More Photo's El Questro

Sandwich Waterhole is a rough 4WD track with a glorious waterhole at the end, unfortunately this is the land of the Salty and we could not go for a dip.
River crossing that challenged Toby 2 but all was well, just cleaned the bum for the next bit a dirt travel!!!!
Chamberlain Gorge is a site for boat trips and fishing trips, very restful... we will do that next time!
Sorry don't know how that come out twice, and not sure how to delete just one picture!
Stephen insisted on this photo!!!!! El Questro does it better... the dunny with raised platform and water supply!!!!!!

Day 23-25 July 27-29 El Questro

After a couple of days regrouping at Kununurra we headed of to the famous El Questro... no not to the Homestead (at $1400-$1800 per person per night , minimum 2 days) but a private camp site just away from the Township. Having travelled a little of the Gibb River Road we could see how many people come a cropper on this bumpy road. The first day we found our private river bank site and set up with Alan & Alys.. then headed for the pub and a Steak dinner, magnificent.

We got the info on Zebedee Springs and headed off to investigate early in the morning...not early enough though as it was still busy at 7.30a.m. The first picture is in one of the top (and warmest)pools.

We then went for a fairly long trek in El Questro gorge which at the half way point had a very cool but very welcome pool for a dip. (Picture 3)

The whole area is full of treks, 4WD and water holes... we really did not have as much time to do all we wanted so Stephen & I have said we will return!!

Day 19 July 23rd Flight over Bungle Bungles

The flight over the Bungle Bungles was fantastic and really gave us an impression of the overall size...to be honest the walk the day before would have only let us see about 5% of the area and the flight got us to the majority of the rest. Although these sights are glorious Stephen and I still wandered what it would look like in the wet... now that would be incredible!!!!!

Day 18 July 22nd Domes Walk Part 2/Cathedral Gorge

It says it all, sorry for the quality on these but I am having trouble with the sizes and up loading... don't know if this is me or where we are situated for signal.

Day 18 July 22nd Domes Walk Part 1

 This is just a short video of the Domes area in the Bungle Bungles.. enjoy next posting with narration!

Day 17 July 21st Bungle Bungles Ecidna Gorge

This is going to have to shorter again for me to get a good quality movie. Sorry ... enjoy! This is the begining of three, at least, movies of the Bungle Bungle's.

Day 16 July 20th Lake Kununurra Boat Trip

Today, Stephen and I went on a boat trip between the Diversion Dam and the Ord Dam. It was a fairly windy day, so quite bumpy (much to my arms disgust). It was a very interesting journey with plenty of facts to baffle the brain! To think that this reasonable small dam (Picture 2) has been responsible for Lake Argyle (the largest man made lake in Australia). The 3rd Pic is of the first Freshwater croc that we have seen...not as big as I expected...will have to re-evaluant when I get to see a salty!!!

The 4th pic is of the little hidden camp site that the tour uses...only accessible by boat and hardly visible at that! The 5th and last pic is of a rock called the elephant rock. These pictures do not do any of this region justice.

Off to Bungle Bungle's tomorrow and will try and upload a movie!

Day 15 July 19th Wyndam

On our first full day with Alan & Alys we headed for Wyndam and on the way did our first bit of off road in our car, out to the Prison Tree. These Boab trees were used on the cattle tracks as prison cells until the next pick up took place. There are a selection around the area and are facinating .. this picture is about 25 k's in from the main road.

We went into Wyndam for lunch but there was not the quay that Alan had anticipated... so we pushed on to a Billabong ... on the way there was a fire at the side of the road, the birds were going crazy trying to catch the bugs and critters running from the flames. I have never seen so many varieties (particularly birds of prey) or volume in one spot at one time before. On a back road out to the billabong we noticed this fantastic bird of prey (think it is a Whistling Kite) he just did not move and I took the shot shaking with disbelief.

Onto the Billabong which had a glorious selection of water birds, all noted in my bird book for future reference... and here Stephen took the incredible photo of the Little Egret with a fish in it's mouth... you can even see the eyes!

Day 14 July 18th Kununurra The Arrival

This will be a very quick update.... we arrived,thinking that we would have a free day here in Kununurra before Alan & Alys arrive... wrong. Stephen & I went for an early morning bike ride and just about to stop for a morning coffee and the phone rang... they were twenty minutes away!!

Pictures are of the champares sunset over the Lake Kununurra

Day 12/13/14 July 16-18 Barn Hill to Kununurra

Time was now against us for the arrival at Kununurra to met up with Alan & Alys. I should have remembered that this is Stephen we are talking about.. so instead of four days it took three. We left Barn Hill and headed for Broome, trying to get space here was almost impossible,but we made it and went into town for a quick look around. Found some lovely pearls and a great lunch at the Som Thai just back from China Town.

Spent the evening charging up computers etc as we intended to do two nights of free camping. While packing to leave a Kalamunda car pulled up to talk and they were basically going in the same direction. We pulled into Fitzroy Crossing and so did the Kalamunda couple. We stopped for lunch at the Fitzroy River Counrty Club...interesting and on discussion all four of us decided to press on a little further. 

We ended up at Mary's Pool on Mary River (dry) having past the amazing Boab trees. A lovely night was spent with Derek & Pauline. In the morning Stephen left for his morning meditation, when the paper work was completed, emerging from the drop dunny, he was accousted by an enormous "Hello how are you", from the lady from Sebastian's Butchers in Kalamunda!!!!! As they say, it's a small world!!

We pushed on to Kununurra and got there by early afternoon, just in time to watch the evening birds coming to feed along the banks of Lake Kununurra, a nearly full moon and a beautiful sunset. 

Day 11 July 14th Barn Hill

We did not go far to our next stop after a very relaxing time at Pardoo Station.. yes we stayed another day! Barn Hill is about 80k's South of Broome and a very busy spot. We had pretty much the last site on the beach front but Stephen was in his element with his sunset shots. We were only staying for the one night as we hope to come back this way with our friends from Melbourne who we are pushing on to meet up with in Kunanurra.

Day 8/9 July 11/12 Pardoo Station

We were at a cattle station with caravan park attached, thought we were staying for one night and ended up staying 3.

I loved the idea that Stephen had decided to relax at long last and all around us were fishing maniacs. Well that demanded that the fishing gear come into use. Pardoo station has entrance to a number of fishing areas... would you believe one is called Bake Bean Creek, I did ask why but a fart was the only reply.

As you can see from the pics we found an old motor bike, not sure what make but it deserved a photo. The second pic is of the oyster beds.... shame neither of us is into them! 

Then comes the photo's on the way out and on the way back... yes I, Alison caught 2 yes 2 Threadfin Salmon and they were delicious!!!!! Score 4 Alison 2 Stephen... not that I'm counting!

Day 7 July 10th Pt Hedland

After leaving the National Park we headed to Pt Hedland, were we visited the Tourist Center again and booked another trip to see the tail end of what we had seen at the Whaleback Mine. BHP Iron Ore and the shipping out of the ore is fantastic, and to think we only keep about 5% of all this ore for home use.

We then followed the old 95 (now No 1) up to a station stay. On our way we passed a group of the Harmony runners that are running around Australia.. I take my hat off to them as they run with Road Trains bearing down on them. 

The Last picture is one of the runners and organisers who was from New Zealand, but her team included Russians, Americans and Croatian.

Day5/6 July 8/9th Karajini National Park

 Firstly, my apologies for the quality of this video but I just could not resist the photo's and had to reduce the size and quality to get them all on.

This aside, this is the Karajini National Park in all its glory, with Dales Gorge (the one from the top) and Weano Gorge from the bottom, again a sight that needs to be seen to be believed. It is getting difficult to get into camping areas now and on the two days we were here we were based in the overflow area. Did not matter to us and it was very central for us to get to the other gorge areas. Stephen actually got me to go up and down the gorges, much to my hips annoyance but well, thats life!

Day 4 July 7th Newman to Karajini National Park.

We arrived in Newman last night and managed to get to the Tourist Centre to book a tour for this morning. I have to say a big thank you to the Tourist Centers, they are always so helpful and pleasant.

We stayed in a okay caravan park in a very Mining Town environment.... shall we say interesting!

When we arrived at the tour in the morning it was only to find some people that were at Paynes Find Caravan Park disaster, were on the same tour... seems that following each other around is quite common, I suppose this means that I will have to behave myself!

The BHP tour of the Whaleback Mine was very well done and extremely interesting. The size of everything has to be seen to be believed. It certainly made you feel very small against it's size and might.

Day 3 July 6th Meekatharra to Newman

Oh the glory of the early morning in downtown Meekatharra. Neither Stephen or I can remember ever seeing so much rubbish leading into and out of a town... very disappointing. We got up to an early start with a walk through the main streets. They have a display of  mining equipment including the battery used for crushing the ore that is in the first picture. While on our walk, the tractors came past. These tractors are on a charity run and we had experienced them the day before. They stayed in the same caravan park with us and were on there way to Darwin. All made by Chamberlain they were collecting more as they went and were hoping for about 18 by the end.

We left Meekatharra on our way to Newman and passed the tractors again. The other item of relevance was that we found the Channel 18 very lacking in information or contact....however, the truckies (if you ignored the language) kept us amused.

Day 2 July 5th Paynes Find to Meekatharre

We woke to fog!! A rubbish dump and a fog!!! Set off as early as we could and caught ourselves between a group of caravaners that are going all the way to Darwin pulling their vans with tractors.. quite amusing. The chatter on the radio was good between them and the Truckies... The other picture is of an area that we stopped for coffee, between Mt Magnet and Cue. Stephen says the one of me should read North here we come!!!. The wild flowers are beginning to show up we is great... got into Meekatharra  early to do some shopping fill up with fuel and have a decent meal as we want to do 460 ks tomorrow through to Newman... then we will start to slow down and enjoy the roses!!!!! Oh yes  I have been allowed to drive but that was yesterday!!

Day 1 July 4th Kalamunda to Paynes Find

Well after a few days more than we were expecting (thanks to Stephen backing the car into a bollard at Joma & Pops) we are on our way. We did the photo shoot outside the house and then headed North. We stopped off at New Norcia... hence photos.. but we were trying to get out of town before the holiday rush started. not much to report yet as we are just driving.... Got to Paynes Find late in the afternoon so had very little choice as to where we could pull up... should have stayed by the road as the Caravan Park at Paynes Find on a scale of 1-10 is a -5!