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Mitchell Plateau/Falls and eastward Gibb River Road part 2

Heading north up the Kalumbaru Road from Drysdale station minus "turtle" for the first time in the trip. The talk around the camp at drysdale is leave the trailer at the station if you can we are not really set up too do this so we improvise with what we have. The back of the Disco is packed with , rolled bedding, tents and all our food for 2-3 days, no fridge as it wont fit with all the other stuff. Cooper and I in the car and ollie and tony in the tent , squishy squishy .

So nice too drive in disco minus turtle, even the car feels excited to use its strength and suspension for itself only , altho we will miss the turtle and the luxury living space it provides.

The road is heavily corrugated , i mean seriously its like 30cm deep ruts for miles at a time , a few creek crossings which appear on right after tight corners . Its a long mad road that Kalumbaru rd , but WOW with a capital W , palm tree lined, twisty road and just a buzz to actually be on it , we hit the plateau turn off and after a very cool creek crossing, we love a good / any creek crossing the deeper the better, all windows down for a good look , i love to look in my revision mirror at olivers face hanging out the window watching the car work its bumpy way over , and looking down the river , he looks so excited and interested every time, never misses one . I know cooper will be the same on his side. It makes me smile and i know the boys will never forget these moments.

We cross the king edward creek to check out the king edward campsite grounds, and they are awesome ! if we had the turtle we would have stayed there a couple of days ... next time because we will be back ! The mitchell plateau track is again very windy, steep, sloping, bumpy, rocky, and narrow , most people drive carefully but you get the odd hero who drives around blind corner foot to the metal.. tossers i think they are known as amongst most campers.

After a long drive we arrive finally firewood collected , the camping ground is full !! we manage to nab a spot right next to the heli pad, which is good and bad we think , but then its actually ok , and really exciting to watch them do their thing , there are 4 of those whirring birds , and they create a " happening feeling in this remote location " exciting and we are going in one .

We just hang out and enjoy being there , we eat a dodgey tinned pasta meal with cups of tea , and crash all tired .

All excitement in the morning , we get ready , pack a picnic , and head for our weigh in and briefing for the flight , we must wear life jackets as we are crossing the ocean .

The walk to mitchell falls is beautiful beyond words , you just feel so privileged to be there, it bigger than us , something about it, we cross little merten falls and check out some very interesting aboriginal art , and then onto too big merten falls, which is stunning, however it feels sad, and nature at her most powerful as just a week or two before a lady had slipped somehow and feel to the bottom and sadly passed away , nobody is going near the edge at all .

We walk and we walk and we walk and we all coax cooper his legs are only little and he really is doing so well on these challenging walks .

Finally the falls !! they are incredible , nothing can describe them you need to go there yourself , so i wont even try .

We spend a couple of hours, picnicking which we love , the boys play in the creeks above the falls and tony and i morph into lizards and just laze around on the rocks , BLISS .

OMG finally its 2Pm chopper pick up time , woo hoo , we life jacket up , and climb aboard our pilot is lovely and makes us all feel good about the trip , ............we go up and over the falls , mind blown we all are , we cruise over the land where there still to this day is evidence of tonys dad work everywhere it seems, to the coast we can see Malcolm island in the distance , we go over the coastline and circle the island , and circling that beautiful island in a helicopter takes your breath away, i mean landing on a deserted island is pretty exciting .....exit helicopter , and we all scramble literally scramble to reach kens cairn , was pretty hard to get to it , but we made it and took some pictures and had some time just to be there. the island is postcard perfect.

Then the mad scramble back to the chopper , ollie had a quick over excited puke of his carrots for lunch before some family shots, and the pilot tells ollie just vomit out the open doors if u have too , heehee he was such a good sport about a kid puking outside his moving chopper, thankfully ollie recovers and enjoys the flight back, both boys agree , best day of their lives , awesome !

Time to head back the next day , the disco is hammered on the way back , spare tyre falls off , back door breaks , but it is nothing compared with other peoples carnage , we feel lucky , but need some repairs in town , so we pick up turtle , camp another gorgeous night at drysdale station and head to kunanurra , where we will sort car , pick up our dear friend lesley , re stock and head back onto the Gibb to do El questro and its gorges and check out home valley station, do a horse trek .

Picked up some stray blonde vet type girl wndering the streets of Kununurra(Lesley to her friends!), before settling into a 4 day wait on car repairs while residing lakeside at one of Kununurras campgrounds. Repairs complete we headed back onto the Gibb River Road to El Questro where we managed to score one of their private riverside camps for the next 5 days.First night had a beautiful spot with great views down the pentecoste river to the Cockburn Ranges, however no water access at all, so next day day managed to convince the station staff , with a select tale of half truths to lets us onto a much nicer true river side camp.

Next day whole family with Lesley in tow, hiked into Emma Gorge and a very cold swim at Emma Falls.

Next couple of days very relaxing with the boys finding new "bases" and going very feral. Had a very close encounter with one of the stations young cows that wondered into camp and kept a very close eye on everything we did from reading , eating, washing up , till we found her soft spot....raisin bread.. courtesy of Lesley.. that sent her into a frenzy!!Not suprisingly she was back religiously at breakfast time for the next few days. Next couple of days was spent soaking in the warmth of Zebedee Springs and exploring the rugged spectacular beauty of El Questro Gorge.At El Questro Gorge after probably our most arduous hike and scramble thru perhaps the Kimberlies most spectacular gorge,and at the very, very end pool below a waterfall, Ollie runs into one of his class mates prom Palmyra primary school on his school holidays from Perth. Dexter and Finn with his parents Nat and Toby(obviously extremely hyper intelligent fellow Land Rover adventurers), are up on a prolonged holiday in the Kimberlies, also staying at El Questro, and the girls head off the next day for a 2-3 hour horse ride,( while Tony contemplates the many ways to fit horses into dogfood cans..obviously their only good use!).Following the horse ride, we shot back into Kununurra, dropped off Lesley into the capable hands of 3-4 young oiled up buff back packers, before heading off eastward into the cane toad infested wilds of the Northern Territory and hopefully a pleasant stay in Darwin.

Once again there are hundreds of much nicer images, however being limited to 5MP means the majority will have to wait for the 15 hour slide shows when were back in Perth ...ha,ha..

MASH style Heliworks base at Mitchell Falls Campground

Top pools at Little Mertens Falls

Aboriginal cave paintings at Little merten Falls

Big Merten Falls

Mitchell Falls top pools

One of the 4 helicopters that service the Mitchell Falls area landing at Mitchell Falls

Jo and Cooper wading the top pools

Mitchell Falls at apparently its least dramatic, half way thru the dry season.Would be phenominal to see this during the wet,

itchell Falls heli stop!

A very excited Ollie and Coops en route to Malcolm Island

Malcolm Island in the distance, very lucky considering Jo is navigating!!

western headland of Malcolm Island where Ken Malcolms ashes are inturned

beachfront heli pad in the sand.....the only way to travel to your own island! Ha ha could get used to the Branson lifestyle!!

Tony's dad, Kens ashes under his cairn looking out westward towards Walsh Point

.I helped build this cairn back in 1982 with mum from local stones sourced on the island. There is still the bag of cement we brought out over 29 years ago sitting under a rock ledge, no bag just a solid mass of extra concrete;we came by boat then from the mining exploration camp....much nicer and easier to fly!!

Approaching to Mitchell Falls campsite landing strip

Lakeside Kununurra

Jo and Leslies office in Kununurra, suprisingly NOT a lot of constructive work was done.

Campsite view night 1 on El Questro Station, private riverside camp.

Emma Gorge Falls...cold!,but with a bath sized thermal spring/pool to the right that would warm you back to mammalian temps...very considerate.

Pentecost River crosing..unfortunately not as deep as would have hoped

Pentecost River

There's a cow in our campsite! Breakfast cow visit at our 2nd riverside camp....very partial to raisin bread...dont worry we had 2 very experienced vets confirm that this is a normal Kimberley cow diet!!

Moonshine Pool ElQuestro, beautiful and totally deserted, could you ask for more

Zebedee Springs El Questro, beautiful but not so deserted, still one of the kids favorited

#Kalumbaru road #Mitchell Plateau #Mitchell Falls #Little Merten Falls #Big Merten Falls #Malcolm Island #Helicopter Flight #Sling Air #Home Valley #El Questro #El Questro Gorge #Emma Gorge #Kununurra #Gibb River Road

Broome to Drysdale Station, Gibb River Road Pt1

Well finally found some quiet time and the internet and with rum and soda in hand, to update the blog . We hit the road again to drive over one of our much anticipated GIBB RIVER ROAD. Heading over to Derby to fuel up and head straight too the Windjana gorge and tunnel creek, so very cool too see the sign of all the gorges and info of the gibb .

The road itself is very skinny and falls off too the side steeply "eeek" a road train coming at us, loud, and oh so dusty, we decide to stop pull over and wait for it too pass, road trains rule the road no doubt about it , its so red on the road and the landscape is changing , beautiful Boab trees everywhere I just am besotted with them and their funny big butts , bootiliscious boabs ! The road improves its nearly a highway in fact, 4WD central. But its kinda nice other people out there camping in nature like us, going remote there is nothing like it .

We trundle along our "disco queen, the grey ghost" faithfully dragging the 'turtle" along with us nestled inside ( its the only way too travel, the suspension is like sitting on a cloud ).

We arrive at camp, nab a neat spot , trees , hot showers/clean toilets/fire pits, water, and a ranger which in the future we discovered was how all the gorge camps were to be.

We take off to windjana gorge a short stroll from camp , its amazing and we see our first wild freshwater crocs, and we have a refreshing dip keeping a close eye on them, however they have no interest in us what so ever and after learning at malcolm douglas croc park, freshies do not see humans as a food source, i am not freaked out with them , ......unlike salties. Tony describes my fear of them psychotic , i think its sensible ..lol.

The boys and Tony take off too tunnel creek the next day, im not keen on caves and tunnel creek is wading through water in the dark thru a tunnel with head torches ! but of course they did it and loved it, i had a lazy day watching movies and watching the comings and going of a fairly busy campsite .

Back on the gibb we to head to Bell Gorge , the road is still pretty good we have been on much worse , the scenery takes us through mountain ranges, its just mind blowing countryside, so unexpected, Bell gorge campsite is fantastic, we once again grab a good site and head to the gorge, its a 20 min drive and then a hour walk and we arrive at the most spectacular waterfall with rock pools and running streams, THE KIDS ARE SCREAMING, THE WATERFALL IS HUGE ITS THEIR FIRST DECENT SIZE FALL WOW, all four of us are in love with this place , .....lets stay longer ... so we take a few nights here, pack picnics and just hang out here all day, the boys are never bored, no computers, no tv , no toys , just them and the environment, and their imaginations , awesome , we bake on flat smooth rocks , plunge into pools , leap off high cliffs into sparkling pools, make leaf boats, using reeds to tie them, and watching them going down the stream and over the waterfall and seeing whose survived. BLISS.

Time too leave Bell gorge , , the road is still good , a few people with flat tyres here and there, smashed windscreens , but so far for us so good , disco and turtle are a good team .

We head to Manning Gorge/mt Barnett road house, again the camp site is great we once again get a nice spot under a boab tree ' camp boab' . Happy as!!! Ok so before u can even start the challenging 3 hour return walk to the gorge, we need to put all our backpacks in polystyrine containers and swim across a freezing cold river crossing, it felt like such a adventure . The walk is pretty challenging and long steep rocky gulleys, but we make it, its worth it, its stunning, its not only the scenery its the feeling the place gives to you, which you cant put into words , all along the Gibb and in all its gorges we all felt "it".

Next is Drysdale Station / Mt barnett roadhouse, cant wait ! i LOVE stations ! , I am not let down , its just fab ! great camp ground , and a very casual cute bar ANNIES BAR and buffet dinners ... icy cold beers, lemonades all round, its like no place i have ever been ... we decide to book for dinner and treat ourselves, it was buzzing and booked out , just loved it , roast dinner , red wine and all rugged up .... under the stars at drysdale station Gibb river road . surreal stuff .

Drysdale station very kindly allows you too store your camper trailer / caravan in a paddock so you can just take your vehicle up the much talked about KALUMBARU RD TO MITCHELL PLATEAU . We are not really set up to live without the turtle , however we decide on our 2 man pop up tent and a mattress in the back of the disco with have to do , the talk of our fellow campers who have returned from the plateau said dont take your trailer too hard , and there was a long queue of cars and campertrailer being fixed at the workshop ....flat tyres, busted suspension, you name it someone had it, however not one single person said dont go and said DO NOT MISS IT THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT .

We wave goodbye to turtle, and head into the unknown .

#Bells Gorge #Broome #Drysdale Station #Gibb River Road #Landrover #Manning Gorge #Tunnel Creek #Wingjana Gorge #drysdale River #mertens water monitor #Malcolm Island #helicopter #Sling Air

Dampier Peninsula, Broome to Kooljamin

So ....we start the road to cape leveque , beginning with a stop at James price point , the road is a long stretch of rich reddish pink dust lined with green , the bluest sky you could ever imagine , awesome we are just, for a change excited .

We pass the protest camp with it banners everywhere .NO GAS ..good on them we say , and then when you arrive at james price point , its stunning the rocks are like what one would imagine it would be like on mars , hermit crab tracks by the million, birds, whales, a environment teaming with life. We set up camp its just us and our view , i cannot understand how anyone ie colin barnett could set foot here and think it is worth risking .. poor vision in more ways than just eyesight.

We stay a couple of nights and then head too middle lagoon, we turn into the windy, skinny road , and just before we arrive at the site a male donkey with a rope around his neck is standing in the middle of the road, clearly a naughty escapee , , we toot, we edge forward, he will not budge, i wind down my window " clicking at him" thinking i will woo him with a pat ...noooooope he flattens his ears, bucks a bit starts BITING the roo bar and then pulls a grumpy face at my window and tony floors it we get past him , but he is galloping alongside my window, he chases us all the way too camp , we are in hysterics, and too scared to get out of the car , but then the donkey bolts over to the fish cleaning area and promptly attacks the fisherman . WE WILL NEVER FORGET THE RABID DONKEY.

Middle Lagoon was very quaint and probably nice too stay at , however we decided too keep on travelling and risk Cape Leveque being booked out which we had heard it often was , ....we arrive and its gorgeous, the restuarant is beautiful the campsites are lovely , and cape leveque is freakin amazing ..... aaannd tony manages to swing a beach front hut for one night and a powered site for two nights, thats all we can have no longer but we are stoked. We swim, hang , drink nice coffee , and just take in the place. We drive up too one arm point a very peaceful looking aboriginal community, again stunning and really cool to go see it.

Cape Leveque road.

We eventually leave the cape ... we totally loved there and feel so very very very fortunate to have spent some precious time there, as its future is unstable right now .

Next step Gibb River Road and Mitchell Plateau

James Price Point

Moonscape at James Price Point

Feral rabid tree huggin greenies at James Price Point..good work boys!!

the only sign of the Point, the rest are at the protest camp on Menari Rd ... with over 75% of the Broome and Kimberley population(both indigenous and us whitese) totally opposed to this ludicrous type of developement, and with every independant scientific study pointing towards the Kimberlies being one of the worlds most diverse ecological habitats both above and below the water, this protest action is looking at being larger and more important the the Franklin dam actions of 20 + years ago. As they have all said they are not against developement, just the appropriate type of developement, not this stupid sell out to Woodside so old Colon Barnett can get his name on some silver plaque, and his treasury can get get a pittance in royalties while 85% of the LPG and probably 85% of the money head off shore with no benefits to Australia, and certainly none to the people of this region as they turn Broome into a FIFO construction hub like Karratha and kill yet another town and with one spill, be it oil or gas leak, the whole of the Kimberley coast.

looking out from our campsite at James Price Point, 1-2 kms off shore is the migration route channel of the humpbacks on their way to the worlds largest known nursery, a whale group of potentially over 22000 whales...maybe while Colon Barnett is selling out and screwing up the Kimberlies, he'de like to issue a license to the Japenese to come and get rid of the whale problem as well!

Coulomb beach..yeh would love a nice oil spill,gas leak around here thanks Colin..

Cape Leveque campsite

Cape Leveque..oceanographic estimates of an oils spill at James Price POint , will hit the Cape in 2-5 days,but off course that would never happen, just ask BP

#Colin Lord of the Lies Barnett #Coloumb Nature Reserve #Dampier Peninsula #James Price Point #Kooljamin #One Arm Point #Woodside #Kimberley coast

riding whalesharks to Broome

Hello again ! well we arrived back to exmouth to stay for a week or so whilst we caught up with a dear old friend Ben and his family , restocked , and did the long awaited Whale shark snorkel with Ben and his www.oceanwise.com.au team , PLUG PLUG ... if anybody is up this way , go with them , they are passionate about all marine life, the ocean and all of its future , Ben himself has had two santuary zones declared on the Ningaloo reef. Awesome !

The night before the whale shark tour we are all excited , nervous and hence have a restless sleep, however still all jump out of bed at 6 am too get ready for the bus to collect us from the tourist bureau.

Off we go trundling along , all the way too tantabiddi boat ramp , we are ferried out to our vessel for the day via a glass bottom boat and hop on board a nice big boat !

Ollie and cooper are the only children on board and we cant help but feel how awesome our boys are, they are simply excited , listen to all instructions which they follow too a T , we need a practice snorkell and of course they leap in like pros.

The spotter plane has spotted a whale shark , so its all gear on and gogogogo , we are out in the open ocean , the big blue , rolling swell .......nothing can describe when you first glimpse that shark from the surface and then we all (there is two teams) need to just chuck ourselves in and SWIM towards something very big ! we cant see the bottom and the boys have not experienced this feeling before, there is something about swimming towards something soooo big in open ocean that you have never seen before and altho they are clearly very peaceful creatures they are freakin huge !!!! we all see her and she beautiful beyond beyond words . All of us are thrilled. We saw also a big tiger shark .. and a very long drive right alongside a pod of whales , a dugong, dolphins .. we rode on the bow on the flybridge in the cabin .all day ..... was a highlight for sure.

Eventually we must leave Exmouth( it also started to rain the morning we left and was forecast to continue for days, follow the sun, follow the sun haha ), and head north some more, we drive and drive and drive ....to Karratha which is crazy busy and big ..we stop at a sleepy seaside village called Point Samson , which is a lovely clean park for a overnight stay . Tony tries to find rugby at the tavern but only "bloody" footy kickball grumble grumble.

Next morning we head straight too 80 Mile Beach, having no idea to expect ; we are pleasantly suprised when we turn onto dirt road drive a while, eventually we see palm trees, reach them and drive over the hill to a gorgeous caravan park a amazing beach , with huge tidal movement we could walk soooo far out at low tide and we collect soooo many pretty shells, we just hung out here for days , tried a spot of fishing ( no luck LOL), we would have stayed for longer except my crown tooth popped out whilst chewing gum and a visit to the dentist in broome was needed.

SOOO we drive and drive ... so cool even seeing the signs to Broome ; I have wanted to come here for a long time, we arrive and we all love it , we score a awesome spot in a very tropical caravan park right opposite the the very exotic resort style pool and playground , we are set up under a canopy of trees, the kids find plenty of buddies and take off in all directions, time to hang by the pool, read , and do a bit of people watching as our camp is right amongst it .

Cable Beach is fun too see , but really im waiting for the penninsula , i just know its gonna blow me away .

We visit Malcolm Douglas wilderness park , really trying to show the kids what salties and freshies can do before we head into serious croc territory... it was well worth the time and money spent .. The boys classroom for the day was a success , the tour guide was informative in all the right ways , incredible creatures ... we all felt like we were in jurassic park . LOVED it .

So we are leaving here for the pennisula tomorrow and cant wait ....

Sorry all no whale sharks pictures(camera flooded..not happy) and no crocodile attack pictures(tumblr doesnt like images over 5MB and they all are...)

#whalesharks #oceanwise #80 mile beach #Exmouth #Broome

Ningaloo station

We are all excited to get to ningaloo, set up camp and not move for 2 weeks.

The first road in is fairly badly corrogated and so we pull the turtle ( new name for the campervan as its more of a turtle than a chariot of fire) in very slowly head to the station homestead to claim our gate keys and in we go , I have felt like you go 'in' too ningaloo , its as if you slip into a whole new world, like the Faraway tree, for those that have read that novel.

Our campsite had all our tails wagging , I was so ridiculously happy and content to be at this place, no where so far on earth makes me feel the way ningaloo station does i dont know what it is about it . I could stay forever.

Anyway the zodiac is pumped up fuelled up and off we go for our first snorkel, its pretty under that water and its always really cool to watch the boys just jump off the boat and take off without a second thought. They are up for any adventure we offer them .

The evenings are spent fishing amongst the other campers, kids mucking around in their cubbies they have built also boys being boys they collect as many old skulls and bones as they can find to make 'skull castle ' , its a constant " Dad what bone is this ?" , also we had purchased some good quality walkie talkies and they are a hit !. No one really catches any fish, however ollie and I have some nice fishing time together and he manages to land a huge Long Tom , which was very exciting for him , then its catch and release for the lucky Long Tom.

On one of the days Tony is about to head out for a snorkell in an area called "Shark Alley" he is about 6 meters from the shore and out of the reef before him comes a very big very fast looking dark shape and its coming right at him, i start yelling and panicking as whatever it is, it wants to look at tony no doubt about it , kids are yelling, Im yelling and finally a fin breaks the water and it looks like its a dolphin, however even though im now sure its a dolphin i havent seen one make a beeline so fast for a person, and sure enough it reaches tony and swerves at the last minute , and then it clearly wants to have good look at the human and they play together for a while swimming alongside one another and checking each other out, super cool.

We have nice neighbours who came over with fresh 'matchsticks' which are made with puffy pastry and squashed in the middle is fresh cream, strawberries, passionfruit pulp and covered in icing sugar . OMG we devoured them in about 2 minutes.

We LOVED our stay here.

The wind eventually picked up and we pulled out of ningaloo a day early , and headed back to Exmouth, which has been very cruisey, caught up with a dear old friend Ben and his family over some beers and dinner. We are booked in with their business OCEANWISE on monday to do a day with the whale sharks , and of course we are all supremely excited.

#beach #diving #fishing #Ningaloo station

nighttime Exmouth lighthouse lookout

last blog for a week or so as heading into the pristine Ningaloo Station tomorrow for 10 days of true off the grid beach camping.

Spent the morning today on the west side of cape range at a place called T orquoise Bay. Sheltered little bay in the Cape range National Park with a great little current that sweeps you down the beach over amazing corals and then drops you off at a sandy spit.( miss the spit and it may take you out to sea, but the spit is pretty big). Both Ollie and Coopers first real experience of true corals and snorkelling and couldn't have asked for anything more.

Hundreds of coral fish, wrasse, moorish idols, humpheaded wrass, snapper, huge nor west blowies, turtles and at the end of the drift, a little black tipped reef shark and then the biggest turtle that both Jo and myself have ever seen...and the kids couldn't stop squealing and shouting,( a bit difficult in snorkels). Two new watermen are born.

Afternoon visited a spit out infront of the caravan park for a beach comb, reef walk, (and also so Jo could chase some internet connectivity!). Sum total for the reef walk, 1 live octopus, 2 dead octopus, 1 mantis shrimp, 5 sea hares and 1 small shark that tried to eat a plover type wading bird in the shallows, not bad for 30 minutes as the sun goes down.

Only sad bit is now I gaze out west ward from below the lighthouse, and where as 10-15 years ago the lights at sea were the prawn trawlers working the cape, the 3 stagnant light stations that dominate the horizon now I know are unfortunately oil rigs, just outside the exclusion zones. But no worries, they are all safe and nothing could every happen, just ask BP....

#Torquose Bay #snorkelling #Cape Range National Park #ee

Karijini May 2012

After leaving the slightly weird caravan folk at Tom Price, we headed the 80-100kms into what was known as the old Wittenoom gorges that is now the Karajini National Park, and truely one of the still reasonable unknown jewels of Western Australia. I first visited this place over 20 years ago, while working out of Karratha, and back then this entailed over 200km of hard dirt roads and sleeping in swags under the stars with no fauciities at all. Now its fuy sealed all the way in, designated campsites and even and eco resort with full bar and cappucinos if needed. the sign of the times, but still doesn't decrease the magnitude of the gorges and the icy pools with in.

Spent the first afternoon after setting up camp desending into Dales gorge and passed Fortescue Falls onto Fern Pools for the boys first dip into a icy cool Pilbara pool for a well deserved dip, then across the pool the dive out from under the fern lined waterfall. Truely magical. Then back 5 minutes for a swim and sunbake like lizards on the warm rock ledges of Fortescue falls.

Next morning while still at Dales gorge we headed to the other end to Circular Pool, about a 30 minute walk fom the campsite down a very steep and raggedy trail. Hit the bottom, left turn then a 10 minute walk to another beautiful icy cold plunge pool, then over to the other side to sit under a nice waterfall with water warmed by passing through the pilbara rock.

Stayed 30 minutes or so then decided, much to Coopers horror to walk the entire Dales gorge back to Fortescue Falls, an easy 45 - 60 minute walk at the base of the gorge. All pretty un eventful other than the start when both Ollie and Cooper ran off and stepped straight over a 3-4ft King Brown or Gwardar that was trying to hide its head under a rock in the middle of the marked trail. After that made them stay behind me, while Jo kept checking the back pack for vials of anti venene!

That afternoon, Cooper decided gorges where way to much walking, so Ollie and myself headed the 50 kms over to my favorite gorge in the whole area, Hancock Gorge. This one has the true cold river at the base that runs thru pure smooth rock with areas of zero vegetation and rock pools at the base that never see any sun. Much to my suprise the little moutain goat, Oliver made it all the way down to Kermits Pool, the out again up the waterfall, and spidered his way up all the crevases. Below kermits pool is now restricted to fully kitted and acreditted absailers with ropes, helmets guides etc.A little different to 20 years ago when we made it down then waterfall to Regans Pool, in no more than stubbies and dunlop volleys.Very soft this current generation af adventurers ha ha!!

Slept well that night after 2 long walk, then next day back to Fortescue Falls for a lazy day of waterfall jumping and general louging around.

Plan for tomorrow is break camp first thing in to morning, then head west back to the coast on a 7 hours trek to Exmouth, for 2-3 days of restocking. recouping, then into the idyllic Ningaloo Station for 2 weeks of beach camping, diving, fishing and not doing to much

Au revoir

lFern Pool

Ollie looking very impressed at Dales Gorge

heading down into Dales gorge towards Circular Pool

Cooper and Ollies first very poisonous snake...Jo's first heart attack!

Ollie heading into Hancock Gorge, no dry bits, swimming ahead.

local native(in sluggo's) drinking just above Kermits Pool.

only way out of the bottom section of Handcock Gorge!!

Fortescue Falls

I'll never slag off a Nissan Micra again, this one has come all the way fro N.S.W.....I think I may have over prepared!!

#karajini #gorges

Carnarvon to Karijini may 2012

Kennedy Ranges

Kennedy Range morning

World champion boulderers

Well , cooper started complaining of a sore tooth, so first thing monday morning we took a visit to the dentist made a booking for the next day .

Tuesday day morning 830 appointment, the dentist and his nurse who were both by far the two most caring thoughtful medical professionals i have come across , opened coops mouth to reveal he has a tooth abscess! caused by a filling gone bad .. so a couple of needles later and some pliers and coops has his tooth pulled out , OUCH! he fully recovered within a hour or so and off to the Kennedy ranges we go.

The road is sealed and very good all the way too the gasgoyne junction, when we leave the junction it becomes gravel and it really feels like we are seriously leaving the world as we know it way behind , and then when we finally arrive at the camp ground completely surrounded by these stunning mountain ranges..... we are the only ones there , remote ...what we are looking for ;-)

We are all very happy , the boys get a lesson in camp fires etiquette and technique and we all sit and stare as you do and as our dear friend ( you know who u are ) said "bush telly".

So we hang, stare , drink some wine , walk thru some gorges sit on some mini mountains and take in the view ..its too beautiful , another couple of people turn up. they are all lovely .

We loved the kennedy ranges .

Next destination Mt Augustas ..the road there is long and dusty, we can actually see the mountain for hours of driving it is so big , and then the oasis in the red dirt beneath the mountain appears ! check out the photos , we did some more walking played constantly with the station dogs who were awesome and hung with us a awful lot ..which the boys for the first time felt sad about their pets and totally bombarded these doggies with hugs and cuddles .

We loved it here. Showing the boys a little taste life on the land was really cool. And the family who run it were just really lovely and welcoming. A highlight for sure.

Soooo we take the 'shortcut" lol or not so lol at the time ....long (7hours) of freakin freaky gravel dippy bumpy roads and not one single car seen . amazing landscape however the stress and the nerves of being that deep in the never never kinda jinxed it . The chariot damaged needs some repairs .. the DISCO did its job , didnt miss a beat .

Eventually we hit Tom Price , exhausted, and happy for a caravan park , to restock recharge all batteries ...... aaaaaand ollie comes down with gastro, poor poor kid, he feels like shite .So a day of puking, washing, and movies had by all of us .

Heading off for 2-3 nights in the gorges of Karijini tomorrow, Ollies gastro pending, can't wait,to again check out the amazing rock canyons and show to kids what true canyonning is all about.

Final word, you have to love caravan parks..full of seasoned travellers lol...had this huge beamonth pull up next to us from QLD...the 300ft "Odyssey"..grumpy old couple get out, set it upretire inside,, inside toilet,inside toilet no annex, satellite TV..spent all night watching cable TV (and not even the super 15 on foxtel!!)..isn't it great to get away from it all in the Australian outdoors!!

This is ontop of the car wash incident today as I waited and watched this couple wash rinse and polish their

caravan in the only car wash bay for over 40 minutes..then they drive off into the Pilbara dirt and thru muddy puddles(caused by their own washing!!),to have red pilbara dirt all over the beautiful van within 5 minutes!!

!!)

Kennedies evening

Mt augustus tourist resort!

Mt Augustus,worlds largest rock, twice the size of Ularu and not a Japanese tourist bus in sight!

#kennedy ranges #mt augustus #caravanners

Northern trip starts May 2012 Perth to Carnarvon

Well....our long awaited trip has begun with leaving a little later in the morning than expected, which landed us in peak hour traffic on the mitchell freeway, not a good start. However it did remind us how keen we are too leave the fast lane for a extended period .. as they say '"stop and smell the roses".

So we cruise up the newish Indian Ocean Drive , and head towards our first overnight stay at "Nerren Nerren "a 24 hour bush stopover south of shark bay, always special the first night in the bush , we are all very excitable, head torches out, a spider hunting we go .

Off too Monkey Mia early the following day , the kids are beside themselves ,I too am keen , Mal is not. I remind him its for the boys ... grumble grumble .(still the tourist hell hole it was 20 years ago, 5 dolphins,300 interactors!!)

We end up camping in the car park of the caravan park it is totally booked out, we are also up all night due too noisy German backpackers on goon juice. 3000 people one dolphin . No seriously it was fun cool pub( which doubled as a classroom ) on the beach, emus wandering the campsite , and constant random sightings of dolphins all day, camel rides on very well loved, looked after camels , and apart from the heavy tourist aspect I felt the dolphins were well respected.

Next we headed over to Ocean Park, another slice

of the ever enlarging Fenny pie.Run by Eddie,one of Ricks sons, its a land based oceanarium with a mixture of local fish, sharks and rays locally caught and a few that have been rescues around the state. Other than the motor mouth english tour guide ,who loved the sound of her own voice , very enjoyable.

Spent last night in crowded Monkey Mia, before heading up onto the Peron peninusula and into the Francois Peron National Park,for hopefully 2-3 days camping and boating,fishing.Beautiful area of red, red dirt right down to the rugged coastline.Set up camp at a place called Gregories, about 3/4 way up the peninsula after a good 90 minutes of heavy sand driving dragging the turtle.

Lovely spot however after less than 2 minutes on the beach with the kids, Jo found our first Stonefish exactly where we were swimming and playing in 5cm of water. Welcome to Australias friendly native animals!!

Next day manages to get the zodiac in the water and took everyone for a spin up to another bay called Bottle Bay.

Later in the day spent fishing off the beach where Jo managed to catch 2-3 HUGE flathead. All too big for us, so we had to throw them back!.Beautiful afternoon, flat and dead calm, unfortunately due to some huge ominous clouds developing on the horizon, so in lew of the weather turning ugly we cut sort our stay, pack up in the rain the next morning and bolted to sunny Carnarvon.

Good old Wintersun caravan park, for 2 nights to clean up, dry every thing out and soak up the sun.A good stay other than the grumpy old tosser camped right next to the kids playground, who had issues with kids playing in the playground. All ended pretty ugly when he ended up chasing Ollie and Coop,s then facing a very fiery Jo and abusive Tony who both told him where he could go!! Spoke to the owners at the park who unsuprisingly backed up our outrageous position that kids playgrounds are for kids and if he doesnt like it he can f..k off to one of the other 8 parks in town' Thats what happens when we let Victorians into WA, ha ha.

Kids doing a little whome work on the road but hard graft to keep the interested in even 30 mins a day work..will need to bring a live in nanny/teacher on the next trip.

Plan next after Carnarvon is to head inland along the "Kingsford Smith Mail run" to first the Kennedy Ranges, then Mt Augusta and somehow up to Tom Price and the gorges of Karajini....stay tuned.