80 Mile Beach, WA

18th August, 2010

It was hard to leave Quandong, but we wanted to start heading down the coast. First stop was 80 Mile Beach. A beach that is completely covered in shells. The further we drove down the beach, the bigger the shells got. We had lots of fun collecting them, making funny things with them and then deciding which ones to keep.

Kids on 80 Mile


Wayne's new hat, 100% UV protection

Blake's earth art creation

Derby

1st September, 2010

Day 227

Derby was an overnighter, though we managed to check out the jetty, the 120m water trough (now the 2nd longest in the world, outdone by Americans) and the infamous prison boab tree. The mudflats were amazing to see also and a reminder that the tide can vary up to 11m.

Water trough and windmill



Prison Boab Tree

Derby Jetty

Quandong Point, Brooome

2nd to 17th August, 2010

We found this amazing campspot just north of Broome. We scored a quiet, shady spot atop a cliff with endless views of the ocean, whale and dolphin watching, swimming and fishing.

After weeks of living with dust as our friend, it was great to be back to sand in our beds !! The kids made some good friends here and did lots of socialising, between schooling and hanging out on the beach.

We made a few trips into Broome for a bit of sightseeing, shopping, stocking up on water and camel rides on Cable Beach. We could have spent months here, it was so beautiful, best of all it was a free camp!

Wayne's catch of the year, a 25kg, 125cm long Blue Fin Tuna, took 2 hours to cut up.

Darcy doing a beach dance

Giant clam we found at low tide

Dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume Point



Amber, the shining star

Blake throwing in a line at Barred Creek

Sunset at our camp

Whale tail from camp

We all loved this ride

Near the wharf in Broome

Fitzroy Crossing

31th July, 2010

Day 226

We headed to an Old RAAf Quarry for an overnighter, before heading to Fitzroy Crossing for a view of Geikie Gorge. Impressive towering black, white and orange walls surrounded us as we walked along the banks of the Fitzroy River, dodging the grass burrs along the way. We drove over the Old crossing, checked out the old Post Office and headed to Derby.

Old Quarry we stayed at overnight, Blake fished for tiny ones with a stick line and sultanas.

Geikie Gorge, near Fitzroy Crossing

Geikie Gorge

Hogwarts at Geikie

Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

30th July

Day 225

We spent the morning exploring the 360 million year old Devonian reef, amazed at the aquatic fossils embeddded in the rocks. The rocks surrounding us were once the sea floor.

There were alot of freshies hanging around in the water or sunning themselves on the sandbank.

In the afternoon we headed to Tunnel Creek to negotiate a river running through a cave. We headed into pitch blackness with our torches and were prepared to get wet. At some points we were wading through water waist deep for us, chest deep for Blake and Amber and over the head for the three little ones. Eamon and Darcy were piggybacked and I swung James with my free arm through the deep bits. It would have been pretty funny to see, lucky we were in the dark. It was a limestone cave and had incredible staligtites and staligmites. There were also lots of bats in there that we could see in the light patch where the cave had caved in along time ago.

Staligtite at Tunnel Creek


Entering Tunnel Creek

A break of light in Tunnel Creek

A friendly freshie at Windjana Gorge

The magnitude of Windjana Gorge

Bell Gorge

29th July 2010

Day 224

Bell Gorge needed a page all of its own, mainly so we could show off a few photos of the kids. Sorry Blake missed out in the pics, he spent all day in the water, jumping off rocks or chasing lizards. It was a hard and steep walk in and out, with Blake, Amber and James managing really well as now seasoned gorge walkers. Eamon and Darcy became human backpacks for Wayne and I, with the story of the Little Red Engine springing to mind as we headed back to the car (I think I can, I think I can!)

We camped at King Leopold Conservation Park, lucky to get there before sundown. We stopped to get much needed fuel (next fuel stop at least 100kms away) and the power had gone down for an unpredicted time. Lucky for us, it was up and running within 2 hours of us arriving there!

Li-lo-ing at Bell Gorge



Eamon

Eamon and James

Darc and Amber

Eamon and Darcy

Gibb River Road

23rd - 29th July 2010

Days 218 to 224

Exploring the East Kimberley was an amazing experience. We had to consider lots of issues prior to take off, including catering for 7 mouths for an undetermined length of time, locating water and fuel sources across this fairly remote stretch of 600kms of rough gravel road and being well prepared if we had car issues. Having already blown one tyre and a broken back windscreen, we knew all the risks of this kind of adventure.

The preparation was worth every moment. The scenery of this rugged landscape was incredibly beautiful. Walking the long hard gorges were well worth the effort, usually being rewarded with a cool dip in a waterhole surrounded by sheer cliff walls and a waterfall or two. It was really dry and dusty, though we fished along the way (with not much success), explored El Questro and drove alot. Our fav spot was Bell Gorge, where the kids floated around on the li-lo and the big kids had fun jumping off the rocks into the cool depths below.

Adcock Gorge



Mt Barnett River Gorge



Branco's Lookout, El Questro

Zebedee Springs, El Questro

Emma Gorge