Staircase to the moon

It only happens between March and October each year, when conditions are just right, when the full moon rises over the exposed mudflats of Roebuck Bay at extremely low tide creating the optical illusion of a staircase reaching for the moon.The staircase occurs three nights each month and we were lucky enough, actually we timed our visit around this phenomena.

We reserved a table at Mangrove Hotel and caught the bus, as well as with everyone else, to see it. It seemed like we were back in London peak hour as the bus was so full it couldn't stop for people. Olive thought it very funny as we drove past people waiting for the bus.

Michael has passed the itchy beard phase.

And Olive is going through the long haired hippie stage. " don't you dare take our table!"

Even though we reserved a table a few weeks before and got a primo table. We were soon swamped with people around our table and you can imagine people jostling for their positions. Luckily we had 2 little people eating pizza at our table to know that we had our table booked.

Each night the staircase to the moon started later and it was appearing at 5:30pm today.

As the sun set over Cable Beach, the moon started to rise over Roebuck Bay. It was like an orange slowly appearing behind a desk and hundreds, if not thousands  of people in several locations around Broome were eagerly snapping away.

 

 

Just as the moon really started to show off, and the didgeridoo played in background, thousands and thousands of bats flew right across the view. It was much bigger than the nightly migration from Kareela or Royal Botanic Gardens. It simply added to the absolute phenomenon. 

It was a fantastic atmosphere, everyone mingling and socialising and just as the music and night starts to get cranking, we have to take 2 tired little girls home to bed. At least we can relax and have a Port back at camp. It's only 7:30pm.

Horizontal Falls Sea Plane Adventure

Wow, what a day!!!

I got picked up at 5.30am for the morning tour, while Gill was waiting for the arvo tour. We weren't taking the kids as it was costing a small fortune as it was. 

The trip to the falls was in a Cessna Caravan Float Plane. There were three planes leaving Broome one after the other for the falls when I left in the morning. We were the first to leave but we got to the falls second. I asked the pilot how they passed us and he told me our plane was due for an engine change and could only get to an altitude of 7500ft as the engine would run out of puff at higher altitudes, the other plane was cruising at 9500ft so was able to fly faster and pass us. Nice one hey...

The flight into the horizontal waterfalls flys over King Sound Bay and the Buccaneer Archipeligo, awesome, awesome views.

This is where the plane landed near the falls. There was a couple of cruise ships anchored, the house boats, are where the planes pulled up. They are anchored there from March to Octobr and during the wet season they are towed to nearby cyclone creek, for obvious reasons.

Soon after arriving I spotted this big sucker in the water. These sharks are Tawny Nurse sharks, or Lemon sharks, and soon after we were swimming with them.

It's just so funny feeding sharks isn't it!!

As you can see from the pictures these sharks only have small mouths, so if they got hold of you, you wouldn't lose a limb but your limb could get sucked into their mouth and they would do a good job of shredding you up as you tried to pull your arm or leg free. They said it has happened a few times.

After the sharks the real business of going through the falls started and into the aptly named boat "Full Throttle". 

I don't think it has enough horsepower...

After a quick tour through Cyclone Creek, (named because it is the safest refuge for boats and ships in a cyclone) we headed to the first horizontal waterfall. The first fall is 20m wide.

After a few runs through the wide fall we went over to the narrow fall. But due to the current full moon, the tides are big 10m tides at the moment and the water flow was too big to safely pass through. The narrow fall is only 7.5m across. There was about a 2m height difference between each side of the fall when I was there and about 3m when Gill was there later in the day.

The driver did back the boat right up to the falls though and hold us in position so we could get a good look.

On Gill's ride in the arvo, it was a different story. The skipper couldn't go within 20m of fall as it was too dangerous. They would of got halfway through the pass and been knocked sideways against the rocks- said the skipper!

These photos do not show the ferocity of the falls and speed at which the water is moving through these passes.

This is Cape Leveque and we will be camping here next week, also known as Kooljaman. 

Grey nomads

We lived the life of a grey nomad today. Had a lazy brekky, washed up, did a few bits n bob but can't really remember what that was, went to the beach for a couple of hours, came back and cooked up some leftover pork spare ribs on Weber, read books whilst Olive slept, got an icy pole from office/shop then back to the beach for happy hour! I like this life!

The beach is spectacular and even therapeutic as we haven't swam in the ocean for a while, at least as beautiful as this one.

It was another hot day and it was a day for doing not much at all. Rubes dug deep in the sand and found lots of clams and then read up on them back at camp. We were pretty much the only ones on the beach.

It was a dolphin, not a shark.

We seem to be the only campers under 40 at Barn Hill and we often get the laughing comment from fellow campers " ha ha we've been through all that", but in saying that, both our girls have been asking us if they can go to bed each night. At first we thought they we're joking and just wanted to watch " Frozen" on IPad but they genuinely fall to sleep very quickly, before we can draw circles on their bellies and "Puff the magic dragon" hasn't even been sung at all in the past week.

Off to Dampier Peninsula to either camp at Quondong Point or James Price Point, depending on how busy each camp is.

Barn Hill Station

We had an early start and were on the road by 7:30am, all fuelled up and ready for the 400km or so for Broome ..or so we thought? The Great Northern Highway to Broome is dotted with Boab trees, not with smiley faces, termite mounds, stray cattle crossing the road and the odd dingo.

We stopped at Willare Roadhouse for a quick coffee but ended up meeting some people we had camped with so it wasn't such a quickymart after all. Willare Roadhouse was surprising in that catered for all types of accommodation from motel style rooms, camping, a bar, pool to a 3 course Outback Ball (basically a small B and S) in the campground behind.

A common size road train was parked outside.

 

Our IPad mount which attaches to my headrest(passenger) allows the girls to watch movies on extended stretches of road, but we do persist in playing games of "I spy" and "spot the ", even when there aren't many cars to spot travelling with snow skis on the roof, but it keeps them looking for a while.

We have had to ration the girls drinking water as they drink water like camels sometimes. Our record for Olive, was stopping 4 times within 1 hour to do a bush wee on the side of the road. After that we kept their drinking bottles in the front with us so as we could ration their drinking and wee stops ! Such cruel parents!!

Michael had met at Fitzroy Crossing someone he knew from Terrigal Rugby Club and we had bumped into them again at a truck rest stop, where the girls could have another wee.

We decided, purely on orientation, that it was better to head south first before Broome, then onto Cape Leveque so we turned towards Port Headland and drove into Barn Hill Station.

Wow- it is just like we imagined Cape Leveque, only sooner. The beach is enclaved with red cliffs and interesting rock formations, and is unlike any east coast beach. Also because the sun sets over the beach here too which is spectacular.

We camped in the unpowered camping area, but the powered camping area was packed. They were all packed in under the shade and had obviously been there awhile as they each had their own gardens that they tendered to.

The office had told Michael to be cautious of sharks ( although he only told me that after he and Olive were splashing about in the ocean). "No crocs but just don't swim out too deep cos of the sharks" . So, after that lovely advice was given we popped our heads under the water and had a refreshing dip and settled for lying in the rock pools and watched the sun creep over the horizon. Bliss.

We look forward to hitting the beach tomorrow for more beach walking, rock pool discovering, shallow swimming and early happy hour!!

Fitzroy Crossing /Geike Gorge

From Mary's Pool was another fairly smooth bitumen road to Fitzroy Crossing. We spotted a lone dingo on the side of the road. We were camping at Fitzroy Crossing Lodge as there is a large camping area provided on the expansive lawns. 

There is a tennis court and a pool attached to their motel area which all campers could use. It was all a bit flash and all buildings/rooms are elevated due to the floods. The pool was refreshing and the girls could pretend we were staying in a "holiday house" for a brief time.Sprinklers are always on so water is not a problem. It was not overly busy but the the night before was booked out with over 600 people due to a "Sh.t box rally"

The amenities and laundry are very clean. We did some washing to had sparkling (sort of) clothes once again. The red dust certainly sets in the clothes and when Olive and Ruby like to play in the dirt, add a bit of water and hand wiping on clothes- they did look pretty filthy but had fun doing it too.

At the beginning of the trip we were a bit precious but now that water is such a commodity we find that wearing clothes (not undies) 2 days in a row, just the norm.

We found out via forums such as "Myswag" and word of mouth that Singapore ants are a bit of a problem in Fitzroy Crossing and love to eat canvas and even the wiring out of your cars so we stocked up on talcum powder, ant sand and surface spray. We put a little trail of powder and sand around the tyres, stabilisers and jockey wheel as well as the car and used a full can of spray just to be sure. Needless to say we didn't have a problem with ants and we never leave any food/scraps outside overnight.

In June DEC run 4 boat tours on the Geike Gorge so we drove out to the national Park about 20min drive. It's a 1 hour cruise along the Gorge and the girls saw their first ever croc. They were freshies so it was a good intro to see these beauties as I'm sure they will be swimming with them at some point on our trip. Whether we tell them that, is another thing.

The cruise was great and very informative. The limestone cliffs were "gorge...ous" and the stillness was beautiful. We saw Pied cormorants and corellas. Although the Ranger said that in recent days they had spotted Nankeen Kestrels and Rainbow Bee Eaters.

Little crocs will hide in these native reeds until they are about 2years old to protect themselves from White Bellied Sea Eagles and other larger crocs.

Rubes was interested and was listening to the Ranger but Olive thought it was just fun and was happy to keep applying her lip balm. Olive also at one stage wanted to lean out of the boat and she was quickly pulled back.

We wanted to have a drink after the cruise at the heritage Crossing Inn but there wasn't much history inside, which more resembled a cage. It did look pretty nice on the outside, but we settled for a beer back on the Lodge verandah. All the surrounding Boabs had smiley faces on them. We were smiling too.

Mary's Pool

We said our goodbyes to Mum and Dad and the dirt roads for a little while and are now travelling along the smooth bitumen road of the Great Northern Highway to Mary's Pool. 

Mary's Pool is between Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing. It is a free camp and is pretty busy with caravanners. The river where we camped above has freshwater crocs, and although you can swim with them, we decided not to.

Camping is behind the embankment on the right hand side.

It is a nice 24hr stopover camping amongst the Eucalyptus, and bins and compost toilets are provided. Although, because it is free people have left the toilets in an undesirable way and the hum of the generators seem to spoil this serene peaceful place. It's a shame that people don't understand the ease of camping without the need of 240volt power.

We cooked pizza in our baby Weber Q and after heating the pizza stone, the pizza is ready in 15mins. Great for leftovers.

View of campground

Bungle bungles

So we had all, minus the kids, loved the helicopter ride over the Bungles and now it was time to camp and walk amongst the beehive domes in Bungle Bungles National Park (Purnululu). 

Our camp set up side by side with Mum and Dad in the Bungle Bungles Caravan Park from the Helicopter. It was so great to see them on the road and share a part of our trip with them. They are also doing a similar trip but the other direction.

The drive into the National Park is 53km and depending on road conditions and corrugations, it can take up 2-3hours. The road was great and we were able to drive the very scenic road in about an hour.

A few creek crossings on the road into N.P.

Mum and Dad in their Slide-on Camper crossing a small creek.

The blue arrow is where we camped.

We found a shady spot at Walardi camping area  and the after a lazy lunch/set up, bit of bird watching, we walked The Domes and Cathedral Gorge walk. The walk is a good 20 min drive from Walardi camp ground. They are an easy flat walk, if you don't have a 4 and 6 yr old. It is very hot here in the Bungles so we started walking around 2.30-3pm but we were scrambling to get back on the drive back to Walardi Camp before dark. We can't be late for nibbles and arrived just on sunset around 5pm, if not later. The sun rises at about 5:15am- I know this because we keep the canvas open on the camper so I can look at the stars at night. The Bungles are truly spectacular and the scale and grandeur of the domes is awesome. A few cane toads hopping about too, actually 40 000 were removed from Walardi camping area in April/May.

The Bungles are as beautiful and perfect as we imagined.

Cathedral Gorge.

We spoke to some other campers who were camping at Kurrajong Camping area and they said the mozzies were really bad, although we had hardly any camping at Walardi.

The bird watching at Walardi is rewarding, as they seem to come to you. Just at lunch we saw Diamond Doves, red winged parrots, double bar finches, cuckoo shrikes and rainbow bee eaters. 

As we lay in bed you can again hear the dingoes howling.

Echidna chasm walk is another different walk to the Domes walk as we were walking in the dry creek bed of smooth pebbles, lined with Silver Gums and Fan Palms. It was beautiful and shady and climbing over large boulders through the narrow chasm was an easy challenge for the young and old (mature).

Echidna chasm

Osmand Lookout near Echidna Chasm

You can't easily view the Domes from either campsite but the sunset viewing area was a great place to capture the bungles and not in the heat of the day.

Mum and I at sunset viewing area.

Poppy or "Pop man".

It wasn't particularly busy despite being a long weekend for Western Australia which suited us. The Rangers would bring more wood for the firepits and it was great long burning timber too.

On our last day Michael and I were able to go on a couple more walks on our own whilst Mum and Dad entertained the girls back at camp, which was good for everyone.

Just in case..we carry a snake n spider kit.