June 23 - 26

Day 83 – June 23 – Edith Falls -> Katherine Gorge

When Ben woke up this morning he said ‘After breakfast I’m going to do my aboriginal things’ – meaning digging in the dirt, collecting rocks and breaking up sticks. Funny what the kids take away from our various adventures!

We drove to Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park, and checked into the campground next to the gorge. The kids enjoyed playing in the campground swimming pool – which we were glad to have since the gorge is closed to swimming due to risk of salt water crocs. After lunch we went on a 4 hour, 3 gorge cruise. After a frustrating long wait in a queue with hundreds of people leaving on various cruises, we finally got on our boat twenty minutes late. We had a very pleasant ride through 3 gorges past numerous freshwater crocs (no salties!) with short walks in between the gorges with aboriginal rock art thousands of years old.

We wished we could have paddled canoes here – it would be very peaceful without all the other people. The best part of the cruise was visiting a beautiful tall waterfall near the 3rd gorge – in the middle of nowhere, with a deep clear pool. We swam and sat under the fall and relaxed.

A good cruise but we’re all cruised out now. Don’t think we can take another beautiful rock pool and waterfall! That night we ate pizza at the café while the kids swam in the pool, and listened to Greg and Julia Evans sing covers from the 70’s (we don’t think it was Greg Evans from ‘Perfect Match’…)

Day 84 – June 24 – Katherine Gorge -> Mataranka

Bruce and Michelle went for a 1 hour walk up to the Katherine Gorge lookout while the kids stayed and read in the motorhome. The rest of the walks were all quite long and too much for the kids.

We left the Gorge and visited the Katherine museum on our way back into town. We had yummy Devonshire teas and mango smoothies at the café, and watched an excellent DVD on the 1998 floods in Katherine as well as the 1st plane (a Gypsy Moth) used by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. While we were at the shops getting groceries and supplies we overheard on the radio that Australia has a new Prime Minister! We are completely out of touch… Michelle and Erin are proud that we finally have a female PM.

At our last stop in Katherine we had a swim at the Katherine thermal pools, but they were too crowded and murky for our liking. We travelled on to Mataranka where we much preferred the Mataranka Hot Springs.

Day 85 – June 25 – Mataranka -> Daly Waters Pub

We went for a 2.5km walk along the creek in Elsey National Park to Stevie’s hole, but we didn’t swim. It had the obligatory crocodile warning sign, with murky water, a strong current and no other people. Not so brave this morning! We walked back to Mataranka Springs for another warm soak, before we briefly visited the replica Elsey Station Homestead from the movie ‘We of the Never Never’.

The last few days we’ve had no mobile reception (either on Bruce’s phone – Optus or Michelle’s phone – Vodafone). Only Telstra works, so Michelle has been rediscovering the frustrations of pay phones – remember them?

This comment is for Grandpa – we have had a few people comment on all the bikes on the back of the motorhome, but this morning a lady actually took a photo of them! She said she wanted to show her daughter who was planning her own AA trip. Grandpa should patent his design!

We visited Bitter Springs before we left Mataranka, another great thermal spring fed creek. We jumped in one end and drifted 100m down to the end with the current. We did this a few times and even tried swimming back up against the current – hard work. The water is so crystal clear…

We arrived at Daly Waters pub at 3:00. We had an icecream and a drink and checked out the interesting decorations (badges, t-shirts, banknotes and even bras!), and had a game of pool. The place was packed in the evening. We avoided the bar and the hideous music and had our own BBQ and a game of Trivial Pursuit. So hot tonight – the boys took off their shirts so they could get to sleep.

Day 86 – June 26 – Daly Waters Pub -> Devil’s Marbles

We left before dawn for the long drive south along the Stuart Highway. After a few unmemorable stops for fuel / morning tea / lunch / afternoon tea / etc, and seven hours later we arrived at the Devil’s Marbles. On the way the kids alternated watching Brady Bunch in the back and watching the endless scenery in the front.

We stayed at the campground at the Devil’s Marbles and spent a few pleasant hours scrambling over rocks and exploring lots of nooks and crannies. It was cool and windy, which meant no flies!

We ate dinner outside watching the sunset in the west as a beautiful full moon rose in the east. Can’t believe it has been a whole month since the staircase to the moon in Broome! After dinner the boys played AFL until it was too dark to see the ball, and then we played scrabble before bedtime. Much cooler tonight – as we are over 500km more south than last night, you can really feel the temperature drop.

PS. Check out who's doing the washing up!

June 19 - 22

Day 79 – June 19 – Adelaide River -> Kakadu

We entered Kakadu National Park, the biggest national park in Australia – 20,000 square km. First stop was a view onto the wetlands at Mamukala, where we saw waterlilies and birds. We visited Bowali Visitor Centre near Jabiru, which provided excellent info about Kakadu, plus an air-conditioned room where we could watch various films.

We got to Ubirr in time to hear some good ranger talks. We learnt about Aboriginal families and kinship systems, aboriginal dreamtime stories and saw and heard about the excellent rock art. We climbed to the top of Ubirr Rock to get superb views over the plains and the Arnhem Land escarpments. We watched a lovely sunset (along with hundreds of other people not as serene as we had hoped), and you can easily get a sense of why this area is so special to the Aboriginal people.

We stayed at Merl campground right next to Ubirr – and we were invaded by swarms of mosquitoes. They even managed to find their way inside the motorhome (despite our best efforts), so Michelle stayed up to midnight catching them.

Day 80 – June 20 – Kakadu

We filled up with petrol at Jabiru, and quickly saw the crocodile-shaped hotel. We then drove down to Nourlangie to hear more ranger talks about aboriginal culture, and saw more rock art. We also saw a large rock shelter which has been used by aboriginals to camp for over 20,000 years (not used now – too many tourists!). We went for a walk up to a lookout nearby with beautiful views over floodplains, billabongs and escarpments.

We are finding that many roads and walks are still closed due to the unseasonal rain, and we’re also going to miss seeing some of the waterfalls at places such as Jim Jim and Twin Falls.

In Cooinda we visited the excellent Warrandjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre – lots of info about aboriginal beliefs and customs. We saw lots of interesting quotes from local elders about their life in Kakadu – some of them conflict on issues such as local uranium mining, where the environmental impact on one hand is somewhat offset by the positive impact on jobs for the community. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing by the pool at Gagadju Lodge.

Day 81 – June 21 – Kakadu

An early start today for a 6:45 cruise along the Yellow Water wetlands. We saw the sunrise over the wetlands and flocks of hundreds of birds – geese, egrets, ducks, an azure kingfisher, kites, sea eagles, bee eaters and more. We saw half a dozen crocs and even saw a dead saw fish that had been killed by a croc 2 days ago – 100km from the ocean and 30km from the brackish water of the Alligator River. Included in the price of the tour was a hot buffet breakfast back at the hotel!

After lunch we did an amazing tour with ‘Animal Tracks Safari’ – a 7 hour tour from 1:15 to 8:15 into a remote buffalo station in Kakadu. Our driver Greg was joined by our aboriginal guide Patsy who showed us around the property, hunting for bush tucker. Patsy was a little shy at first but soon warmed up and displayed a cheeky sense of humour, telling us lots of stories about her people. We are water lily stems, and Patsy made necklaces for Erin and Luke from the lily flower. She chopped into a palm tree with an axe and we ate palm heart. We ate the flower of the rosella plant and it tasted like ‘War Head’ sour lollies. Patsy even crushed a green ant nest in her hands and offered dead ants for a snack. Erin and Bruce tried it – it was very sour, tasted like concentrated lemon juice. We learnt how to identify and dig up yams / bush carrots. We collected pandana leaves and paperbark (for later making rope and cooking on the fire).

This was all very exciting and fun until at one stage all three kids started screaming and jumping up and down – they were all covered in green ants and being bitten!

We travelled through the bush, next to the electrified fences on the buffalo farm. Eventually we came to a clearing near some beautiful wetlands where we camped for dinner. Patsy and Greg made fires and cooked a delicious meal of buffalo, barramundi, bush carrots and damper with golden syrup and billy tea. The buffalo and barramundi were cooked in a bush camp oven, using hot stones under paperbark, buried under hot coals for about half an hour. Beautiful!

On the tour we saw a dingo, a buffalo, a wallaby, lots of whistling kites, a cane toad and a water python in the wild. The tour was very simple but we had a fantastic time – definitely one of the holiday highlights!

Day 82 – June 22 – Kakadu -> Edith Falls

We left Kakadu this morning – it is definitely a huge national park, and takes a long time to drive through. It’s amazing to think that via the roads you can only access 2% of the park area.

We arrived at Edith Falls at 1:30 and were lucky to get one of the last couple of camp sites. We had a quick dip in the main plunge pool at the base of the falls. It’s huge! It’s too far to swim to the falls themselves. Very pretty and not many people. We then went on a hike up to the top of the falls to another pool and waterfall. This was even prettier and lovely to swim in, and we could get close to the falls themselves. It’s interesting – we have made sure that we and the kids are always careful in these falls – never jumping in due to the risk of rocks under the surface. However, we saw a French family with young kids climb up rocks next to the waterfall, and jump about 4m into the pool. We were amazed – one of the kids was scared witless but his father made him jump…

The walk back down to the campground was beautiful – lots of pretty birds and plants.

June 15 - 18

Day 75 – June 15 – Darwin

Sightseeing in Darwin today. The kids wanted to go to a crocodile park, so we chose ‘Crocosaurus Cove’, right in the middle of Darwin. The kids wanted to see the ‘Cage of Death’ – to the point where they were pestering us to pay for them to do it. The cage was a perspex box which was lowered in turn into four crocodile pens. The crocs were big, but to prove their intelligence they took no notice of the pens being lowered into their water – maybe they took interest the first few times but no doubt they realise that the juicy humans inside can’t be obtained no matter how hard they try. Now they are totally disinterested, which makes the whole exercise pretty pointless… especially at over $100 for the privilege.

A better experience was ‘fishing for crocs’ using meat for bait on the end of a fishing rod over a pool of 40 juvenile crocs. That was great. Then the kids swam in a glass-walled pool right next to the same croc pool – so from the outside it looks the kids are swimming with the crocs. We also saw a reptile presentation where a python ate a dead rat, then we all got to hold various snakes and lizards. Luke loved it – he is always the first to queue up to hold a snake.

We then walked through the WWII Oil Storage tunnels, built to hold fuel after the original fuel tanks were bombed by the Japanese in 1942. By the time the tunnels were completed the war had ended so they were never used. They were huge!

We finished a great day by having take-away at Stokes Hill Wharf – Barra burgers overlooking a pod of porpoises (the kids now being dolphin experts said they weren’t dolphins) playing in the bay.

Day 76 – June 16 – Darwin

We fed fish at Aquascene in the morning – where the fish come in near to shore at high tide to be fed by countless tourists like us with an inexhaustible supply of bread. Huge milk fish, bat fish, catfish and others come into shore to take bread out of our hands – unbelievable how many there are.

We had some time out at the caravan park – Bruce did the grocery shopping, Michelle did some holiday planning and the kids did some homework, played on the bouncy pillow and played in the pool.

In the afternoon we went to the excellent NT museum. We saw a stuffed ‘Sweetheart’, the 5m crocodile that terrorised a community in NT before he was caught in the 70s. They also had a great display on Cyclone Tracy (amazing!), as well as some good examples of aboriginal art plus various stuffed birds and animals.

We enjoyed a pre-birthday dinner for Luke at the Sailing Club, right on the beach watching the sunset (not as nice as Michelle remembered six years ago when she visited Annette in Darwin. Darwin has changed since then, a big new development at the waterfront). Darwin is still a lovely city – cosmopolitan yet also very relaxed.

By the way - check out the street near our caravan park!

Day 77 – June 17 – Darwin (LUKE’S BIRTHDAY!!!)

A very excited birthday boy woke us all at 7:15. After cuddles in bed he opened presents (books, watch, DVD) and the kids played on the bouncy pillow. Then after breakfast we lounged around the pool and had chocolate birthday cake and sang happy birthday.

We planned to spend the afternoon at a water slide park but when we got there we found out that the filter wasn’t working so the slides were closed (Bummer!). Instead they had a small playground open with a garden sprinkler for the kids to run through…

So plan B – we went into town to ‘Wave Beach’ – an artificial beach with a wave machine. Actually lots of fun – the kids stayed in the water for two hours and emerged exhausted with blood shot eyes.

Then off to Mindil markets – great! A huge selection of delicious food. We tried satay prawns, mango smoothies, butter chicken, fried rice, prawn tempura, snow cones and lasagne. We wanted to try the amazing desserts but couldn’t because we were so stuffed. When it was time for sunset, thousands of people stampeded down on to the beach. Nice sunset but too many people!! We saw a fire eater / juggler in action – fantastic show. Hope the kids don’t try it at home! We bumped into Joyce and Charlie Hughes who were up here on holidays. Small world… they said Uncle Warren was here last week!

Even though Bruce had forbidden the purchase of wooden puzzles at the markets.. we bought three. Also bought some anklets (more ?!?!). We would have loved to kept looking – great stalls – but we were all exhausted.

We got back to the caravan park late and found a big green tree frog on the road. Erin and Luke tried to move it but it wouldn’t budge so we carefully drove around it. Unfortunately the car behind us wasn’t so careful – the kids heard a loud ‘pop’, and found a green and red mess on the road. Poor Erin was very traumatised and almost inconsolable.

Kids in bed by 9:00 and for once, everyone went straight to sleep..

Day 78 – June 18 – Darwin -> Adelaide River

Great day! We went on a ½ day fishing trip with ‘Fish Darwin’ out in Darwin Harbour. The fishing started slowly but in the 3rd spot Erin caught the first (saddle back snapper) and second (red snapper) fish of the day – for the whole group (12 of us). It was a good day for the McKinnon family – we caught a lot more fish than the other 7 people on the boat. Ben caught four, Luke four, Erin six (!), Michelle four and Bruce three. It was almost embarrassing when the kids were hauling in the fish and the other big blokes on the boat weren’t even getting a bite. We tossed them all back in except for 1 big Jewfish which we took away for our dinner. We stuffed it with butter, garlic and coriander and cooked it on the BBQ. Yum!

We left Darwin after lunch on the boat and headed towards Kakadu, stopping to see a jumping croc cruise on Adelaide River. It sounded quite touristy, but we chose the one which was the smallest tour operator further up the river. Only three other people on the boat. The big crocs were literally 1m from us as they lunged out of the water to snap at some meat on a pole. We saw about a dozen crocs ranging from 6m (Big Scotty) down to less than 1m. The little crocs were amazing, they could get their back legs out of the water. A lot of fun, probably much more than we could have had with the bigger tours.

June 9 - 14

Day 69 – June 9 – Kununurra (WA) -> Gregory National Park (NT)

We said goodbye to Western Australia after 51 days! WA is great, lots of very beautiful places to see, with good infrastructure and not very many people. A real treat.

We embarked on a new adventure in NT, our 5^th state (ok, territory to be pedantic). Long drive from Kununurra. We drove to Gregory National Park near Victoria River and camped in the national park by the river.

Day 70 – June 10 – Gregory National Park -> Douglas Daly Resort

Bruce, Erin, Luke and Ben went on a beautiful 90 minute walk at Joes Picnic Area in Gregory National Park (Michelle not feeling well today, nasty flu). They saw red cliffs and lush green forests with Livistona Palms against a huge escarpment. Erin and Luke took some amazing photos. The boys made their own waterfalls down the mountain….

200km to Katherine, where we stopped briefly for lunch at the Low Level Bridge. We collected lots of brochures from the visitors centre and then headed north. We’ll spend more time in Katherine after Darwin.

We stopped for the night at Douglas Daly Resort, just off Stuart Highway past Hayes Creek.

Day 71 – June 11 – Douglas Daly Resort -> Litchfield (Florence campground)

In the morning we went for a lovely walk along the cascading rapids and waterholes of the Douglas River. We had the whole 2km to ourselves – except for some dead cane toads, a dozen wallabies, lots of orb spiders, a snake and 1 group of campers. Very pretty, shady campsites right on the river. The water looked inviting but we didn’t swim due to the croc signs.

We found a great camping spot in Litchfield National Park at Florence Falls, surrounded by bush. It was only about 600m walk down to the gorgeous plunge pool at the base of the falls. It was a very deep clear water pool with two big waterfalls at one end and a trickling stream at the other. We had a refreshing swim then walked back to our campsite via Shady Creek walk. We made a campfire and toasted marshmallows after dinner then lay outside under the stars to read. We all agreed that Litchfield is even more beautiful than Karijini.

Day 72 – June 12 – Litchfield (Walker Creek campground)

In the morning we did a 2km walk from Florence Falls campground to Buley rockholes, a series of small waterfalls and rockholes. A perfect place to swim and relax! We arrived at 9:00 and there were only a couple of other people there. We started at the top pool for a swim and climbed down all the waterfalls to the bottom, swimming in each pool on the way, then went back to the top again. This is one of our favourite places! It felt like we had it all to ourselves until 10:00 when all the tour buses arrived. By 11:00 it was swarming with people, smoking and jumping in the pools. We remembered one of the reasons why we liked Karijini and the Kimberley so much – very few people.

Bruce went back to pack up camp and pick up Michelle and the kids, and we left the crowds to go to Walker Creek. Walker Creek is a campsite at the north end of Litchfield where you leave the car and hike in to camp at one of eight sites along Walker Creek. Each site has a different rockpool and given the hiking, much less people! We chose to stay at campsite #6 – about 1.6km from the carpark through the bush next to the creek. A very secluded little camping area with shade, a table and a fire place right next to our own swimming hole and little waterfalls. It was a long hot walk carrying all our gear in (we made 2 trips!) but it was certainly worth every step. We had a few day trippers come in and swim in the pool but otherwise we had it all to ourselves. A relaxing afternoon swimming and reading. We were even brave enough to go skinny dipping! After dinner we lay in our tents and drifted off to sleep to the sound of the waterfalls.

Day 73 – June 13 – Litchfield (Walker Creek campground)

We think this is the best camping spot we have found so far on the whole trip, and have decided to stay another night. We relaxed at camp, swam and explored the waterholes, and when the first daytrippers arrived about 10:30 we headed out to see more of Litchfield.

We saw Tolmer Falls and Wangi Falls. Both of them spectacular, it’s difficult to imagine how much the water must flow in the wet season. We couldn’t swim at Tolmer Falls as it is a refuge for ghost bats, and while swimming is normally allowed at Wangi it was closed to swimming due the recent heavy rain creating strong currents and the chance of saltwater crocs. Given our difficulty in cooking meals back at our campsite we went to a café for a yummy lunch of burgers (Michelle had a local Barra burger – very good!).

We spent the afternoon and evening back at Walker Creek – more swimming and reading. We can’t believe how clear and lovely the water is, and no horrible insects or slimy things in the water. Only a big water monitor which sits by the pool and watches us…

Day 74 – June 14 – Litchfield -> Darwin

We packed up the campsite, and after a final swim in our private waterhole we loaded everyone up with backpacks and bags and trudged 30 minutes back to civilisation. Very sad to leave Litchfield, it really is a beautiful national park and so close to Darwin as well.

We drove back to the Stuart Highway and on up to Berry Springs, where we visited the Territory Wildlife Park. This is a great park created by the NT government to showcase the natural wildlife of the Top End. The park is very spacious, with sections devoted to different parts of the Top End, from grasslands to mangroves to billabongs. We particularly loved the aviary with the local birdlife and the aquarium, which had lots of amazing creatures from fish to the obligatory saltwater croc. They also had a bird show, where they had owls, kestrels, a jabiru and a huge wedge tailed eagle.

We drove on to the outskirts of Darwin, where we’re staying – a huge caravan park with 3 pools and a jumping pillow. Quite different to last night’s accommodation in Litchfield – but the kids love it!

June 4 - 8

Day 64 – June 4 – Turkey Creek -> Purnululu (Bungle Bungles)

Our big tour in the Bungle Bungles! We were picked up at 5:30am in the 4WD bus by East Kimberley Tours for our long awaited tour into Purnululu National Park. We had been looking forward to experiencing the 4WD Spring Creek Track into the park – supposedly one of the roughest roads in Australia – but after 5 minutes we were all quite sick with the motion sickness. We had to stop the bus at one stage when Luke was physically sick. After 2 ½ hours we finally made it to the visitor’s centre – after 53km and 47 river crossings (but only 3 had water in them).




We then travelled with our tour guide Jools to the northern section of the park and hiked into Mini Palms Gorge – a pretty tough 5km walk (2 ½ hours) along a river bed next to tall palms in a steep red gorge. Then, after a gourmet packed salad lunch, we walked to Echidna Chasm – an amazing chasm 250m long, 200m high and in some places only 2m wide. It felt amazing being there and looking up at the Livistona Palms against the blue sky.




Now, totally exhausted we arrived at our accommodation for the evening – tented cabins in a beautiful bush setting next to a river bed. We had a relaxing afternoon chatting around the fire and then had a yummy dinner of steak, veges and apple pie. We met a nice lady called Helen who used to work as a nurse for the RFDS in Derby – she knew Lou our tour guide from Windjana and Tunnel Creek. We slept in real beds! (Luxury..) Pretty cold overnight however, we were glad they provided doonas.



Day 65 – June 5 – Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) -> Turkey Creek

We awoke to the sounds of Dingoes at 5:15 am, had a morning stroll to view the sunrise (as though we weren’t doing enough walking over these two days), and then had a mountainous breakfast of bacon, eggs and coffee.

Another huge walking day, this time down at the southern end of the park. We drove along the range, past wattle and grevillea blooming in bright yellow and red. We walked along Piccaninny Creek bed for a couple of hours. The scenery is breathtaking, right next to the orange and black striped beehive domes. The whole range is so much bigger than we had expected. There were a few pools of water along the creek after the recent rains and the kids had a swim in one in their clothes! Ben said ‘This is amazing!’




We had lunch in Cathedral Gorge (think choir kids running around a beautiful pool in the Qantas ad). It’s a magnificent amphitheatre with a pool surrounded by cliffs. The pool glowed gold – almost fluorescent – due to a film of fine sandstone dust floating on the surface. At one point the surface tension changed so the gold broke up before our very eyes.




We walked through the domes and saw the Grotto, and on our way back to the carpark the beehives almost shone red in the afternoon light.

On the trip back Luke said ‘Mum, the Bungle Bungles are amazing aren’t they!’ On the 4WD bus trip back to Turkey Creek in the dark we listened to Roy Orbison, Abba, Neil Sedaka, etc. Luke and Ben fell asleep. What a great day, and tour. We finally arrived back at the Winnebago at 7:30pm, and we fell straight into bed.

Day 66 – June 6 – Turkey Creek -> Kununurra

After the last couple of days we slept in a little, and then headed north through spectacular scenery towards Wyndham – the northernmost town in Western Australia. There were long tall red mountain ranges everywhere you look. We drove past the east end of the Gibb River Road – we were tempted to see how we would go with the Winnebago, as it isn’t far to places like El Questro and other great stations. However, we resisted our temptations and will have to look forward to when we come back to the Kimberley with a 4WD.



The 5 rivers lookout in Wyndham was awesome – 350m above the surrounding countryside you can see for miles and miles, where the 5 rivers merge and the surrounding huge tidal plain. We also saw the biggest boab tree in ‘captivity’ (this means there is a tiny fence around it) – but not much else to see in town.

On the way from Wyndham to Kununurra we dropped in at the Grotto (not to be confused with the Grotto in Purnululu). This is a very pretty permanent water hole in a gorge 140 steps down – apparently the water hole is 300 ft deep! We all swam, for a while we were the only ones there until we were joined by a little water lizard.

We stayed at Discovery Caravan Park in Kununurra, recommended by Dave and Leanne who we met on the tour yesterday – and we discovered that our site (right on Lake Kununurra) was right opposite theirs where they live!

Day 67 – June 7 – Kununurra

We were woken early by the birds and flying foxes. Spent a relaxing morning by the lake – the kids tried to sink a dead turtle floating in the water, played with a rope hanging from a tree (we didn’t let the kids swim in the lake however, Dave told us that there had been reports of crocs living nearby), and we tried our hand at fishing. The fishing wasn’t very successful, but we got a few nibbles. Dave gave us a tiny fish and some worms to use as bait – but the kids decided to see how long the fish would live in a bucket instead.

We spent the rest of the day on a JJJ tour of Lake Argyle, Ord River and Lake Kununurra. We were picked up by a coach at our caravan park – and Dave was our driver / tour guide! (Small world…) He successfully spoke non-stop the whole 70km from Kununurra to the Argyle Homestead and the Ord River Dam – about the local region, history, flora, etc. The best part of the tour was the 4 hour boat cruise from the dam, down the Ord River back to Kununurra – about 50km. Spectacular scenery – past red cliffs, rich vegetation, freshwater crocs and prolific bird life. It was amazing to see how fast the river flows – 12km / hour or 50,000 litres per second flows through the lower diversion dam.

We were told many interesting facts about how much water flows down the Ord (due to the huge catchment area flowing into Lake Argyle in the wet seasons). Lake Argyle itself currently holds a volume of water equivalent to 19 Sydney Harbours – at it’s peak it has held 36 Sydney Harbours. Apparently a few years ago there was so much rain in one season that ALL of Australia could have been supplied with their water needs for one year – the only problem of course is how to get it transported throughout Australia. It’s takes less power for Perth to have a desalination plant than to pipe the water from the Kimberley.

We stopped for afternoon tea on the side of the river, and went up a few tributaries. The Ord is so beautiful, and an amazingly successful engineering project which irrigates thousands of acres of crops around Kununurra.

Day 68 – June 8 – Kununurra

More fishing in the lake – Ben caught a catfish! We saw the beautiful zebra rock in some galleries – only found around Kununurra. We tried fishing for Barramundi at Ivanhoe Crossing – not a nibble.. We saw some pink diamonds from Argyle diamond mine in a local diamond gallery, and we dropped in to a local art gallery, with some beautiful paintings of Purnululu and the local area. We also went to Mirama National Park, right in the middle of Kununurra – a hidden gem. Just like a mini Bungle Bungles, with rock formations similar to the beehives. Just outside the park we picked up heaps of boab nuts for the kids to try their hand at carving.

May 30 - June 3

Day 59 – May 30 – Broome -> Derby

We loitered around the caravan park this morning, we stayed to play another game of mini-golf (Erin won the first nine, Bruce won the second). On the way out of town we checked out the Broome markets – is it just us or are markets the same everywhere? Shoulder massages, ‘green’ and ‘organic’ trinkets/bric-a-brac, local artist paintings and Turkish BBQ food? Didn’t see any hemp products however…

We drove into the Kimberley to Derby this afternoon. Surprisingly very green, after the unseasonal rain a week ago. A number of creek beds had a lot of water in them, apparently this is uncommon for this time of year. We saw lots of boab trees on the way, and they also line the main street in Derby. Derby is a drab, sprawling town built between a large expanse of tidal mud flats. Derby experiences the biggest range of tides in Australia – up to 12 metres! We saw the town jetty at high tide this afternoon. It will be interesting to see it at low tide.

Day 60 – May 31 – Derby (Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek)

One of the best days yet! Today was an example of a day trip tour which was excellent and well worth the expense. We had been looking forward to seeing Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek for the whole trip, and it didn’t disappoint. We had initially thought we might be able to drive the Winnebago, but all travellers we talked to said that the access road is really 4WD only. We therefore booked a tour from Derby. We were lucky really because the unseasonal heavy rain had closed the road for 3 weeks, but luckily it was re-opened yesterday.

The tour group was just us and a young couple from Switzerland, so we fit into a Toyota Landcruiser troop carrier. Our tour guide was a girl named Lou who was born in Derby and has been going to Windjana and Tunnel Creek since she was very young.

From Derby we turned onto the Gibb River Road, and soon realised why we made a good decision not to drive the motorhome on the road ourselves. Apparently the road was good because it has recently been graded. On the way we saw a large goanna standing up on its hind legs!

Windjana Gorge was beautiful, and again due to the rain the water level was reasonably high, and the vegetation was green. It was hot, but according to Lou in the wet season it can be over 50 degrees and over 90 percent humidity – not a pleasant place to be. We saw half a dozen freshwater crocodiles in the water and sunning themselves on the banks. Luke tried to sneak up on them to see how close he could get! (Good thing they weren’t salties..)

Tunnel Creek was great fun – an amazing 700m long limestone cave / tunnel complete with stalactites, stalagmites, clear water, sandbanks, yabbies and fish. We saw flying foxes, horseshoe bats and even 20 or so carnivorous ghost bats on the ceiling. The tunnel was quite dark and we needed to use the provided torches to see where we were going. It was fun walking through water that went up to our knees (Ben’s thighs), but it was nice to have a guide to tell us exactly where to walk. The kids walked through a ‘kids only’ tunnel and we all swam in the pool at the end of the tunnel. It was great to have Lou’s local knowledge as she described how the tunnel and creek have changed since she was a kid.

On the way back to Derby we stopped in a pretty spot on the Kimberley Downs floodplain, had a yummy afternoon tea while Lou told us the (true) story of the Aboriginal rebellion leader Jandamara. Check it out, Jandamara was a local Aborigine who led his tribe against the whites who took the land and enslaved the young men for the pearlers based in Broome. Why didn’t we hear about all these travesties of justice when we were kids?

We watched the sunset behind the termite mounds and boab trees. A perfect end to a fabulous day.

Day 61 – June 1 – Derby -> Fitzroy Crossing

The first day of winter and the hottest day so far. The sweat dripped off us all day.

We visited the Kimberley School of the Air (KSOTA), which educates kids from about 28 remote stations across the Kimberley. We sat in on a class a teacher was running for 8 year 1 students – they all had computers and were communicating via the internet doing a science experiment. It was fascinating – each kid could signal on the computer when they had completed something or when they wanted to put their hand up. They spoke using a radio. It was a very modern well equipped facility. The principal gave us a tour through their school – he was rightly proud of his staff and students. He thought Luke was in year 6!

We saw the Boab Prison Tree, used in the 1880’s to hold Aborigines captive before they were walked to Broome (220 km) and forced to work on pearl luggers – another piece of history which we shouldn’t be proud of…

We then drove to Fitzroy Crossing (3 hours) – with Ben singing to us the whole way!

Day 62 – June 2 – Fitzroy Crossing -> Mary’s Pool

We did the 8am Geike Gorge cruise, a pleasant 1 hour boat ride past the multicoloured gorge walls. We saw freshwater crocs and an abundance of birdlife. Lots more people than the Yardie creek cruise – we couldn’t ask any questions but the ranger was very interesting. We then went for a short walk along the Fitzroy river where we saw another 4 freshies.

We had a refreshing dip in the pool back at the Fitzroy Crossing Lodge caravan park, lunch, then drove on.

We stopped for the night at a 24 hour rest stop at beautiful Mary’s Pool, a free camp under trees by a river and a sandy river bed. We cooked damper and marshmallows over the fire. Lots of squawking corellas.

Day 63 – June 3 – Mary’s Pool -> Turkey Creek

We woke up early with the birds. Had a lovely relaxing morning exploring the rocks and sandbanks besides Mary’s River. Found some excellent coloured rocks. The kids tried out a new fishing method using bread, carrot and pumpkin. When that didn’t work they tried scooping them up with a plastic bag! Surprisingly they didn’t catch anything, but at least they had fun trying. Morning tea of pumpkin scones from the oven – Bruce had 4!

We drove through Halls Creek and saw China Wall – a quartz rock formation that looks like a mini Great Wall of China. We stayed at Turkey Creek Roadhouse (Warmun) that night.