We clocked over 15000 km today on our way to Monkey Mia 25/11/2010

This is a rough map of our journey so far, and we have done and seen so much.Today, a year ago, Graeme was undergoing surgery and very close to death. He says never in his wildest imagination could he have imagined that he would be given a second chance for a new chapter in life with so much happiness after all the hardship he endured over the past few years.


We thank God everyday for an opportunity like this to travel, discover and enjoy this beautiful country. We are also learning so much about ourselves and each other in the process as well as meeting and sharing experiences with fellow travelers along the way.

Carnarvon the bread basket of West Australia

          Not much happens in Carnavon

                               

  More great coast line   

The town of Carnarvon, the hub of the Gascoyne, is located 904 km north of Perth following the Brand and North West Coastal Highways. Carnarvon’s unique location, warm sunny winter and mild summer makes the town a wonderful place for a truly memorable holiday. Carnarvon is an ideal location for travellers to restock supplies, sample locally grown produce, fish and explore outlying areas which provide a diverse range of natural attractions. Dominating the Carnarvon skyline is a huge communication satellite dish, which was opened in 1966. Although no longer used the dish still stands as a reminder of days gone by when Carnarvon participated in the space race to put a man on the moon.

 But it does have an awesome blow hole 70 km north of the town                                                       

                                                         

But while you may see the crops being irrigated from the river, you may well not see any water in the Gascoyne River. The mighty Gascoyne River runs only for about 120 days a year and the rest of the time it runs underground.

                                                 A River that does not run

             Of course Mangoes

                                                  A sexy Husband to be

         An old light house

                                                                Great sun sets

                                                            

All in all it was a great little town, very friendly and a very nice camp ground 700 mts from the centre.
 We relaxed, held each other tight, had romantic dinners on the sea shore and our love for each other grows stronger each day.

.

Turtles and snorkeling in Exmouth- and Kangaroos

 

Emu's were part of the permanent residents of the park

Our next stop was Exmouth (population 2400) and we found an excellent Big4 camp ground there. We have  been on the road for a long time and met different people as we stay in different camping grounds. Some are heading down the same route as we are, as the choice of roads are limited!! Now we start to run into people we have gotten to know along the way and it really nice to see some familiar faces and share our experiences.

Wild horses in The Cape Range National Park

We are discovering so much about Australia and its hidden treasures everywhere. Exmouth exceeded our expectations in many ways. Nigaloo Marine Park is snorkelers and divers paradise with 260 km of coastline with the reef often being only meters from the shore. It has 500 recorded species of tropical fish. The Cape Range National Park outside Exmouth took us to the reef. We spent two days going out snorkeling and it was an experience never to be forgotten. 

Turquoise Bay with the reef

Turtles 

This is the time of the year when big turtles come ashore and lay their eggs at night. This was something we really wanted to see. One of our newfound friends lent us her Land Cruiser one night so we could drive out safely to the Turtle Viewing Centre. We spent a few hours enjoying the moon light and each other, but not one turtle in sight.

The following day we asked around and got advised about some other spots where others had seen turtles and we stopped by there during the afternoon and saw several turtles sticking their heads up and swimming around waiting for the dark. We returned that night on our Harley and it was challenging to drive along the road in the dark as there were plenty of kangaroos around. 

We came a bit late, one big turtle was already returning to the sea after having done her business. Another one, was digging her hole and sand was flying everywhere.  We sat down a few meters away and started watching her. Little did we know that we had come upon the most stubborn turtle on the entire beach. If a turtle doesn't like the structure of the sand etc in the hole she is digging, she moves on and starts a new one. This is very demanding as they are big and heavy and it is very cumbersome for them to move ashore and dig their nest.  This turtle was exhausted and on her sixth attempted nest when we left at 1.30 AM.

Turtle footprints as they are moving up from the sea.

"Our" stubborn female, digging away being watched by another stubborn female

We walked along the beach and watched other turtles in the process of doing the same thing, some returning to the sea and others just coming up. They are guided by  moon light and come up when the tide is high as they have less distance to cover on the beach that way.


It was a very romantic night with close to full moon and very special. Graeme even saw a Meteorite.


We  attempted to sleep on the beach but were not prepared and it got too damp and uncomfortable so we decided to drive back to the camping ground which was about 50 km's away. 


We now know without a doubt that kangaroos are nocturnal. We passed more than 100 kangaroos on the way back, driving very slowly and carefully. We hit one, and it was a miracle we didn't run into more. The kangaroo "shoo roo" gadgets you can buy in auto shops are useless we discovered. There were kangaroos all the way right up to the camp ground. It is very dry out here in WA and you wonder how they survive.


Next stop is Carnavon via Coral Bay and this will take us out of the "heat zone" of the Top End.

 This short billed Corella fell in love with Marie-Louise (who doesn't)  in the camp kitchen.
 He then  followed her to our camp site and would not leave.

Broome to Dampier

Today is rest day and it sure is needed as yesterday was the toughest day of riding I have ever done.
We woke up at 3.30 AM packed the camper and were away by 5AM, having filled up the bike and 2 jerry cans with fuel the night before, and also buying ice and plenty of water.                                      

 The sun just coming up as we leaving Broome

Our first road house was 330 km away and I knew it was going to be tough.

We stopped for our breakfast a couple of hundred km out of a rest stop and were very surprised our mobiles worked and so did my new application for iphone (a TV). We watched the news for a few minutes then set out on a marathon that saw us do 865 km and take 13 hours through desert country!

This photo is of the Fortescue Caravan park and yes that's cow pads right where you set your tent up. Needless to say we didn't stay.

Fortesque metals has a Market cap 0f $20,850,096,691 they didn't spend any of here i can tell you.

I have never gone so slow for so long, the head winds were so forceful and I had to work  at keeping the bike upright the whole way and we used so much fuel. A tank that would normally do 280 km with the trailer behind, now we were lucky to get 160 out of it. When the day was finally over my shoulders felt like I had been at the gym for a whole day and we both felt like we had been on a ship in high seas .

I had the throttle open full most of the time and could do little more than 85 kpm, it was such  a slow, hot, boring day. Poor  Marie-Louise kept cracking her helmet on mine because she kept falling asleep and was even more bored than I was.

We were going to stop in Port Headland but it was such a dusty dirty and expensive place ($380 a night for a cheap motel including meals that you were forced to pay for thanks to the huge wages the miners are on) so we carried  on to Dampier, a quiet little place of 1300 that was recommended to us and was well worth it .

We are staying in the only Caravan park right on the water over looking the loading of the Huge  iron ore ships.
A night photo of the Harbour .
Dinner was at the Palms resort that caters for the miners and also for the public. What a feast! They cooked me a beautiful scotch fillet to go with the roast, salad vegetables and every sweet you could think of . A huge buffet and all for $25.00.The staff work 2 weeks and then fly back to Perth for a week, but it's 14 days work without anytime off. Marie-Louise is giving me a hard time about my beer gut coming back even through yesterday was my 25th Anniversary  of not having a drink.
Tomorrow we will vist Rio Tintos North West gas platform  and display along with the red dog that is famous out here (more to follow regarding him).


Pool is Marie-Louises' new pass time and she is learning fast - she even kicked my butt.

Broome, what is all the fuss about!!

We have heard so many good comments about Broome so we were very eager to get there .
After a huge day of riding from Halls Creek where we splashed out on a hotel room to escape the 40 degrees heat, we finally arrived in Broome.
It was one of the toughest days we have ever done with so much wind, so hot already very early in the morning, no services and close to 700 km to cover.
We left at 4.45 AM in broad daylight (this stupid Government needs shooting, its daylight at 4.30 AM and  dark at 6 PM) carrying a spare 5 litres of fuel.


We stopped for our weetbix on the side of the road after 200 km and soon after the fuel light came on. The winds increased but we  made it to Turkey Creek using our jerry can of fuel.


Once again we were shown just how small this world is as 

the Army pulled up and one of the soldiers came up and said; "you guys sure get around, I last saw you in Alice Springs." That was on the 4th of September!! .

It was good to see an Aboriginal  from Arnhem land was included in their ranks.
We have learnt so much about our Indigenous people we see in the towns. The "bad" ones who in the most part have been thrown out of their communities because of the trouble they cause.
A lot of the Aboriginal  communities are "dry" and the towns have tough alcohol laws preventing the sale of takeaway grog till 2 PM, there are no wine casks sold, and there is a limit on the amount of beer that can be purchased. What happens is every morning when the pubs open most go in for a drink and to play the pokies. At 2 PM there is a mass exodus as they buy their takeaway grog and they head to the river banks where you can hear them yelling at each other. They believe the person who makes the most noise is the dominant one.


I was told they were 2 road houses between Halls Creek and Broome so I did not fill our Jerry can, that will be the last time I believe what anyone says about fuel stops. 


What a scary trip!  High winds with the road feeling like we were riding up a steep hill even though we were not, stinking heat and desert everywhere with the fuel disappearing far to fast. We both prayed as it would be very dangerous to be stuck out here for too long. I slowed down to 85 kph and somehow we made  it to the Willare roadhouse where I proceeded to put in 23,3 ltrs of fuel. I checked the Harley web site and all she should take is  (22.7ltr Touring Fuel Tank).

Another 165 km saw us arrive in Broome. I had  booked us into a backpackers Hostel  and we jumped in the pool - boy that felt great . At 4 PM the office opened and we were told no double beds so we were out of there. I did not drive 13,000 km for single beds!!!.
We are now staying at the Rowbuck Caravan park with a water front view and a breeze of some sorts at night but the days are a killer. We do not know what all the fuss is about Broome, sure has a nice beach (Cable Beach)  and the sunsets are magic but you can't swim in it for 6 months of the year and the Town of 6,000 odd is nothing special.

Our caravan park is ok, no pool and there are stingers in the sea but it is a reasonable price of $30. However, the owner must be a former Gestapo General!! I have not had a run in with him yet but would do if I stayed any longer. Check out a few of his signs, these are just from the camp kitchen.

 

Boab tree at the caravan park

A lot of the shops treat you as" tourists " and don't care if you come back or not, not like in Darwin where we were met with kindness wherever we went. Here in Broome, I had a cup of tea in the Jamaican blue coffee shop and asked for a pot of water to add to the tea pot. They did this but then removed the tea from the pot so I said "hold on, hold on" but off they ran. I did go up to the counter, only to be told we are aware that you are trying to get 3 cups out of a pot !!! and no, you can not have your old tea leaves back. Needless to say I told her how miserable she was and business must be tough.
Marie-Louise did manage to buy a nice cream Dress !! but she did loose her Sunglass arm covers, so we are now on the 8th pair or more.
We went to Church this morning at the New Life Christian Church and saw a most energetic service .
In the morning we are off to Port Headland, 613 km away and once again fuel stops are going to be a problem, and the heat and the wind and the water and the food! But we have more Bryce Courtney this time -  'The potato factory'. Marie-Louise is a trooper, it's so hot sitting on the back with no breeze and she never complains and to make it as bearable as possible we plan to be on the road as close to 4 AM as we can.

Katherine – Western Australia

Adelaide River pub with it's buffalo icon. 

The HEAT

We had a challenging day travelling from Darwin back to Katherine. We took too long to get on the road and the heat is merciless and you feel like you are cooking on the bike. You really have to keep up with the fluids, or you soon know you haven’t, when the headache sets in. 

We had a couple of lovely days in Katherine, spending time with our new friend Lee “the General” and a couple of other musicians, a Harley rider from the Baptist Church and on Sunday afternoon we had a real “get together” at MacDonald’s. Any place that is cool will do. In the evenings we went to the local pub and resorts where Lee was entertaining.

Then it was time to start heading west and our next stop was Kununurra, a journey of around 550 km. The caravan park we stayed at was just at the bank of Lake Argyle.

A few very unique stones are mined in the Kimberly region and one type is called Zebra Stone and they are awesome. Both Graeme and I agreed that we wanted to buy something made from these rocks for our future home. We visited all the main galleries in Kununurra and eventually selected a  couple of pieces that are now being sent to Frances, who takes care of our mail and affairs in our absence.

We have learned our lesson and left 5.30 AM this morning for Halls Creek to beat the heat. That was all good, but the temperatures in Halls Creek is over 40C all week so we ended up at the Kimberly Hotel as putting up the trailer in the “dust pit” of the Caravan park was out of the question.

Graeme entertaining local school children in Halls Creek.

It is very odd that WA do not have summer times as it get’s dark around 6 PM and daylight around 4.15 AM in the morning. Would make sense to shift it a bit, one would think. We are now 3 hours behind Sydney/Melbourne.

We are aiming to head off at 4.30 AM tomorrow morning as we have a long – hot journey ahead of us to Derby.