BARBARA'S KIMBERLEY ADVENTURE - THE KIMBERLEY TO THE PILBARA

Driving into a bushfire......started at Fitzroy Crossing and had made it to Derby by the time we got there.....a little daunting

Turns out their bushfires aren't quite as severe as ours....phew!!

And smoke makes a beautiful sunset :-)

We are now into our 4th week of our amazing adventure and I have a serious case of camper trailer hair :-O. For those of you who have never seen me in the morning..........my family and GM  can please keep their thoughts to themselves ;)........I look like the professor (Doc Brown) from back to the future but with a hell of a lot more hair!!!!!  I am also completely covered in spots from all the nasty bitey things they have south of the Gibb River road!!!!!  I look like a serious mental case that has escaped from the leper colony north of Derby :-/  I also managed to get a cold.......must be a real germy place!!!!!  And all the skin is now peeling from under my nose......I am feeling pretty damn hot at this stage ;) but GM bless his wee little heart is being incredibly strong and is still happy to be sharing this adventure with me and still gives me the odd cuddle :)

Anyway, back to the important stuff!!!!!

We packed up and drove to the port of Derby just after 8 and went for a wander around the wharf, checked out the ore conveyor and loading chute and watched some people catching mud crabs.  

We toodled out of town and pulled up at the prison boab where they used to keep aboriginals they had captured to work at the pearl farms and stations.  They obviously paid them a pittance so that they could deny calling it slavery, but that's the only difference!!

The tree is incredible.  Around 1500 years old, with so many initials and stuff carved into it.  It is quite sad to see the damage as it ruins the natural beauty of this amazing tree.

Baby Boabs

More Baby Boabs :-)

Have I mentioned that I love boabs???

I went for a wee wander around the area and got some pics of baby boabs :). I would love to have brought some seed pods home with me to see if I could grow them, but goodness knows what other bugs might come in with them.......maybe these horrid bitey things from south of the Gibb river road!!!!!!!

While I was walking back to the car I found a trailer with brochures for flights to the horizontal falls.....not the sea plane and lunch and boat tour (which were booked out days in advance) but a rather inexpensive flight for 1 hour 40 mins that went to the falls and the Buccaneer Archipelago,so we gave them a call and BINGO!!!! We got our flight :) 

We flew with "Bush Flight" and our pilot Suraya.....a female pilot...obviously pretty awesome.....gave us the grand tour of everything.  We flew in a teensy weensy Cessna that only had 4 seats and was the perfect fit :)  the whole trip was breathtaking......I really have run out of adjectives to describe this country, but every minute I spend exploring makes me love it more and more and so hungry to see the rest......I feel confident that GM is of like mind.......

another island for me????  ;-) 

The aborinigies sold this island for $180 million......so much for caring for their land.......it always comes down to dollars, wherever we have gone.

Barramundi Farming in the middle of the ocean.

The Port of Derby

Derby

Sureya our Pilot and our teensy weensy little plane :-)

We set off for Broome and arrived in plenty of time to set up camp, grab some beer for GM and check out the tourist information place where we booked him a fishing charter for the next day.  

Our neighbours in the park were all lovely but there are an awful lot of men out there named Peter!!!!!!  Got up the next morning and got the washing on early while GM went off on his fishing trip.  I met the laundry nazis.....one of whom was a sour piece from Fish Creek.........I don't want to retire and travel the country in a caravan if I'm going to turn into  some miserable old woman who has nothing better to do than bitch and moan about the way other people use the laundry in caravan parks!!!!!  And there were quite a few of them there!!!!!  After telling them to sweeten up and get a life I went and caught up with my blog.....4 episodes behind :-O. GM came back with a massive bag of fish......this was to be our staple diet for the next few days.......he hadn't caught it,.......the sharks had eaten his ;)........but they don't let anyone go home empty handed!!!!   Should send him out on charters more often ;)

We went to Gantheaume Point Beach with a bottle of red and watched the sunset over the water.....busy place but quite romantic ;)

We woke early the next morning and went for a camel ride on Cable Beach........it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!  My camel was called "Tiny" coz he was the biggest, GM's was called "Wangai" but my Tiny kept nudging GM for a scratch.  GM obliged every time and I think has made a friend for life :)  a glass of champers would have gone down well with it, but what a lovely way to spend a morning on the beach, as well as an education on camels.

Tiny smooching up to GM.....he just loved GM and kept nudging him for scratches :-)

Tiny....my camel :-)

Wangai, GM's camel :-)

Phoenix, the handsone one

Ghan, the happy camel

Jacko, the funniest looking camel

And Da Dada da da DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA .........Alice the Camel  :-)

We went back and packed up camp and drove out of Broome......a place I would like to spend a lot more time in.

We pulled up about 50km from Pardoo and camped on the side of the road after another feed of fish.

Up and out early the next morning  and we are now in The Pilbara.......devo!!!!!  I never wanted to leave there!!!!!'   It's not quite as lush and pretty as the Kimberley, in fact it's pretty bare....but the colours are amazing and the sunsets just as glorious.  We called into Port Hedland and had a bit of a sticky beak.......

The salt mines at Port Hedland

This was about 1/5th of the train.....they are enormous!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recent rains have dried up fairly quickly.  

Next stop Karratha.............

not a pretty place at all but very busy, then down the road for a beer at the Point Samson Tavern where we watched a couple of whales frolicking :-) and now we're camped up at Cleaverville just before Karratha and ready for a good nights sleep :) 

The stuff you have to move off the road for to let pass :-)

The Pilbara....slightly different from the Kimberley.....a wee bit harder to find the beauty here.....

We have re-named these types "Plop hills....they look like someone has just done a giant plop in the middle of nowhere!!!

More of the Pilbara......the colours are still stunning tho.....

The pub has closed down.....how the bloody hell are we supposed to be able to do a drunken pub crawl around here?????    It's about 500km since the last pub!!!!!!!!!!!  :-O

Road Trains....big suckers!!!!!!!!