Adelaide Hills Take 2 (12th-25th July)

 It's back to Adelaide sadly for work, just a 2 week stay but I'm not overly keen on going back to winter. Out onto the tarmac of the airport at 6am and it's certainly cold but not intensely. My Northern blood tends still only to be surprised by heat, not cold. One of the bosses picks me up and we drive out to Stirling. Back in the Adelaide hills and this time the pretty autumn colours have gone and it's damp and dismal. The wet, earthy smell as I get out of the car takes me back to England in an instant. As I mentioned before there is quite a population of English ex-Pats here- and I increasingly suspect it's because the winter reminds them of the English summer! I take an afternoon walk and get caught in a thunder storm.

Work is steady, pleasant. I finally see a possum... but euthanase it because it's very sick. Free time is spent catching up with people over the internet and updating blog whilst the internet's good- and trying to stay warm.

On my last day in Adelaide I visit one of the clients of the practice who rescues wildlife. She's currently hand-rearing 5 Kangaroos and 1 Euro (similar to a Kangaroo). Kangaroos are frequently hit by cars (actually, what they seem to do is hover at the side of the road waiting then make a dash at the very last second when there's no chance of avoidig them) but often the females have a youngster in the pouch which survives the crash and which is old enough to survive if given copious tlc.

These are essentially premature babies, a kangaroo enters the pouch as little more than a fetus and isn't really born as such until leaving the pouch at about 1 yr.

In the house are 6 fabric pouch substitutes each with a small joey sleeping. I help feed and learn a bit more about kangaroos. It needs a whole lot more dedication than raising placentals (non-marsupial mammals) for instance a puppy opens its eyes at 2 weeks and is weaned by 5-6 weeks, these guys will need feeding for up to a year.

I go to a job interview in the afternoon as a last minute thing and have then the offer of work for October onwards, then it's back onto the plane for a late night flight to Darwin.

Darwin 6-11th July

I'd arrived at the end of the trip pretty exhausted, conversation seemed to require a lot of concentration and I was soon asleep. It was delightful to see Susie an English friend from Uni who lives out here now, and the only old friend I'd seen for 5 months! She lives a bit out of Darwin in Tiwi, close to one of the beautiful beaches in a lovely house. I was happy to do very little for a few days; wander a little, sunbathe, swim in the pool, return my clothes to their intended colours and meet some of Susie's friends. We went to the cinema, the pub, out for dinner. The sunset each evening was stunning. The weather was also stunning, up to 30 degrees each day and balmy in the evenings when it was pleasant to be outside. After all the travels I was happy to take stock and relax so Darwin as a tourist will have to wait a little.

I didn't want to leave; but the flight was booked and chilly Adelaide was waiting. Darwin was...to be continued....

Destination Darwin.

3000kms after leaving Broome (and I suspect about 6000 since leaving Perth)we were back in a city; cars and buildings, traffic lights and people. Tired, clothes stained and dusty the open spaces of the suddenly Kimberley felt a long while ago.

I'd been travelling since May 29th which made 38 days on the move, approx 16 different accommodations and 5 different tour groups. I'd seen the stars night after night, most spectacularly in Karijini NP and for the first time in my life I'd watched the waxing and waning of moon, night by night with no cloud for it to hide behind and no walls between me and nature. I'd discovered there was nothing that couldn't be cooked in a bush kitchen on the barbie, seen incredible sunsets and swum at every opportunity. Watched Wedge- tailed eagles, kestrels and kites soar overhead, kangaroos and euros hop, other things slither or stride or shuffle and a whole variety of things swim including those sensational Whale sharks.

I'd watched the scenery change and more often, not change! Endless dusty roads, wide skies and empty horizons- until suddenly an Eagle would take off from a spindly acacia or roosting smugglers (yes, the collective noun) of budgies would flutter into view. West coast Australia is an incredible and beautiful place. The Kimberley is somehow even more isolated and mysterious - intensely lush gorges and creek crossings totally at odds with the landscape surrounding them - there could be anything out here but really it's how little there is and how vast the space is that still I struggle to comprehend. This part of the blog has been very much behind because there was no way to write it for much of the route- I didn't even have mobile phone reception for most of it (nor want it)- and I'm now conscious of the repetition of the adjectives, even the pictures don't quite capture some of the breathtaking scenery or subtle details that created tirelessly beautiful vistas.

Lake Argyle and Katherine (4th and 5th July)

We'd arrived at dusk for our penultimate night camping near Lake Argyle and the next morning were able to see the largest man-made lake in the southern hemisphere! (there is always something in Oz which is the biggest something). It’s 18 times the size of Sydney harbour. For anyone who’s not seen Sydney harbour that's quite big. Curiously this lake/ reservoir was made only by building a relatively short dam across the river Ord, the rest is done by the natural landscape of the mountains.

We had an early morning cruise which probably isn't quite the right word for the small boat that was cold in the wind and at times rather wet too! But it was worth it to see the rock wallabies, catfish, cormorants and basking fresh water crocs and it was beautiful.

From here it was a long drive along the Victoria highway via Timber Creek (a "town" that's not much more than a roadhouse) to Katherine but first it was a state border crossing and an obligatory photo! Bye bye WA, hello Northern Territory.

By now I was pretty tired and I don't think we stopped at Katherine- another 1 street town. I do remember the story though that in 1998 when the river flooded the town, when the flood water subsided 2 large crocodile were found inside the Woolworths' supermarket (reputedly in the meat isle!) That would be the NT for you then! We camped outside of Katherine, arriving at dusk with a large orange moon rising and we had fixed tents with a sort of bed so no more nights on the ground.

With time moved forwards one and a half hours our last day seemed to start very early. We visited Nitmulik Gorge, just for a look really. Our last stop and last swim (after a few dry days!) at the pretty Edith falls, then steadily North to Pine Creek another tiny town, and on to the state capital, Darwin.

Bungle Bungles, Day 7 (3rd July)

After a visit to a lookout at the edge of the Bungle bungles it was into them properly, these strange giant beehives. Unique, weirdly- beautiful and distinctly other-worldly rock formations. One of the group had heard about the acoustics in Cathedral Gorge so taught us songs to sing as a harmony. After considerable practice and pain to him we were good enough for a passing couple to ask if we were a travelling choir!

The highlight of the day was a helicopter flight over the Bungle bungles. It's always good fun of course in a helicopter- especially this one with no doors- and a fantastic way to appreciate the scale of the National park and the gorges (some 300m deep) and bizarre beehive rocks. It also added to the impression that at some point we'd left Earth and found ourselves scouting out another planet.

It was back onto the bumpy road of doom- the bumps broken by Rob suddenly stopping, jumping out and as we watched in astonishment start to play with a snake. Actually it was a rather irritated but non-venomous python he was trying to move off the road without getting bitten. But all we knew was it was an Australian snake which makes it, probability wise, likely to kill you and we were in something of a frenzy watching, as it tried to bite him, wondering why he'd suddenly become suicidal and also trying to remember if we knew how to work the satellite phone!

From Gibb River Road to Bungle Bungles- 2nd July

We're a bit sad to leave El Questro and shortly after, the Gibb river road too. We join the Great Northern highway and head south between the Durock and Carrboyd moutain ranges towards the Purnululu or Bungle bungle National Park. Civilisation in the form of a bitumised road is short lived as we hit the 53 kilometre road into the park. A notorious road that takes about 2 hours to drive due to it being essentially a very rough track. Now sitting on a bus for hours is relatively lazy until you hit these rough roads when there is a considerable amount of muscle tensing is required to prevent oneself being thrown about like a sack of potatoes. Plus it's hard to read and music is drowned out by the noise of the road so there's only the scenery as a welcome distraction.


We rolled out at Echidna chasm with considerable relief. A steep-sided incision in the rock- strange rock that looks like pebbles all stuck together in sand and liable to crumble at any time. It was a beautiful spot with the colours of the rock and the vegetation dramatic against another faultlessly blue sky. To see the sunset we then walked a short way up to a lookout and watched the Osmond ranges turn orange.

Zebedee Springs and El Questro gorge- 1st July

We spend 2 nights camped at El Questro, by the river and this makes for a more relaxed start today. We head to Zebedee hot springs for an early morning bath. For once the cold part is getting out of the water rather than in! The original owner of El Questro named the spring after his favourite character from the Magic Roundabout.

Then it's onto El Questro gorge, another lush, magical place. Some of the group waited half way and the rest of us scrambled and waded and pulled each other up where necessary and we hiked along the rocky bottom. At the end of the gorge another stunning pool and waterfall. It was a tiring hike but back at camp by early afternoon those of us with some energy left headed out of camp another 45mins up Saddleback lookout to watch the sunset; Aussie style with tinny! This gave me a greater sense of our isolation. Once again we'd had to cross a river - though only wading this time (how does this country manage without bridges?!) so after sunset it was a race down the hill to try and cross the river before complete darkness hit.

Dinner was roast lamb cooked in a camp oven heated by hot coals and we were treated to more beautiful music around our campfire at the end of a lovely day.

To El Questro and Emma gorge, June 30th

It's intensely cold next morning but at least no one got taken by the crocs in the night. (kidding Mum, we were safe!). It's my turn up front meaning great views of the dusty road, spiniflex grass, gum and acacia trees. Pay off is Dj duty and waving duty- hardly onerous, we pass only about 4 vehicles an hour. Hills rise up as we pass into the Cockburn ranges. It's so intensely beautiful with a vast blue sky and incredible sense of isolation. In the middle of this we reach the Pentacost river- which, like the gorges and small river crossings is a lush blue/ green contrast to the dusy landscape around.

Emma gorge was to be my favourite gorge because it contained such a proliferation and variation of flora. Palms pushed upwards from the tumbled rocks at the bottom of the gorges, contrasting with the orange-red gorge walls and blue sky above whilst ferns fringed cool pools in the shade. We swam at pretty Emma falls then meandered back and headed to camp at El Questro.

El Questro is a tiny settlement, originally just an unthriving cattle station but now making money from tourists who come to visit the dramatic gorges. Although we were camping there's also some 5* accommodation for celebrities, heads of state etc. The name is a corruption of a Spanish term for hills which rise gently then drop away sharply but the story goes that the new owner was hungover and incapable when he came to register the name.

It's a large campsite and all the females at least are happy to see the showers. We have a chance to get clean, launder clothes and recharge camera batteries. There's even a bar and after dinner tour-guide Rob's girlfriend is singing and playing guitar.

Day 3, June 29th

By now we're starting to get into a routine- and with group members taking turns with cooking and preparation, camp set up and pack up it's not overly arduous. We're up at dawn each day, about 5am, breakfasting with tents down, swags rolled up and the sun rising. This way we make the most of the days, sunset is about 5.30pm but as we travel East and head towards a different time zone it creeps a little earlier. Dinner is eaten round the fire because although the days are warm once the sun goes down it becomes very cold. Then we drink beer or tea and chat until exhaustion overcomes us and we head for our sleeping bags.

Today at 7am finds us standing at Manning gorge campsite, where we stayed the night, on the edge of a river. To visit Manning gorge it's necessary for us to swim the river and although we're happy with swimming generally it's a bit early and a bit cold. Being English I can't be seen to let a bit of cold water put me off and with shoes and bag packed in a tiny pull-across boat I'm soon plunging in. The sun's shining, it's a beautiful river and actually because the air temperature's low the water's not that bad and at least I'm soon awake- and wondering why I don't do this every morning.

An hours' hike once dressed again takes us down to Manning gorge and another beautiful swimming spot, plus waterfalls for the teenage boys of the group to leap off.

We continue and that night camp wild in the bush beside the river Durock. It's us and 2 grey nomads who we thought might be rather put out that their isolated camp was invaded however they seem glad for the company and inadvertently become the object of gentle parodies for the rest of the trip. The river is beautiful but also full of Salties and after dusk our guide Rob shows us how to use a torch to scan for the red reflections of their eyes. Creepy! It's also possible to scan along the ground and find spiders by the same trick- their eyes shine blue.

3 Gorges, June 28th

After a rather chilly night in a swag under the stars we walk out of camp to see Windjana gorge by the beautiful morning light. The rocks of this gorge are limestone, once part of a barrier reef 350 million years ago. We caught glimpses of our first Freshwater Crocodiles just disturbing the mirror-like surface of the water. These "Freshies" unlike their larger cousins, the "Salties" are harmless...well unless you step on them! Harmless by Oz standards.


From here we drove through the King Leopold Ranges, mountains formed by techtonic plate collision 1.5 billion years ago when the geologists think the Kimberley collided and merged with Australia. They're due a name change since modern-day Australia doesn't like naming things after Belgian perpetrators of genocide. Despite their unfortunate name they are dramatic and ruggedly attractive.

From here we continued to Bell gorge, a pretty palmed lushness, and with the sun up higher and the air warm the swimming hole under the waterfall was very inviting.

Another chance to swim at Galvans gorge, cool water and very pleasant to be in fresh water after the salt of the West Coast.

Across the Kimberley begins! 27th June

After 2 nights in Broome and just enough time to get ready again before it was time to depart on the 9 day trip across the Kimberley from Broome to Darwin! There's 2 ways to make this journey, the fast highway or the long, mostly unsealed, so rather bumpy- but much more picturesque- Gibb river road. This road is closed during the wet season when the rivers flood the plains.

The Kimberley is romantically described as Australia's last frontier- it's a vast area including much Aboriginal land, some big gorges and occasional extensive cattle stations. And a lot of open space and big skies. (anyone reading a few of these entries will begin to notice a theme!) The Gibb river road was cut through the middle of it to transport cattle.

So, it was a customary early start and heading towards Derby. Here we stopped at the Boab prison tree. Boab trees are very distinctive trees of this region, they can't be easily aged as have no rings but some are thought to be thousands of years old and their closest relative lives in Africa- curious! This notorious tree was used as a prison in the 19th century for kidnapped indigenous people and is a very sinister and ugly example.

The Aboriginal dreamtime has many stories of why things are as they are and the story goes that the Boab was a very handsome and vain tree who drove everyone crazy so that, as punishment he was pulled out of the earth, turned upside down and pushed back in again, explaining why the bare branches in winter look like roots.

As we drive it's a landscape of spiniflex grass, boab trees, yellow flowering Wattles (a type of Acacia) and occasional cows or termite mounds.

We reached camp at Windjana gorge and visited Tunnel Creek, an eerie cavern.
Before heading to camp we gathered firewood- a daily chore to ensure a nice warm campfire. Whilst the females gathered the majority of the wood this was an opportunity for the males to play with axes.

23rd June- 25th: Cape Leveque/ Dampier Peninsula

After 5 sunny lazy days in Broome it was time to travel a little again. The Dampier peninsula (named after William Dampier- the first Englishman to set foot in this and other parts of WA- then known as New Holland) is the chunk of land just North of Broome.


The first stop was Beagle Bay (with a Beagle in attendance luckily) where the church was handbuilt, using handfired bricks, by monks during WWII. The altar is decorated with mother of pearl and the church is simple yet pristine against the red dirt and rather ramshackle houses of the community.

It's a pretty chilled out trip this time and arriving at Cape Leveque where we're camping for 2 nights there's time to sit on the beautiful beach before having sunset drinks and nibbles. A long beach walk the next day and some of us spot an Osprey having breakfast. In the afternoon an Aboriginal guide takes us on a walk showing us some of the seasonal traditional bushtucker they would gather and eat. Next day a visit to Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm to learn about modern day Pearl farming. It was a beautiful spot but isolated, 3 hours drive on unmade roads back to Broome.

Broome 18th-22nd

WA is big and largely empty, this may be a considerable understatement. Many hours had been spent watching the scenery not change and it was odd to be rolling into a town with traffic lights and more than one street. It still felt isolated but isolated with everything you might need for a short time!

We arrived in Broome with more than a little accumulated red dust. So, after lunch by the spectacular Cable beach, more about that later, the main priority was trying to get clean.

Broome developed with the discovery of valuable mother-of-pearl shell and after enslaved Aborigines exhausted that which was easy to reach hard-hat diving became the way forward. Japanese emigrants were particularly good at this but conditions were terrible and many died from the "bends". These days it's not the mother-of-pearl, for with the development of plastics its demand fell, but culturing of pearls for which Broome is known. That and having 22km of pristine sandy beach rated in the top 5 beaches of the world!

I was ready for a quiet few days and easily slipped into the relaxed "Broome-time" culture, lounging on the beach and swimming in the warm sea were high on the agenda. The weather was incredible- every day sunny, high 20s though cooler at nights. Not bad for the middle of winter!

There's not an awful lot to do in Broome but the amazing weather makes it a popular Aussie holiday destination at this time of year when the south is cold. I thought I should do the tourist thing though so briefly visited the tiny town museum and a Pearl-lugger museum and browsed the boutiques selling pearls worth several thousand dollars. One day a few of us got up before dawn and took a taxi to one end of Cable beach, Gantheaume point, here at low tide it's possible to see some dinosaur footprints and after a bit of searching we found them. As the sun came up we walked back along the beach 7kms to where the bus stopped to get back into town. The sand too cold to walk on barefoot at this time in the morning and training racehorses cantering past.

In Broome there's also the oldest, still operational outdoor cinema and catching a couple of films from a deckchair under the stars was a pleasant way to pass some time. As the airport is situated more or less in the centre of town there were a couple of surprising moments when landing planes looked as though they might fly into the screen!

Another Broome "must" is camel riding on the beach. But one camel ride is probably enough for a lifetime and my memory of the discomfort in Egypt was enough to persuade me that simply photographing them silhouetted against the sunset was preferable!

Karijini Part 2

Karijini is spectacular; deep red gorges cut into the landscape of spiniflex grass and white-barked snappy gum trees, contrasting sharply with the green and with the blue sunny sky.

We spend the next 2 days visiting some of the main gorges: Joffre, Knox, Hamersley and Weano; climbing down into them along difficult grade footpaths and traversing along ledges or through the icy streams and waterholes at the bottom. The rocks are ancient, reckoned to be 2.5 billions years old - since there's been no earthquake or volcano to move and reshape them only the water to gradually erode the gorges.

It's lots of fun but a bit nerve- jangling at times particuarly getting across Spider walk by straddling a narrow chasm. At Handrail pool we make a tricky descent to a large icy pool, swim across, scramble over some rocks then swim down a channel with a rocky roof overhead, scramble some more rocks and come to the point we can go no further-the warning sign (walks are graded in Australia and we'd been on a grade 5, for grade 6 you need ropes and climbing prowess).

I'm exhausted after a day of scrambling, walking, wading and swimming but after dinner a few of us join an astomony tour. The sky is Karijini is very clear and the stars are amazing, the milky way so bright. As it's a moonless night we can be shown the Giant Emu, lots of constellations, how one of the stars of the Southern cross is actually 10 million and view Saturn through a telescope to see the beautiful rings. As ever I'm reminded at how incomprehensibly large space is...a bit like Australia.

　

From Karijini it's past Port Hedland where a tyre punctured on the rough roads is replaced and onto Pardoo roadhouse to spend the night. We sleep in swags (a canvas bag with a thin mattress in the bottom which you get into in your sleeping bag) under the stars. Next day we stop briefly at 80 mile beach then continue, on some of the most monotonous roads yet, to Broome.

Karijini Part 1 (13th-17th June)

Next day it was back to Exmouth and a few chores including a new phone (which pushed the boundaries of the shops) as mine had expired unexpectedly and inconveniently.

Next day I joined with the next tour group for an early departure from Exmouth in the rain. More flat, scrubby country, sheep grazing with wide horizons and not much else. But the scenery started to change as we drove into the Pilbaras and rusty mountains rose from the red dirt. Leaving the main highway for an unsealed road we rattle into Tom Price several hundred k's north of Exmouth- an incongrous green oasis and prosperous mining town. We have a slight panic when the main fuel station is out of diesel but find an alternative where the road trains fill up- this feels even more like frontier country and you realise the importance of fuel, second only to water.

It's afternoon as we enter the Hamersley ranges and pass into Karijini National Park and the weather is great now. We stay 2 nights here at an Eco retreat. It's only sort-of camping because the tents are fixed and have bunk beds, I discover there's nothing that can't be cooked on a bbq in a bush kitchen and we share the area with not much more than spiniflex grass and termite mounds. At night the temperature drops to near zero despite the latitude, and we're all wearing hats and clothes in bed, but during the day it's into the mid 20s.