Yardie Creek outside Exmouth but before we go, we're taking one more trip into Broome on Saturday to go to the first race meeting of the year with friends Jimmy and Beth. Beth promises me it's a big meeting-nearly as big as the Broome cup. They are members and we can go along with them, so it'll be a nice chance to get out of fishing clothes and get a bit tidied up!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Polo on Cable Beach


Russ Beth and I went to the polo on Cable Beach today. We shared a bottle of Sem, Sav, Blanc at a bar on the beach, then wandered down to watch the game (Good game cos Aus beat NZ) After a spot of shopping we finished the day with Jimmy and Chinese take away.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Broome Photos

Broome




We have had a wonderful time in Broome-the gorgeous weather is so very easy to take and this caravan park has really made all the difference to my feelings about Broome!

We've love catching up with old friends Jimmy and Beth and having a few meals and drinks together. We've swum, fished ridden camels and generally had a relaxing (warm) time.

Tonight we're off to the crab racing here in town. It comes with a roast dinner and is supposed to be fun according to Jimmy and Beth.

Tomorrow we move on to Port Smith which we loved last time. It's quite remote, so no TV, internet or phone for 13 days unless I drive around 15ks to use the Bidjidanga community's tower! Port Smith is great fishing which we are really looking forward to.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Dragonflies


I forgot to mention the dragonflies we've been seeing! Apparently they emerge when the wet finishes so we are seeing millions at the moment.

At Bitter Springs, they hovered over the water as we swam-red, blue, jade green, fluro green/yellow, black, black and gold, bronze, while here in Broome they are a more sombre colour, but much bigger. We walked down Cable Beach this morning followed by hundreds of them. We saw heaps of hawks (up to a dozen in the air and at least 16 resting on the beach) which we thought must be catching and eating them on the wing.


I'm really enjoying Broome-I think arriving here before the main tourist season and staying in the virtually empty park helps. Plus, the weather is gorgeous and the place is beautiful after the wet with all the frangipani and bouganvillia in bloom. We enjoyed a 5k walk on Cable beach this morning. We virtually had it to ourselves apart from a handful of nude sunbathers.


Tonight we're off out to dinner with friends Beth and James. BYO Italian which I'm looking forward to.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Broome


Well, thank goodness, we are in Broome for 8 days-I need the rest after all the driving.

I was tired and slept a lot of the 400ks to get here from Fitzroy Crossing, but did stay awake to watch 60ks of bikes, bike riders and support vehicles go by. They were meant to be riding the Gibb River Road but with it closed, had to take the Great Northern Highway instead. I felt sorry for anyone going their way, or trying to pass us; it just wasn't easy for the 60ks of road they took up!

We arrived here around 2.30pm to find the park half empty and a lovely site chosen for us by management as a friend of Beths (thanks Beth). The sites are big and shaded anyway, so it would be hard to get a bad site, but we are close to the pool and toilets which is always good! We set up, got the boat and trailer organised, did some shopping, watched the sunset and ate curry for dinner. A good day!

Sunset at Gantheaume Point


It's cold here apparently-26 has sent the locals into their scarves and jumpers while we think it's just perfect. We'll have a fish this afternoon then catch up with Beth.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Fitzroy Crossing-just 400ks short of Broome

Mary Pool


We had a lovely but pretty rough drive from Kununurra to Halls Creek yesterday. Lots of stock, lots of green and lots of water plus stunning ranges all the way. That part of the Kimberley is just hilly and windy enough to make it really, really interesting-unfortunately, I feel like I'm getting a cold and couldn't be bothered taking photos :-(.

Halls Creek is a much nicer place to visit than last time we spent a few days there. They'd had riots and kids were being held in protective custody after some sexual assaults on them. It was awful. The stricter grog laws made for a much nicer stay last night. It must be better fo all of us I think!

Today we've driven to the very beautiful Fitzroy Crossing Resort-one of the nicest parks we've ever stayed in. Grass, trees and usually a chance to wash the car. A nice pub and restaurant, tennis courts, motel etc and the coldest pool in Australia due to the shade of trees and buildings-don't think I'll bother this time! We stopped for an apple and a drink of water at Mary Pool along the way and again at the Ngumban Cliffs (100ks out of FC) for a few photos.

Ngumban Cliffs


This time, the sites are still to wet after The Wet, so no washing of vehicles as yet and we had to pick the driest site we could and be careful not to tear up the grass when we parked. Not too many people here yet either, so we got a top spot. The road was in a better condition today so no spilled olives or sundried tomatoes in the fridge for a nice change. The country has flattened out and got drier since leaving Halls Creek (just getting us ready for the VERY long VERY boring bit between Broome and Port Hedland I reckon)!



Tomorrow we have just under 400ks to travel to Broome where we'll spend at least 8 nights. We'll be there for the week of polo on Cable Beach being played between Australia and NZ-should be great so long as we aren't trampled by a polo pony!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Fridge


Our one full day in Kununurra was spent getting the fridge working properly. Russ dropped the car in and had a stronger 7 pin plug fitted. He spent a couple of hours walking round town so bought himeslf some very cheap, on sale shorts. The man who used to be 4x is now size 34-amazing.

In the afternoon, we had to be home for the auto elec to come and re wire the van. They had a job at the airport (which by the way is very busy with planes of allshapes and sizes taking off and landing all day) then they would get to us asap. Well, they did eventually get here and everything is fixed which is such a relief, but all we did for the day was swim and read and compute.

The fridge was an expensive job, but we have paid for the car and Coronet have paid for the van to be done, so it could have been worse!



We have had two lovely nights sitting down by the lake watching the sunset and having pre-dinner drinks with our neighbours John and Judy. Such a nice couple that I'm sure we'll see again through WA.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A lovely drive

A big old boab tree

It might seem that we've done nothing but drive the past (almost) 3 weeks and it might be so, but it doesn't mean we don't enjoy it!

Today we left Timber Creek quite late (9.30am) as we only had 220ks to drive and were gaining an hour and a half at the WA border (and losing a jar of honey!).

It was the most gorgeous drive out of the Victoria Escarpment region, along the Pinkerton Ranges, through Keep National Park and into the Kimberley. We drove through a wonderful swamp/floodway for about 10ks absolutely teeming with waterbirds: brolgas, ducks, ibis, jabarus etc and heaps of hawks and eagles. We even saw an eagle fly over us with a snake in it's talons. It really reminded me of the yellow waters boat tour we did at Kakadu years ago. Once again the road was a bit rough, but we just took it slow so no dramas. For the third day in a row we saw a helicopter taking off by the roadside just in front of us to muster cattle-it was like Groundhog Day. It was great to see the boab trees and kapok bushes (with their bright yellow flowers) and know we were getting to the Kimberley and WA.



We are now in Kununarra for two nights, though I'd really like to stay three as we have the nicest site. Tomorrow morning we have the car booked in with a local auto electrician as we need a stronger hot wire to the battery. We didn't realise until we got into this heat that the fridge in this new van wasn't working on battery power as we travelled-our hot wire is too small, so the battery or fridge (or something) sort of shuts off to protect itself from overloading.

Bye Bye Bitter Springs

We dragged ourselves away from the springs this morning and drove to Timber Creek. This will be our last stop in the Northern Territory; tomorrow we'll arrive in Kununurra WA. I've always remembered the springs as one of my favourite places in Aus and after our three night stay, they still are. I can't wait to visit again one day soon!

We were quite pleased to pay "just" $1.79 a litre for a bit of fuel in Mataranka so were ecstatic to pay $1.55 in Katherine. We went in and did a small shop in Woolworths but there was no point getting to carried away as we cross the border tomorrow and can't carry fruit and veg in with us), I got some more shorts in Target and some fresh bread at Brumbys.

The Victoria Highway was a bit chopped up with flood damage so the going was slow at times but once again the country was looking so great and the cattle like big fatty boombahs. I especially enjoyed the Victoria Escarpment Region with its towering red cliffs mile after mile and lots of water in the creeks that feed into the Victoria river. We spent quite a lot of time travelling through here a few years ago, so it wasn't too hard to drive straight through.