Gibb River , Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek

Well here we go the infamous Gibb River Road.  

First stop Windjana Gorge, the camping area here is similar to a small field with toilets and showers.  We were quite ready to get out and about so took off for a look at the Gorge.
You walk through a small opening and we were wondering when the spectacular gorges would appear - Well when we got through we were in for a huge surprise - and it wasn't a big croc that we were concerned about.
The cliffs are in limestone, grey and red colours and were just beautiful.
 

 

Windjana was where we had our first encounter with fresh water crocs. There were plenty and although I was inwardly terrified, we got as close as possible.
 

The next day, and after a fun afternoon with Stephen helping a fellow camper, and every other male in camp, put his Off Road Camper trailer back together (it limped over to Derby for a new axle) we headed off to Tunnel Creek.

Its a very interesting spot but I must say I was still getting used to seeing crocodiles for the first time and was constantly thinking of them.

Stephen had the boys enthralled by annoying Bats with his new 'special' Torch.

Leaving Tunnel Creek we headed over to Fitzroy Crossing.  We were on a tight schedule to get to Kununurra so couldn't do the whole Gibb this time.

The road to Fitzroy Crossing (Fairfield-Leopold Rd) had the most out of control corrugations we have come across (I actually got out and measured them at 12cms) and they went on for hours.  Including our first creek crossing (600mm) with the caravan, Stephen waded through it first with me standing on the side of the car (in case he disturbed a croc of course), it was quite a day, exhausting in fact and all I did was sit on my butt in the car.

This was our very quiet Free Camp for the night, an old gravel pit with Boab trees, we shared with cows.  

 

Oliver and Caleb want us to sell nugget to buy this 6 wheel drive Limo. Could be fun

Middle Lagoon

 This is Cape Leveque Road, it takes you all the way up to Kooljamon Resort at Cape Leveque, One Arm Point Community and Pearl Farm to name but a few places. Its 100kms of dirt then the bitumen begins again just before Beagle Bay.

It can get quite narrow at places, that not being the cause of a lot of frustration, but the angle you have to get up onto on the side with your caravan in tow is - lol  All good!

As I mentioned before the dirt is first then once you get close to Beagle Bay the road goes to bitumen, its a great road.  The next stop brings us to Middle Lagoon, where we were advised we must stop with a caravan because the rest of the stops on the bitumen won't take us.  We are still to find out why this would be the case as the following pics show the road into Middle Lagoon is hardly the easiest 32kms of 'road' you'll come across and all of the other places you get to after this are on better roads. Must make people stay in the onsite accommodation at Cape Leveque, as I can't imagine why you would otherwise.

After our exciting drive into Middle Lagoon we realised why people do it - what a spot.  Yet another place we could have stayed for a couple of more weeks at.

Broome

We arrived in Broome to get do all the necessities before heading off up the Dampier Peninsula.

Staying at the Cable Beach Caravan Park was great.  Chosen as they have a lovely big pool that we thought the boys would enjoy.  It was a very shady park and the staff were very friendly.

We washed the car and van, we shopped for food, we got a tyre looked at, we bought bits and pieces we needed and generally just fluffed around getting back on top of things.

Oli and I went for a ride on the Blue camels on Cable Beach, we had plenty of swims at the beach and pool, we watched our first State of Origin at the Divers Tavern with Suzanne, Owen, Kel & Kim, we even had a ride home in a PediCab, oh and we did the required Pearl Lugger tour – the boys have a new appreciation for pearls.

We even got to catch up with 'fiftytoes walkabout' for a chat as our paths crossed briefly.

Barn Hill

BARN HILL STATION – WOW!

When in Coral Bay Les and Sandra told us they spend 1 month up at Barn Hill so we thought we’d have a quick look.   

It was 12kms of dirt off the Highway, very dusty track but not too bad in the scheme of things.

In retrospect we should have stayed in the unpowered section as they are up on the cliffs overlooking the water, a much nicer outlook than we had in the powered section But we were in the shade which was lovely as it was quite warm.

Barn Hill name their sites rather than number them.  We felt most privileged to get the ‘Bush Pig’ site. Hmmm

We had visitors when here - Paul and Gary were able to pop in and visit us for the night on their way down from Broome.  It was amazing to hear about their Buccaneer Achipelago trip in the boat, what an awesome experience they had.

All in all, Barn Hill was extremely beautiful.  The station stay there was basic and I know many don’t like the shower/toilet arrangements but they did the job, the open aired ones were very cool.  The beach was absolutely spectacular to say the least.  The Pinnacles right on the sand were incredible and the boys loved the rock pools.  Stephen went out with Owen in his boat one day and caught a Monkey Fish (well they're ugly) and many other fish.  Definitely not a place to miss.  We could have stayed for ages.

80 mile Beach

Once again we had in our minds that we would pop in at 80 mile beach for a couple of nights and then move on, six nights later we took off.  Seems to be a bit of a pattern with us.

80 mile beach was very long, go figure, it was also the best shell collecting spot we’ve come across yet – shells of every colour were collected.

The tide change here was substantial as it was very flat.  800 metres in and out, unfortunately we decided to go for a walk out to the water at low tide one day and my shrieks were heard way past 80 miles when we sunk into the mud up to our knees, I found it quite horrifying and there was no escaping it, you just had to keep trudging through until the mud got harder, some 50 metres away.  I’m still having nightmares (shudder).

We all had a great time fishing here but nothing was caught, apparently the cold waters had arrived and the fish had gone elsewhere.  I wish they told that to the people who seemed to catch metre long Salmon only 100m away from us each day.