Day 35-39 Derby, Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Bell Gorge

We left the caravan in Derby and camped for 3 nights at Windjana Gorge and Bell Gorge along the Gibb River Road in the West Kimberley. The days were hot - about 36-38 degrees. The kids had to put their heads under a tap and wet their t-shirts to keep cool.

At Windjana Gorge we walked along the trail past pools of freshwater crocs. We stopped to have a drink near one of our new "friends" - see Henry above. We did a 2 hour tour of Tunnel Creek with an Aboriginal guide who showed us through the cave and old aboriginal rock art. We waded through knee to hip deep water in our runners and we told about the story of Jandamarra, an aboriginal rebel who hid from the white authorities in the late 1800s. We needed our torches because the cave was very dark and we saw heaps of bats.

The next day we went to Bell Gorge. We were very hot, so scrambled down the rocks to have a swim in the large pool under the waterfall. Even though this is the middle of the dry season there is still water cascading over the falls. The rocks in the pool were very slippery so you had to carefully edge in on your bottom. The gorge and falls were very beautiful and the swim was refreshing after a long hard walk. After the walk back to the car park Dad opened up the "car bar" for a cold Solo - see us above sitting at the "car bar".

Back at camp we toasted marshmallows on the open fire.

We drove back to Derby the next day very dirty and dusty and had dinner at the Spinifex Hotel to celebrate our return from the wilderness.

Day 32-34 Cape Leveque

We drove to Cape Leveque from Broome. The road was red dirt and sand for most of the way and very bumpy. Dad looked like Ace Ventura because he was bumping up and down.

We stayed in our tents and Geoff, Penne and the kids stayed in a "deluxe" safari tent.

One day we went out on a boat to do some fishing and snorkelling. We saw some whales and a sea snake. The sea snake was venomous and pretty scary. One whale had just given birth to a baby calf and the calf was suckling next to the mother.

Dad caught a fish called a Mac Tuna. It is a strong fish and Dad had to fight pretty hard to get it in. We threw it back afterwards.

Henry caught 3 fish and Olivia caught 2 fish. Henry's fish were all Spanish Flags (stripy sea perch), one small, one medium and one big. We took the big one home and put it on the BBQ to eat. It was pretty good. Olivia caught a scarlet sea perch and a yellow tailed fusilier but they were too small so we had to throw them back.

Gigi also caught 3 Spanish Flags and Claudia caught a scarlet sea perch.

Henry and Olivia both think fishing is really fun and can't wait to go fishing again!

Day 26-31 Broome (part 3 - Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Farm)

Will: At the crocodile farm in Broome, we had a look at the crocs and we went to the really big croc and it was really, really big - like a 100 metres long. [Editor's note: Crocs actually only grow up to about 6-7 metres long which is still pretty big!]

This is a photo of a really big crocodile and the man said they can jump over the fence. This croc is called the Red Baron. In one pond there were about 70 crocodiles! They also had a pond full of alligators but they aren't as scary.

The little baby crocs were really little and they had ropes around their snouts and Liv and Henry held them. I had a pat of them but I didn't want to hold them because they might break the rope and bite me.

Day 26-31 - Broome (part 2 - camel ride)

Olivia: We went for a camel ride and we were on the red group. I went with Gigi, Mum went with Will and Dad went with Henry.

Me and Gigi went on a camel called Gerry Hall. It had one blind eye. I was at the back and Gigi was at the front. The camels sit down and then once you get on them they go straight up. Getting up on the camels was so scary. It goes bum first and I was on the back so I was first up. It probably gives everyone a shock for the first time. When the camel walks it feels very different to being on a horse. Every morning and night we see them coming up the hill.

Every morning we went to the Sunset bar and grill looking over the ocean for breakfast. We loved the chocolate chip muffins best. That's when we see the camels going down the hill to go and saddle up on the beach. At night time we went for a drink at the Sunset bar and grill and we see the groups come up.

Day 26-31 - Broome (part 1)

In Broome we met Granny and Poppy and set up the caravan for them while we stayed at Cable Beach Club. We also met up with our friends Geoff, Penne, Gigi, Claudia and Lachy.

These photos show some things that we did in Broome.

Henry and Dad played cricket and frisbee on the beach. Olivia surfed the waves on her wave rider. The beach was huge.

We met some old friends on the beach to have a drink and watch the sunset. Dad drove the car onto the beach and we took all the chairs. We followed each other along the beach and the rocks. There were levels that we could choose - easy, medium, hard and extreme hard.

We went to the market and all had ice cups. Henry had lime, Will had lime, Olivia had lime, Claudia had lime, Gigi had raspberry and Lachy had raspberry.

At the resort we played in the pool. We played pool games with one of the activities instructors. We played octopus and we dived into the deep end. Henry and Dad played mini-golf. We stayed in a bungalow.

Will was very excited to get his BMW remote control car from Nonni. When it goes forward the front lights go on and when it goes backward the back lights go on.

Day 24-25 - The road to Broome

Long drive to Broome from Exmouth. Mostly flat and dry country, but crossed some rivers with water. Some long stretches (nearly 300km) without anywhere to stop for food or petrol. We stayed overnight
at Karratha and Sandfire roadhouse.

Karratha and Dampier are big mining and oil/gas towns. We saw long trains of red dirt heading to the port and the gas plants had huge flames coming from the top of big chimneys. We also had some trouble trying to park our caravan at the first caravan park because of the height of the kerb - our caravan hitch seems to be quite low and the kerb was very high. We had to go to a different caravan park where the guy cut off the bottom of our tow bar dropper with a saw. It was very loud and there were lots of sparks.

At Sandfire we had a guitar jamboree with some other people who were staying at the roadhouse. They invited us over after dinner and we sang some songs. Their names were Steve and Shirley and they played some music gigs on their travels. He was a good guitar player. He played some funny songs - A song about a man named Sue, the music man, a Rolf Harris song about Paddy the Irishman and a story called Rindicella with all the words mixed up. He also played some songs by Crowded House and Billy Joel, and a song called the Cats in the Cradle which Dad thought was by Cat Stevens but it's not.

There were also heaps of strange animals at Sandfire, including a huge bull, a camel and hundreds of peacocks.

Day 21-23 Exmouth and Cape Range National Park

From Coral Bay we drove to Exmouth and on to Cape Range National Park. There were many beautiful beaches at Cape Range National Park, our favourite was Sandy Bay (see above). The beaches are on the lagoon protected from the ocean swell by Ningaloo Reef. It is possible to go snorkelling off the beach but we decided not to go snorkelling because we saw a 2.5m shark feeding on fish about 30 metres off shore at Turquoise bay!

We went for a couple of walks, one at Yardie Creek and one at Mandu Mandu Gorge. We saw a stingray and a turtle and a white fish in Yardie Creek. From the top of Mandu Mandu gorge, we could see all the humpback whales out past the reef. The view was so good you could even see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon.

The campsite we stayed at was called Tulki Beach. There were about 10 sites and one bush loo. At night the stars really bright and colourful and the sky was huge - very different from the city. Venus was the first star at night in the west after sunset (although it's really a planet not a star). Liv and Dad sat out after dark one night with the telescope and the camera. We could see Venus through the telescope - it was very bright. We call the photo above of our caravan and the stars: "Galaxies". You can see the Southern Cross at the top towards the right. Liv also learned how to tell which direction is south by looking at the Southern Cross.

Henry and Will: At the campsite we were on "ant patrol". Ant patrol finds and watches ants and ant holes and kills some of the big ants. We killed fire ants but rescued black ants. We sat on the wheels at the back of the caravan to get a better view of the ants.

Day 17-20 - Coral Bay

At last in Coral Bay some proper warm weather - 26-28 degrees every day, but the water was still a little chilly!

We hired a kayak on the beach and went snorkelling in the bay. The coral was only a short swim from the shore. There were lots of different coloured fish around the coral. There are no whale sharks in Coral Bay at the moment as they migrate south in July.

Henry: Dad and I played 20/20 cricket on the beach. Dad marked out the boundary and we each got 20 balls to make as many runs as we could. Automatic wicky and 3 outs per innings. This is a picture of me hitting a six. I beat Dad in this game. I made 73 and Dad was all out for 67.

We went on a sunset quad bike tour one afternoon. We went really fast on tracks through the sand dunes and up and down some steep hills. We stopped on top of one dune and could see all the humpback whales out in the distance over the other side of the reef. We also stopped on the beach to watch the sunset. The quad bikes were Will's favourite part of the trip so far!

Day 16 - Carnarvon

We stayed overnight in Carnarvon. Our camp site was right next door to a playground and there was a jumping castle at the caravan park.

We went to see the OTC radio telescope dish which was built in the 1960s to pick up satellite signals. It closed down in 1987. We went to visit the museum but it was closed so we just climbed up the stairs and had a look. It was pretty big and we saw the gears that helped move the dish around so that it could point in different directions. The dish was famous because it transmitted signals to and from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during the first moon landing in 1969.

Not much else to do in Carnarvon unless you want to go fishing or pick bananas.

Also below is a picture of Mum, Liv and Will at the Stromatolites.