Derby

So we made our way on Friday to Derby from Fitzroy Crossing. It wasn't a massive drive but by about half way we had the music going to pass the time. I wasn't feeling the greatest, bit of an upset stomach, which turned into a gastro like bug as the day went on! Not good when you are on holidays! 

Anyway, upon arriving into Derby we went to the info. centre to find out where we could stay. There are 2 caravan parks in the town but only one accepts children! The other is an adults retreat!! After making our way the the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park we set up & then went about finding a place to have some lunch. It was rather hot by this time & we were (especially me) exhausted! We made our way to the Indulgence Cafe, the food was yummy! Lots of home made dishes, pies, sausage rolls, salads, wraps & sandwiches to choose from. Trent had a REAL coffee, which he enjoyed alot! And the cake range was pretty good too! Trent had cake & the lady gave all the kids a bowl of ice cream for free, which was very nice of her. 

 We took a drive around the town after that & did a quick shop at woolies for a few items & got fuel. Back at the van I had a rest and Trent & the kids watched a movie in the air conditioning. When the movie finished we took a drive to the Pharmacy so I could get some supplies to try & dry myself up & rehydrate myself! Oh & some much needed panadol to try & kill the headache & aches & pains I was getting all over my body by this stage!

 I swallowed them down & we went for another bit of a drive to the Derby Port. We took a walk out on the Jetty & some Aboriginal blokes showed us a Salmon that they had proudly caught. The smile on their faces said it all! 

These are the pictures we took whilst at the port/Jetty.

After here we went back to the van & I pretty much went to bed & Trent played with the kids, got dinner & showered them. I struggled but did get up & do the dishes & had a shower. I was taken over not only by the gastro thing but a massive fever so I was out of it for the rest of the night. Pheobe took this photo of the sun going down for me, I think she just wanted to cheer me up!

The kids also had a lovely time speaking to Nannie Jac on facetime that night. 

The next day we got up reasonably early & I was still not very well :-( We got the kids organised & packed up & we headed to Broome. 

 On the way just out of Derby we stopped to check out the Boab Prison Tree. This is a massive Boab Tree that was used to shelter Aboriginal prisoners on their last night before heading to court & ultimately jail. 

I had to put my seat back & tried to get as comfy as I could the rest of the way to Broome. 

Once in Broome we called into the info. centre to ask about a few things, booked our camp site for Cape Leveque for the ens of this week (thats when we could get in anyway!). Next we made our way to the Cable Beach Caravan Park where set up & I got everyone some lunch before they had a swim in the pool. 

Im going to leave this blog here as I will post another part to the blog on what we have been getting up to so far in Broome at a later day. Today, monday is the first day I have started to feel like I can do anything since catching the bug on Thursday night, so whatever it was got me good & it can now stay away & never come back! I would like to enjoy the rest of our trip!

Anyway, hope his finds you all safe & well & not too wet & cold. Must say, its not a dry heat here in Broome at the moment, its a little humid. Sun is shining though & we are all very happy! xo

Back up the Gibb River Road!

Sunday came & we were all packed up & ready to go! We put the van into the storage area at the park & then headed off. Up the highway & then onto the corrigated road to Windjana Gorge. This took us about 2 hours! We had to pay our camping fee for the night before we entered the camp ground. We had already brought a park pass so we didn't need to pay that again. 

 We found a place to set up the tent & started doing that. It was very hot but we got through it & found the shade to be very helpful too. We had some lunch after setting up & then we got chatting to a family who had been on the gorge walk in the morning. 

The sign as we entered Windjana Gorge.

             Our camp all set up.

         The view from our tent site.

In the later afternoon we decided to do the walk into the gorge. It was pretty amazing & although we couldn't swim here we had a super fun time spotting the 100's of Fresh Water Crocs just lazing in the sun on the sandy river bank & also in the water. Here are some of the pics:

 

See all the crocs in the background of this one! A fair few had swam into the water by the time I took the photo.

This was the tunnel we had to go through to get into the gorge. We took this one on the way back out!

Back at camp we got some dinner, cleaned up, had showers & then hit our sleeping bags!

            Trent cooking dinner!

The next day we were up reasonably early, very light here in the Kimberley's from about 5am to be exact! We had some breaky, packed up our gear & had showers - quite hot by this stage too! In the car by around 8.30am.

 Our plan was to bypass Bell Gorge & the Silent Grove camping area as we would do this on our return trip. We were headed for Manning River Gorge. The road along the was was corrigated & rough but nothing like we experienced in the cape 2 years ago! We had some spectacular views, a couple of creek crossings (not much water in them though) many 'buckin bulls' or cows to look at (Maurice calls them the buckin bulls). We stopped when we got to the Imintji Store. This store was a couple of shipping containers stuck together but it had EVERYTHING you could possibly need! The kids & Trent got ice creams & a drink, me just a drink! We ate under the trees at a table & chairs next to the store & then it was a quick toilet stop & we were on the road again. 

It wasn't all that long before we reached the Mt. Barnett Roadhouse. It was here we had to pay our camping fee for Manning Gorge & the entrance to the camping area was about 7km's behind the roadhouse. We drove down the track to the gorge & then set up camp. It was very hot going but we managed. The kids were really good knowing that if they sat in the shade & let us get the set up done, lunch & a swim was in store for them. And that is exactly what we did. Lunch & then a swim in the river for the rest of the afternoon, it was delightful & very refreshing. Exactly what we were wanting! So so hot! It got to about 4.30pm & we finally got out of the water & back to our camp where we got our dinner cooked & eaten. We had to make sure we were eating at least by 5.15-5.30 as the sun sets around 5.30pm & it doesn't take long before there is no light left! We like to eat in the daylight & clean up, then we can shower over at the amenities block before the generator turns off at 7.30pm! We got the kids into bed by 6.45pm - world record!!! Trent & I sat up & had a cuppa & watched the stars before going to bed ourselves. 

Next morning we were up by 5.30am & by 6.30am we were on the walking track to Manning Gorge. It was a rocky, bushy & sandy track that went for an adventurous 2 & a bit km's. We had to do a rope pulling boat to cross the river to start with to which was lots od fun. Trent towards the end of the track had to pit Flick on his shoulders as some of the rocks we had to get over were bigger than she was & the terrain was very steep up & down. It was all over in about an hour & 15minutes, we had made it! It was well worth it, these are the first few pics I took of us swimming but as we swam over to the next pool where the waterfalls are I didn't have the camera & I can't tell you enough how magical it was. The kids were jumping off the different rock ledges into the pool at the bottom of the falls. Maurice jumped from the highest one, so proud of him! They had a ball. The water was lovely & cool, you could see fish swimming all around. Like I said, it was well worth it. Everyone should experience this at least once in their lifetime if they can. 

Trent pulling the boat back across the river to us!

If you look over to about the middle of this pic you will see the black looking rocks - this is near where we swam over to & there is another big pool of water where the waterfalls flow into, its there where we swam for the longest & jumped off the rocks into the water.

So after an amazing time in te water we headed back to the first pool & where we had left all our stuff. We had some sandwiches & biscuits & a drink & then it was time for another quick dip to get cool. We got dressed & by 10am we were heading back out the track. It was really hard going, so lucky that the really hard bit was at the start, otherwise Trent might not have managed to get Flick out! We kept as hydrated as we could, drinking & watering ourselves down & taking shade & a rest where we could. It took us only an extra 10minutes on our way back than on our way there which was suprising but we made it!!! 

This was a pic we took as we were heading back, the views are wonderful. 

When we got back to camp we headed straight for the showers - cold ones too! Then we went in the car to the roadhouse where we promised the kids some ice cream for the HUGE effort that they had made! Very well deserved those ice creams were. We also found out that it was around the 39 degree mark, so no wonder we were as hot as we were! 

Back at camp we again spent the afternoon in the river swimming to keep cool. Back to cook & eat dinner - quick & easy pasta it was! Cleaned up & time for bed, after yet another nice cold bottle of water! It was an eventful night, we could here heaps of noise, like people were packing up or snooping around the camp. It got the better of Trent & he got up around midnight to see. He called me up straight away. I got out of the tent & there was a bull & some cows cruising around the camp checking out everyones things! The cows then moved further on to a camp with a dog, it barked & the cows got an almighty fight running off like crazy! The sound of their hooves was awsome! After all that we both had to do a pee & then it was back to bed for a very restless kind of night. We thought we would have slept really well considering how tired we were. Anyway, the morning came & we made the decision to come back to the van. We knew the 2 other places we were going to visit, Mitchell Falls & Bell Gorge, the kids wouldn't have been able to do without help & Trent & I didn't have it in us. Plus temp was still high & we were starting to run low on water. Oh well, it now gives us an excuse to come back when the kids are a little older & at a time when it isn't so hot to finish what we started. 

We packed up after breaky & had showers. We got on the road by about 9.30am. The road had been graded in time we had been there so it was really quite easy going on the way back & we made very good time. Here is just a pic of one of the views on the way back.

We also went past what is known as Queen Victoria's Head, see if you can make it out. 

And one final thing we did before getting back to Fitzroy Crossing was visit Tunnel Creek. Here we walked through the tunnel with a river flowing through it. We needed our torches because it was so dark. It was here in the 1800's that an aboriginal man held out the police for a number of years before he was caught at the tunnels entrance. The kids had heaps of fun being adventurers! Here are a couple of pics we took.

We got back to town around 3.30pm. Got fuel, Unpacked the car, washed our gear, washed our clothes & got them hung out. Had a very slack dinner, spag on toast! Showers & bed!

 Today we have had a very relaxing kind of day, a little bit of cleaning, Trent cleaned the car & Phe has almost caught up on her homework! Think we might also have a swim & another early night if we can before we head off tomorrow. Not exactly sure yet where to but I will of course let you know where.

 

Fitzroy Crossing

Hi all!

We have almost ended what has been 2 nights at Fitzroy Crossing. We got up early at Halls Creek & left by 7.30am. The time difference thing that we are trying to adjust to sometimes works to our advantage! Anyway, we drove pretty much straight here only stopping for me to get some fruit snacks out of the van for the kids. 

Once we arrived we got fuel, then went to the info centre. We made a plan from there & then went & checked in at the Fitzroy Lodge Caravan Park. Its a nice park, out of town just a little, has nice clean showers/toilets and a swimming pool! A must when travelling with the kids.

 After unhooking and getting organised we had some lunch & then took a drive around town. Not much to the town really, its a town with a few very close aboriginal communities near by. There is a school, hospital, fire, police, centrelink store but closed due to lack of staff! A isupermarket, post office, hardware store,  a mechanic, a couple of servo's & a store that has a bit of everything when it comes to clothing, electrical appliances, sporting gear, baby suplies, shoes & other stuff.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the park in the pool. We spoke to some really helpful people at the pool & we have now made the decision to go back onto the Gibb River Road from here & not Derby as originally planned. It was a slack dinner last night, our fridge seems to be not working as well as it should, so had to get rid of some food. 

Today we got up early as well. We got told about the Geikie Gorge Boat Cruise that you could do so we thought we would go & check it out. The curise left at 8am & we needed to be there about half hour before to get our tickets. It only went for an hour but it was a smaller gorge than all the others that we have been in to & it was also different in that we saw lots of the untouched sandstone that millions of years ago was the reef. We also saw a fair few fresh water crocs & a few birds. The gorge is actually up the Fitzroy River. This river when it is in flood it carrys the most volume of water out to sea in Australia. We were listening!!

Here are a few of the pics we took.

And there you have it, some of what Geikie Gorge has to offer. 

So we were back in town by 10am & had to start getting organised for our next few days camping at different spots along the Gibb River Road. First was the Supermarket, then the Hardware store & back to the caravan park. We made sure we could store our van here at the park too. Trent & I then started puttig everything together & up on top of the car. I also helped Phe with some homework & Maurice & Flick played with toys. We had pancakes for lunch, I told Phe she could have them for breaky & when we decided to do the gore tour there wasn't time, so lunch it was! 

 Then I needed to get clothes into tubs, so Trent took the kids to the pool. I packed the tubs & did some washing.i also spoke to GD & Nannie Di which was nice. I then joined them over at the pool for just over an hour. We came back, I got the washing in & then we had showers. Before going to have dinner we rang Nannie Jac & Poppy for a chat. At dinner we were able to watch the first half of the cats play & then kids were too tired so we came back & got them into bed. I then listened to the Krock call of the footy for the 2nd half while we finished doing what we could to get ready for our camping trip. Got to love being able to feel like your at home listening to the footy when your on holidays & have no tv reception! Go Cats!

We also spoke to Nannie Rose & Papa while we walked back home from the lodge bar where we had dinner. 

And that ends it for this blog. Not sure if we will have service to blog while we are camping, but will be sure to when we get back to the van. At this stage we are planning on about 5-6nights, see what happens! 

Take care everyone

xo