Two Moons whale watching Survey ?

So, excited we are, and we travel some crap bumpy dirt road around 100km of this, this is OUR road with 9 overtakes( there and back), and the bumpy part goes for over 100km, a big sign upon starting this track says towing or caravans aren't permitted, guess what we saw! Yep lots of them and it serves 'em right they will be full over bull dust and all shook up whenever they arrive, which would take a while if your travelling at 30km an hour!

Delta cant handle the bumps so she sits on dad's lap and rides it out.

 

 

 

When we arrive, as well as a car full of French backpackers at the same time, Andrew our host tells us to set up, and find a spot, and he is taking the crew out fishing on the boat. Including the newbies, but not us (?). Were cool here and by the time we have set up and chilled out for a bit, decide to walk to the beach, where our girls meet Lola the resident dog. Was kind of friendly (well no fights) and We both had a chance to cool off with a dip in the sea, we had a chance to meet a few of the girls and get to know them briefly. One wasn't happy here and couldn't wait to leave, we thought that a little strange as it was such a beautiful place.

It was a tad disappointing as it wasn't like a Aboriginal Community in the sense that im used to, this was a outstation/homeland about 10km off from the actual Community, but that was OK as we had lots to explore. We had an amazing sunset from our camp that night

 

 

We had settled in quite well, but were disappointed that our girlies didn't get along well with Lola. We spent our mornings gardening for Andrew from 6-9 am then had the rest of the day free. Everyone had Sunday off, and we had a great morning and even managed a sleep in. We went snorkeling with the crew later on in the arvo, Nick saw three massive sting ray.

 Amazing bay, all to ourselves

 

We walked down to where the whale survey was taking place about a Km one way, and when we got there we joined in a little bit with what was happening. It was conducted in 5 minute intervals, with the volunteers calling out the whale movements to the Main research conductor who recorded the results. This went on for 5 hours at a time, ether morning or afternoon, 5 min on and 5 min off. Kind of glad we hadn't signed up for this, and got to do our gardening as it was really hot, and you sat in a clapped out old caravan.

 Spent our afternoons playing with the girlies on the beach, was our own private bay, and was a lovely spot to chillax. The tide movements here were massive and at low tide to high tide there would have been nearly a 10 metre difference.

Andrew took people out very selectively, and favored the boys alot. Nick went along on a fishing trp and they encountered a whale! Lucky i asked him to take the camera. It was a juvinille Humpback and after they had pulled anchor it swam around the boat. Nick said it was so close he could have touched it.

 

We ended up leaving and were happy to do so, as we didnt really feel part of the main group, as we had been put seperate from everyone to camp, and were eating our own meals and not with the group. We were left alone a few times and were surprised to find the camp "abanndoned" and no cars or people around. This hapened to us again the next day also.

We headed back to Broome and stopped at a lovely little aboriginal community called Beagle bay, its "famous" for its church, which has pearl shell decorations everywhere, and Iif I remember right was built in 1916 ish.




We set off towards Derby. Derby is a cool little lace, with Boabs growing everywhere. The whole town was lush and green which is a surprise when your driving through this country with its red dirt. We checked out the warf/Jetty at low tide ( and stayed well clear of the water).

Then came back at High tide, the water comes in so quick. Derby has the highest tide movements in Australia at up to 11 meters. It was a 10 meter tide when we were there, and you could tell.

We went to the Museum, which we tought was quaint and cute, as you had to get the key from the info centre and let yourself in. It was a real mash up with bits and pieces from all through te past in there. We had fun on the old switchboards.

 

There was also a really long trough there, to water livestock before they boarded at the warf. I think i read it had been designed to water 5oo something head od cattle in one sitting. (needless to say it was massive)

 

 

 

We visited the old boab prison tree, which held many Aboriginal people captive back in the day.

We slept on the side of the road and were both keen to start our Gibb river road adventure tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

We woke up to an amazing boab lit by the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Broome

Well let me tell you, there is not much between places out here, so after another 500 something Km of Desert we arrived at Broome. We even had to stop for a few days(it was soo hot) and do a few hours night driving, to give the snail a rest. It wasn't so bad, as we set up some shade and it was ok to sit outside in the breeze under the shade, than inside with the fan and the spray bottle (thanks John and Diane)We even met some fellow South Aussies when we stopped on a off road from the highway.

side of the road set up to beat the heat, pity there were no trees around

Finally made it to Broome on a Sunday and went and checked out the courthouse markets, which are held on weekends. Well it was Pearls everywhere with at least 5 different stalls selling Pearls, I had a special request to get some and with all the options it was difficult but soon prevailed. We also met local artist Colin Atkins, and watched him paint a sample picture, didn't take him long at all, we fell in love with it and bought it from him, its a painting from an area on the Gibb river road.

Proud new owners

We saw the Matso's  Brewary, Australia's most remote (and expensive too) at $8 for a schooner, wow, and nick thinks the ones he tasted were pretty poor. Not sure if that was an excuse to try more (haha) We met up with our friend from Belgium there, Nick (the other one) and he invited us back to the backpackers where he cooked us up a yummy dinner (and offered us use of the showers).

 

We squeezed in a quick visit to cable beach for the girlies to stretch their legs and decided we would return to watch the sunset another day.

We all went along to watch the Great Gatsby, which was fun, as Nick was on the post production crew and did visual effects. We loved it as he was talking us through what was real/effects and what he had done. As it was the Worlds oldest outdoor picture theatre and happened to be under the flight path of areoplanes leaving broome, we all commented on how well Nicks visual effects were to sneak them in, and how realistic it was too!!! We went back to the Kinmerly Klub backpackers and I snuck a long hot shower, and had quite a late one talking with Nick and his Friend Jerad, who came from the Barossa .

 

Officially recorded in the Guinness Book of records "the worlds oldest out door picture garden"

It was all decked out with old world stuff

This is what it looks like it the day time...

 Nick loved these old projectors

 

 

 

 We spent the next day checking out Broome we really wanted to see the dinosaur footprints but the tides were against us so we settled for the replicas. The coast line here was really strange with all these rocks with horizontal lines running through them.




We visited the pearl information centre where we listened to a talk about the industry itself. Did a stock up at the shops, wandered thru China town, Broome is very influenced by Asian culture. Then spent the afternoon at the beach where we saw an amazing cable beach sunset.

 

 We set off early the next morning to hit the ground running for Cape Leveque. We stopped over at Barred Creek, near Willie Creek Pearl factory for the night, and were a bit hesitant to stay in this spot due to the croc warnings, but thought we were well enough away from the water. This Creek was very tidal and below was mid tide.

 

 

At low tide it just turned to mud, but these bright red mangrove crabs came out to play.

 

 

The Pilbra

After a lovely stop for lunch, in amongst the Pilbara ranges. Where the sky was blue, blue, blue and the soil red and the ranges green we pushed on and

Nick also spotted (and picked) a stunning Desert Pea with crimson/red centre.


Made it to Dampier, where Red Dog is big business thankyou very much.

We went for a lovely walk down the foreshore, and noticed a few stingrays in the water very close to the rocks at the waters edge. We decided against going for a swim. BUT we did manage to find the showers in the public loo's they even had the hot water connected, it was so hot though, having a hot showers wasn't a priority.

Had a blast chilling under the palm trees on the foreshore anyways, and then took the girls to meet Red dog.



 Was very cute as Delta, who isn't a fan of other dogs became very aggressive and started growling and running up the statue. There were other people around who also found this quite funny and after she had realized that it was actually a brass statue she became quite embarrassed, while we all had a good laugh.

You can still see Delta 'sussing out this brass dog in this shot


We went to the Woodside North Shelf gas and oil information centre, but found it hard to concentrate as they had turned off the air conditioning, and the place was fronted by huge glass windows, so it was basically like on oven.

This is an Ariel shot of the North West Shelf project...

 

These "burn off's (or what ever you call them)" where everywhere and made a really eerie environment, particularly at night.


We than went for a drive to the Burrup Penninsula which was located in the middle of mining country, in search of the Yaburarra Aboriginal people's 40,000 year old Art. This site is famous being one of the largest in the world with hundreds of rock art to view. After going on a trek we met some people who met had previously met at Quobba, who said they couldn't see any.  We continued on, and when we got back to our car they had left us a note, and were just leaving; to say we had walked down the wrong track.

As the sun was setting we walked through this magnificent gorge and spotted some stunning art. We then walked to the other side an managed to glimpse some more as the sun set. What a stunning place to be in at the end of the day. Not only was it powerful in spirit, but the red rocks practically glowed while the sun was going down. Then there were the rock wallabies, or Kangaroos (they were bigger than I imagined a wallaby to be)

The Gorge was a really special spot to be, and was great to be able to explore this area. We were a bit disappointed that there wasn't good signage, or "protective" barriers in place. As this is the worlds oldest outdoor art gallery.

 





Not sure if you can see it, but in the middle of the picture with all the red rocks, kind of underneath that green shrub is a white rock. That's a massive Kangaroo.




We decided to check out Hearson cove), and after cooking dinner and watching the starts come out.,we were to lazy to move on and decided to try and spin some story if the rangers came to move us on, as there were big no camping signs.

This would be an amazing place to watch the stairway to the moon, and the actual beach was all shells too, stunning.



After a lovely night we got up early, packed up (incase an early morning ranger came) then took the dogs for a big walk along the tidal flats. The tide was way out and we could stroll out for nearly a km before there was much water, while out we met another fella camped up tucked away in the dunes from France. We think that every 3rd person we meet in from France. Lucky we did as there was an early morning visit from a ranger, who didn't bother us or him at all.

We headed into Karratha  next and noticed it to be a central hub, for all the nearby towns. After we both stocked up on our assorted bits and pieces we spent the arvo at a lovely park with the girls.

We then found a great little spot to spend the night just between Karratha and Roebourne, called Cleaverville. The lovely people who we had met again at the rock art suggested it. We parked at the top of a valley and had a lovely view out over the archipelagos. (wish we had a boat).

We set off the next day and explored Roebourne, (lovely Aboriginal town)Port Sampson and Cossack. We went to Honeymoon cove, on recommendation from Cricket (who we met a Quobba).

Roebourne was a  quaint little town, very strong with their Aboriginal Heritage. We visited the two museums located there and met some local artists. We both wished we had deeper pockets because the Art was amazing. I believe Roebourne is one of the oldest towns in WA's North West. We loved the Information centre, and managed to do a load of washing there.

At Honeymoon Cove we strung up a line and hung our clothes out to dry, took less than an hour as it was so hot. We bundled up the girlies, and our snorkel gear and went down to the bay for a dip.

Nick deciding if he could see any schools of fish, out in the cove.
 

 While Nick was out in the water I noticed a whole lot of tourists in the car park. I started going out to the water then saw a humpback whale emerge from the water, less than 10 meters from Nick. My first though was, wish I had the camera. The people up top and I started calling out to Nick who was snorkeling with his spear. he noticed her too, and she made this lovely "whooshing" sound as she puffed out water. Was so special. Should have got some of the tourists numbers to get the pictures off them.

View of honeymoon cove from the carpark.


Then packed up and headed to Cossack. Its an old Pearling town, and its a ghost town. The buildings have been beautifully restored and you can walk around and explore them. There is a very sad story here about how the white people treated the Aboriginal people who where here back in the day. Its not worth repeating as it is so shameful.

This is the old hotel

and the old bakehouse

The warf

 and the restored museum

 We moved on and found a lovely spot by a river, Sherlock river. Set up camp, and had an amazing bonfire, while watching the stars come out.

We made our way into Port headland, and surprise surprise, its another mining town! this town has one of the worlds largest ports in terms of tonnage. WE were in awe of the size of the train that crawled through the town.

We checked out the port and watched the "dumping" of stock, Then spent the afternoon at pretty pools. Which is a local beach, which has a clothing optional section. We noticed a crocodile spotted here recently sign, but then noticed all the people so thought we could do a little exploring. We collected some amazing sea shells, then pretty much had all the energy sapped out of us by the heat, so headed back to the car to continue our journey.