RIGHT ACROSS THE TOP

What an amazing few weeks we have had since my last blog. We have driven over 2500 kms. from Katherine in the centre of Australia right across the top, with side trips to Wyndham and Derby, to Broome which is at the top of the west coast of Australia. Our travels have taken us through the Kimberley area of North Western Australia, with some of the most amazing scenery we have ever seen. More of that later as I am getting a bit ahead of myself.
We left Katherine on a beautiful cloudless day with blue skies as far as the eye could see. We drove through the Gregory National Park with its colourful escarpments to Victoria River Roadhouse, an idyllic spot on the Victoria River. We had considered stopping there but as it was only 10.30am, we decided to carry on to Timber Creek. Wrong move! Timber Creek consists of 2 caravan parks, a roadhouse, fuel station and not much else. We chose the wrong caravan park as we only discovered the other one later. Our park was beside the hotel, which was one the worst outback hotels we have seen. It is now owned and administered jointly with an aborigine group who seem to be able to drink at any time of the day or night, buy as much alcohol as their car will hold, then drive home with the police reluctant to step in. A big van called the “Black Maria”, owned by the elders of the community, calls at the hotel late at night to pick up those who can’t stand up or don’t own a car. It is so pitiful and sad to see so many of these people slowly killing themselves. The children are taken to the pub as well. They obviously don’t need to go to school and they are parked out the front with a big bag of fries. We were told later that this was not a common occurrence and there must have some form of family celebration that day. To add to the dramas of the day when I turned on my power adaptor to charge up my laptop, it promptly blew the overload switch in the van and all the lights. I think it was either a power surge or a change in the voltage from the power in the caravan park. I don’t know how it didn’t fry my hard drive, but thankfully it didn’t. You can understand why I wasn’t totally enamoured with Timber Creek. I then had to order a replacement power adaptor and get it when I got to Broome in about 3 weeks time! No computer till then.
The next day we moved onto a free camp under an escarpment in Gregory National Park. It was a lovely spot and we shared it with about 25 other vans. Campfires and sitting under the stars, what more could anyone ask for?
We then crossed over into Western Australia where the border is policed with quarantine officers. Fresh fruit, vegetables, honey and certain types of wood cannot be bought in WA so these officials go through your car and caravan with a fine tooth comb checking everything out. We also had to put our clocks back 1 ½ hours as we crossed the border. That’s a big change and made for quite a long day.
Our first stop in WA was Kununurra, a town that was built in the 1960s for the Ord River Irrigation scheme. It has grown to a very busy tourist centre with a population of about 6000 and has market gardens, sandalwood trees and mangoes. The Ord River was dammed in 1971 to form a storage reservoir supplying water to Lake Argyle, the biggest man made lake in Australia. When formed it flooded Argyle Station, a one million acre cattle station owned by the Durack family. The family home, which was built in 1884, has been completely rebuilt, stone by stone, near Lake Argyle and is now a museum. Lake Argyle is a beautiful spot, especially when viewed from the numerous lookouts that have been built around it. We were told that the water in the lake would fill Sydney Harbour between 19 to 22 times. It is a huge complex. While in Kununurra we visited Hoochery Distillery, an old country and western type saloon bar, which makes rum. The rum liqueurs were very moorish! We also visited Zebra Rock Gallery where we met Ron Valentine and his wife. Ron worked with Jim in the police at Porirua. Small world again. Across the road from our caravan park was the Mirima National Park where we spent an afternoon walking and climbing over rock formations. We then went on a sunset BBQ cruise on the Ord River. It was a lovely evening and we saw hundreds of fruit bats flying off into the sunset. As I said there are lots of mango farms in the area and the fruit bats are a real problem.
Our next stop was Wyndham, which wasn’t quite like the way the glossy brochures painted it. This town is the most northerly town in WA . It ha the most amazing lookout where you can see 5 rivers merging into one and a great little museum but not much else. The town is dying and there are few shops and amenities left in it.
The Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park was our next destination. This park has been on our “to do” list since our friends, Rachel and Jim, told us about it after their visit to it in 2006. It was the reason we bought a caravan and 4WD instead of a motorhome as you need a 4WD to travel the dreadful road conditions and caravans are not allowed. We did see a Holden ute attempt it but he only made it as far as the first river crossing! We took our tent with us and stored our van for 2 nights. It takes between 2 and 3 hours to drive the 53 kms. into the park, depending on the weather and road conditions, but boy it was worth it. This national park only became popular in 1988 after a TV documentary, and now has World Heritage listing. It was magic with all the tiger-striped, beehive-shaped rock domes. The colour changes depending on the direction of the sun. We walked in there for 2 days but only in the mornings, as by lunch time the temperature was in the mid 30s and far too hot. There are 2 camping areas in the park with only toilets and bore water. We had to take in all our food, water and equipment with us. We cooked on either our camp cooker or around the campfire where we shared damper, marshmallows and even a birthday cake! It was great and has to be the highlight of our Aussie trips so far.
Fitzroy Crossing was our next stop. The van park here was lovely with green grass and lots of water. Thank you Peter and Marilyn with your suggestion on this one! Our first shower after 4 days was just the best ever. Three loads of very dirty, dusty washing later and we were all set to start again. We went for a cruise up the Geikie Gorge on the Fitzroy River which was lovely. Once again the setting sun shining on the rock formations made it a special place. To illustrate that some great things are being achieved by Aboriginal communities we visited an artist’s co-operative called Mangkaja Arts Resource Centre where about 12 women were working on their paintings. This centre has been created to encourage the younger people to learn about their culture and history. One lady was working on the most beautiful painting. It was about the size of a large coffee table and the lady in charge said it would probably sell for about $5000. Very impressive.
It was then on to Derby, a town of about 5000 whose claim to fame is that it has the highest tidal range in Australia, the highest being over 11 metres. We watched the tide turn from low and it’s amazing how quickly the huge harbour fills up. Derby is also the gateway to the Horizontal Waterfalls in the Buccaneer Archipelago; Winjama Gorge and the Gibb River Road, which is a shorter route to Wyndham, but it is a dirt road for most of the way and not recommended for normal caravans. We visited the Boab Prison Tree while in Derby. These trees are huge trees with a bulbous shaped trunk and are only found between Broome and The Victoria River Basin in the Northern Territory. The one in Derby was supposed to have been used by police in the early 1900s to keep Aboriginal prisoners in overnight while they were being moved to and from Derby. Not a very nice experience I am sure. I have included it in my photos.
We had a very interesting experience while we were in Derby. We were sitting outside having a drink with friends, as you do on the road, when we were approached by an older Aboriginal woman and a man about 30. The man had 3 or 4 paintings with him and was trying to sell them. We were very impressed by his artistic ability and as the price was considerably lower than other pieces we had seen, we bought one. Jim noticed a stamp on the back suggesting it had come from a local prison. The artist told us he had been to prison a few times and had just come out after doing 10 months. We didn’t ask why he had been in there but taking people at face value, he seemed a likeable chap. The lady was his grandmother and they both told us the meaning of the painting and a lot of their family history. It was a most interesting evening and as our friends bought a painting too, quite a successful one for the artist.
Jim & I went to the Derby Bush Races last Saturday. It was a lot of fun. There was Fashion in the Field prizes for the best dressed woman, man and child so there was some quite fancy outfits there. Most race-goers would have been visitors though and shorts, t-shirts and Akubras were the order of the day. We really enjoyed the experience.
We are now in Broome. My computer is once more doing its normal thing and it is raining heavily, which is not normal. We have had temperatures as high as 35C over the past few weeks so it is a shock to have it drop to 19C! We are staying here for a week so I will be able to tell you all about it in my next blog.