Karijini national park, Oct 4-8

We stayed at Dales gorge campground for a few days and explored the park.

Fortescue Falls, Circular Pool & Fern Pool are three highlights of Dales Gorge. We enjoyed a swim in the refreshing but inviting waterholes. Someone warned us they had seen a snake under some of the rocks but we didn't see it...

We also had a look at Weano gorge: the walks were relatively easy. And Manfred and I took turns to check the handrail pool, which was a bit more difficult to access but well worth it as the swimming hole was great.

 






































 
The Oxer lookout was stunning: it shows the junction of 4 mighty gorges.

The last gorge we visited was the Kalamina gorge. We liked that gorge a lot too. The walk was a bit more challenging with the kids as the path wasn't always obvious and parts of the walk were at the edge of the rock walls.

Karijini is also a great spot for the more adventurous as some of the gorges can only be explored via abseiling. 

On our way out of Karijini we had a quick look at Tom Price. We unhooked the van and drove up a 4WD track to the top of Mount Nameless. Up there we had a good view of the iron ore mine.

That evening we stayed at the Paraburdoo roadhouse.

Eighty mile beach and Port Headland, Oct 2-4

At Eighty mile beach, Nina, Annabelle and I had fun looking for nice shells. Some of them were very nice and colorful. Annabelle displayed all the shells she found and was very happy with her new treasures.

The kids found a Hermite crab in the caravan park so we decided to bring him back to the beach where he belongs.
How cute to watch the little ones on their little mission!

We then moved to Port Headland. The first thing you see when you arrive in town, beside the airport, are the white salt mines.

The girls "rescued" a little baby bird that must have fallen off a tree. They tried to give him some water with a syringe and were looking for food to feed him. That was very cute. We did a little bed for him for the night and in the morning they were very happy to see that his mum had found him and was feeding him. Although he couldn't fly just yet, we believe and hope he survived!

Broome, Sept 22- Oct 1

 
Back in Broome we took it easy and had relaxing time. The beach was so inviting with its turquoise sea!
We all enjoyed swimming as the water was nice and warm.
Nina and Annabelle had fun running along on the beach too. Annabelles favorite thing was to demolish the sandcastles that Manfred built.
The girls had some fun too with their friends Ilara and Max.

Manfred and I took turns to go and see the film Bran Nue Dae at the Sun Pictures (the world's oldest picture garden, est. 1916). It was very nice to watch the movie in Broome, which is the setting for most of the movie (including the cinema that we were in).

We went to Gantheaume point at low tide to see ancient dinosaur footprints that are more than 120 million years old. Beside the footprints the girls had more fun looking for crabs.

One evening Nina and Annabelle had lot's of fun at the town beach playground and later on the beach looking for shells, hermite crabs and starfishes.

Like typical tourists we went on a camel ride one afternoon. It was quite funny as the 4 of us were on one camel. But luckily we did the shortest ride of the day as the girls quickly got uncomfortable and soon had enough of it.
We watched the sunset that evening and saw the camel ride group coming back. It looked beautiful.

We were lucky to be in Broome during full moon as we got to see the famous staircase to the moon from town beach. Very nice to see the moon slowly appearing at the horizon and reflecting on the sea forming a few stairs!

I am glad we got to go to Matso's brewery. It's a nice old building with a lovely outdoor area in the shade overlooking the sea and their beers are yummy (we tried the mango and ginger beers).

We moved caravan park for the last 5 nights and had a spot next to the pool and playground. Perfect!
Nice holiday feeling!

Cape Leveque, Sept 20-22

It got quite hot in Broome too but luckily the sea breeze made a difference.

We had one day to get organised with tent, food, etc and we were off to Cape Leveque for 2 nights with 11 other people!
On our way to Cape Leveque we stopped to see the Beagle Bay Sacred Heart Church with its pearl shell altar. And for those who have seen the film "Bran Nue Dae", one of the scene takes place in this church!

We had lunch at Middle harbour and went for a swim in the beautiful clear water. The beach was just beautiful!

At Cape Leveque (or Kooljaman ) part of the group set up camp at the campground up on the hill and the rest of the group stayed under tent shelters on the beach.
What a setting! We could have all stayed there for a week! Perfect place to relax and forget about all worries!
We had great common dinners and a few stories to share.
 

Next day we were off to the trochus hatchery and aquaculture center at One Arm point (aboriginal community): it was very informative. The kids enjoyed touching the shells, sea stars and sea cucumbers.
They also loved the turtles. Some of us fed the barramundi and  I was surprised by the sudden jump and bite they did when catching the fish.

I went snorkeling with some of the group one late afternoon and was amazed by the many beautiful fishes. I was a bit scared to meet or step on a dangerous stone fish but I enjoyed seeing so many colorful fish.

Between Turkey Creek and Broome, Sept 16-20

We had a great sleep at the Turkey creek caravan park, which made up for the previous uncomfortable sleep at the Bungle Bungle.
We said good bye to the lovely family we met at the Bungle Bungle as we were heading opposite directions.

On our way out I had a look at the Warmun art gallery, which seems to be a well-known contemporary aboriginal art gallery. More info on www.warmunart.com.
Nice paintings!

Our next destination was Fitzroy crossing. The caravan park had lot's of space, which was nice for change, and the girls had fun cycling down the hill from the amenities block down to our caravan.



On our way out we drove to Geike gorge where I went on a cruise. I loved the cruise. It was another gorge but this time a different one as it is a reef!
We saw a lot of freshwater crocodiles, which was great.

Here is some info I found on Kimberley Australia travel guide:

The mighty Fitzroy River has carved a 30 metre deep gorge into the remains of the ancient limestone barrier reef that existed here in the Devonian period*.
*The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from 416 to 359.2 million years ago.

When the Fitzroy is in full flood during the wet season it covers the whole national park. Those floods rise over 16 metres up the gorge walls and the continuous rise and fall of the water has left the bottom of the walls bleached white, an intriguing sight which makes Geikie Gorge very popular with photographers.

Off to Broome after that! Back to a bit more civilization! Yippie!

Bungle Bungle in the Kimberleys, Sept 15-16

Our next destination after Kununurra was Turkey creek (Warmun being the aboriginal name).

We left the caravan in storage there for 1 night as we planned to camp at the Bungle Bungle (Purnululu national park).
The 4WD to the Bungle Bungle was quite scenic, but also bumpy and long (about 2.5 hours!).
What an amazing rock formation!

We got there early enough to do one walk before setting up camp. We walked to the Echidna gorge (chasm). You can see how the rock split at some point creating a narrow chasm.

We had a memorable camping experience at the campgrounds that night. I dissuaded Manfred from setting up our big tent for just one night andconvinced him to setup the fly screen tent only. However, as we were putting it up, it started to rain so we threw our tent top/roof on it but with the wind and the weight, it started to collapse slowly...only to get more and more wet...with the girls underneath...

In the meantime I had a saucepan with water on the stove but the water didn't seem to boil!!! So I gave up the idea of cooking and decided to feed the girls and us some cereals. 

We all ended up eating in the car and also sleeping in the car! What a night! It brought back some memories of our flight to Europe.
The girls slept through the night actually so that was good. Only Manfred and I seemed to wake up with sore necks:-)

The next day we had a look at the Cathedral gorge and did the Dome walk. We met a lovely family with 2 kids from Perth (Manfred had met them already where we stored the caravan) and
ended up doing the walks together, which was lovely. The kids walked and walked without realizing the amount of steps they did as they were having so much fun.
What we saw that morning was well worth it.

We then left the Bungle Bungle and tackled the long drive back to Turkey creek. We all ended up staying at the same caravan park.

Emma gorge and El Questro in the east Kimberleys, Sept 11-14

We drove all the way to Wyndam to have a look at the Five rivers lookout. Amazing view of all the rivers. It was very hot when we were there.

We then made our way to Emma gorge where we stayed for 3 nights. We booked a cute little pre-erected tent luckily with power for a fan as the days were hot.
What a setting! We were right in front of the walk to the gorge.

The walk to the gorge was about 3kms return and was very nice. Although it was hot, the girls walked very well, the track was pretty tough for those little legs. We took our backpack baby carrier for Annabelle, which was a good idea. The gorge was quite similar to Jim Jim falls in Kakadu.
The water was cold but it didn't matter at all, on the contrary it was the perfect temperature to cool off after the walk.

The next day we explored the El Questro gorge. Manfred like that walk better than Emma gorge but I found it more challenging with the many rocks.
The girls still walked amazingly well. We got to the lower gorge and I had a nice break and a little swim with the girls, while Manfred challenged himself by walking to the upper gorge. We couldn't have brought the kids there.
There was apparently quite a lot of challenging climbing involved. The upper gorge looked great from the pictures he took.

One morning there was a nice surprise for the girls in our tent: a green frog. And guess what? She was in the toilet!
We managed to get her out of there and all wondered how she had ended up there. We released her into the bush again and the girls had fun watching her. Guess where she went to? The water pipe! Where she had probably come through to end on the toilet...

We took the Toyota on a very nice 4WD track to the saddleback lookout. The lookout was nice but I think I enjoyed the drive to it more.

The Chamberlain gorge that we accessed by boat cruise was also well worth going to. We got tons of great information about the area, and crocodiles in general.
The girls liked feeding the Archer fish and they giggled everytime one of them spitted some water out! That was funny!
I liked the sparkling wine too. It gave a good atmosphere on the boat.

We finished the day with a nice dinner at the Steakhouse of the El Questro station.

The 3 days in the east Kimberleys were very nice despite the heat.
Before we left the region we went for a dip at the Zebedee hotsprings: a little heaven with palm trees and bath water.

Between Katherine & Kununurra, Sept 7-11

It was time to say good bye to the northern territory and head slowly direction WA.

The drive was very scenic. We had a picnic at the Gregory national park, which was nice but hot!(40C +).

We stayed at Timber creek, which was just before the border. We had to make sure we didn't carry anymore fruits, vegetables, honey and nuts.
Although we had a big fruit salad for breakfast, we still had a few vegetables so I found it handy that the lady at the croc tour booking office next to the caravan park was taking fruits and vegetables donations.
She was giving them to families in need.

The tiny Timber creek caravan park actually had a popular tourist attraction: crocodile feeding at 5pm!
All crocs were small freshwater crocs and there were quite a few of them. The lady from the caravan park was holding a stick that had a line with a piece of meat at the end. Somehow I thought she would just thow the meat in the water.
So everyone who wanted could have a go at feeding them. I will never forget this snap sound when their mouth snapped the meat!
Quite loud! I think we now have a bit more respect for the freshies.

We crossed the border without trouble. Luckily I didn't forget any fruits or vegetables in the caravan. Phew!


Our first outing from Kununurra was the lake Argyle, apparently 54 times the size of Sydney harbour!
We didn't go on a cruise but went to the lookout and had a lovely picnic by the Ord river.

We also had a look at the Ivanhoe crossing where at a certain time of the year you can see crocodiles feeding on the many barramundis that migrate downstream. Must be impressive to see!

We left our caravan in storage for 3 nights at the zebra rock gallery as we were planning to visit the east Kimberleys.