Broome - West Coast 21st - 30th May

The Gibb River Road

This is one of THE 4WD roads in Australia. It's nearly 700km of dirt track, creek crossing and is impassiable during the Wet. In the end we decided to do a small loop of it - only about 300km! The 1st stop was Tunnel Creek where the river has been seeping through the rocks for thousands of years and it is now an underground river that you can walk through to the other side. It's pitch black - you have to take a torch - and you have to wade through the water not knowing what is lurking in there! There were bats flying around and we saw an eel. Supposedly fresh water crocs are sometimes spotted.......... thankfully not by us.


We stayed over night at Croc Central Windjana Gorge. There were loads of fresh water crocs lying around on the river banks. Fresh water crocodiles aren't proper crocodiles. Well they are crocodiles but not ones you should worry about. They're a bit "wussy" really because they won't come and eat you. I know they look really far away - but those things that look like twigs floating in the water where I'm pointing are in fact crocs. (I know I look like a cross between Steve Irwin, Ray Mears and Tom Kite)




Last stop on the road was Bell Gorge "one of the prettiest spots in the Kimberely" according to our guide book.... and it was right. At the bottom of the beautiful waterfall there's a pool that you can swim in.

Caution is needed when using any one of the public toilets in the National Parks. There are all sorts of nasty surprises lurking inside ... and not just the ones you might expect to find floating underneath the lid. Banging loudly on the door is one strategy to scare off the critters that like to call the cubicle their home before going in. However you soon learn all that merely does is chase them away into their hiding places only for them to re-emerge minutes later when you are at your most vulnerable. Seeing a frog suddenly appear between your legs while you are sat on the loo can give you quite a shock. That did happen. The next day there was another frog. This time hiding in the loo roll holder. He fell out when I started tugging at the paper. I know frogs aren't dangerous but shit they can really give you a nasty surprise. It wouldn't be so bad if they were U.K sized frogs but they're not. These ones are as big as your fist. The other strategy of course is not to bang on the door at all ... so when you go in you can see what you're dealing with. (Big spiders, big moths, big mosquitos, big crickets, big praying mantice, big smells). But the problem with that stategy is once you know what's in there and their proximity to the loo you realise you can't face it + so you go check out the next cubicle ... (if there is one) .. which is just as bad. The third strategy is to try and hang on till you get to the next road house / petrol station. But then most of the time they're a four hour drive away. Take your pick.

Broome

We decided we needed a rest! So we stayed in Broome for a few days. The town's best known place is Cable Beach where you can watch the sun set into the Indian Ocean from a camel train or from your own 4WD vehicle which you've parked on the beach!



Karijini National Park

We thought that once you've seen a few gorges you've seen them all. But the gorges in this park are something different. They are narrow - in some places less than a doorway - and often filled with rushing cold water that you have to wade through. The Hancock Gorge was more like an adventure assault course crossed with the Richmond Water Flumes. Great fun and truly amazing experience.