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  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    Day 28

    Panyes Find to Bornholm

    May 27, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Another night that would benefit from an improvement…. Ah well - the generator and cold got us out of bed early and we were on the road just around 6.40 am. The sunrise was much later too - 6.30 am and the temperature was a refreshing 4 degrees. In the holiday spirit I pursued it in my shorts 😂 and down jacket.
    We just drove and drove and drove until our bums were flat. We had short stops at Wubin, Wonsan Hills, Northam and Mt Barker. We were on the road for at least 10 hours yet we have done only 826km.
    It was a long day but the reward (🐶 🐶 🐶) was waiting for us so we were quite motivated.
    It was quite strange to come back home, the house felt so big and empty unlike our camper 😂
    Sally and Brian arrived shortly after us with cooked dinner - very yummy spaghetti bolognese - and also with the doggies. The girls appeared somewhat happy to see us and Alfi did not recognise us at first as his eye site and hearing is not that great. All doggies settled in and although they had heaps of fun in the city I am sure they will be happy to lead the quite country lifestyle again. Finally, Basil their buddy will have time to recover from their stay…

    We had a fantastic time and tomorrow marks exactly 4 weeks since we left. Kimberley was always on our bucket list and we are glad we did it. It was an epic trip - definitely one of ‘must do’ trips. We took heaps of photos but somehow they don’t do the justice to the real beauty we were surrounded by. We are already thinking of doing the Gibb River Road in future as we both would be very happy to return to the Kimberley region.

    Trip Sums:

    Total kilometres travelled: 9038 km
    Total days on the road: 28 days
    Total cost of fuel (diesel): $2360
    Total litres: 1122 litres
    Most expensive diesel: Halls Creek at 2.40 per litre
    Cheapest diesel: Beaufort River at $1.68/L
    Cost of accommodation (caravan parks - powered and unpowered sites and station stays): $1364 so about $25 per person per night

    Canasta winner: Kat 👏🏻🥳🍾 7180 points
    Silvie: 6860 points    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    Day 27

    Newman to Paynes Find

    May 26, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Sweet Jesus, that was a bad night… not only did we start hearing the very familiar speedway sound that went on until 23.00 but also the late arrivals to the next carpark spot managed to attached towels to their roof tent that were flapping in the wind all night. They then decided to pack at 4am while talking and talking. I slept through it but poor Kat did not so was not feeling the freshest this morning.
    We left the carpark just before 7am, refuelled, got ourselves a coffee (the choices of vendors were impressive, by the way the town was quite impressive in a way - they even had Good Grocer, Dome and two shopping plazas! Supposedly the BHP injected 30mil to develop this modern mining town).
    The drive was uneventful, with rather boring scenery. We saw heaps of budgies, big wedge tail eagles, goats, cows, kangaroos and even a dingo (or a wild dog - who knows), we passed a few huge oversized trucks carrying all different parts or big mining trucks and that is about it. I can report a total chips relapse that we experienced in Mt Magnet and got ourselves some 🍟😇. We decided to be good tomorrow and stay away from crap food 🤞🏻.
    We parked at Paynes Find for our last night. The site resembles yesterday’s carpark except its not well levelled and is on gravel. The bonus of this site is that it comes with constant humming… 24 hours every day humming produced by the generator that is the only source of power for Paynes Find - how bloody ridiculous - what happened with solar power! So we will be hummed rather than roared into sleep… hahaha….
    The temperature dropped significantly today. We started with 13 degrees in Newman and that was ongoing until Kumarina when the temperature starting raising. The maximum we observed today was 20.5 degrees. It is currently 16 degrees with expected 7 degrees tomorrow morning… 🥶
    After sitting on our bums all day we had a quick stroll to the Paynes Find Gold battery, which is usually open during wildflower season for tourists but is currently closed until further notice. We cooked ourselves goulash soup that my sister sent me sometime ago and had a Vienna sausage with it. Nice and warm - that will keep up going throughout the night.
    Today we drove 762km and are sitting on 8224km so far.
    Well, that is a last night of our epic trip and we are both looking forward to our own bed tomorrow and also to big snuggles from our doggies that will be delivered by their pawrents tomorrow evening. Yey!!!!    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    2
    Day 26

    Anna Plains Station to Newman

    May 25, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    An early start today - we got up 5.45 and had the camper packed up and were ready to leave just before 7am. It was an easy drive with little traffic and no other vehicle insight for the first 60 kms. Silvie prepared breakfast the night before and we were hoping to get some coffee at Sandfire Roadhouse but no luck …….instant only. So we just kept going until we reached Port Hedland around 11.30am for our coffee. Needless to say the breakkie was already gone by then 🤣.
    The drive from there was pretty boring until we reached the Hamersley Ranges ….sadly we also hit a traffic jam there, but at least that gave us some time to enjoy the scenery. We initially planned to make it past Karijini, but in the end kept going until Newman and decided that if we keep going like we have today we can make it back home by Sat night - one less day until we get to cuddle our doggies.
    We are camping tonight at the beautiful Newman carpark (also called caravan park) and Silvie cooked the beautiful Salmon we were given from some nice fellow campers at Anna Plains. It was absolutely delicious and certainly has been the highlight of our carpark camping experience. We have done 825km today. Silvie is very happy about the carpark situation as there was no need to reverse, has clear marking where to park and as a bonus it is levelled - win win win 😂
    Off to bed soon and up early tomorrow……next stop Paynes Find 🤞🏻.    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    21
    Day 25

    Anna Plains Station

    May 24, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Last night was the first night of our trip when I did not set an alarm. We decided it will be our last day of total relaxation before we hammer it back home -~2300km.
    Kat got up before 5am - it was pitch black and little chilly. I must admit that last night we pulled out winter puff jackets…
    I got up at 7am and started breaky duty. It was a lovely morning, we pre-planed our way home and although we were hoping to get there on SaturdayI don’t think we will make it. Let’s see how we go.
    We just sat around, reading books when Helen briefly arrived to introduce herself. She told us that they have 18000 cows on just under 1 million acres. They only have they Brahmans although they also tried wagyu. The Brahmans tolerate the weather conditions the best. They cows share the paddock with some beautiful wild horses and they also have a few wild donkeys and a camel. It was nice to hear that they just leave the wild horses and donkeys be. She said that her and her husband took the lease on the land in 2007 and before them it was her husband’s parents who run the station. All the cows are for live export to Indonesia… it was funny when we talked about the size of the land as she said that one of her paddocks could accommodate for the size of New York City - gosh it is hard to imagine.
    After she left we headed to the beach. It is only about 6km from here and even though I was a little nervous how I will drive over the sand dunes it was easy. The beach was something I personally have never seen in my life! It was magic! There was no end to it on either side. As per Mary’s instructions we were only allowed to go to our right so we did. Most of the campers were there already fishing from the beach. The water looked stunning, a little sandy at the beginning but then had azure colour, together with the blue sky we thought we are on some island 🏝. We went for a walk, the shells 🐚 were everywhere, all shapes, sizes and colours - some were huge and I had real difficulties not to smuggle them back home 😇. The Eastern European genes 🧬 were tested hahaha… thank goodness I had a west German with me otherwise the Ute would be loaded!
    We even found some shell ice creams! We talked with a few fisherman who confirmed it was mostly salmon they catch but there are also other fish swimming around - she mentioned sharks, mantarays, sea snakes etc. She said this is definitely not a swimming beach with is so surprising as it was so inviting…After the walk we pitched our beach tent and were just lying there, watching the water, reading our books, drinking beer…. Until Kat spotted something in the water quite far away from us. So there came out the binoculars and after some analysis we thought that it was a few pods of dolphins 🐬 jumping and playing around. She then said she saw something else in the water and sure enough just about not even half meter from the beach was a small shark! The fins were sticking out 😱.
    The tide was coming closer and closer so people started to pack up and the lady who we spoke a bit earlier offered us fresh fish. After admitting that we would not know what to do with it they offered to fillet it for us! - bloody good deal!
    We headed back to the camp, hovered around for a little then headlined to the Hot Tub that was about 5km away. There was no one and the water was running out to the bush - it comes from bore that is 120m deep. It was really warm, too warm to be bathing in it on the hot day but even if we would want to try it we could not remove the pipe to fill the old water tank. We also heard quite a bit of shooting nearby and as Helen told us the Traditional owners of the land come here for hunting, so I guess it was them…
    So we returned back to the camp and opted for a cold shower instead 😂. The fisherman lady also stopped by and gave us two fish fillets and some flour - she said it will be better to eat it tomorrow so we are keeping it for tomorrow’s dinner. Yummy….
    Decided to go back to the beach for the sunset. The road was interesting, cows and wallabies were everywhere so had to take it really easy. The beach was nothing like what we have seen this morning. The tide was so low that we could hardly see where the water started. I put the drone in the air and flew it towards the water, it was 1.2km far away! The sunset was very hazy, it seemed like there must have been some fire. The colour was deep orange. The beach was totally deserted, we were the only people in this little paradise.
    Kat just served some delicious dinner, I’m having a glass of red and Kat is ‘enjoying’ her cup of tea that I made her with love ❤️
    We will pack up soon so we can have a smooth take off tomorrow morning.    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    1
    Day 24

    Broome to Anna Plains Station

    May 23, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    We had a nice start to the day with another walk on the Cable Beach. This time we went on the other side - it was nice, even the camels were there for the morning tourists who wanted to have a ride. Certainly the nights are getting colder and this morning it was only 13 degrees when we started our walk.
    After a quick breakfast we packed up our camper and off we went towards Anna Plains. Before leaving town we managed to buy another framed picture of an owl sitting on a boab tree. It is drawn on special paper that is handmade in the remote central desert from from grasses that are harvested by hand - spinifex, kangaroo, mulga woollybutt or kerosene grass. We also grabbed a new gas bottle as for most of the trip we were on the second one so one less thing to do once we are in Albany 😜
    The road to Anna Plains was boring, nothing much to see. I think we are now so spoilt that it will be difficult to please our eyes.. Anyway, about 250km later we arrived to Anna Plains. There was hardly any signage on the road except one small turn off sign. The gate said not to enter without prior booking, so I am glad I have contacted the place yesterday as ‘rocking up’ like for the other stations would not work.
    After about 10ish km on the sandy red road we arrived to the homestead. Mary, a lady in her 70s is in charge. Not only did she remind us a few times of how lucky we are to stay here, she also proceed to tell us where and how our camper should stand and also how we should park our car… I personally thought it was a bit rich… the site is $45 per night, she allocated us a spot between another caravan and the toilet block with no sunshade. I tried to suggest we drive in from the other side so our kitchen faces the nature instead of the road and other campers but that was quickly denied… so I have just informed her that we will be parking the car next to the camper as we will pull our awning out to get some shade. She was not impressed as she is very precious about the lawn…and obviously if the car stands on the lawn it will damage it…
    She has explained that about 6km from here is the beach, she said it is not a swimming beach and there were sightings of rather large shark, jelly fish and who know what else. She made sure to tell us clearly that we are NOT to take any shells 🐚 from the beach… got that…
    There is also a hot water tub somewhere the other way from the beach, about 5km. She explained how to fill the tub.
    There are also other DO NOTs including: proceeding past the pool, taking photos of any stock, driving on any other road except the once going to beach and hot tub, don’t park near leach drains - there were many more but by that point we just switched off 😇
    So we just vegetated this arvo, read the book, drunk beer, had a shower and made dinner.
    The sunset was impressive, the deep orange colour covered the horizon while the moon with Venus came up very brightly. Very nice. The sky will be impressive at night as there is an unobstructed view.
    Well, lets play some canasta as we only have a few evenings left.
    We are missing home and our doggies and are ready to come back. It brightens our days to get pictures of them all from their Albany pawrents who are spoiling them rotten 😊. I hope the dogs will want to come home with us… 🙃    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    Day 23

    Broome Day 2

    May 22, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    The morning started with a nice walk on the Cable Beach, the tide was low so the sand bar was pretty wide.
    The initial plan was to see Coconut Well, Wille Creek and check out the town beach. We had to deviate from the plan as decision to visit a ED was made instead as Kat had UTI symptoms since El Questro that were not going away. No GP in this town was available for today or tomorrow so off we went to the public health system. Thee hours later we got the the antibiotics and proceeded with the initial plan. Coconut Well was only about 40km out of town but what a disappointment that was. It looked nothing like the photos to a point when we wondered if we are on the right spot. We had a quick lunch carefully observing our surroundings as there was a big sign on the way that the crocodiles were recently spotted in the area… did not want to be lunch for someone else… 🐊
    We decided to proceed to Willie Creek, we both were there before, but thought it would be nice to check it out again. The gravel road started well but changed into a very uncomfortable drive quickly. It was bad, much worse than going to the Bungle Bungles! So we pulled the pin on this little adventure and turned around.
    Headed into town to see the aboriginal art from salty woman - they print their designs onto materials. Very pretty and very very expensive.
    We met with Kim and Chris for dinner in the local tavern. It was very nice to see them again. They had an awesome time on their cruise and will be heading to Queensland today.
    We have been in touch with Helen from the Anna Plains Station - who allowed us to stay at the farm for two nights only because we are friends with Beth. Normally it is 3 nights minimum… so we will be leaving for there tomorrow mid morning. It is not that far from here. I have also heard back from the car dealer - the car is not ready! Supposedly, some part they ordered was faulty and they had to re-order it… he, of course wants us to pick it up then drive it back to be fixed… in his dreams… So that changes our plans for way back as we can avoid going via Perth.

    Also forgot to mention… it is getting cold here… at evening it is only 17 degrees!!!! 🥶    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    1231
    Day 22

    Broome

    May 21, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    The decision to move the campground was made as the sound from last night was horrific and there was also a rather unpleasant smell lingering in the air coming from the toilet block.
    We headed to the town centre for a breakfast at the Green Mango Cafe, then strolled through the streets and visited the local market.
    We went to see the Cable Beach and neither Kat or myself could recognise the place. Re-booked ourselves into the RAC Cable Beach caravan park and proceeded with the move that was smooth until I was supposed to reverse into our spot… bloody tight! So the neighbour took a pity on us and jumped in the car to do the job. He may have stalled the engine a couple of times but he did it! Phew.

    We organised another catch up for tomorrow with Kim and Chris who will be leaving for Halls Creek and us to Anna Plains on Tuesday- so perfect timing.
    We spent time on Cable Beach, I went for a dip and then we watched the sunset. Dinner was planned for Matsos so we headed there, Kat tried all the chilli beers while I kept it uneventful with some lemon beer (very refreshing). It was a first evening since we left Albany that I wore pants and jumper!!!! Not happy! Hehehe…
    As we were sitting there, having a relax time, someone approached me and to my disbelief it was my Czech friend Havir who now lives in Albany but is up north for the army reserve training. What a coincidence! The funniest thing was that he is a big beer drinker but could not have any beer so he was drinking a coke while I for a change could have one. Hilarious 😂    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    Day 21

    Larrawa to Broome

    May 20, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Well today did not pan out as we imagined and from the tranquil environment we found ourselves in hell! … but let’s not jump to the end of the day…
    We had an interesting night as I have noticed while watching the stars that some ‘birds’ are flying in and out the tree on top of our camper. I thought it was bats but Kat re-assured me that it is owls… bullshit! Bloody bats they were - my nightmare coming through, they were circling around like crazy. I went for cover insides the camper but could hear them regardless. They liked the tree as it was flowering and it appeared they ate the flowers or sucked the nectar, I am not sure. All night we could hear things dropping on the roof of our camper and on the morning we found everything covered in yellow flower debris. We got up before 6am and went for the farm river walk. The sunrise was stunning and the walk was very nice too. The farm has over 6000 brahman cows and over 450km of fencing. Would not want to be ‘walking’ that fence line… We then packed up and got on the way to Fitzroy Crossing where we wanted to check out an art centre. The Fitzroy Crossing provision ‘bridge’ had significantly less water flowing than 3 weeks ago. The normal bridge was not finished yet but a lot of work has been completed since we passed it last time.
    To our disappointment the art gallery was closed, so we headed towards Derby where we wanted to visit the Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre. Well we faced another disappointment. Despite all the information confirming the Mowanjum Art centre is open on Saturday it was closed and so was everything in Derby. So we did a turn around, stopped to see the Boab Prison Tree and headed to Broome. The drive was smoothly going, we both drove today so really, no drama at all. We had a brief stopover in Willare where we booked ourselves into the Broome Caravan park. We made it here just after 5pm, were given concrete slab as a site so we changed it, set ourselves and were ready to sit back and relax. Little did we know that this place is next to a speedway club and the races are on tonight. The sound is so loud that we can hardly have a conversation… it is like million bees buzzing here. A bloody nightmare. Our friends Kim and Chris are still in Broome but they are in a different caravan park on Cable Beach so we will move there tomorrow morning. Phew… hope this race will finish soon as our bedtime is at 8pm these days…    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    2
    Day 20

    Bungle Bungles to Larrawa Station

    May 19, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    What a lovely alarm clock we had this morning! The barking owls were saying loud good morning at 4.30. To our surprise they again landed in the tree above us and were sleeping there, all fluffed up and comfortable.
    We got out of the camp just before 8.30am - both feeling a little bit sad and sentimental that we had to leave this beautiful place and our owl friends - and proceeded to tackle the dreaded road back. It took just under two hours and at times Kat was just hanging onto the handle and I was using the steering wheel as a support to keep myself straight. We were lucky with the last water crossing as some guy decided to walk into the water and was standing there pointing out the rock bed hidden under the water. I think I would drive straight into it if it would not be for him. Phew, that was lucky.
    Once we were out of the park, the phones started beeping - we were back in civilisation. I must admit, neither Kat nor I missed the phone signal.
    Next stop - Halls Creek - a town that experienced the gold fever in late 1800s. We decided to check out the original Halls Creek town from which not much is left. It was located about 13 kilometres from the new Halls Creek. All what is left are a few ruins and a cemetery. It had an interesting story about the reverend John Flynn and his patient Jimmy Darcy and the establishment of the Royal Flying Doctors service idea. In 1928 the Australian inland mission arial medical service was established in Queensland, this service was renamed in 1942 to Royal Flying Doctors.
    After this, we proceeded with a short stop on someone’s farm to see the ‘China Wall’ that is a natural phenomenon and supposedly extends over 6km. We could only see little bit so I decided to fly my drone and unfortunately cannot confirm the 6km info as even with the drone we could not see the wall distance.
    We briefly stopped in Halls Creek to refuel. That was rather interesting stop as the fuel station was partially a Coles shop where locals came to do the shopping. Somehow it felt that the amount of people in there completely exceeded any capacity the shop had. We were happy to get out of there and carry on to the last destination - Larrawa Station. It took another 150km of comfortable driving. The station is great, it is a working cattle station. Most of the staff are gone for a few weeks now mustering stock. We had a brief chat with Tammy who is a cook here (for the staff only) and it was quite interesting to hear the logistics of providing food to 10 mustering staff that are many kilometres away. They have their own meat - beef, pork and lamb and they also try to grow some vegetable that is a little challenging so they have to order vegetable and fruit from Halls Creek. She also said that they have quite a number of females who go to muster, they are all inexperienced but the station owners train them and employ them. What a great experience this must be, hard not doubt. We also had a great chat with campers next door - Scott and Kerry. Older couple from NSW who were very nice. Their son manages the radiology in Albany - world is small. They will stop by next time they are down south and they also invited us to their farm. Kerry used to be a nurse and Scott was a GP, so we had a few things in common.
    We now sit in front of the camper and just witnessed and amazing sunset. The sky above us is open with unobstructed views and the stars are already putting on a show. What a great country!    Read more

  • TravelerKimberley 2023
    3
    Day 19

    Bungle Bungles - Nothern Part

    May 18, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Woke up to the sound of jabbering neighbours just before 5am. Made a take away coffee, jumped in the car and off we went. Directions were clear pass the visitors centre then look for signs. Conversation was flowing despite the early hour and so was the drive until Kat started to question where we are going… opps… turn of to the Northern walks was before the tourist centre and not after…. Well that added about 20km extra than we needed to do…
    Anyway, we backtracked and eventually rocked up to the right place - The Bloodwoods. The plan was to do the Mini Palms Gorge first, then come back to the Bloodwoods and drive to Echidna. Once we figured out that we could actually walk from the Bloodwoods to Echidna without driving we changed the plan and headed to Echidna. The walk was very pretty, we were surrounded by bobbles of spinifex grass, grevilias, eucalyptus trees with white trunks, flowering wattle trees and magnificent red/orange ranges that looked completely differently to the domes from yesterday. The surrounds were reminding us of the similar nature and great times we had a few years back in Katherine.
    It was an easy walk and we stopped at the shaded spot to have a breakfast, just to continue with full bellies to the Echidna Chasm - which was really pretty. The best part was we had it all to ourselves. The sun was supposed to cross around 11.30 and light up the very narrow section of the Chasm. We could see half being lit up all in gold and decided that it will do and as the 11th hour was approaching and we were expecting groups of tourists that could spoil the experience we got, so we started our return.
    And as we did, we passed groups of people all heading there to see the sun phenomenon.
    While we were in the Echidna we also walked to the Osmand Lookout that provided fantastic views. It also informed us that some of the mountain ranges we could see were up to 4 times older than the Bungle Bungle Ranges. Some old as 1.6 billion ears - it is hard to comprehend and imagine…
    After we seen it all at Echidna we headed back via The Escarpment track back towards the Mini Palms Gorge. On the way there we stopped at the same shady spot to replenish some energy with lunch. The trail condition became a little more challenging once we got on the Mini Palms Gorge track. We pretty much walked on the bottom of a dried up creek, on the stones. The track may have not been the nicest walk but the surroundings were spectacular, we loved all the Livistona Palms we were surrounded by. And how cool that they grow so high on the ranges. To someone’s unhappiness, there was some rock hopping/climbing in the last sections. It was hot 🥵 but powered by the lunch and vision that it is the last walk for sometime we reached the end, which in my opinion was more breathtaking than the Echidna Chasm. It was simply wow! Yet again, there was no humans in site so we had it all for ourselves - how very special. To our surprise we didn’t see a single toad on any of the Northern walks.
    After we finished all the walks except the Homestead Valley walk, we stopped by the tourist centre where Kat cooled herself down with an ice cream. As I was waiting for her, I bumped into my old colleague who lives in Denmark and sells apples at the Albany Farmer’s market - the world is small.
    We arrived to our home, I made us some poached eggs for dinner, Kat did some laundry washing, I also managed to lie in my hammock and listen to the birds - lovely afternoon.
    Kat also spotted two barking owls sitting in the tree in our spot. They were asleep and at times cuddling to each other. We heard them early on the morning barking, and it was nice to actually see them.
    These last three days here ware just perfect, we loved pretty much everything about this place and would come back anytime. It somehow feels very special and we feel very grateful for the opportunity to visit this place.    Read more

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