Augusta

Augusta
27- 28 November
Augusta got added to the itinerary to fit in with the timetables of buses back to Perth for Maggie and Millie. So we were pleasantly surprised with the lovely campground there. Apart from the wind. It was really blowing hard but luckily the campground was quite sheltered and we were located near to the camp kitchen with large windows.
The narrow timber jetty where Bro and Fabian went fishing had no protection from the wind gusting down the river. Unfortunately luck was not with them, and hours of fishing in the River and at Skippy Rock on the west side of the Cape yielded only one little herring. A recurring tale, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. At Leeuwin Lighthouse we skipped the tour and instead had a picnic lunch beside the old water wheel which once pumped fresh water to the lighthouse from the spring which turned it but ironically now has fresh water trickled over it by and electric pump to stop the timbers from drying and cracking.

From Leeunwin Naturalist NP

Early on the last morning, Bro and I saw Maggie and Millie off on the 6.10am bus to Perth. From now till Kangaroo Island, it will be a boys only tour.

Point Rd

Point Road Campground

23- 25 November
Unsure of quite where to camp in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park, we turned onto Borranup Drive aiming for Borranup Campground, but decided to head down the narrow Bumpy Love Spring Rd which is just a 4wd track to the Point Rd Campground. This leafy campsite is set amongst large peppermint trees (Agonis flexuosa).

We enjoyed the seclusion and quiet – no-one else camped there for two of the three nights although a few walkers on the Cape-to-Cape track did pass through.
On the first day we explored the Point (Cape Freycinet) where Fabian got accused by the National Parks Ranger of camping there illegally, while getting his swimmers from the car.

From Leeunwin Naturalist NP

The ranger didn't believe his story until he saw our camp at the Point rd Campground later on in the day. Then we drove to Conto springs for a body surf out beyond all the wrack on the beach.
On the second day, we visited Giant's cave which is one of the many limestone caves along this part of the coast.

From Leeunwin Naturalist NP

It is a self guided cave and not especially spectacular as caves go, but nicely developed for our needs with enough ladders and track markings to get you through the sometimes small openings between caverns. After that, we actually drove along Borranup Drive through the Karri regrowth forrest

From Leeunwin Naturalist NP

and succeeded in finding the longest bumpiest 4WD track out to Borranup Beach for a swim in the fairly challenging surf.

Yallingup

Yallingup
21st and 22nd November

The freeway south took us down the coast to Bunbury with alarmingly speed, but that was the plan.
We took the Tuart forest drive to get our first taste of the south west forests. That left us enough time to get to Yallingup and set up camp overlooking the picturesque lagoon and with the sound of the Yallingup reef break booming in the background.

Next day we drove to Meelup and walked through the beautiful coastal heath to Castle Rock where we spotted a whale and her calf not far out.

From Yallingup

We also visited Cape Naturaliste but baulked at the cost of a lighthouse tour and instead contented ourselves with a bushwalk around the headland.

From Yallingup

That night, the shouts and squeals of schoolies revellers was finally curtailed by a ranger or the police moving them on. Despite the beautiful backdrop, we judged it prudent not to risk another noisy night there plus it was relatively expensive.

On the way out, detoured to Canal Rock which we had read held a great snorkelling spot called 'The Aquarium' by locals.

From Canal Rocks to Point Road

We braved the cold water in what we judged the most likely looking spot and were rewarded with an underwater scene of massed seaweed completely obscuring the rocky sides of a deep clear channel dotted with beautiful fish. We probably missed the bit called the aquarium but it was still beautiful. On the way back to the car, we joined other sightseers watching an even closer Whale and calf frolicking nearby.

From Canal Rocks to Point Road

Just north of Margaret River, we stopped for lunch at a forest reserve and ended up going on a fairly long bushwalk through Karri forest and past some huge old pine trees from a 1933 plantation which were not harvested for reasons unknown. Then after restocking our food supplies, we continued on to the the Leuwin Naturaliste national park where we found the narrow and at times bumpy 4wd track in to the Point Road campground. The kids decided to ride on top of the camper trailer dodging the underbrush as it bumped very slowly down the track.

From Canal Rocks to Point Road

Perth

Perth
16th - 20th November
Civilisation! It was lovely to spread out into a separate bedroom from the kids on a real bed with fresh sheets. I even had my own office and duly set to work to finish some work, while Ben, my nephew was dispatched to take Milly and Bro to the beach. Part of the reason for that was to remove distraction from Asher who was just beginning his end of yr 10 exams.

From Perth

We managed quite a few trips to the beach during our Perth sojourn as well as a visit to the Perth Botanic Gardens. David took a day off work for the visit to Freemantle shipwreck museum and then the next day we loaded up 4 of his kayaks and went for a paddle at Freshwater bay.

From Perth

It was also great just spending some time with David and Bette, Sarah Ben and Asher at home. I banned the playstation after the first day but there was plenty of table soccer and Fabian and Asher sight read some great trumpet duets.

en route to Perth

Wildflowers and Gravity
16 November
Having decided to escape the winds of Lancelin and impose ourselves on the Perth Caleys one day early, we were determined to at least fill the day so we would arrive in the late afternoon. First stop was Moore River National Park which is the only wildflower locality reported to have the best display in November. Verticordia nitens, the flower which provides the mass display was only just starting to open, but there was also a fantastic diversity of wildflowers blooming.

From Moore River

All along the roadsides, the Moolja or Christmas Tree was also bursting out with vivid orange blooms. One particular tree was just brilliant orange on a fire blackened trunk – no sign of leaves.

After a short stop to sample some local honey, we headed to the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre which is an education facility beside the Gingin Gravity Wave Detection facility. When the world was worried about the earth being destroyed by a black holes, they built super sensitive gravity wave detectors around the world to pick up the signals from the threatening celestial problems. In fact they discovered that the threat was not nearly as bad as feared and the detectors have been retired. The Gravity Discovery Centre is a Questacom type place with lots of interactive displays, the most impressive of which is a 45m high tower leaning at 15 degrees.

From Gravity Discovery Centre

You can drop different size water balloons from the top and check whether objects fall at the same speed regardless of weight, (except for the confounding effect of friction). There was also a gallery with an impressive collection of artwork related to the cosmos.

So we managed to enter Perth at a decent hour facing the peak-hour outbound traffic and only got off - route once before finding my brother David's house at City Beach.

Lancelin

Lancelin
13 14 15 November

Lancelin was Fabian's special request for the trip as it is one of the best Windsurfing spots in Australia. Even better, it has Werner, whose windsurfer hire is as legendary as the Lancelin wind.

From Lancelin

Our camping spot at the caravan park had wind to spare. The tent strained and flapped all night to the night wind, which continued until midday when it would be suddenly replaced by the sea breeze.

Fabian was very excited to be using new sails and modern gear in the strong wind. He was soon changing to smaller and smaller boards as his confidence and the wind rose.

From Lancelin

When my brother David and nephew Ben arrived from Perth to spend the late afternoon with us, we grabbed the largest of Fabian's discarded boards and had a go. David and I both found it a bit hard going. We also hired a nice wide learner board with a tiny sail for Ben to have a go on and he did quite well. Later Millie tried the learner board but struggled in the strong wind and ended up being towed in by Werner in his tinny.

Bro missed out on the windsurfing but he made up for that by being rewarded for persistence at fishing by catching two squid off the Lancelin Jetty.

From Lancelin

Once again, his research had identified it as a good place to catch them. We had to watch out for the trucks reversing up to the lobster boats to load the pots on board, and after the sea breeze got up, it was no fun anymore – just too windy. At least 6 other squid were caught from the jetty that day. Fabian hit the water for a second long afternoon windsurfing. This time, with the encouragement of a fellow windsurfer, he headed out to where the swell breaks on a submerged reef. Although it was a small swell for Lancelin, it was still pretty challenging for Fabian but he did well for the first time.

After two days, Fabian was physically exhausted and had lost the skin off two blisters on one hand. It was time to head for Perth where we had clean sheets and beds prepared for us at my brother's house at City Beach.

Stockyard Gully Leseuer National Park and The Pinnacles

The National Parks and reserves south of Kalbarri are not particularly well marked but we had a book about all the reserves and National Parks in WA so we sought out a couple. Stockyard Gully has a cave a bit like Tunnel Creek only without the water and the crocodiles but still interesting.

From Stockyard Gully Leseur NP

We found a Bobtail skink which Fabian of course picked up. We did it the service of removing 4 ticks from it's back before letting it go. Next we drove to Leseuer National Park which has some of the most diverse flora in WA (and the world). November is not the peak month but we still saw lots of beautiful wild flowers.

From Leseuer National Park

Broughton had put the Pinnacles on the travel agenda as he had written a piece about them for a school exercise. I guess we would have visited them anyway as they are a major tourist destination. The new visitor's center is very flash and has some good displays but they really aren't sure how the pinnacles were formed and the center seemed a bit superfluous. However, the pinnacles were a bit eerie and worth the visit.

From the Pinnacles

On the road to Lancelin, it was, as expected, windy. It had been windy all afternoon with sand dancing along the road near one big sand dune. We had visited three parks and still had to make camp that evening - a big day.

Kalbarri

We arrived in Kalbarri with plenty of time to set up camp and have a little look around before sundown. The weather was comfortably cooler making sleeping easier and the main criterion for a good camp was wind shelter, not shade. I settled in to do some work and the kids entertained themselves with the pelican feeding and trying to catch fish.

From Kalbarri

The first two nights were unsuccessful but a fellow camper told us about good bream which lurk under the lobster boats moored at the nearby jetty, and offered us the use of his little tinny to try to catch them. Bro and Fabian came out with me late that night and we snuck around the boats in the still night, throwing lures and baits - aiming for the fish but Fabian managed to land a lot on the deck of lobster boats. I hooked a couple of little bream on squid and we were ready to head home when Bro hooked a better one on a lure, which he landed. We kept fishing until after midnight and saw some big bream following the lures but no more were hooked. Still, we had a meal of them.

The town of Kalbarri is in the middle of a large National Park, which we really hadn't seen, so on the way out, we visited Nature's Window - a natural arch high above the gorge of the Murchison River.

From Kalbarri

The walk was short but we didn't feel like the longer loop walk in the heat.
That night, we camped at a rest area - it's good to be away from caravan parks sometimes, although Maggie's sleep was disturbed by the trucks in the night.

Shark Bay

Herald Bight
A lady on a stall beside Maggie at Broome had told us you didn't need to go to Monkey Mia to see Dolphins in Shark Bay because they were everywhere. So we headed up the sandy track into the Francios Perron national park and took the even deeper sandy path to Herald Bight with is on the same side as Monkey Mia anad is also away from the prevailing wind. The signs warned us of deep sand and advised against trailers but we chugged on with very deflated tyres to a camp on the beach.

From Herald Bight Shark Bay

The water was shallow and devoid of any dolphins but we enjoyed looking at the less spectacular creatures to be found on the mud flats.

A day later, our friends Andy and Julie turned up with their kids Elliot and Danial. We copied some other fishermen who were catching large garfish and soon we had a bucketful ourselves. Then began the large task of filleting the little blighters. Whether it was worth the effort is debatable, but we had more than enough fish to feed the nine of us.

From Herald Bight Shark Bay

After a couple of days with no dolphins, we headed off to do the touristy thing, leaving Andy and Jules the beach to themselves (and as we found out, an hour and a half getting their landcruiser to firmer sand when they tried to leave).

 Monkey Mia
We arrived at 10oclock for what we believed were hourly feeds of dolphins but it was nothing like that. In fact the dolphins are only fed  when they turn up in the morning, and only up to three times. They had been twice already, so when they didn't appear by noon, we resigned ouselves to camping the night at Monkey Mia and headed to the Oceanarium south of Denham for the remainder of the day.
The oceanarium turned out to be a small but great place.

From Shark Bay

The tours run continuously - you can follow one around until you have heard it all before. The fish and sharks were not very hungry by the time we arrived in the afternoon having already had a few feeds that day but the tour guide had lots of interesting information to share and we loved looking at all the different creatures - sharks, fish, turtles, squid.

Next morning at Monky Mia, Milly spotted a few of the dolphins coming in at 6am.

From Shark Bay

We all got up and watched them playing in the shallows for a while before they left to hunt for their own fish as we clearly had none for them. After 7.30am, the crowds started growing for the 8am feed which is the earliest they feed them. Unusually there were no dolphins.

From Shark Bay

So everyone just waited and waited for over an hour until finally they came in to be fed. We were glad we saw them with just a couple of other people in the early morning.
Hamelin Pool
On our way out, we stopped at Hamelin Pool to look at the stromatolites. These are living rocks formed by algae. Apparently stromatolites released all the oxygen in the beginning of evolution, ehivh made life on earth possible. I respect them for that.

From Shark Bay

Carnarvon

After overnighting at Coral Bay, we would have just picked up supplies in Carnarvon then headed out to Point Quobba, but one of  us needed to see a doctor for a minor medical condition and couldn't get an appointment until next day so we found a camp site at the nearest caravan park nearest to the Carnarvon town centre. Bro's research had identified 1 mile Jetty as a famous fishing spot, so we headed to a tackle shop and acquired more gear. While I was off getting bread and looking for a place to process the underwater camera film, the boys got accosted by a policeman who was concerned they weren't in school. When Fabian didn't know where his parents were, his concern increased, luckily they accepted his story that they were travelling around Australia.
One mile jetty seemed a lot longer than one mile, especially with the wind howling across it. We hunkered down out the end as the sun set and started fishing off the downwind side. A group of fishermen - maybe vietnamese - were defying the wind and casting their lines off the upwind side. Apparently that side has a deep hole with large Mullaway. One of them landed a couple of good tailor, then I hooked one. It was pretty big and when the line on my small reel snapped as soon as I tried to lift the fish up out of the water.  a bit later though, Bro hooked the biggest dart anyone on the jetty had ever seen.

From Carnarvon

He couldn't lift it out of the water with my large rod. It was 67cm long and fed us for two nights. The second meal was a delicious fish curry concocted by Maggie.
We worked for another day then fished another night. This time no fish at all, just the howling wind but we got a spot in the little shelter out on the jetty.

Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National park

31st of October

The highlight of today was a snorkle at Lakeside beach. We saw marine life of every description; little Blue chromis, rainbow patterned Green moon wrasse, Blue spotted fantail rays, White-tipped reef sharks, Anemone fish, Butterfly fish, Starfish, Staghorn coral, John even saw a Moray eel!
And to top it all off we saw a turtle while heading back along the beach.

From Ningaloo

The next day we decided to have a go at the drift snorkle along Turquoise Bay. Not much drift, but we did see lots of fish! That morning Bro had caught about five small chinaman cod off the rocks, and we saw some dolphins. During the snorkle the boys saw an octopus, we took some photos with the new disposable underwater camera (an impulse buy by john), and saw yet more fish. That night we had dinner and fished at sandy bay with Andy + Jules and their kids Elliot and Danial. No keepers.
Next morning, not sure whether to leave or not, we had an early morning swim at Pilgramunna. The verdict was to stay, so we had another snorkle at Turquoise Bay, where there was actually a drift this time.

From Ningaloo

John drove all the way to the caravan park to get some exorbitantly priced bait, so we had another shot at fishing, but this time armed with squid instead of lures. The fishing kept getting better as the sun went down, and Fabian caught four spangled emperor, one a keeper! Bro caught another undersized spanglie, and John a black-tip reef shark. In fact, the fishing was so fantastic we didn't want to leave, but as Daniel got lost (Andy and Jules were there again) we had a good excuse for being late home for dinner.

I was woken up in the morning by the boys leaving for yet another fishing expedition. An hour or so later, they came back with a good sized long tom, but said the fishing wasn't nearly as good as the night before. We went for a last snorkle at Lakeside, where we got to swim with a turtle!
On the way out we stopped at Exmouth for a shop, and stopped again just outside Exmouth to photograph an Emu with two chicks, very cute!

From Ningaloo

New bird: White-winged fairy wren, sanderling

Karajini - Hancock Gorge and Weano Gorge

The Savanah campground at the Karajini eco resort was even more bare than at Dales campground, but did feature showers. No matter, we headed off in the morning into another gorge - this time Hancock Gorge.

Hancock Gorge
Once we had clambered down the rough track and ladded down to the bottom. Maggie stopped beside a nice pool while the kids and I continued deeper as the gorge walls got closer.

From Karijini Hancock and Weano Gorges

We traversed through the "spider walk" to Kermits pool and then on past the warning signs about needing a nationally recognised qualification in rockclimbing to the top of a small waterfall. The only way down was to jump. A couple of German guys were already swimming in the pool and had worked out a climbing route to get back up, but it looked hard to me. Fabian was keen to continue, so I waited with Bro and Millie while Fabe jumped down to the pool below and climbed up again to check out the route before heading off donwn the gorge while I waited behind with Millie and Bro. After a while, Millie and Bro went back to Kermit's pool leaving me to continue my vigil alone. I was temped to follow Fabe, but I had badly bruised one toe and didn't fancy climbing the rocks with it. Finally Fabian returned with tales of the wonderful final section of the gorge. Unfortunately, because we had to swim and wade, we have no photos.

Weano Gorge
One more gorge for the road. Weano and Hancock Gorges are accessed from the same carpark, so we got some lunch ingredients back at the car and dropped down the other side into Weano Gorge.

From Karijini Hancock and Weano Gorges

Handrail pool is the end of the easy walk, but Fabe and I swam across and continued down past more warning signs. It turned out to be easy going all the way to the falls into the junction pool where 4 gorges meet. Because I had told Fabian of someone who had climbed the falls, he decided to explore climbing down them. It was pretty exposed and I felt a bit negligent that I didn;t stop him but after a while, he reappeared all in one piece, having stopped before a more dangerous section. After we returned to our lunch spot at hand-rail pool I took Millie and Bro back down to see the junction  pool and Jade pool.

From Karijini Hancock and Weano Gorges

There was still plenty of time left to hang around at Handrail pool avoiding returning to the campsite until the worst of the heat and flies had departed.

Jarndumunnah
Driving out of Karijini, we eschewed Hamersley Gorge even though it is supposed to be quite beautiful - you get ho hum about them after a while - and headed to Tom Price for Supplies. At the bottle shop, I got a tip to drive up Jarndrumunnah - ignorantly called Mount Nameless by Europeans, for a view of the Tom Price iron ore mine. We left our camper trailer at the bottom as directed by a sign. It was a very rough steep track up to the highest peak around but the view made it worthwhile.

From Jarndunmunnah

Karijini

25 Oct Karajini National Park
Dales Gorge
Apparently it hasn't rained much at Karajini for two years and it shows. Even where there hasn't been a recent fire, the vegetation is sparse and brown. Most of the camping areas are being rested and the remaining ones have little shade even at 4pm when we arrived. Our big hope however was for beautiful cool spots in the gorges cut deep below the hot dry plains.
We weren't disappointed. This morning we packed our school work, the laptop and plenty of food and headed down into Dales Gorge. We spent the morning beside Circular Pool at one end of the Gorge, after a spectactular clifftop walk.

From Karijini - Dale's Gorge

Here the water comes seeping out of slatey layers at the bottom of the gorge wall and drops into the cool pool below. As the hours pass other visitors come and go. Mid afternoon we packed up our work and walked down the gorge to the junction, then up to Fortesque Falls for another quick dip and finally to Fern Pool to round off a beautiful day in a beautiful gorge.
We returned to camp in time to catch the last rays of the sun and the last few flies before both disappeared altogether.

Kalamina Gorge
The next day we packed up and drove first to the visitor's centre which was closed, then on to Kalamina Gorge.

From Karijini - Kalamina Gorge, Knox Gorge

This is a small gorge with a little waterfall and a beautiful natural arch above a relatively shallow swimming hole. Then we retraced our tracks to the award winning visitors centre for some learning before continuing further to Knox Gorge.

Knox Gorge

From Karijini - Kalamina Gorge, Knox Gorge

Maggie had climbed enough steep goat tracks for one day and stopped halfway down for some sketching. John and the kids continued to the gorge for a swim in the large pool, then descended to narrowing gorge to a point above a natural waterslide where tour groups slide off to the pool below and continue out via the bottom of the gorge and up via a different route. We didn't know this and couldn't have got back up, so we enjoyed being in the deep gorge before returning to find Maggie.

En Route to Karijini National Park

Barn Hill Station

From Cape Leveque we headed into Broome for supplies then on down the coast, making it to Barn Hill Station just before dark. The headland campsite was nearly empty and was being managed by a grumpy character, but we scored a shady site – vital in this hot part of the year. I needed to spend a day doing work – invoicing, accounts, BAS and tax return. The beach was big and mostly deserted.

From Barn Hill Station, 80 Mile Beach and Paroo Station

The waves were barely big enough to body surf on, and got messed up as soon as the strong south westerly wind started, which was pretty early each morning. A few whales were spotted swimming past during the day enlivening the sleepy camp scene.

Pardoo Station
We had been told that Cape Keraudren, while still beautiful had been stripped bare of trees by a Cyclone last December. Stopping at 80 mile beach, we saw that the caravan park there had suffered the same fate. So we skipped Keraudren and headed to Pardoo Station where we managed to nestle the camper trailer in beneath some Casurina trees. Lying around were a few whale vertebrae which campers had used as chairs. Littered around the station were various drilling rigs and a few drilling crews were still living there. I drove the boys down to the tidal creek for a fish but the tide was out and we never got past trying to catch some mullet for live bait. Fabian had lined up a school with the cast net, and was executing a running cast when he trod on a bed of small but sharp barnacles. All that walking around bare foot paid off as his feet nearly survived, but the arch of his foot got a little shredded. So much for fishing!

Port Hedland
We swung by Port Hedland for supplies. It is essentially an iron-ore shipping port and the trains, ships and loading facilities dominate the scene.

From Barn Hill Station, 80 Mile Beach and Paroo Station

Well that and the massive hills of salt at the salt making plant. We tried to identify the seabirds on the river while the iron-ore poured into two bulk carriers on the other side. There was some excitement, as we were passed by some dolphins.
Then off down the road towards Karajini National park, now passing lots of four-trailer road trains hauling iron ore to the port.

New birds- Pied oyster catcher, Least frigate bird

Cape Leveque

Cape Leveque

The road to Cape Leveque is sandy but rough for the first 100km then sealed and good for the rest.
At Kooljaman Retreat reception, we were allocated the nearest beach shack to the main buildings. I was a bit disappointed with this as it looked the least secluded on paper. We drove over the headland and down to the shacks. It looked pretty ordinary at first sight.

From Cape Leveque

A wooden pole structure with a grass thatched flat 'roof' and walls though most of the wall thatch was missing. In the deep sand and tight space, I took ages getting the camper trailer maneuvered into a good spot. It was too hot to set up so we headed for the beach. Once we got set up however, the beauty of the spot became apparent.

From Cape Leveque

The shack is on top of a low rock cliff beside the beach. Out from the headland you can snorkel over the rocks and coral reef looking at the beautiful fish. No fishing is allowed from the beach where we camped, but we could walk around the rocks to the western beach. The tides go in and out out a long way so the fishing spots changed rapidly. We landed and threw back a lot of beautiful but undersize reef fish – blue bone, baldchin gropers, rock cod. We set out striped sea perch as live bait and kept getting busted off on heavier and heavier line by what we thought were mackeral, until John finally landed a 90cm black tipped reef shark. We gave up on live bait fishing soon after that. There was NextG coverage at Kooljaman but just not in the Beach shack. Not until I raised the antenna 5 meters in the air on a tent pole. (visible in the top photo) I was able to catch up on some work and the shack was cool enough for the kids to do school work in the middle of the day.

After extending our stay to 4 nights, we left Kooljaman feeling more holidayed than anywhere else. We drove out to the aboriginal community of Long Arm Point where there is a Trocus Shell hatchery.

From Cape Leveque

This is the story we were told of the hatchery:- The aboriginal community at Long Arm Point apparently move there recently from missions on nearby islands. They collect trocus shells off the reef and sell them, mostly going to italy to make buttons but also to china to be crushed as an ingredient of metallic car paint. In many areas of the world there are no Trocus shells left, and with an export volume of 15 tonnes per year, this community would have extincted the trocus on the surrounding reefs. However, a white man, Barry, worked out how to breed trocus shells and set up the hatchery. When the shells are a certain size, they are placed out on the reef to grow large, thereby sustaining the industry. For this reason, the community has poured money into the hatchery. The hatchery is also breeding clown fish and sea anemones which could be sold to the aquarium industry but these activities are reportedly viewed with suspicion by the community. It also has a few turtles rescued form the reef and other fish for interest and possible commercial breeding. We enjoyed the very informative tour and got to feed the barramundi.

New birds- Sooty oyster catcher, Sanderling

Broome

13 Oct Broome

Cable Beach caravan park seemed to be the pick of the many large but half empty Broome caravan parks. We paid top dollar but it was worth it as we needed to stay put for a few days and do some work. We got a very shady site under a beautiful big tree, and close to the swimming pool and showers.

I had booked-in the car to have the wheel bearings repacked, on the advice of the mechanic who serviced it in Darwin. That took up half a day as did tracking down the right bolt and sleeve to replace the ones that fell off the trailer brakes calliper. Next day, Maggie and I caught the bus into town to pick up mail and redraw more money from the home loan, while the kids swam and did some school work. I made another attempt to share my computer's internet connection with Fabian's school laptop, to reduce the demand for my laptop but failed again.

Cable Beach is a beautiful beach, and we walked down there every evening to have a swim as the sun set.

From Broome

Maggie found out there was a market on Saturday in the grounds of the courthouse in town so we all piled in there for the morning. It was very laid back and Maggie sold more work than in Darwin at Mindal Beach. She really enjoyed chatting to other local artists and  Millie and Fabe did well busking.

From Broome

  We had a go at catching fish from the deepwater Jetty but all we got was a little coral trout, despite seeing great big queen fish around the pylons. Maybe if we stayed longer we could have caught one but we had a booking for a beach shack at the Kooljaman Eco retreat, so after one last shop, we headed up the notorious road to Cape Leveque.