On the Road to "No Where" and lovin it - Darren & Janet's Outback Adventure - Kalbarri to Broome

This morning we left our 5 star accommodation in Kalbarri and headed for Denham and Monkey Mia to check out the dolphins, we stopped at Shelly beach and after lunch at Denham we decided to head for the Monkey Mia resort, where we camped for the night. The camp kitchen was more like a full blown commercial kitchen. Walking along the beach about 3pm we were treated to dolphins swimming back and forward up and down the beach chasing fish and a pelican doing Tai Chi. This was the end of the rain and the only water from here is lovely beaches, gorges and rivers with beautiful swimming spots. At dinner in the communal eating area we talked to a guy that has traveled from NSW on his motorbike (Road bike) visiting and staying in as many National parks as he could, he had traveled the sandy track into the Kalbarri National park which was fun on four wheels let alone two.

We were up early next morning for the feeding of the Dolphins, everyone stands in the water up to their knees and waits for the dolphins to show up, meanwhile the dolphins just cruise around out in the deep laughing at the humans standing in the cold water, the dolphins turned up and everyone was ushered out of the water while a few people were picked from the crowd to put a slimy fish in their mouth. Our destination for today was Red Bluff (The Palm Frond Humpy on the Beach) via Carnarvon (for supplies). On our travels we stopped at White Bluff lookout, where people had left memorials to loved ones lost and notes of their travels. Garden Gnomes were the most popular but there were also plaques, rocks and carved timber. Arriving at Cararvon late in the afternoon we stocked up with fuel and food as we still had 130kms (65Kms) on unmade road to get to Red Bluff. Arriving safely and checking out the facilities we opened the shutters on the humpy cooked dinner and watched the sun go down. Red Bluff is a surf beach so we had the rolling and crashing of waves to put us to sleep.

Today was a day of good surf out on the point, which was only the second good swell for June (16 second sets so we were told). The surfies came from everywhere and were out at the point from first light til it was dark, we wandered out to the point to take some pics, for the surfers to get in and out of the surf they had to climb down some rocks and then wait till a wave washed over the rock ledge and take a flying leap into the water. The wind was very strong off shore which made for some great spray off the top of the waves. Our swim in the afternoon was from the beach out the front of our humpy, it was more like a paddle as the waves were so strong. The evenings were still a little cool so wood was gathered (from the shop, good Western Australian Jarrah) and we had a fire.

We were on the road early today as our destination was Cape Range National park, Exmouth, We stopped at Quobba blowholes on the wayout. After stocking up at Exmouth with water we headed down to Kurrajong where we camped for 3 nights, each camp had a host and they provided you with an insight into the activities in the area and kept the facilities clean, happy hour was sitting on the beach watching the sun go down and whale spotting, which we were fortunate to see them breaching on the first night. The walks into Mandu and Pigramana gorges were beautiful and witnessing the black footed rock wallaby’s perched high above on the rock ledges was amazing. While doing the Yardie Creek walk, Janet came face to face with a 1 metre long Bungarrah (sand monitor) while trying to sneak up on a bird and get a photo, not sure who got the biggest fright? We spent two days at Turquoise bay and the Drift Snorkeling with Nemo and the many coloured fish.

On leaving Exmouth we headed for Tom Price and stopped at Beasley River as an over nite stop, arriving at Tom Price we decided to stay at the caravan park and use it as a base to do day trips, a week without a proper shower mean’t the caravan park was like paradise. The drive up Mount Nameless was good and the view from the top was great, the ore train (two point something kilometres long) was leaving the mine and from this vantage point you were able to appreciate how long it actually it is.

The next day we went to Karajini national park and did Fortescue falls, Fern Pool, Dales gorge and Circular pool, we returned to fern pool after lunch for Darren to have a swim and sit under the water fall. The road to the other falls was heavily corrugated so we decided to leave these for another time.

We did the mine tour of Tom Price (with Baz) very informative and interesting before leaving and continuing onto Indee station. We returned to Tom price after being 50km’s out of town as the M8TOR was loosing a bit more oil from the rocker cover (which we had noticed a little oil the day before while doing the vehicle check). The mechanic in town was fantastic and advised us to press on and arrange to have the gasket replaced in Broome at Minshul motors, talk to Woggy (Warren), The car was booked in before we left Tom Price again. After our extra 100km’s we arrived at Indee station around 5pm set up and were just in time for happy hour at 6. The most noticeable aspects of the drive from Tom Price were the amount of road trains that were heading to and from Port Headland and the road kill, mainly cows. Happy hour at Indee station was in the owners house in the breezeway were they supplied nibbles, byo drinks, sit down and have a chat. We only stayed one night but could have stayed a few.

Barn Hill station was our next stop via South Headland for fuel. Barn Hill station is on the coast and is like a retirement home for the grey nomads, they have a two lane lawn bowls green with a competition on Tuesday’s, Sunday morning is market day and Sunday night is the $15, 3 course meal on the lawn with the local Aboriginal band jamming, playing some traditional music including the Didgeridoo and some main stream stuff. It was like Seniors night at the pub with over two hundred on the lawn with their chairs and picnic tables and apart from a couple of younger families with kids we would have been the Youngin’s. We swam at the beach while others fished but always made sure someone was swimming out deeper than us just in case one of those bitey things were swimming close by.

Staying in Broome at Cable Beach caravan park was nice, we were within walking distance to the beach but still had a pool if we were lazy, from here we did our Horizontal falls seaplane flight and jet boat ride through the falls, they feed sharks and the Groper off the houseboats while we had breakfast and on our cruise up the river we saw our fist Salt Water Crocodile (A baby only 1.5m long), the plane flight back was over Buccaneers Archipelago, Cape Leveque and down the coast to Broome. As the car was booked in for the rocker cover gasket our few nights stay at Cape Leveque was cancelled which however meant a couple of extra days along the Gibb river road. In the afternoon we did the camel ride on Cable Beach, our stinky camels name was Harley. The next day the car was serviced so we spent the day doing the tourist thing riding around on the bus, swimming at the beach organizing our vacuum sealed meat for the next ten days and generally relaxing. The weather was warm and their was no longer a need for a jumper when the sun went down.