6th June 2009 to 15th June 2009

SATURDAY 6TH JUNE 2009 – BARN HILL STATION W.A. DAY 89

The wind came up in the night but as we are in amongst the trees our awning was protected. We take Lucy for her early morning walk and hope she doesn't get used to this life so much as all the beaches here at the station are 'dog friendly' and no need for a leash. She runs so freely and enjoys chasing the seagulls.

I decide to do some baking this morning and make fresh scones for morning tea. We join Fay and Jeff, Barry and Lorraine and enjoy morning tea together and listen to the many stories of their travels.


Nick spends the rest of the afternoon sunning himself and swimming at the beach while I read my book. This really is a lovely relaxing life.

SUNDAY 7TH JUNE 2009 – BARN HILL STATION W.A. DAY 90

We slide into a very easy and relaxing routine. Walking and swimming at the beautiful beach nearby. Reading our books and socialising with the many people who are staying here at the station. This is a very popular place and many people here come to stay for months at a time.



Dinner tonight is a Sunday Night Roast put on by the Station. They charge $15-00 each and all we have to do is BYO everything and they will supply the soup, roast dinner and dessert, plus entertainment.

At 5pm we head to the main area a short distance from our van.


MONDAY 8TH JUNE 2009 – BARN HILL STATION TO BROOME W.A. DAY 91

We bid farewell early to Fay and Jeff, Barry and Lorraine and head out along the corrugated 13kms to the highway, shutting making sure to shut the 2 gates to the station as we go.

It is 135kms to Broome from here so once on the bitumen road is a comfortable drive.

As we arrive into Broome we are a bit confused as there are some new roads since we were here last time. Luckily everything is well signposted so it doesn't take long to get to Cable Beach and Tarangau Caravan Park where we are booked for 5 nights.



We pay our $180-00 for the 5 nights (the most expensive caravan park so far) and are shown to a lovely shady spot on the outskirts by the fence (the allocated area for people with dogs). We manouvre the Princess into a very long narrow spot and we meet our neighbours, Clive and Sheila and their greyhound Sandy.

They brought Sandy from the pound where they told us greyhounds who have finished racing have their ears cut of (because of their racing number tatooed on them) then they are killed for dog meat. I was astounded that this was the fate of so many of these (not so pretty) but lovely loyal animals. Sheila and Clive told us that many people now are wanting older, placid dogs and are adopting them from the RSPCA and various animal shelters around the country. Despite his size, Sandy becomes a lovely mate to little Lucy.



As Clive and Sheila have arranged to have dinner out tonight we offer to petsit for them while they are out. They are happy they won't have to take Sandy with them and leave him in their big car and as they leave his dog bed and coat they head out.

It is my brother David, in Sydney, birthday today so I phone him but he must be out on the town enjoying himself as there is no answer. I leave a text message and hope that he will get it tonight before midnight.

We enjoy a night in as the dogs play outside together before tiring themselves out. Clive and Sheila arrive home about 10pm and they offer to look after Lucy if we want to go out for dinner one night. My eyes light up as I would love to go to The Cable Beach Resort for dinner so we will see.

TUESDAY 9TH JUNE 2009 – BROOME W.A. DAY 92

After a cooler and comfortable night we woke up to brilliant clear sky. I have received a message of thanks from David so we are glad he got our message.

I phoned Jan and Alan and arranged to meet them tonight at Roebuck Bay where we would see 'Stairway to the Moon'. I was desperate for some much needed 'maintenance' so I headed into the local shopping centre to find somewhere to have my nails done. I found somewhere and they were able to fit me in in 10 minutes so after a quick coffee and scout around the shops I made my way back to the salon.

A delightful young British girl, Sabrina, was appointed to me and it was interestng to listen to her story of travelling and working around the world. She will leave here in November before heading back to Sydney then home.

I returned back to camp feeling like a new woman before getting a call from Jan and Alan.

Alan's sisters husband's brother Murray and his wife Marie from The Gold Coast were here in Broome as part of their round Australia oddyssey. They were keen for us to meet up so we arranged to change plans from 'Stairway to the Moon' and have sunset drinks on Cable Beach. We had done this on our last trip with Jane and Peter so would be a little bitter sweet. We agreed to meet and drive on the beach to a perfect spot where we would watch the sunset.



It, as usual, was spectacular and joining many others with the same idea it gets quite busy with 4 x 4 wheel drive vehicles everywhere. The relatively inconspicuous presence of police vehicles keeps everyone under control which makes it a most pleasant activity to do while here. As Stairway to the Moon is on for three nights we will head to town beach tomorrow night to see that.

The sun sets very quickly in the west so by 7pm we were packing up and heading back to camp.

WEDNESDAY 10TH JUNE 2009 – BROOME W.A. DAY 93

I am booked to have a little more 'maintenance' done on my hair thismorning early so once that is done I go back to camp and pick up Nick to take the car to have a new windscreen fitted. We had a tiny little chip which is resulting in further cracks so will need to have it replaced before it gets too bad or rather before the police notice it. There are heavy fines here in the West for driving with damaged windscreens so we think its safer to get this job done.

We drop the car off and the young man drives us back to camp where we wait for it to be completed.

Nick notices we are still having trouble with our gas and this could be one of the reasons the fridge is not working to its full potential. We get the number of a refrigeration man here in Broome and phone him to tell him our problem. He has another job to see to here at the caravan park so will book us in to be seen tomorrow. It is highly likely we will need a new fridge but we are not jumping to conclusions just yet. We feel we have helped the Western Australian economy enough already.

2 hours later our car is finished and the young man brings it back to us. $390-00 later our windscreen is brand new and lovely and clear. We drive him back to his factory and we decide to check out the local golf club on the way home.

We remember we came here on our last trip as it has the most magnificent views over 'town beach' where it is the best vantage point to witness 'staircase to the stars'. The only problem is they won't be open tonight. We are astounded as the third night of the full moon is the most spectacular.

I decide to cook a roast lamb for dinner and we will just have to picture our lovely memories from last time when we were with Jane and Peter.

THURSDAY 11TH JUNE 2009 BROOME W.A. DAY 94

The mornings here are a little fresh but the days are warm with a temperature of around 27 degrees. I am taking Lucy to be shampooed and clipped today, try to get rid of some of the red dirt in her fir. Her appointment is 10am so I set the GPS (don't know what we would do without it sometimes) and it takes about 8 minutes to get to 'Groom in Broome'. Julie is the groomers name so after handing over Lucy, I go back to camp.

This is a good opportunity for me to clean out our fridge, wash the walls down and deodorize it before the refrigeration man comes to look at it this afternoon.

I pick Lucy up 2 hours later and she looks spic an span – not a sign of red dirt anywhere (I wonder how long that will last). We are sure she feels better for it.

By 4:30pm we have not had any sign of the refrigeration man so I phone him to be told 'a fridge of that description only lasts 8 – 9 years' – our fridge would be 10 to 12 years old so think we will have to buy a new one.

It will take weeks to get one up from Perth so we decide to buy a portable one for the time being.

FRIDAY 12TH JUNE 2009 – BROOME W.A. DAY 95

We do some housekeeping before heading into town to the camping shop. There are many different portable fridges at differing prices so we settle on one “a Waeco” the same one Alan and Jan brought a few weeks ago, (and here in Broome we paid much more than they did) but as I've had to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of food over the last few weeks we think it will be worth it.

After stocking up on some supplies we head back to camp to decide on where we will head next.

SATURDAY 13TH JUNE 2009 – BROOME W.A. TO FITZROY CROSSING – DAY 96

Before we hook up we decide we will have to drive into town to the Windscreen shop as we find a 4 inch crack across our windscreen. We are astounded as we haven't driven anywhere to do any damage. I am quite concerned as being Saturday morning and needing to check out of this park (as it is full) we need to organise this as soon as possible.

Our new fridge doesn't seem to be working properly also so frustrated as we are we need to get these two things looked at early as our next major stop is Kununurra over 600kms away.

We speak to the caravan park Manager, who is sympathetic to our problems and tells us 'if we need to stay overnight, despite them being full, he will find “somewhere” for us'!

The Industrial Area seems to all be closed on Saturday mornings so I find the Windscreen Shop Owners card and decide to phone him on his mobile. “Leave a Message”!!! I am not happy as we are really needing to move on. We then go back to the camping shop to ask them to look at our fridge. There is a problem with the lid so after some manipulation (the owner tells us it is a common fault of Waeco fridges) the fridge is working perfectly.

I get a phone call from Mick (the windescreen man). It is his day off and he is out fishing. I almost scream down the phone at him to ask him 'what do we do about the faulty windscreen'! He calms me down and assures me we can drive to Kununurra and he will arrange for a new one to be ordered and installed as soon as we arrive there in a few days time. They will bill him for the cost.

Satisfied, we head back to camp, hook up and are on our way.

It is such a long day of driving with ever changing scenery.

We arrive into Fitzroy Crossing and check into the Fitzroy Lodge Caravan Park. We stayed here on our last trip with our friends Arthur and Trish and their family and have some very happy memories of that time.

Our site is on the outskirts of the park and we are put next to the biggest rig we have ever seen. It is a triple decker motorhome with a triple decker 'mobile garage' attached.. We meet the couple who own it and they tell us that they work around this area, contracted to the government to work within the Aboriginal communities to do whatever is needed. Mostly, they say troubleshooting (which could mean anything)!!!!

I get organised inside while Nick chats to the man outside. After a while Nick comes in to tell me that the triple decker 'mobile garage' houses the man's light plane. Well, we have seen everything now. It is normal to see various sized trailers behind motorhomes but this really takes the cake as the biggest we have ever seen.

It is amazing what people won't leave home without!!!!!

SUNDAY 14TH JUNE 2009 – FITZROY CROSSING TO DOON DOON W.A. - DAY 97

As we have stayed attached for a 'quick getaway' it is easy to move this morning. We are away early as we have a very long day ahead of us. We plan to get to Kununurra some 600kms away.

After a very tiring day at around 4pm we come across a lovely caravan park attached to the Doon Doon Roadhouse. This looks rather new as there is new turf laid, lovely gardens and very very clean. We make a quick unanimous decision to stay here for the night and are lucky that we get the last site. It is easy again, as we decided not to unhook so its not long before we are enjoying the cold taste of a lovely beer and gin and tonic as we enjoy the view of the mountains in the background. This is on the outskirts of the Bungle Bungles so it was lovely to have a candlit BBQ underneath millions of stars on the clearest of nights.

MONDAY 15TH JUNE 2009 – DOON DOON TO WYNDHAM W.A. - DAY 98

We rise to a beautiful crisp winter morning here in the Kimberley's. The temperature is forecast to be in the high 20's but with no humidity it is very pleasant. As we stayed hooked up overnight it is easy to pack up and we are away, heading further east by 7:30am.

As we drive through the magnificent Cockburn Ranges it is evident why Baz Luhrman chose this location for his movie 'Australia'. The scenery is stunning and the ever changing colours of the mountains are breathtaking. With the rugged profile viewed from across the salt marsh it will be a memory etched in our minds for decades.

We find an old Boab tree where we stop to have a photo.

This is an area I have been looking forward to seeing immensely as we only stayed in Kununurra for a couple of days in 2005 on our way to Broome. There is so much to see here. We are not sure if we will go into the Bungle Bungles though as it is in a National Park and from what we can see from our journey so far we think it will be much the same.

Our mail has been sent to Kununurra and we will get our new windscreen sorted out there so we think we will head to Wyndham, about 100kms north east of Kununurra and spend a couple of nights there, mainly to stock up on supplies and do some washing.

Wyndham is Western Australia's most northerly town 3216kms north east of Perth. In 1885 Gold was discovered in Halls Creek and in March 1886 Wyndham was selected to service the goldfields.

With many cattle stations in this area it is also a busy port for the live export industry transporting stock to Asia and Europe.

We find a shady caravan park and set up camp. It is only 10:30am so it is a nice feeling being able to pick from an array of campsites and we pick a lovely grassed shady spot.

The local information Centre is a valuable source so we pay them a visit and emerge armed with many brochures.

I have been wanting to visit El Questro Station (where many of the scenes for the Australia movie were shot) but my enthusiasm is quickly let down when we are told that the road getting there is not favourable to caravans. I have heard so many conflicting opinions and are a bit confused. We will have to think carefully of how we will tackle this.

In the meantime I buy some lovely fresh salad rolls and we head up to the lookout for a picnic lunch.

Our first stop is Warriu Park Dreamtime Statues. These statues are a proud monument to the indigenous heritage of the region.

From here we drive to the Lookout. 350m above sea level, you get a fabulous view of where the 5 rivers meet (Forrest, Pentecost, Durack, King and Ord Rivers enter the Cambridge Gulf. We decide to come back here at sunset.