We set off from Broome on the short trip to Derby, itself the last town for a while. On reaching the outskirts of Broome we found the (only) road was closed. We knew flooding was a problem on this road but later discovered it had been closed for a murder investigation at or near one of the roadhouses. Someone I mentioned this to casually remarked 'probably just black guys running around going crazy'. This blog is not the place to discuss the social issues Australia faces. Suffice to say it is a complicated and very sad problem.
Our only option was to go back to Broome and the next day back on the road to Derby. Derby is a dump, and not a place to visit without a good reason. Ours was that it is the last town before the start of the Gibb River Road. Our tyre problems in the previous week had dented our off-road confidence a little, so we were already in two minds about attempting the 600+km epic dirt road, particularly in November, when it can flood and having very few people on the road means help in case of a problem could be a very long way away. In the end our minds were made up by the fact the national parks and other meagre facilities on the way were closed or just closing for the wet season, so we decided to just do the short 100km or so via Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek national parks.
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| Bush Cath in explorer-mode |
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| Windjana Gorge |
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| Boab tree |
After that we rejoined the main road (mmm, smooth tarmac) and headed to Fitzroy Crossing for the night. Stopping in town just for an expensive tank of fuel, we then stayed a Fitzroy River Lodge, a nice motel & campsite with a welcome pool and even more welcome bar. There were a lot of kangaroos just milling around enjoying the nice grass.
Next day we drove a long way to Kununurra, the last town in far north-east WA before the border with Northern Territory. We arrived late-ish and piled into an excellent steak. One thing Australian supermarkets have over England is very tasty and reasonably priced steak. It quickly entered our repertoire of campsite food, particularly after we discovered ready-made bearnaise sauce. Given that all Australian campsites have barbeques (usually although not always free) it is also generates very little washing-up. Winner.
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| Chef at work |
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| Mmmm beefy goodness |
Kununurra is fairly tropical and the campsite we stayed at had a lot of foreigners living there while working at local farms (specifically mangoes). It also had a lot of permanent residents, who live in their stationary (sometimes even bricked-in) caravans all year round, and make their 500 square-foot sites into strange little domains, erecting permanent awnings and fences. We would develop a bit of a dislike for 'permies' on the basis of not much other than that they are a bit weird.
We had 2 nights in Kununurra and spend the middle day pottering round the nearby sights, including the Hidden Valley national park.
We set off the next day with a view to seeing Lake Argyle, a huge man-made reservoir, on the way to NT. The campsite there seemed pretty nice though so we decided to have a lazy day there. It had a pretty awesome pool!
By now we were quite far east but still on WA time, a full 3 hours behind Sydney. It would get very hot by 8am and dark by 6pm. Not good for lazy people like us who enjoy nice long evenings. We astonishingly got up for sunrise at Lake Argyle at 4:45am, which was just about worth the effort. It would feel good to put the clock forward 90 minutes as we entered Northern Territory.
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