Our last few days in WA...

Bye bye Broome & beautiful WA beaches as that will be the last beach now until we hit Darwin, so it was a sad moment in our car as we waved goodbye to the coast & headed inland. Our first stop for today was a place called Derby & let me just say it was an eye opener, within 30 secs of us driving in & seeing the locals in the park we had decided we would not be staying here very long at all...if you've been up this way I think you can guess why! Anyway after seeing the Boab Prison Tree & reading the amazing history behind it (and meeting a lovely, very funny couple Les & Christine) we set off for our camp about 100 kms up the road.

The next morning we hit the road at 7.15am the earliest we've ever been on the road to get to our next camp spot so we could get a great spot on the river. We ended up with a really good spot near the river at Mary Pools. After the van was set up we went for a big walk up the river & got to see our first wild freshwater croc which was pretty exciting to be so close to it without being in a zoo. Les & Christine who we had met the day before came & camped near us so we had a great time chatting to them around the fire.We spent a couple of days here just chilling out & the kids had a ball making mud pies & basically getting filthy in the dirt, then it was time to move further east to explore the Bungle Bungles.

We quickly drove through Halls Creek only stopping for fuel & bread & got to our next spot which was even better than the last spot, this time we were right on the river & it was stunning. Again we did the usual arvo family thing a big walk up the river bed exploring & it was hot so it was nice to cool off in the little bits of water still there. The next morning was a super early start with us on the road at 6.30am (a new record) for our 2 hour drive on the very bumpy dirt road with 38 creek crossings to get to the Bungle Bungles & while the drive sometimes felt like I was in a washing machine it was a fun adventure & seeing the Bungle Bungles was well worth it. They are so different to anything I have ever seen before, the best way to describe them is like massive over sized rock beehives. They are huge & have a very distinctive line pattern which make them look almost unreal. We went for a big walk into one of the gorges & it was fantastic & stunning! The next walk was a hot one to a lookout over some of the Bungle Bungles & they are just amazing to see. We had a great day. On the drive home we came across Les & Christine & found out they were camping right beside us so later that night when the kids were in bed we had a great time sitting around the fire having a giggle with them.

Time to hit the road again & this time to Kunnunarra which isn't a bad town. Here we did some shopping & were we were staying we had use of a free washing machine which was very exciting for me when I have been paying $4 a load at other places so I did heaps of washing & Zac got his stitches out with no problems at all. We did a little bit of sight seeing but I think we were still so tired from the Bungle Bungles it was nice to just sit still for a while. It was Ty's 6th b'day in Kunnunarra so we had a fun day celebrating that with party food & yummy cake. We also got to catch up with my good friends parents who I hadn't seen for quite a few years so that was great fun exchanging travelling stories & having a laugh up with them. Also saw Les & Christine briefly again. It's amazing on the road we have meet so many fantastic people & seem to keep bumping into them so you always have someone to have a chat to. Leaving Kunnunarra we stopped by The Ord Dam or Lake Argyle whichever you want to call it & had a look, it is massive. It was pretty exciting as Glen's Dad worked there during the construction of it back in the 60's. On the way back to the highway Glen stopped to have a quick fish in the Ord River & here we got to see about 6 freshwater crocs including a cute little baby one! About 20 mins after being back on the highway we said a sad goodbye to WA & entered the Northern Territory. We are very sad to say bye bye to WA, we have absolutely loved it over here & plan to come back one day for another big holiday to soak up all it's beauty again!!!

Sunsets & stitches...

Since we left Karratha a couple of weeks ago we have been busy being tourists some days & beach bums other days...we get so relaxed sometimes we forget the day & dates which can be a little embarrassing at times. After Karratha we had a couple of nice river camp spots (we were very excited about having a camp fire again after a month without one!) We made our way to a place 130kms south of Broome called Barn Hill & this is were we turned into lazy relaxed beach bums & just enjoyed reading, walking on the beach, fishing, watching more amazing WA sunsets & generally just hanging on the beach & having fun...it was so warm (Winter? What winter?!) The kids even had a couple of swims in the ocean. We love Barn Hill as the beach is just stunning with amazing rock formations on the beach & also a great sandy beach which we spent many hours on playing cricket, footy, building sandcastles & just sitting around doing nothing much...heaven!

After Barn Hill it was off to Broome we go & I really didn't now what to expect & although I didn't fall in love with Broome it is still a really nice place & I thought the Cable Beach sunset would be just a big over hyped touristy thing that would be disappointing as we have found the heavily advertised tourist attractions often to be a bit of a let down but holy cow I was wrong the sunset over Cable Beach with the camels walking along it is a sight everyone should see for themselves, it truly is incredible! Thanks to some nice local advice we were given we drove onto Cable Beach & joined all the other four wheel drives & enjoyed nibbles & drinks watching the kids play on the beach, camels walking past & with the sun slowly setting over the water...really beautiful!!! The next day we set off very very early in the morning to catch the beach at low tide so we could walk out to see dinosaur foot prints in the rocks on the beach & we found them pretty easily, we just looked for the crowd of people taking photos of a rock...hahaha! It was actually pretty awesome seeing the dinosaur footprints & the kids were so excited to think dinosaurs were once walking right where we were standing. We did a few more tourist sight seeing things in Broome that day & went for a big walk on the huge Broome Jetty & got to see some cattle trucks loading cattle onto a ship to take them south. Glen had a fish but no luck with catching anything. It was another lovely warm (or hot) winters day in the north so we found a kids water park/playground & let the kids have a play while Glen went for a quick fish off the rocks & I sat relaxing reading a magazine. Then all of a sudden Zac screams this high pitch scream & comes running over to me holding his ear screaming that he had cut his ear in half!!! I had a look & quickly realised he had done a very good job at cutting his ear so told Tiana to run & get Dad as we were going for our 3rd hospital visit of the trip. Thankfully Broome hospital had just had a huge reno & was a really nice clean hospital so that made me relax a little bit. We got to see someone pretty quickly (one woman had been waiting 4 hours to see someone) but then the doctors couldn't decide the best way to handle his cut as it had cut the ear cartilage & so they started to numb his ear with cream & they all agreed it couldn't just be stitched & that a surgeon would have to do it because of how it was cut, the only thing for them to disagree about now was whether he had to go to theatre under a general or to do it in the emergency dept under a drug that would put Zac into a twilight state & while all this was going on Zac only had one major meltdown about it all & that was at the very beginning when he first found out he had to have stitches but after I explained it all to him & calmed him down the rest of the 7 hours we were there he was an absolute legend, the doctors & nurses even started calling him Bear Grylls (Zac was very excited about that!). At first we were told Zac was booked in for surgery at 9.30pm but then the doctors changed their minds & eventually they agreed the surgeon could do it with Zac in la la land in the emergency department which I honestly was much more comfortable with. Thankfully I was able to stay with Zac the whole time & although it was quite weird & abit hard to see him in a trance like state I was glad to be there to hold his hand. It was all over with very fast & as Zac started to wake up he found it quite funny that I had 4 eyes, 2 noses & 2 mouths...hahaha! Eventually at 9pm Zac & I got to go home to bed...he was such a champion my big boy. Unfortunately just as we were leaving the hospital we got to witness a young boy about 10 under the affects from sniffing petrol & that was a really sad sight, he was just so young & such a mess, very very sad. After our adventure packed afternoon we decided to stay an extra night in Broome to just relax & we really wanted to have one more sunset on Cable Beach & it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Broome.