Bungle Bungle Caravan Park - 22 July 2012
We got up early at 6.00 and headed off for our day trip into the Bungle Bungle at around 7.00am. It took us 1 1/4 hrs on the 50km slow, winding dirt road to reach the Ranger Station, where we paid our park entry fee of $11. Our first destination in the park was Echidna Chasm, which is a 1/2 hr walk into a very tall, narrow crack in the massif (the main body of the range). We took a break at the dead end, had some morning tea and enjoyed the various colours as the sunlight filtered down to our level.
Walking into Echidna Chasm
We gave the Mini Palms walk a miss, as we'd heard the palms had been flooded and then burnt out in previous seasons, so we headed to the southern end of the park and had lunch in the car park at Picaninny Creek. Our walk started through the beehive domes with their black and orange stripes, which are actually different layers of sandstone and conglomerate rock laid down over millions of years. The black layer is the sandstone, covered in cyanobacteria (blue green algae) that actually prevents further erosion of the sandstone. The orange layer is the conglomerate mix of sandstone and other rocks.
Walking on the Domes Trail
We accidentally took a side track and discovered a weathered rock formation known as Mini Cathedral, so named because of its resemblance to the main Cathedral Gorge which we visited later.
The girls at Mini Cathedral
We got back on the main path and continued on our way to Picaninny Creek, where we made our way along a new track to a lookout over the Beehive Domes and towards the car park.
At the Domes Lookout
After a few photos, and some rock throwing by the kids, we retraced our steps to Picaninny Creek and followed the track back to the Cathedral Gorge side track.
On the Picaninny Creek walk to Cathedral Gorge
Cathedral Gorge is one of the park's major features and is a great spot to cool off on a hot afternoon. The sheer vertical walls let very little light into the bottom of the gorge and as a result the temperature is about 5-10 degrees cooler than outside. The shape of the gorge is a natural ampitheatre and all sounds are echoed off the walls, making it very easy to hear what others are saying, even at a distance of around 50m away. When no-one is there it is a very peaceful place to relax on the cool white sand.
The very impressive Cathedral Gorge dwarves Georgia and Kelsey
The Woolleys relaxing on the Cathedral Gorge beach
The walk out left four weary trekkers grateful of somewhere soft to plant our butts for the drive home. We stopped for a brief pit stop at the Ranger's Station, before tackling the dirt track back to the caravan park. Our only other stop on the way, was at the park entrance gate for a scrapbook photo.
A quick pic at the National Park gate
Fitzroy Crossing - 23 July 2012
Today saw us leave for a long drive to Fitzroy Crossing. Sue schooled the girls in the back of the car, and I studied the white line for about 4-5 hrs.
While setting up the new sat dish, I chatted to our next door neighbour who had just spent a couple of weeks at Telegraph Pool on the Fitzroy River. He'd done really well on the barra and gave me a few tips for future reference. We plan to stop in and check it out for a few days on our return journey.
Broome - 24 July 2012
We left The Crossing at around 9.00 and stopped at Willare Bridge Roadhouse for fuel and lunch. We arrived in Broome at about 2.30pm and checked into the Broome Caravan Park, about 4km out of the town centre.
After setting up the van, we drove into the Post Office and picked up another round of mail. We then drove out to Cable Beach and went for a short walk and watched the camels. After our walk, we sat in the car and had happy hour with dorritos, while the sun went down.
Broome - 25 July 2012
I spent the morning preparing tax documents for the accountant, while Sue took the girls for a swim at the pool and booked us in for a camel ride the following afternoon. Georgia ended up with a sore ear after her swim, so we made a booking for her at the doc's that arvo.
After some lunch we headed into town and did some shopping before Georgia's appointment. The doc said Georgia's ear was fine, but gave us a script just in case.
We drove out to the Broome Jetty and took a walk on a gangway that has been added to the side of the main jetty for fishermen and sightseers. You can no longer walk on the jetty itself due to security/terrorism reasons because it is a working port. Disappointing, as it used to be a good fishing spot.
We decided to get a bit of takeaway dinner out. Fish and chips was washed down with a Cable Beach sunset. Pretty easy to take.
Most of my morning was spent compiling even more tax documents, while Sue scoured the caravan for unneeded items that we could send home to Brisbane. Space was becoming scarce. After a late lunch we drove out to Cable Beach for our camel ride.
Sue and Kelsey rode together on a camel named Zara, who was 20 years old and apparently a real princess. Georgia and I scored Indi, a cheeky 10 year old, not unlike Georgia. We were camel no. 2, while Sue and Kelsey were on no. 3. A great time was had by all. The camel rides and the fluffy toy camels the girls bought afterwards, were early birthday presents from MaMa and RaRa (grandma and grandpa). Sue and I bought souvenir singlets, on the back of each was printed, "I had the best hump on Cable Beach".
Kelsey leading the way on Zara
Expert camel jockeys on Cable Beach
We dropped into the Post Office on the way home and bought some packing boxes for our excess baggage, and also a chook for dinner.
Broome - 27 July 2012
This morning we packed up 4 boxes, had some lunch and then dropped the boxes off at the TNT depot in town. We did some shopping before heading home and enjoying a lazy happy hour.
Sue made pizza for dinner, while I had a good gas bag on the phone to my mate Darren Grigg, who is travelling with his family, like us. He was in Kakadu at the time and would be following us into WA, before returning through the Red Centre to Melbourne.
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