Broome 3 - 17 July

We left Kununurra with no real plan on where we would travel to for the night. The drive was quite spectacular with lots of mountain ranges and interesting landscape. We were soon passing the morning tea set and stopped for lunch just past the turn off for Purnululu National Park, the home of the Bungle Bungles. A stop at Halls Creek for fuel and we were making good time so decided to push on. We thought we might stay at Mary’s Pool (will stay when we return) but still had a far amount of daylight so continued on to Fitzroy Crossing arriving about 5.30pm. The Fitzroy Crossing Lodge was full so we ended up staying out near the old tavern (the Crossing Inn) which we soon discovered was the ‘locals’ favourite drinking hole. The annual rodeo was scheduled for the coming weekend so it was especially busy. It didn’t really matter as we were both very tired from the long day’s driving and were asleep in no time.

Fitzroy Crossing is the gateway to Geike Gorge and we will definitely be visiting on our return but in the meantime we are on a mission to get to Broome. The drive to Broome was not as interesting as the previous day, a lot flatter and not as many trees although the boabs certainly are growing in girth.

We arrived at Ali and Dave’s about 2.00pm. No sign of the occupants so we followed their instructions and set ourselves up in the back (horse) paddock. We finally manoeuvred the van between the trees and made ourselves at home. A trip into town for a quick look and then home for dinner and to watch the Collingwood/Essendon game. At half time there were lights in the drive and our hosts appeared fresh (or not so fresh) from the Mitchell Plateau where they had spent the past 10 days hiking and camping. Time for a chat then they were off for a shower and a good night’s sleep. Stephen and I watched the rest of a very good game – Magpies winning of course. What a shame we weren’t at home to gloat!!

Saturday we spent the day reacquainting ourselves with Broome, did some hydrotherapy in the pool and watched a bit of footy. We had dinner with Ali and Dave and reminisced about our trip on the Great Escape last year and chatted about their recent trip to Italy. There was no shortage of conversation. Sunday we spent the afternoon on Cable Beach, as one does, and arranged some accommodation in Derby for a corroboree next Thursday night, the 9th of July. We also booked 3 days at Middle Lagoon camping on the Dampier Peninsula which we were very lucky to get as it is WA school holidays.

We have spent our days hobbling out to Gantheaume Point which has the most beautiful sandstone rocks with so many different colours and textures, buying a fishing rod for someone whose name starts with S and seems to have visions of catching fish, meeting with Catherine and Kevin in our cars on the beach for sunset drinks then eating out at a Thai restaurant, swimming in the pool and organising our camping gear for our few days at Middle Lagoon next week. Life is sooo tough!!

Ali has very kindly been looking after my rehabilitation and sent me to have some ultra sound treatment from a colleague. The foot is gradually improving and hopefully won’t take too long to heal.

Thursday morning up bright and early for our trip to Derby. On arrival we ‘did’ the township, took all of about 10 minutes, and then headed out to the Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre. The corroboree was being held in a circular area outside the Centre so we set up our chairs and waited for dark. For some time we watched the Mowanjum children play in the dust on the arena. They were all decorated with ochre and special tribal clothing but still acted like all kids touching each other and then running off to be chased or jumping around the fires and making the adults worried while all the time not giving a tinkers cuss about the danger. The first ‘act’ was a group from One Arm Point (north of Cape Leveque). They were brightly decorated and very professional. Apparently they are off overseas next year to perform. There was a young boy of about 12 years of age that was terrific. The second group to perform were from the Tiwi Islands and let’s just say they weren’t as good as the first group. Finally the Mowanjum tribe performed and brought the house down (only there wasn’t one). There was lots of dust kicking, singing and stick clapping and many encores. We felt very privileged to attend (along with about 250 others) as it is the only corroboree to which white folk are invited but it is also the largest aboriginal ceremonial gathering in WA. The final dance everyone was invited to join in. I hope you will enjoy the photos of this event because it was quite spectacular.

We arrived back in Broome late on Friday where we spent the next few days getting prepared for our trip to Middle Lagoon. We also managed to squeeze in a few trips to the beach and some drinks with friends. We also took a drive up to Quondong Beach and Price's Point. Price's Point is very in the news as the WA Premier is keen for some big company to come and build a gas processing plant in the middle of the Kimberley. He is trying his best to not get reappointed for another term. Everywhere you go there are people asking you to sign petitions to stop him.

I should also point out that we now have a second camp site in the ‘back paddock’ at Ali and Dave’s. A family from Kangaroo Island are now sharing with us. On Sunday morning Dave had a big ‘cook up’ of bacon and eggs for all of us which lasted for most of the morning before we headed back to the van to pack.

Monday morning we left for the Dampier Peninsula. We stopped at Beagle Bay where we visited the church which has a beautiful pearl shell altar built by German priests before WW2. The same priests were to be interred during the war but the nuns who were working with them and the aboriginal communities said they would leave if the government did this so the government sent a guard to watch them at Beagle Bay instead. Who said women don’t rule the world?

On arrival at Middle Lagoon Stephen went into the office to find out which site we had been allocated. Not that easy!! No booking, no site. What!!! I had rung 10 days ago to arrange a site and the fellow had rung me back to confirm. Not happy. His reply to this was, “just find a spot somewhere over there and set up camp”. Hmmmm. I should point out that all of the camping areas up this way are run by the local indigenous communities. We found a spot “somewhere over there” and set up our tent. The area we were in had 3 sites and by the end of the day there were six camps on the 3 sites. Very cosy!! We had paid by card but several of them had been told cash only. He might sound as though he doesn’t know what he is doing, but I think he knows quite well. 3 sites at $15 per head would normally be $90 but he was making $180. No power, cold water and only a cleaner to clean the ablution block. This guy is making a killing with about 60 “official” sites on the property.

Enough of that, we stayed for 3 days and apart from the wind, which was howling for the first two days, we had a lovely time. We got the opportunity to test our camping gear and work out any kinks for our trip up the Gibb River Road. The beach was beautiful and Stephen got to try out his new fishing rod, unfortunately not with any success. We met a lovely couple from Mansfield and a d***head from Tweed Heads who had been a jet pilot one minute and a real estate salesman the next. He called Stephen ‘Pete’ for 3 days so we referred to him as ‘Dick’ for obvious reasons. It takes all sorts; I just wish they wouldn’t camp next to us!! On Wednesday we packed up then drove further on to Cape Leveque. We had a look around and then headed for the beach and a swim. A very beautiful beach although there were lots of rocks in the water at low tide which was a shame. We are thinking we might try and come back after our trip up the Gibb. After our swim we arrived back at our car to find Catherine and Kevin loitering around the ‘blue lux’. Our car is very distinctive and people are beginning to put notes on it saying they know we are nearby. We arranged to meet Catherine and Kevin at Divers in Broome for dinner that night.

We are off fishing on a charter tomorrow morning and no doubt will have so much fish on our return that we will be able to set up a stall at the market in Broome on Sunday morning.

Congratulations to our darling niece Justine and her husband Adrian who are now the proud parents of Mitchell Leonard ‘John’ (the saint’s name that needs to be included in all Hede children’s names) a bonnie 9 pounder who joined the clan on 12 July. Congrats also to Grandma Mary and Poppa Brian who are grandparents for the first time.

Happy birthday to Meg, our niece and, of course, the one and only Catherine Maree Hede (oops Foster) who also had a birthday this week. Sorry we weren’t there to join in the birthday fun but we did send a good present.

To finish this episode I will give you some important statistics which we have gathered during our trip just in case you might one day attempt such a journey.

• It takes 3 months at a leisurely pace to travel 14,000 kilometres pulling a caravan by car/blue lux.
• The largest road train we have seen, so far, has had 82 wheels.
• There are 96 white road lines and 4 white posts per one kilometre of road (yes, we counted).
• There is a repeater station approximately every 4 kilometres.
• An average of 4 'Wicked' vans per day.
• 100s of swooping kites (birds), road kill, tyre kill, abandoned cars (or temporary homes depending what race you are!) and dry creek beds.
• No clouds - ever
• 1,000,000s of termite mounds
• We have used 4 bars of soap, two tubes of toothpaste, but are still on our original shampoo and conditioner bottles (obviously the hair is becoming feral).
• it is too embarrassing to tell you the number of bottles of wine we have consumed since we left home, we'll just leave it in the 'many' category.
• Very little beer - not!!
  

Access photos on http://picasaweb.google.com.au/stephen.hede/Broome?authkey=Gv1sRgCOObnJCblrCkgAE#