Halls Creek

16/5/2013

Grahams Birthday. Dropped of the caravan in a park just outside of Broome, and headed into town for the day. Did a touch of shopping then headed to Matso brewery for lunch.  Their famous beer was the mango beer, but they also had some chilly and smoky beers. We took the tasting pallet, and most were nice but not carton worthy.

 

We then went to Cable Beach for a swim, water temp was a nice warm 26degC so was pretty easy to jump in.

 

 

 

We went to see some fossilised dinosaur footprints, but, it has to be low tide, and a low-low tide to see them.  Neither of these things were happening when we were there, so we had to look at the cement casts of the footprints, which were not that exciting.

 

 

17/5/2012

Left Broome and headed for Derby, where they are the home of the Boab tree.  These trees are pretty awesome, don't know why they just are, and to see them growing on the side of the road is pretty amazing.  There are stacks of them too.

 

 

We tried to get info on the road conditions through the Kimberley, but people kept telling us not to take a caravan in. We decided we would take it as far as we felt comfortable, and eventually made it to where we wanted to go - Windjana national park.  The road was not too bad, and we made it easily, although another few screws were on the caravan floor when we arrived.  I guess they were spares?

We went for a walk in the Gorge, where there are plenty of freshwater crocodiles.  Swimming is not recommended.

 

These Gorges were different from the Karajini Gorges because these have a reef of rocks they speared up above ground forming the gorges, where the Karigini ones were below ground, and formed by the opening/splitting of the ground.

 

This night was hot.  We decided that we would use the generator to run our air conditioner, at least until 8pm which was the generator turn off time.  It was long enough to have a civilised dinner and get the van chilled for the night.

 

 

18/5/2013

So packed up, and after seeking advise from people who had travelled the road we wanted to go, we decided to could make it through, so we pressed on. The red dirt gets pretty sticky and boggy when wet and there were a couple of creek crossings, and because of the recent rain, there was water over the road in a few places.  We used 4WD to get through these bits, although probably didn't need to.

 

We got to the Tunnel Creek gorge.  This was pretty amazing, because the river had actually carved out tunnels through the rocks, making an underground creek.  We needed torches and had to wade through the various sections.  Awesome.

On our way back, some people said they saw crocodiles in the water we had just waded through.  A bit scary because it was pitch black it it wasn't for the torches, and we were nearly waste deep.

 

 

We continues on the dirt road and after another 100kms we hit the bitchemen again.  We had suffered some damage on the dirt - some rocks had smashed the drain valve on the water tank, and our 80L of water all leaked out.  Also, the caravan electric brake wires had snapped off and got lost somewhere.

 

We drove into Fitzrow Crossing, and because it was Saturday, only the servos there were open.  We topped up the fuel and bought some connectors to repair the brake lines, and kept rolling to Margret River camping area (free camp).  This camp was probably the nicest free camp we have had so far, set right on the river, with plenty of trees around for shade.

 

  

 

19/5/2013

Another day, 30degC at 9am..  Just love winter in the Kimberleys

 

We drove to Halls Creek and found a caravan park there.  We then backtracked a bit and headed to the meteor crater at Wolfe Creek.  To get there was 130kms each way on dirt roads that were mostly good, but varied to some sections that were pretty hard going.  This place is crap, at least that's what the tourist information should say.  Its just a bit crater, with nothing else to do.  We were expecting some walking tracks to the centre - nope.

Lidia liked the cows along the way