17/07/2005The annual beer regatta (where they build boats of beer cans) is on at Mindil Beach so we head over there for a look around. Then it’s time for breakfast in the city. Then some shopping before we leave Darwin.
Litchfield National Park is our next
stop. Buley Rockhole looks amazing but is packed with people. Two of the campsites full but the third site at Florence Falls has some vacant sites. We start chatting to the people next to our camp and the woman says “have we met before?” – and it turns out we have. It was Susie – an old flatmate of Johnny (Johnny who we used to share a house with) who we had met at Johnny’s place in Camperdown about four years ago. How cool is that!!! Susie is from Germany and was only in Sydney for half a year back then, then she 
returned to Germany and now she is back in the country traveling with her boyfriend Flo. We spend the evening with them around the fire, talking and having a great time.18/07/2005
We say bye to Susie and Flo. Who knows where we will meet them next time? Europe? At Johnny’s place in China? Or maybe randomly somewhere else?!?
We stroll to Florence Falls – a wonderful fall
hidden in the rainforest but unfortunately full of screaming youngsters. We check out another waterfall – Tolmer Falls – and then head on to Surprise Creek Falls. And it is quite a surprise! After corrugations and many bumps and a few watercrossings it’s a pleasure to find the quiet falls – we are lucky to have them to ourselves for quite a while. You can jump and dive from the cliffs into the pools. We would have loved to stay here but unfortunately there are too many friendly flies and mozzies.
We’ve heard that Douglas Hot Springs is nice so we head over there. The hot springs are quite packed with people as well but later on in the afternoon we manage to find a reasonably quiet spot. Some parts of the springs are so hot (about 60 degrees) so you almost burn yourself. Other parts are quite cool – and then there’s a few spots with medium temperature – around 35-38 degrees. We find a perfect spot – exactly where the water from the hot springs meets the natural cold water – so after you’ve been in the hot water for
a while you can just move a little bit into the cold water. We spend a few hours in the water. It’s lovely and very relaxing!19/07/2005
Through Katherine again. Quite a busy little town. All tourists are filling up fuel and food and so are we! Today we are trying to get as close as possible to the WA border. The roads are good and the scenery is nice – quite impressive ranges. At sunset we are pretty tired and stop at a rest area by the road, 85 km from the border. The area is quite pretty situated by the bottom of some spectacular rock formations. But puuhhhh the area is quite smelly. The waterless toilets have a terrible smell and each time the wind goes past our camp we are ready to throw up.
20/07/2005The scenery is beautiful but the shitty smell is revolting. We move on. At the border we have to stop at the quarantine station and our car is inspected. Luckily we are not carrying any fruit or vegetables. The inspection guy didn’t say anything about our dirty and muddy car - we were a bit worried about not having washed it as you are not supposed to bring in too much dirt or mud into WA.
In Kununurra we visit the information centre to gather some info about the area. We also stock up with fuel and food. Then we head south towards the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park).
As it’s late afternoon when we get close to Bungle Bungle we decide to spend the night in a free rest area as it costs $18 to stay inside the national park. We make a fire and grill sausages and have a few beers. The nights are pretty cold here (desert climate type) – compared what we have gotten used to - so the fire warms nicely as well.
21/07/2005 Up with the birds. Brekkie. Coffee on the fire. 53 very looooong km of very winding and corrugated roads into Purnululu. As this place is very busy we go and reserve a camping spot before we go and check out Cathedral Gorge and the beehive like rocks that’s so special to the Bungle Bungle
– the rock formations that you see on all the postcards. It’s a special place and the rocks are impressive. The black and red stripes of the rocks are a strong contrast to the clear blue sky. This place is supposed to be 360 million years old. It’s impossible to understand just how old that is – but it’s pretty darn old! Cathedral Gorge is like an amphitheatre with a small little pool in the middle. It’s packed with tourists trying their vocals.In the afternoon we laze around by the campsite – reading and relaxing. At sunset we climb up with nearby limestone ridge and watch the red range change in colour to purple. Beautiful!
Soon after sunset it’s time to zzzzzz.
22/07/2005Time for another couple of walks. The first walk is bloody hot and rocky but the destination at Minipalms Gorge is pretty shady. The gorge is dry but the tall cliffs and the palm trees form an impressive landscape. The second walk is a lot cooler and goes through Echidna Chasm – a very long and narrow chasm. When the sun reaches the chasm (around midday) the light is remarkable in between the cliffs. From some angles it almost looks like lava glowing in the dark.
Time to hit the looong, windy road back to bitumen. We fly over jumps and dance and sometimes slide through the corners. Puh it’s a long drive and it’s beautiful to see bitumen again. Our overnight stop is at Molly Spring Creek (recommended by Susie). After a long day it’s very refreshing to take a plunge in the waterfall pool!!!Fire. Food. Beer. Sleep.
23/07/2005
After speaking to our neighbours at the camp we decide to head straight to Wyndham to fill up on food and fuel before hitting the Gibb River Road (we had been thinking about heading back to Kununurra to fill up – but they told us the fuel was cheaper in Wyndham).
It’s boiling hot in Wyndham. What a contrast to the cold nights in Purnululu.
The five rivers lookout is magnificent. You obviously see five rivers connecting. We speak to a lovely old couple in their 70s and 80s who are pretty cool and sleep in their car. They recommend to go to the Crocodile Farm in Wyndham as it’s supposed to be cheap and good compared to other farms so we decide to give it a go.
The croc farm has 3000 crocs – and only two of the crocs are freshies. A bit of a scary place…but it’s pretty safe as the salties are all fenced in. They don’t seem to make a secret of having to animals to reproduce and sell expensive skin and meat to tourists and restaurants. There are some real monsters here – 5,5 
metres. Wouldn’t like to meet them when you are swimming! The small baby crocs look cute but apparently they are not. They are born with killer instincts and the guide tells us that they have seen small baby crocs attack eachother and do the death roll as soon as they come out of the egg. Maybe not so cute after all!Fuel is about 5 cents cheaper in Wyndham so we fill up the full tank and the jerry cans. We also do some grocery shopping in the local store.
Then it’s time for the notorious Gibb River Road – which is supposed to be one of the worst roads in Australia. Of course we have to do it!
To get to El Questro is not bad at all. Just a little bit of corrugation. They try to keep the road pretty good so the tourists can get to El Questro. We decide to spend at least a night at the famous cattle station. It’s pretty expensive but since we are in this part of the world we might as well have a look. You pay $15pp for camping and $15pp for a wilderness pass so you can see all the attractions on the station. The camping ground is pretty nicely located by the river and there’s a good swimming hole. The best thing is the single toilet and shower units who look like a small tented cabin. You can’t believe how nice it is to have some space on your own - to go to the toilet and then have a shower. And while you are having a shower you can look out at the sky and the trees. Nice! Unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of the toilets.
Since it’s Saturday night there’s a big barbecue buffet on – and since we’ve got our spending shoes on we decide to join in. And what a feast. Steak. Barramundi. Sausages. Chicken. Potato salad. Sallads. Pasta. Bread. Tiramisu. Carrot Cake. Fruit Salad. Mmmmm. Haven’t been this full since don’t know when. Definitely worth $26 each. We roll into bed – exhausted from eating so much.
24/07/2005After quite a hot night we go straight for a swim in the river. Then our bad luck or clumsy behaviour begins. We are feeling a little tired and not to keen to do too much but since we are at El Questro and paying for it we obviously want to see as much as possible. So we ignore our tiredness. (It’s hard to believe but you can actually get exhausted from traveling). Off we go for a walk to El Questro Gorge. Halfway on the walk you have to wade up to your stomach in water. Unfortunately Daniel is so keen to get in the water so he forgets that his digital camera is in the pocket. AAAhhhhahhahhaa. We decide to skip the rest of the walk and head back to camp and try and dry the camera as quickly as possible. After Daniel has been fiddling with the camera and drying it out with the air compressor it actually starts to work again but the vision is really blurry (like you’ve had the camera in water).
The rest of the day is spent in a rather bad mood. By the way – the gorge walk was really nice and scenic until the camera incident.
25/07/2005
It seems like there are some bad spirits resting at El Questro. As soon as Daniel steps – or rather crawls – out of bed he dislocates his shoulder. Scary thing. Helena is watching Daniel helplessly as he is popping the shoulder back into the right position. Looks awfully painful.
Hmmm. The milk (at brekkie) seems a bit warm. It turns out the fridge has turned off because the extra battery has run flat. Aren’t we lucky.
Anyway we soldier on but decide to leave El Questro today as it seems we are having rather bad “luck” or whatever it is. But before we head off we decide to have a look at one of the lookouts of the station – a lookout with a 360 degree view. Helena drives her roughest part of 4WD-ing so far on the trip up to the top of the lookout. In some places it feels like the car is going to tip over. As we get to the top we briefly enjoy the view. Then all hell breaks loose as Daniel discovers that his camera doesn’t have any vision at all. Another sour day! Let’s just say that the drive down from the lookout wasn’t exactly pleasant. Anyway, you probably won't see any more photos until Daniel buys a new camera.
Soon we hit the “real” Gibb River Road. The one that we’ve heard of. The road that shakes cars to pieces. Some stretches of the road are horrible whereas other parts are no problem at all.
We spend the night at a free campsite by the river at Barnett River Gorge. A nice little place.
26/07/2005
We check out Barnett River Gorge. A beautiful gorge. What else can you say?!? I guess at this stage we are getting a bit “gorged out”. We have seen so many gorges and waterfalls throughout the trip and you just don’t appreciate each of them as much. That’s the problems with the kind of trip we are doing – we want to cover so much of Australia and we have to see so much at once so sometimes it’s hard to take it all in. You would surely appreciate each gorge much more if you just visited one area or one place at a time. I guess we are very spoiled seeing so many gorges and falls at once. Anyway, Barnett River Gorge is better than good (if that makes any sense).
As we are in the Kimberley we obviously “have to” see some more gorges – so we head off to Manning Gorge. You have to pay to see the gorge ($12.50pp and that includes camping as well). The walk to the gorge takes about one and a half hour and is pretty tough – going up and down and through some really rocky areas – and is extremely hot in the middle of the day. The gorge is nice but nothing too special but as all the tour groups and other tourist leave the gorge and we get to spend some time on our own by the rock pool and climb up the almost dry waterfall you get to appreciate it a bit more. The pool has a sandy bottom in some areas and pretty clear water. We are spending a nice couple of hours there. Swimming. Reading. Relaxing. This trip is almost feeling like a holiday again and not a boot camp.
At nighttime we light a fire and cook on it. Pyro Daniel makes up some big flames and one of our neighbours at the camp is a bit worried that the fire will spread up into the treetops.
27/07/2005
You guessed it. Off to the next gorge. Bell Gorge. An easier walk takes us to Bell Gorge where there’s actually water in the waterfall. This gorge is a little prettier than Manning Gorge. We go for a swim, have lunch, and head off again. And yes, we are off to the next gorge – Windjana Gorge. As we arrive to Windjana in the late afternoon the black mountains look like they belong in the Lord of the Rings. If you look into some of the caves and outcrops of the mountains you can see all kinds of creatures – Gandalf look-alikes and some things resembling trolls. If there was a place where trolls actually lived this would probably be it.
28/07/2005
Some more bad luck or just stiffness or clumsiness. Helena does something to her neck and can’t move the upper body properly. What is happening to us? Maybe it’s the cramped space in the car? Maybe it’s all the corrugated roads.
Anyway we try and beat the odds and go for a sweaty 7km walk down the gorge and back. 7km almost all on sand = not easy.
Windjana Gorge is a pretty spectacular place. Not only does it have a limestone reef that’s about 380 million years old. It also has hundreds of freshwater crocodiles in the gorge (where there’s still some water). And the crocs are not shy. They lie sunbaking on the river bank and you can get quite close to them – about 2 metres were the closest we dared to go. We counted 50 crocs on one riverbank. Crikey!
Enough of gorges and dirt roads. Off to civilization again.
A quick stop in Derby to check out the jetty, the boab prison tree and to have some lunch…then off to Broome.
As we arrive in Broome in the late afternoon it’s impossible to find a camping spot in a caravan park so we end up sleeping in the car park next to Cable Beach. It’s illegal but what are we supposed to do.
29/07/2005
At 6.30 in the morning we start queuing at Cable Beach Caravan Park to try and get a site. At 9.15 we are lucky to get one. It feels like you were queing for concert tickets or something but it’s only a camping spot.
Once we are “in” we set up camp. Both of us are tired and cranky. We’ve been out traveling for more than two months now and has basically lived in the car and it seems to have taken its toll.
We try and be as cheery as possible and head into town for a look around. Broome seems to be quite a cute little town. There’s a strong Chinese influence. Lots of pearl shops. Tourist shops. No tall buildings. Palm trees. We try and get a new camera for Daniel but the town is not big enough to store what he wants unfortunately.
We see Cathy Freeman and a film team walk around. Apparently she’s here doing some kind of TV series or film. She looked pretty cool and casual.
We walk into a fancy pearl boutique and get to feel and hold a pearl necklace for $140, 000. Wow! Might be my (Helena) next b’day present….Maybe not then.
30/07/2005
Ok, today we decide not to be cranky, we’re just going to take it easy. It was a while since we hade a day on the beach so that is where we’ll start our day. Of course the beach, sea and sun are wonderful and we swim for the first time in the Indian Ocean. Cable Beach is stunning. Turquoise water – but it’s a bit chilly. At sunset we take a camel ride on the beach and get a sore ass. Wonderful! Then we head off into town to see a movie at the oldest picture garden in the world “Sunpictures”. Sitting under the stars in deckchairs is great but the movie itself (Mr and Mrs Smith) could have been better…
31/07/2005
It’s time to try and get this bloody blog together. We spend about six hours in an internet café – writing, arguying, trying to paste pics into the documents etc. Frustrating stuff. Anyway we get some of it done – then we drive about 200 km in the dark and sleep at a rest area by the highway. It’s pretty akward to drive long stretches of straight roads at nighttime – because you see oncoming traffic for miles and you can’t really predict how for or how close they are. Hard to get the eyes used to it.
