WE ARE IN DERBY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
08.09.2010
36 °C
We left Darwin after a short delay while Ron tried to find a pharmacist who could supply strips for his blood sugar monitor. We turned off the highway and had morning tea and a photo shoot of a miniature castle at Batchelor.
We continued on to look at some very interesting termite mounds - they are said to be magnetic.
We drove on into Litchfiedl National Park to Wangi Falls where we had intended staying for 2 nights but on arrival we found that the sites were far too small and far too difficult to reverse into as well as the fact that it was extremely hot here so we had lunch and a walk to the falls and swimming area.
We then drove back the way we had come and called into Tolmer Falls where we walked the 400 metres to view the falls.
We continued on back to the Highway and turned south and have stopped at a rest area near Coomalie Creek for the night. This small creek runs next to the rest area and we all had a wash in it.
Saturday 28th August. First stop this morning was at Adelaide River to fuel up then back on the road to Pine Creek where we had morning tea. We continued on south till just 8 km from Katherine where we came across some quite unusual rocks on the side of the road - they look like dark grey limestone and we stopped to take some photos.
We drove into Katherine where we all stocked up with food and beer, before turning west and have camped for the night in a rest area about 58km west of Katherine.
Sunday 29th August. Left the rest area at Vince Connoly Crossing and continued west. The scenery has changed dramatically. We came across a memorial to Noel Buntine.
and lots of cattle
The landscape has become dominated by dark red bluffs.
We stopped for fuel and morning tea at the Victoria River roadhouse which is under New management (wife). Hiroe thinks the old one ran away.
A new bridge across the river has been built since last we were here so we took the opportunity to walk on it and to take some photos. Not very much water as it is now the end of the dry season and they haven't had any rain for over 4 months.
Next stop - Timber Creek
We took another photo of the Victoria River near Timber Creek. There is a lot more water here. Salt water crocodiles inhabit it but so far we haven't seen any.
We have camped for the night at Big Horse Creek Rest Area. Took a photo of Hiroe and a Boab tree.
Monday 30th August. Departed Big Horse Creek and drove down the road to have a look at a Boab tree where Augustus Gregory and his exploration party camped for 9 months in 1855-56
We carried on towards the Western Australian Border and stopped just before the agricultural check point to eat all our fruit etc.
After crossing the border we drove out to Lae Argle and had a look at the wonderful Ord River Dam. It is said that this dam can hold as much as 47 times the water held in Sydney Harbour. It is huge and is used to irrigate the vast agricultural area around here. It has also been estimated that during the wet season when it overflows. every hour, 3 times the water of Sydney Harbour flows out to sea. What a waste.
We have camped for the night in the bush near Matchbox Creek on the road from Lake Argyle to Kununurra.
Kapok flowers are out everywhere and are quite attractive.
. The grocery shopping had to wait as Hiroe spotted a diamond shop (This area is the largest diamond producing area inn the world).<br />In the afternoon we all went in our car on a self drive tour. All the fruit and vegetable farms have closed down and the farmers are all growing Indian Sandalwood for the Asian market. The farmers don't need planters and pickers like they needed for fruit and vegetables and there is far less trouble getting produce to market. The sugar mill has closed as has the cotton gin. It's all a pity really because the backpackers have no jobs here and we travelers all miss the fresh produce. We took a photo of the water going over Ivanhoe Crossing and into the sea. (remember this is the dry season).<br />[img=http://photos.travellerspoint.com/283755/2010_Aug_3..rossing.jpg)
Wednesday 1st September. Did nothing much this morning but after lunch, Hiroe took Bob back to a diamond shop and while there, Hiroe chose a 3 champagne diamond ring. It looks good (Bob had a rest on the "Mens couch"
Just before sunset we all went up onto Kelly's Knob to take some photos of Kununurra and the sun setting.
Thursday 2nd September. Ron had his car serviced this morning and after morning tea we all went into town and booked our tour into the Bungle Bungles on Sunday.
Friday 3rd September. Departed Kununurra really early this morning (the sun comes up at about 4 am here). We drove towards Wyndham (which my blog map can't find), and on the way took some photos of lovely hills all around.
On arrival at Wyndham we drove down to the port where unfortunately you can't get access to the wharf area anymore. There were some old relics of train equipment which was used when Wyndham had a meat export processing plant.
We drove up to the 5 Rivers lookout after unhooking our van at the bottom of the climb. The views from up there are quite spectacular. 
Next stop was at the Warmu Dreamtime Statues of an Aboriginal family then on to the crocidile sculpture
Backtracking on the highway we drove to "The Grotto" where we have camped for the night.
Saturday 4th September. We left "The Grotto" at 7.20 am and drove to the junction of the Victoria and Great Northern Highways where we turned south. There were some wonderful photo opportunities on this drive as the hills all around for at least 100 kms were spectacular.
We called into a lookout which was a short drive off the highway for a brief look.
we saw a large rock ballanced on a small hill - wonder how long before it falls down?
There are Boab trees everywhere in all shapes and sizes. Very few of them have leaves as it is the end of the dry season - They will start to shoot new leaves very soon.
We have camped for the night just off the highway at the entrance to the drive into the Bungle Bungles - We are booked on a full day 4WD Bus trip tomorrow and will be picked up here at 5.30 - 6.00 am.
Sunday 5th September. We all got up at 4.45 am so that we could have breakfast etc before the 4WD bus came to pick us up.
the raod (TRACK) into The Bungle Bungles (Purnulu National Park) was extremely rough with literally hundreds of creek crossings and many blind ups and downs. On the way we had morning tea about 1/2 way into the Ranger Station.
After checking in at the Ranger Station we drove to Echidna Chasm and on the way passed many very interesting rock walls
Echidna Chasm was wonderful - The colours of the walls and the sky was great. There were some palms growing at the top of the rock. This walk was 1 km each way. (I have a tremendous amout of photos from here and the next section but I'll only post a few here).
We were then taken to have lunch which was great and then driven to the southern end of the range and the thousands of Bee Hive Domes.
It was a 1.5km return walk into Cathederal Gorge. It was a wonderful walk. We returned to our caravans at about 6.45 pm after an exhausting but spectacular day.
The trip in and out on the bus of 53 km takes about 2 1/2 hours each way it's so rough.
Monday 6th September. We all woke up early somehow and tried to delay our departure as much as possible but still managed to get underway by 7.30.
It was 111kms to Halls Creek and we drove there without stopping. We refuelled and called into the Information Centre for a road report out to Wolfe Creek Crater. The report wasn't good. 3 hours each way - very rough road. We decided to give it a miss - 7 hours rough hard driving for 1/2 hour view from the rim.
We had morning tea and after some phone calls to neighbours regarding any damage due to recent heavy winds etc of our homes. We were all grateful to find we had suffered nothing more than some garden damage.
We took a photo of the stature of"Russian Jack" Jack tranported a sick mate over 300 km in a homemade wheelbarrow to a hospital.
We had lunch then drove a further 115km south to a rest area - Mary Pool where will stayed for the night.
Tuesday 7th September. Came across yet another interesting road sign warning of stray animals.
There was a bit of rain overnight and the small hills along the roadside looked lovely and red with yellow/green spinifex growing on them.
We have been travelling through quite a lot of Mulla Mulla flowers and they are now becoming very prolific.
We have camped for the night at "The Boab" Rest Area.
Wednesday 8th September. We drove the 100 kms into Derby
Our mate Ron Petersen left us today to return home. We are VERY sorry to see him go.
You certainly are doing some very picturesque travelling.
George Jean Ebony
13.09.2010 by G J Durnan