W.A. – We’ve Arrived!!!!

Sunday 16^th June

After Ron had made sure we had no fresh fruit, vegetables, plants, seeds, honey, or indeed cane toads, we set off towards the WA border. They are really strict on quarantine there.

The scenery was again absolutely beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the quarantine checkpoint and decided to stop at the toilets first. As I was getting out of Indie, I thought I would just check the fridge and lo and behold – a rogue mandarin was lurking in the crisper. Well I’m sure that would have proved a jailable offence so we ate it on the spot.

We then proceeded through the checkpoint where a quarantine officer boarded Indie and checked the fridge and let us pass. Phew!!!!

The whole experience must have caused me to become over excited because I failed to get any photographic record of the border crossing!!!!

We drove on through and again, the scenery defies description. I know I sound like an old broken record but there simply are not enough wows to describe this country!!!!

Around every bend, there was just breathtaking vista after vista.

 

 

 

Then we had our first glimpse of Lake Argyle

 

Lake Argyle was formed by the damming of the Ord River and it is huge.

When we arrived, we checked into Lake Argyle Resort ($37.00) and headed straight for the pool. It is an infinity pool overlooking the lake.

 

 

The water was absolutely freezing, so much so that poor Ronnie ended up with three Adam’s Apples!!!!! Truly we only lasted a few minutes before we had to get out. Bear in mind though, it is almost the middle of winter!!!!!

Afterwards, we were sitting outside Indie when Teri and John (from last night) walked past.

They were going for a walk down to the dam wall. Ron didn’t want to go because a walk down immediately intimated a walk back up again so I went.

We walked down the road.

 

 

 

It is an earth wall dam and the road goes across and doubles back to a lovely picnic area.

We saw a sea plane land and take off again.

 

 

Afterwards, we went back to the park and the four of us had sundowners (it was only 3 o’clock but who cares?) in the beer garden listening to a young man playing guitar. We were the audience in its entirety!

 

 

He was very good and picked our age group perfectly and played lots of our songs. He was doing really well until he mucked up the middle verses of ‘Waltzing Matilda’. John said it was OK because they were English and didn’t know the difference!

Finally we went our separate ways and Ronnie and I wandered up to the top of the park to watch the changing colours of the rocks in the setting sun. The little sea plane took off again, this time straight towards us.

 

 The colours were truly spectacular. This is what it is all about!

 

 

 

Ronnie cooked up a lovely bar-b-que dinner and we splashed out and bought hot chips to go with it…..a lovely end to a lovely day!

Monday 17^th June

We left Lake Argyle and drove down the road where I had walked yesterday with John and Teri.

We drove across the dam wall. As well as irrigation, they use the dam to produce a little bit of hydroelectricity.

 

 

We drove around to the little picnic area as well. It was gorgeous with its great looming cliffs.

 

 

 

As we were leaving, we suddenly realised we had stolen away without any word of farewell to our friends John and Teri. Big apologies! We must have been a bit over excited about going to Kununurra.

I don’t know why, it was not that interesting. It is just another town, absolutely packed to the gunnels with caravaners, 4 wheel drivers, motor homers and sundry other tourists. We have established that The Kimberley and Bungle Bungle areas of W.A. are designed specifically for 4 wheel drive and fly overs only. And they do not come cheap!!!!

We shopped at Coles and because the area is renowned for its Boab trees, I went in search of a silver charm. They had heaps but as they ranged from $95.00 upwards. They are still in the shop and I just took photos of real ones. I am absolutely besotted with them!!!

 

We stayed the night at (651) Cockburn Rest Area. It is on the junction of Victoria Highway and Great Northern Highway, which is where we will turn to go towards Halls Creek. Nothing much happened at Cockburn. We didn’t speak to anyone much. Ron put up the awning and as I went round the back of Indie, I smacked my forehead into the corner of the boot lid. I said ‘Oh dash darn’ (or words to that effect) and promptly burst into tears. Boy did it hurt! And I got a big egg!

Tuesday 18^th June

We left early this morning and drove to (643) Spring Creek. The scenery is still much the same. Lots of Boabs!

 

We arrived around lunch time and set up camp. It is almost directly across the road from the Bungle Bungle park entrance so there are lots of caravans without their accompanying 4 wheel drives. I guess they are all off on day trips! We have a very intermittent phone and internet service so I have spent all day getting my diary and attempting to get my blog done. Not having much joy!!!!

We had a call from Paul. He received his Birthday package and was quite pleased but he said it made him feel a bit homesick for the first time ever.

We have had a quiet time here. We haven’t seen anybody really all day. The most interesting thing so far has been the toilets….sad isn’t it?

The toilet is made from a solid concrete collar above a pit. Flash hey!!!

 

Towards sundown we wandered down to the creek. It looks nicer in the dying light of the photo than it did in real life. It was quite stagnant with lots of biting things flying about.

 

We said g’day to a few people and decided that the toilets were still the most interesting things there!

That night I got my shoulder and back pains back with a vengeance. Is it punishment for saying mean things?

Wednesday 19^th June

We left camp and drove 7 kms down the road to (642) Leycesters Rest. It looked like a nicer spot and we drove around and had a good look.

 

The bridge had been blocked off with a great boulder with the words ‘cross and die’ painted on it and there was a dead bat hanging on the fence. Now we can take a hint so we continued on our way

 

 

We drove through from there to Halls Creek.

Now there’s an interesting town. They certainly tell it how it is in their signage!

 

 

 

By now, I was in dire need of a fizzy drink so we ventured into the butcher shop and there was a fellow in front of us at the counter. The butcher was wandering around and we waited ages. Finally we started to walk out and so did the other customer. He wasn’t being served either! We walked to the bakery next and they had five counter staff and no body served us there either! We finally gave up and went to IGA.

 We then went to the Information Centre with its statue honouring the early pioneers, to find out which was the best caravan park but since there was only one, it was it!

 

While we were there, Ronnie spotted a gorgeous little silver Boab charm (only $23.00) so he bought it for me.

We stayed the night at Halls Creek Caravan Park ($35.00)

Thursday 20^th June

I’m still in a fair bit of pain but we are moving on to (636) Mary Pool.

It is gorgeous. We arrived about 11.00 am and went for a bit of a walk about.

 

 

 

We met a fellow called ‘Tanks’ who contributes to a lot to different forums that Ron reads on the net so we had a bit of a chat to him. He has been travelling for a fair while and was going to catch up with some other forumites up the road.

I was still feeling crook, so I took to my bed.

Ronnie decided to try his hand at baking scones. 

We had already met our neighbours, Colleen and Rex. They are from Toowoomba and have been on the road for several months with their gorgeous pussy cat, Angel (who judging by the look on the face wanted to be back indoors).

 

 

We had had a great old chat with them and invited them over for sundowners.

I was sound asleep, blissfully unaware of anything around me when Ron came in and woke me to tell me John and Teri had arrived and managed to jag a spot right next to us. Talk about timing, Ron was just finishing off his scones. We had just begun our afternoon tea in earnest when Don and Pauline (from near Lake Macquarie and who we had met at Lake Argyle) rocked over and so they were invited back for sundowners as well.

 

 

 

We had quite a little party going and it was lovely sitting outside chatting and drinking. 

Friday 21^st June

We have decided to stay on for another day but our neighbours have all left us. Colleen called by and gave me a novel she had finished with and ‘Tanks’ also dropped by and gave us another 4 novels he had finished with too. People are so generous.

Ron has gone into a baking frenzy after the successful reception of his scones. He was not best pleased with them because they hadn’t risen to the occasion so to speak. I think he is being a bit harsh on himself because it is not the best oven in the world and besides, we all thought they were fabulous!

Anyway he has now produced a mouth-watering pile of pikelets for our morning tea.

 

 

 

They were delicious!!!!!

I set about scouring the camp ground for folk who looked like they would be nice to talk to when I came upon Sue and Tom who coincidentally were camped next door. Sue looked like a Hippy Chick so I knew she was good value!

 

It turned out, Sue is an artist who works mainly with clay but also with textiles.

We invited them over for sun downers and we all had the most wonderful time. They come from Narrogin. The only other place I have heard of in W.A. is Pingelly (a little dot on the map where my friend Ros comes from). Turns out, Narrogin is a little dot on the map about 50 kms south of Pingelly. Who’d a thunk it, in the whole state the size of W.A.?  Sadly, they are travelling in the opposite direction to us.

Saturday 22^nd June

Sue and Tom called by to say good bye this morning and Sue gave me some white roving and silk to do some felting which was so lovely.

With fond farewells said, we headed off through yet more stunning country side towards Fitzroy Crossing and our reunion with Bob and Fran.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still Westward Hoing (Through NT)

Sunday 9^th June

We went and bought some more tablets and then went off to Bunnnings to get another bolt for the table. Then we were off.

We could tell we were getting close to the NT because we saw termite mounds and then as soon as we were over the border, there was the Mitchell Grass again.

 

 

We stayed at (1) Avon Downs (across the road from the Police Station) no wild parties tonight. In fact no-one spoke much at all. There were heaps of vans everywhere. We had dinner and sat out looking at the stars but couldn’t spot any satellites, shooting stars or UFOs so we went to bed and watched ‘Dexter’.

Monday 10^th June

Ronnie got up to see who he could chat to this morning and they were all gone!!!! It was only 8.00 am!

So we drove through to Barkley Homestead and bought fuel and then continued on to (7) 41 Mile Bore.

We set up camp and Ron and I went down to get water to do a bit of washing and we met Sam. Sam is a young English lad who has been riding his bike around the world since 2008.

 

We invited him over for sundowners. That got extended to dinner. Well we talked and talked. He had had so many great adventures and been to so many fascinating places. One of his favourites was Iran which came as quite a surprise and he loved India. He had hitched a ride with a family on a yacht from Indonesia and was headed back there via Darwin. He was still riding the same old 8 gear push bike he had left home on and had only replaced the tyres once, when they had worn down almost to the inner tubes. While we were having dinner a feral cat walked in, bold as brass and sat down next to us then ran off again. We have seen about 5 or 6 feral cats running across the road when we were driving. Sam had been frightened by some dingos the night before and had slept on top of a road grader because he figured that they probably wouldn’t climb up there to get him. I think he is very brave although he says he is a bit psycho now from all the time he spends alone. He said most everyone he has met has been friendly but when he was at Barkly Homestead they refused to let him fill up his 2 litre water bottle. We had talked so much, it had gone 10.00pm and we figured what the hell? Why don’t you sleep here? So he pitched his tent next to Indie and we settled in for the night.

 

 

Tuesday 11^th June

We got up early and started packing when Sam told us he got out his Dingo knife in the middle of the night because he thought he heard growling. It was just  me, snoring!!!!!

 

We set off. Sam left about quarter of an hour before us but had managed to get a good head start before we caught up and passed him.

 

We headed off towards Daly Waters and Ron pulled over a few times to let caravans pass. After the last one we were joking that he would probably take the last powered site. We pulled in to (99) Daly Waters Pub and the caravan had just made it in front of us. He headed for the front door of the Pub and I raced round through the beer garden and just got served before him but there were still a few powered sites left. It was much fuller than last October.

We pulled in, plugged in and headed straight for the beer garden.

I went in to buy us a drink each and Ron headed out to look for a table. As he was stood looking around a voice called out “Hey, aren’t you the husband of the wife in the colourful dress? We saw you at Barkly and later on you pulled over and let us pass". Turns out their names were Kevin and Maureen. They came from Sussex Inlet and we spent the rest of the night with them.

They were so nice and super friendly.

 

The entertainment was fabulous and there were three this time. Col who was a bit Country and Western, Steve who was definitely Rock and Roll and Chilli who was the comedian. Mind you, when Steve played ‘Running Bear’ there was only me and one old bloke up the front who shouted out ‘in the raw’ at the end of each line!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although not technically part of the entertainment, I think Joey’s innovative way of carrying wine glasses does belong under that heading somewhere

 

 

 

The night’s entertainment, which started at 4.30 pm finally finished at about 9.30 pm and after showers etc. we didn’t get to bed till after 10.30 pm.

 

Wednesday 12^th June

When we were packing up to leave, Ron struck up a conversation with a couple from WA. As I came to join in it turned out, he was the man I beat to the bar to book in. They were saying the same about us getting the last powered site and he figured if I got it, I would have to look after their two kids for the night!!!!

We left Daly Waters and headed up to Katherine. We went to The Mall (Woolies and about five other shops) and would you believe……It cost $2.00 to go to the toilet…… each and they operate on a 15 minute rotation basis (i.e. they close for 15 minutes every 15 minutes!!!!!)

We booked in to The Boab Caravan Park ($38.00) for the night. It is across the road from Johnnie’s Electrical. He is apparently the Guru of satellite television throughout the length and breadth of the Australian continent. So guess where Ronnie is headed tomorrow?

Thursday 13^th June

We went to Johnnie’s and measured up the size of the dish which would have to live across the beds, and the tripod which would not fit in the boot so would need a spot inside, and the hookie thing out the front which also would have to travel inside plus the box that does whatever it does and needs to connect to the TV and needs a space to live as well and bear in mind all this stuff has to be moved outside every time we park up to camp and never mind where it will go in the rain and so Ron had pretty much decided that it was too much of a hassle especially since I didn’t want it anyway. Suddenly a dissatisfied customer came in saying that his dish that he bought there a few months ago had never worked because it was bent and he had had to buy a new one in Broome. Johnnie’s reaction was to bend it back into shape and tell the customer that it was fine now and would work. The customer then said that he didn’t need it because he had a new one and wanted a refund but Johnie insisted that he didn’t need a refund because the dish was fine now and he would plug it in and prove it was OK. We decided that we could live without that kind of after sales service and moved on from Katherine and finally turned left towards WA and new country we have not seen yet.

We only drove just over 100 klms and arrived at (194) Mathison Rest Area. It was pretty ordinary. I did a bit of knitting. Ron had a lie down. We went around and spoke to all the neighbours. There was a young Austrian couple in a panel van who were just delightful. When they said they were from Austria, I said ‘Oh, the country that Americans always think is Australia and they comment how small it is.’ The young bloke said ‘That’s OK. They think we have kangaroos and all we have is lakes and mountains’. But he went on to inform me that you can actually purchase T-shirts there that say ‘No Kangaroos in Austria’.  Later we spoke to another nice couple in a huge Jayco motorhome and by the time we went home to Indie for our dinner it was after 8.30 pm.

It was only then that I realised that not only did I have no photos of the folk we met but I had not taken any photos all day!!!  A first I think since we left home.

 

Friday 14^th June

The landscape has finally started to change as we are approaching the Victoria River Area. I am making up for not taking photos yesterday! The scenery is amazing and so different.

 

 

It is all hills and escarpments. We called in to (195) Sullivan Campground and went for a 100metre walk down to the creek with the warning ‘Do Not Drink’ and ‘Beware of Crocodiles’ signs.

 

 

 

 

From there it was through more impressive scenery, huge escarpments and fabulous colours

 

 

 

 

Then we crossed over the Victoria River and filled up with fuel at (196) Victoria River Road House. Then we walked back.

Ron took the high road (the new bridge – no hills) and I took the low road (the old bridge – one hill).

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, we drove through Timber Creek and on to (204) Big Horse Creek Campground in Gregory National Park, set up and had lunch. It was quite crowded, but only cost $3.30 per person per night so we decided to stay two nights.

We spoke to a few folk and found out that you could walk a few hundred metres down the road to a bridge across the river to an Army field area. So off we went.

You could actually just see the bridge from the campsite.

 

We walked across the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

And when we got to the other side, Ron thought of scaling the fence until the sign on the other side caught his eye.

 

 

 

 

‘Do not touch anything it may explode and kill you’ was the clincher!

 

We came back to camp, and there were these extraordinary Bottle Trees or Boabs or whatever everywhere.

They are just gorgeous and come in all kinds of shapes!

 

 

Saturday 15^th June

We have decided to stay another day, not because folk are friendly because they are not, but just to relax a bit. I spent most of the day knitting and finally we got some nice neighbours!

 

 

Their names are John and Teri and they are from England. They are not on bikes but travelling in a caravan. They have been coming to Australia for about 8 years and spend a few months travelling around each time. We invited them over for sundowners and had a good old natter. They are heading the same way as us so we shall probably cross paths again soon.

Tomorrow we head off to the border!!!!!!!