Day 23 - Geiki Gorge

It has been so great to catch up with my parents, but we haven't seen much of them so we ask them to come on the boat tour with us, up Geiki Gorge.  Fitzroy River is a massive expanse of water.  In the wet season, the water running out of it would fill Perth's 5 dams in three days.  The gorge itself is pretty spectacular and the crocs can be spotted sunning themselves on the rocks all the way up the river.  We are also lucky enough to spot a big monitor lizard on the banks and some rock wallabies.

After the tour we say good-bye to Mum and Dad, I am very sad to leave them, but thankful that they were also on the road, so we could at least see them for a short time.  We hook up and head for the Spring Creek rest area just outside the Bungles.  A 380km day, not normally that big a day however, after Dad's baked bean intake and two sessions of port drinking with Barrie, it makes for a very long trip.  I vow to the children that in the interest of health and safety, I will banish all baked beans from the pantry!!!!

Spring Creek is a very popular spot, however, most rest spots seem pretty popular after 4pm.  I can not believe the number of vans that are up here, I never realized how many grey nomads there are and how many families that are doing the same as what we are.  It is just awesome to see so many people enjoying our country.  If only we didn't need to make money, there is so much to see!!!!

Day 22 - Tunnel Creek - Winjarna Gorge

Today we set off to Tunnel creek and Windjarna Gorge.  We had to head back towards Derby 40km before turning off on the gravel to travel about 86km to reach Tunnel Creek.  Now the gravel roads out here are nothing like the ones at home and we had been told to give ourselves about 2 hours to get there.  But, would you believe it, finally, our like changes, as we turn onto the gravel road, there, before our very eyes is a grader coming towards us.  We slip right in behind him and enjoy a "moderately rough" ride to Tunnel Creek.

Tunnel Creek is pretty awesome.  All this area was once under the ocean about 350 million years ago,  so all the gorges and rock formations in these parts were actually reefs.  Tunnel Creek was basically formed, in more recent times, through erosion creating a big tunnel under a section of the "reef".  It is an awesome walk through with headlamps and torches in hand.  At one stage the water we were walking through came up to Cody's chest, so I was just crossing my fingers we didn't run into any local fresh water crocs on the way.  The water level was very high this year due to the recent "Big Wet".

After this we head to Windjarna Gorge.  We hadn't heard rave revues about this one and it was another 30km away, but we decided while we were here we might as well keep going.  We were glad we did.  It was just beautiful, different to the gorges at Karijini, but they are formed much differently up here.  The big attraction here, for the family, was the fresh water crocs sunning themselves on the water's edge.  These are the non-agressive ones, so I was completely relaxed while taking photos of the family with these guys...not!!!!  Cody counted 33 this day!!!

Anyway, a long trip home and we were pretty exhausted, however, Mum and Dad had offered to look after the kids while Glen and I went out for tea.  Yeah.....  I know what you are thinking, where on earth do you go out for tea in Fitzroy Crossing???  Well, we were staying at the Fitzroy Crossing Caravan Park which has a lovely restaurant up on stilts overlooking the river.  The meal was absolutely delicious, so we were stoked we took the opportunity.  The perfect way to end an awesome day.!!!!

Day 21 - Ftizroy Crossing

We arrive at the gates of the refridg mechanic at 7:30 this morning along with a jayco caravan.  The mechanic reckons he sees 10-12 vans a week at this time of the year with the same problems as us.  A lesson for everyone when buying a van, suss our the fridge carefully!!!!

Glen drops the kids and I at the beach once again, so the kids are over the moon, great waves for boogie boarding.  By 11am the caravan is ready to go so we hit the road and make a bee-line for Fitzroy Crossing where Mum and Dad have a spot saved for us.

390km later we arrive at about 4:30.  It is great to see Mum and Dad as they left in June, so it feels like we haven't seen them for ages.  We sit up chatting and comparing notes about places to see along the way.  It is so nice to catch up again after so long.

Day 20 - Auto electricians and refrig mechanics

Today begins with an auto electrician at 7:30 in the morning.  He fixes a burnt out pin to the car, then we need to track down a refrig mechanic, to fix the fridge.  He can't look at the problem until after lunch so we kill time at Cable Beach until then.  We decide, if we are going to be stuck somewhere with issues, that swimming at Cable beach is a pretty good place to be stuck.  We hire boogie boards and the kids just have the best time.

My parents are also travelling around Australia at present, in the opposite direct to us, and the plan was to meet them in Fitzroy Crossing today, however, the fridge has to take priority as we don't know how serious the problem is or availability of parts, so we decide to get it sorted before we go any further.  However, the verdict isn't great.  Our element is burnt out but we not only that, we need more adequate wiring to the fridge as the wiring is not sufficient, so an even bigger job that can't be dealt with until tomorrow...................aaaaaggghhhh!!!

We can't seem to get away from Broome, we manage to find some overflow caravan parking for the night, luckily, as there isn't much around with Ladies Day at the races tomorrow.

Day 19 - Glen gets back

We are very excited this morning as we are heading to the airport to pick Glen up at 9:30am.  The plan is to pick Glen up, go and get the van out of storage and head for Fitzroy Crossing.  It sounds like a very simple plan right!!!!......................  Wrong!!!!!!  Meeting Glen at the airport is great.  He sprayed 1800ha in 3 days so he is pretty exhausted but glad to be back in the warm weather.  We head to the van storage place where we paid extra for power to ensure the fridge was running the whole time, well guess what, the fridge has been off since day one!!!!  Not pretty!!!  Everything in the fridge is ruined, not happy little campers!!!  But we soon come to realize we have a problem with the fridge, so decide to book into the Cable Beach Caravan Park for the night to access some experts the next day....Monday.  The park is great and the kids inform us it has the best pool and ablution blocks they have seen so far, so nothing to do but relax by the pool.  A great chance for Glen and I to catch up.

Day 18 - Broome markets and mini golf

Today was a fairly slow day, filling in time while we wait for Glen to return.  We went to the Broome markets which was great.  I could browse around these for hours and the kids love all the little handcrafted stalls.  They enjoy the live music and the "hippy" characters and Shannae and Cody could have stood for ages watching the glass blowing.  It was a lot of fun, very cheap entertainment for the whole family.

Afterwards, we had a game of mini golf, which was the sole reason Cody was looking forward to returning to Broome!!!!  Last time we were here he was only 3, but somehow, he remembers the mini golf, so we had the obligatory game, which was quite a laugh!! Tori won!!!  The rest of the arvo was spent by the the pool and getting ready to meet Dad tomorrow.  We are very excited about that.  I can't wait to get back to the van, as I feel like we have been living out of a suit case for 4 days!!!! 

Day 17 - Back to Broome

Hi  Everyone...............I have just learnt that it is a bit of a nightmare to post comments on the blog as you have to register and all that, so if you don't want to go through all that rubbish, we are still accessing our normal sheoak email address, which we check regularly, so feel free to just send us emails as per usual.  The kids have started emailing their friends, both through their edu addresses and through ours, and they are just loving hearing from their friends.

Anyway, where were we, oh yeah.........we pack up our little log cabin, which the kids have just fallen in love with, and we say good bye to "odd", "jimmy" and their frog mates!! I check all the essentials on the car and we head off down the beaten, or should I say "bashed", track!!!!!

 

We have an uneventful drive back to civilization, stopping to have a look at Beagle Bay.  There is a beautiful church there that is famous for its shells.  The second time Tori has been in a church so she informs me, poor child!!  

We also have a look at the local school and the kids get a kick out of seeing the massive "school truck" parked out the front.

So we check into our budget accommodation, which is all that is left in Broome, while we wait for Glen to come back on Sunday.  I am not too excited about paying $400 a night for a two bedroom apartment so we manage to find one room left in this great little place across the road from the Cable Beach resort, which has a huge pool, a fantastic bar/alfresco area over looking the pool, with music playing all the time, a theatre room, very reasonably priced meals and lots of young people and a few young families.  A bit different to the grey nomad scene at the caravan parks!!!, don't get me wrong, the grey nomads are great, and they just love the kids,  but it is a change of scenery.  However, I am very much looking forward to getting back to "Big Bertha" and having the "whole" family intact once again and getting on the road!!!! It feels like we haven't seen Glen for a week, we are so looking forward to Sunday.