When I left you all I was croc hunting in Timber Creek, that was certainly one of the highlights of the Western travelling part of the trip. I hope you enjoyed the pics of the little cuties.
So on leaving Timber Creek the next town of any note was Kununurra in Western Australia, but I didnt fancy doing the whole trip in one hit so I pulled over in a place called Google Creek Hole. As per normal in this part of the world the creek was non existent but I found a lovely flat spot about 100mtrs of where it should have been. It was a lovely place to park up with only one small snag, which I wasnt aware of until later when I looked at the maps. I was parked near a road to an Aboriginal township about 60kms or so further on down the track. So every now and then I got traffic going past kicking up a lovely cloud of dust, and especially so when a couple of road train cattle trucks went to an from within a few hours. Luckily I could hear them coming on the return trip so I managed to get all the windows and the door shut before they trundled past. Not that I think it made too much difference but the thought was there. I stayed her for the weekend then set off to hit the Western Australia border crossing. I managed to consume all my fresh fruit and veg before heading there as they are not allowed to cross the border (very strictly controlled).
Got to the check point late morning and was waved into the truck lane just after a cattle truck road train had pulled out. Now I will leave it to your imagination to gauge the state of the pull in bay and the smell after this three trailer road train pulled out. Thankfully they had a chap there with a hose pipe trying to get rid of the worst. So after showing my border pass and getting approved it then came to the caravan inspection. Wow it was all but a full body cavity search, fridge/freezer, all cabinets, inside the cooker, under the bed, it was very thorough, eventually though I was waved through. They were quite a happy chatty bunch of inspectors so it wasnt as bad as it could have been. So starting the truck and slowly dodging the remaining cow pats I began to make my way out of the check point, when on my dashboard came an oil filter warning light. Only had about 60kms to go until Kununurra so was sure I could get it sorted once I got there, so was not overly concerned.
Booked myself into a caravan park in Kununurra, talk about price gouging $72 a night luckily being a member I got a discount of a whole $5 dollars a night. Normally these caravan parks are $35 to $40 per night. It was a lovely location right on the lake and very busy. I rang every garage in Kununurra to get an oil change and not one of the said they could fit me in in less than 2 weeks. My only other option was to try the next decent size town I would be hitting which was Halls Creek, to see if they could do it when I arrived. No problem said the mechanic there, bring it in any morning by 8am and we will get it done for you.
Kununurra is a good sized town and was very busy, being the first or last town depending on your direction of travel in Western Australia. Not a huge amount to see there but I did find the local tourist attraction called Ivanhoe Crossing. This is a causeway over a quite large and reasonably fast flowing river. I managed to get a few pics of a Ute coming across which was good to see, but me, not being the brightest thing on two legs forgot about the bow wave the vehicle was making so at the last moment I had to make a run for it before I got a good soaking at least up to the knees.
From Kununurra I did a little diversion up to Wyndham, a shortish trip of about 90kms or so. Wyndham is the Northernmost town in the Kimberley region and I thought it may be worth a look. Very disappointed not a lot there apart from possibly the worst cup of coffee I have had so far this trip. I only stayed the one night, the drive to and from was actually better than the township. They did have a not too bad IGA though so that is one tick in there box.
Next was Halls Creek about 350kms away, but again I broke up the trip by stopping at a lovely rest area called Bow River. A large level tarmac area so a good place to stop for a couple of nights. As per previous comments the river is virtually non existent a few small pools of water is all that is left. In full flood it would be quite a sizeable river, so from there it was Halls Creek
Got the truck sorted the day after I arrived oil and fuel filter change and a full service, so was very happy that the little problem had been sorted. Again Halls Creek was not a large town but it was fairly busy, mainly because this is the first fuel stop since Kununurra or Fitzroy Crossing depending once again on your travel route, 360kms Westerly or 290kms Easterly. The caravan park was pretty good and a reasonable price $28 per night. The strange part about it (which probably won’t make much sense to non caravaners) was that every site had a concrete slab next to it, but the power, water and waste water drain were all on the slab as well so it gave you limited room to pull out your awning and in my case to put out the cage for the dogs. Thankfully it wasnt busy enough to have more than one van parked per slab.
Onwards West next was Fitzroy Crossing, but before I got there I had a couple of places I wanted to stop at on the way. First was a place called Mary Pool which had good write up on the Wikicamps app. Well it didnt disappoint that’s for sure, but my it was a busy place. When I got there about 10am there were probably half a dozen others there, but by 4pm it was full with people pulled over on the road leading to it. Now it had a 24hr limit there (although there was no-one as far as Im aware marshalling this) but most people seemed to adhere to it, so the turnover was pretty steady. It also had toilets and a dump point so it was popular with the tour buses who pulled in at regular intervals to give there passengers a stretch and some comfort. As an aside one thing I have noticed in Western Australia is that nearly all the rest area which have toilets also have dump points, which is a great idea, maybe the rest of Australia could take note. So after one night here it was back on the road to my next planned stop which was Larrawa Station a working cattle station with a nice little campground attached. No power, but bore water toilets and showers available. $15 a night so all was good. Cody made a friend while we were there, some sort of mastiff possibly boxer cross. He was very friendly and as I say Cody really took to him. Whisper as usual did her own thing and kept herself a bit more reserved. Had two nights here and again the turn over of banners was pretty steady. Had a lovely walk down to Mosquito Creek which I guess I should have realised was neither mosquito ish or creek ish. Now to give you some sense of scale to the size of this station, the driveway from the road to the campsite was 5kms, and I saw something I think on Facebook about Jeremy Clarkson buying in his words a good size farm of 1000acres or 404hectares, this station was 425,000 hectares or 1 million acres plus change.
Had one more stop to make before Fitzroy Crossing and that was Ngunban Cliffs rest area, which was at the top of an escarpment overly looking the plains towards the west. Again a very popular place due to the view, but I managed to find a spot away from the crowds to set up shop. Only had the one night here as per the rules then it was finally down the road to Fitzroy Crossing.
Found a nice caravan park in Fitzroy Crossing but I did make the classic mistake of following the instructions on my satnav which let me down a fairly bumpy and corrugated dirt road for about 5kms to it. I later discovered a perfectly good sealed road which led to it. Booked myself in for four nights and found myself a nice shaded spot with a concrete slab to make it easier for the dogs. The caravan park was attached to the Fitzroy Crossing Inn which is the only hotel in the town, thankfully there was no noise at all from the bar. Now I will try my best to get across to you the next bit of information I gained from some photographs I saw at the reception. The Fitzroy river next to the campsite is approx 500metres wide and the campsite is probably 30plus metres above the river as it was currently running. The river while I was there was about 40metres wide running at a depth of about a metre. Now during the rainy season and especially in January when they had the storms and cyclone the campsite was flooded as was most of Fitzroy Crossing, according to the chap in the reception they were actually cut off for about 4 days at one point. The sheer volume of water needed to do this is quite staggering.
Next on the list was the small township of Derby (pronounced the American way of Derby not Darby). $50 a night per person and a very average campsite although the toilets and showers were pretty good. Managed to get a couple of photos while I was the there but the weather was pretty overcast most of the time. Had a couple of nights here which was more than enough time to see what there was to see. The main attraction of this town was the availability of tourist flights to the Horizontal Falls to which there is no road access. What they did have in Derby was the boab prison tree. This as the story goes is a large boab tree which is hollow and when they were moving prisoners up to Derby for trial they stopped at this tree and put them inside to stop them escaping.
And finally Broome and the Indian Ocean. Crazily busy in town, very tricky trying to find parking spaces either in the town or at the shopping centres. Ive been staying at Broomes Gateway caravan park about 25kms out of town, purely for the fact its only $30 a night rather than the $60 plus in or near the town. Large park where Im at, but without the benefit of power or dump point. There is water and the amenities are not too bad. What it does have though which is definite bonus for us people who travel with pets is an off lead dog run. I think the main attraction of Broome is the famous Cable Beach and possibly Gantheaume point, but trying to find somewhere to park is another matter altogether. The weather hasn’t bee too brilliant either, chilly nights, which is ok for sleeping, but quite a lot of cloud about during the day. The actual daytime temps are ok usually hovering about the high 20c. Not sure where to next, possibly North a bit to Cape Leveque just for a couple of days then a wander further down the coast.
Now before I forget a little bit of clarification. Most of the towns I visit are within or very near to National Parks, which would give the average traveller a lot of options to see and do, but since Im travelling with dogs Im banned from all National Parks so when I say not a lot to see and do its from my perspective of not being able to visit these places.
So as the country is rapidly heading back into lockdown again as clusters of this D strain of Covid seem to be spreading countrywide I hope everyone stays safe and well.
Just a few pics to end with
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Geoff1511 Travels 