TUESDAY 29th MAY

Heading into the big smoke today Broome population 16,000. On the road out came across a large snake slithering across the red soil road in front of us.

He was about 2metres long on the red sandy road

After morning tea at Roebuck Roadhouse a "real coffee" and carrot cake we arrived into Broome just before lunch. Checked in and decided to get a haircut after a couple of months away we needed a freshen up (to say the least).Nev and I were lucky to get a very nice hairdresser who was between appointments and cut our hair really well. Walked around town and saw the Broome open air cinema an old historic building still showing movies in sling back chairs.

The old theatre in Chinatown Broome

Me sitting in the low sling back movie seat with outside screen

Under a Charlie Chaplain poster with some old projectors

We came back for a swim and quiet night catching up with blog.

MONDAY 28th MAY

Another morning swim and walk around the mangroves watching the tide recede.

You can actually watch the water go

My little friend I kept overnight

He walked a long way to the water leaving his little trail behind

We had another feed of fish but this time the girls cooked different vegie dishes. Yum! Yum!

SUNDAY 27th MAY

Lovely bush caravan park with really friendly staff but unfortunately also lots of mozzies.
We were all keen to see lagoon at high tide and see the difference and have a swim, pretty hot now. Wow!! beautiful blue ocean and really red soil everywhere.

We swam here and half an hour later the water had gone Nev is standing in the same spot you can watch the tide go out!!!

After lunch we went back for another fish as it was so much fun yesterday. We are having a big fish cook up tonight for dinner and the girls are making a different salad each.
On the walk out to the water we found a turtle that was stranded from the low tide so Nev picked him up, he was pretty hot and  put him into open water.

Poor hot little turtle long way to the water

Nev to the rescue!!!

I fished today but kept catching cat fish a bit of fun but no good to eat. I also collected some shells and a little hermit crab friend.

Nev concentrating!!

These were added to yesterdays catch

Some were baked whole and some were fried in a nice coating what a feast!!!

After dinner we heard a strange noise and the mozzie zapper truck went by spraying mozzie deterent around the park never seen that before.

Some strange things happen up here!!

SATURDAY 26th MAY

Up and away not much happening at the roadside stop. We are heading for a place about 120kms south of Broome for 3 nights as we are booked into Broome from the 29th May.Wendy found a place called Port Smith which sounds good. Stopped at Roebuck Roadhouse what an interesting place. They have two  full size Brahman cattle in the bar and a huge crocodile (all models). The bar is decorated with Bull horns and the toilets are called "The Shitters". There are a lot of interesting characters up here!!
Port Smith is on aboriginal land and hasaccessto a largelagoon. We set up our vans had lunch and headed for the lagoon. You can only fish at lowtide and they are huge here. 

You have to walk a few hundred metres to fish in lagoon.

Nev rigging up and the girls swimming in the background

The boys were in their element they only have minimal fishing gear with them but they caught a lot of fish -rock cod,bream, flathead, trevally and some others.

Nev showing them how to fillet fish

Interesting sign

All fish have to be cleaned back at camp and offal disposed of in a huge pit in the ground to keep sharks and crocodiles away from the lagoon.

FRIDAY 25th MAY

Well here it is Nev with his finger glued to the arm of his glasses and the shackle award that he got!!!!!!!

No one ever wants the "Shackle Award"

We left Fitzroy Crossing and headed towards Broome. The country side is changing now anthills and boab trees everywhere.After stopping at some amazing Boab trees for morning tea and lunch we pulled into a 24 hour roadstop for the night. A few other vans were there too. Good picnic shelters and a great fire that night.

Unusual scenery

I love these trees they are such interesting shapes and some are huge you can see the car and van beside it.

THURSDAY 24th MAY

Went for a drive into "town" that is Fitzroy Crossing only a couple of kms from where we are staying but not a lot going on there unfortunately. A lot of aborigines but they don't look happy and there doesn't seem to be anything for them to do. I don't know the answer but it is such a shame to see them like this. The town has a lovely Information Centre, and IGA and Post Office and a couple of shops. I liked the Department Store in the photo below.

Kimberley Country Department Store

We drove to the Old Crossing Inn on the way back to camp.It is the oldest pub in the Kimberley region opened in 1897. It is on the banks of Fitzroy River and I think was the hub of the place in the early days. Pretty quiet now but some nice indigenous art on the outside walls and lovely gardens.

The old Crossing Inn

Some lovely indigenous art

Our caravan park was on the other side of The Fitzroy River from the Inn.

The Fitzroy River can get very high in the wet season.

Went back to camp and had a swim in the resort pool.

While I was swimming Nev glued his glasses arm back on with super glue BUT he also glued his thumb to it. So we had to get a knife and gently cut his skin off the arm of his glasses. We have a "Shackle Award" for anyone who does a stupid thing during the day and guess what today was Nev's turn to get it.
 See tomorrow for photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy hour all together tonight up at the bar, nice sitting on the verandah watching the hundreds of small kangaroos as the sun went down.

WEDNESDAY 23rd MAY

We left Halls Creek and after a visit to the bakery for a pie for morning tea drove on bitumen which was a nice change to Mary Pools for morning tea. What a great spot and past some amazing scenery on the way the colours just don't show up in the photos.

The flat landscape with unusual red flat top mountains

Mary Pools was a lovely spot we should have free camped here last night!!

It is strange driving on bitumen we can actually hear each other talking!!
We continued on to Fitzroy Crossing and you know you have reached the Kimberleys when you start to see Boab trees. The small township is on the Fitzroy River one of the largest rivers in Australia with a catchment area of 90000 square kms.
We booked in to The Lodge camping ground and have power and water for two nights. It is a lovely place with big shady trees and "grass"!!!!!
After doing the washing and hosing down the red dust from van we decided to go to Geikie Gorge for the 4pm boat trip.
It is in Geikie Gorge National Park where floodwaters carved a 30metre deep gorge through the limestone. The colours are amazing!!

Beautiful colours

We  saw a lot of small crocs sunning themselves on the banks and swimming in the gorge.

Nev enjoying the cruise

On the drive home we saw the most amazing sunset but couldn't stop for a photo!!!!

TUESDAY 22nd MAY

Left gravel pit very early as we wanted to get to Billiluna which is an aboriginal settlement that sells fuel but only certain hours and with the time change into WA we weren't sure of the times.
We got there and bought a fuel card and filled up and headed off to the Wolf Creek Crater corner for morning tea. We didn't drive in this time as we have all been to the crater before.
Then back to corrugations and dust towards Halls Creek.

We were all glad to hit the bitumen and drive the few kms to halls Creek. We filled up the tanks again and had lunch, we decided to stay the night here even though it does not have a good reputation. Mary and Chris are leaving us here and going to Darwin.

We booked in to the van park and the manager gave me a card with the police number and details and told us to lock up everything close the windows and leave a light on.

We were a bit concerned but there was a security guard with two dogs based quite near to our campsites.

Fortunately no issues and we all slept well.

MONDAY 21st MAY

Everyone was up early very cold!!!!Really rally windy today luckily it will be a tail wind for us.
Off again on the dirt and corrugations. Not a lot of sights along this road but interesting country side. No towns or settlements or roadhouses at all today along the track. 
There is a lot of patch burning along the side of the road but we came to one fire that was quite large and along both sides of the road. We could see the smoke from a long way away.

Black smoke in the distance against the blue sky

The wind was very strong and gusty making the fire change directions all the time.

The flames were moving quickly.

We pulled into our campsite for the night but everyone was a bit wary about the fire and the wind. Wendy and Paul spoke to truck driver who stopped to change a tyre and he suggested a gravel pit just down the road so we moved for peace of mind.
We had a great fire and campfire roast dinner so it was worth moving.

SUNDAY 20th MAY

Today we are leaving Alice Springs. A very interesting town with some beautiful scenery around it. We headed up the Tanami Road toward Tilmouth where we will top up again with fuel as there is only one other place to get it. After Tilmouth we set off for morning tea stop on the end of the bitumen.

All the cars and van tyres had to have some air out ready for the corrugations. Most have 6 or 8 tyres to air down.

We have driven this road before so know what to expect!!!!

Off we went after airing down needed a good distance between to wait for dust to settle. Saw some camels on the side of road and the odd wedge tail eagle but not a lot of animals.
Decided to stay at Doreen Ruins for the night so pulled off the road and down the track to a deserted homstead and a lots of relics scattered around.

The view of our camp from a nearby hilltop.

We had a great campfire tonight as it was pretty cold here.

SATURDAY 19th MAY

Nev and I are going to The Desert Park today. We spent the morning there and saw the bird show and the amazing wedge tailed eagle. Also the nocturnal house and listened to an interesting survival talk from a local aboriginal woman.

Dingoes

A Buzzard cracked the emu egg with a rock in his talons

A wedge tailed eagle 2 and a 1/2 m wing span

Thorny Devil

The colours are amazing

Python

Nev chatting to his emu mate!!!!

Nev holding a witchety grub they are quite big!!

We then topped up the car and last shop for fresh food as we are heading up the Tanami tomorrow.
We watched the wedding in the van for a quiet night in.

FRIDAY 18th MAY

Our troopy need a new water pump so it is booked in today to get that done. They lent us a car for the day.The mechanics feed Galahs twice a day and there were hundreds in the carpark.

Outback Mechanic

Today we are spending the day around Alice town as there are some very interesting places in town. First stop was John Flynn's Church. He was an amazing man as we found out more about him during the day.

Lovely church in Todd St Mall right in the centre of town

Just near the church is Adelaide House which is the first of 14 hospitals which John Flynn set up so everyone in the outback could access medical help.It has a very innovative air conditioning system that Flynn devised to keep the nurses and patients cool in the summer.

Lovely stone hospital  started by John Flynn

Still full of original artefacts from the 1920's

From here we went to The Royal Flying Doctors Base which John Flynn envisaged and started in 1939. What a tremendous service it provides to the outback. Another interesting place.

A replica RFDS aircraft

Inside the exhibition

Then we went to The School of The Air Katy 

and Russell did their lessons from here in 1989.

The staff there were very interested in past students. We saw a lesson in progress and the hugearea it covers from preschool to year 9.

The mural outside school of the air.

We all went to Lasseters Casino for dinner tonight and I put one dollar in the pokies and Nev won $10 on the roulette wheel.