Author: Mark Anderson

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Day 42: Monday 10th July – Exploring the Dampier Peninsula

Author: Mr A

From: Broome

To: Middle Lagoon, Dampier Peninsula

We had decided to leave the van in storage at our Broome caravan park (called the “Broome Caravan Park” –  how do they come up with these names?), as we had been “reliably informed” that the roads through the Dampier Peninsula were “atrocious”.

The peninsula has been described by several of our friends who have visited as “one of the most beautiful places in Australia”, so we had high expectations! After passing the “Stricly No Caravans” sign at the turn off from Broome, we passed serval caravans coming the other way. Confused…certainly. Then we hit the dirt pretty quickly, but the corrugations weren’t that bad and it was all nice soft red sand, no sharp, nasty, tyre eating stones like the Gibb River Road. 

It was a long straight 110kms, with low scrub either side, we weren’t feeling the love yet, then after another 30km down a sandy straight, low scrub either side kinda side road (deja vu) we arrived at Middle Lagoon to find an army of caravans and a fish and chip van. Not quite what we had expected but all in keeping with our experience of “Australia’s Last Great Wilderness” thing in the Kimberley. 

We set up our little hike tent, feeling dwarfed by the big rigs all around us, and woofed down the awesome fish and chips. How come a little business in this remote corner of Australia can cook “proper” fish and chips and yet 99% of their fellow chippy makers in Aus make such a hash of it? Consigned to one of the mysteries of this Big Brown Land.

We wandered up to the beach and….WOW….WOW…WOW….awesome…the most stunning white sand and water so blue it was just a feast for the eyes. It had to be paddled. 


In a jiffy the packrafts are inflated and ready to go. We did get a few curious looks as we minced down the beach with our odd looking little boats under our arms. Heads held high, off we went into the wide blue yonder. It was fabulous. We headed up the coast for a mosey around, then back down the other way to land on this pristine beach, not a footprint in sight. Well until Mrs A decided to run round in circles to make some – so great to see her back to her old self after the crap breathing she has been experiencing  almost since the start of the trip. 


On the water I have to admit to keeping a wary croc spotting eye scanning around as everywhere we go when we ask if its saltie free we get a guarded “well we haven’t seen any since the Wet…so most likely you’ll not see one”. It’s that “most likely” phrase you play with in your mind. But all was good, and we had a great afternoon in our “bumper boats” as we have nicknamed them. Well it is very tempting to bounces into each other and try and spin the other boat around…


We came back to camp, and after enjoying a couple of beers with the sunset, fired up the little camping stove and warmed up a pre-cooked meal of a japanese salmon stir-fry, with a few noodles added it was fine dining as usual. I have to say the wine restock we did in Broome has been really disappointing, so I wont be referring to any fine vintages for the next few weeks! Roll on Margaret River I say. 


Well the generators came on…there would have been at least 30 vans in the campsite..and the people milled around…and yes we had a great day….but its busy here. We are hoping when school holidays is over next week things will quieten down a bit.

We scurried into bed early (as usual) and felt a little cheated we hadn’t brought the van – it would have been fine. But…it does us good to be down in the dirt, reminding us of why we spent that cash to have our mobile apartment for this long trip. 

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Day 38: 6 July – Off twitching!

Author: Mr A

From: Broome

To: Broome Bird Observatory

Distance: 28km

Today we left Gulag Broome (as I call our caravan park there), We had a slight sense of relief to escape its dreary, noisy, clutches and headed into town with the van in tow. We copped a nice spot outside the Tourist Information centre, complete with Telstra Air hotspot (our new best friend), and I went in search of the optometrist that I had made an appointment at. I had rang the place earlier this morning, not holding our much hope that I would be able to get a pressure test on my eyes, but got in straight away. 

All was good news, pressures were stable, I was so relieved so I celebrated with a haircut. Five minutes later I was done. It was chop chop and off! 

Chores complete, Mrs A loaded in our next destination to Google Maps, the Broome Bird Observatory. It’s a Not for Profit organisation based in Roebuck Bay, an internationally important research centre examining the many species of birds who use the calm waters of the bay to rest and feed. 

It was a tight fit into the camp spot, but with less stress each time we have to do it, we were soon settled in. Off we headed down to the bay to explore. 


Then we did another walk through pindan (open, waterless bush) that dominates the sand plains of the Western Kimberley.

We saw a variety of birds including honeyeaters, variagated fairy wrens, peaceful doves, woodswallows, friarbirds, bowerbirds, and many shore wading birds on the mudflats slightly too far out to identify…


Looking foward to a dawn twitch – an early night in order. 

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Day 36: Tuesday 4 July – Cable Beach…fat bike heaven

Author: Mr A

Our day started with a call from the Service Manager at Zone RV (Jackson), we worked through a few minor issues and how we would resolve.  He really has been super helpful. It’s unrealistic to think there wont be something that rattles itself into a frenzy and needs a fix. 

Next was a visit to Broome Toyota, a $2.50 light bulb and a piece of rubber off the end of our side step, the only casualties of the Gibb for our super reliable (touch wood) 200 Series. Sadly our next stop was Tyrepower, I can’t blame the car for the 5 year old Mickey Thompsons showing their age on the sidewalls, and we had to dig deep for a whole new set of tyres….ouch. Going this time for the Coopers, S/T Max. The tyre we had to buy on the Gibb is to be sentenced to the roof basket as a second spare. 

Cable Beach was our next port of call, and as soon as we spied the white sand stretching to the horizon we were hooked. What a stunning place. We sat at a cafe on the beach and by the time I’d smashed down my first iced chocolate, the Broome of yesterday was redeemed. Talk about a different world to downtown. 

After a visit to the fossilised dinosaur footprints….


…we went back and collected the bikes, and launched ourselves down the beach. Awesome….My fatty was very at home..my bike I’m talking about! We rode for miles down this stunning beach before turning round when sunset was in the wings. 



There was a shout from one of the many cars parked on the sand admiring the sunset with a few cold ones, it was some Perth folk we had met at the van park in Derby. We were invited over for beers and bubbles, and watched another spectacular sunset. Marvellous…we just cant speak highly enough of the camaraderie we find on the van parks. 


It’s back to the van now for Thai red curry, with prawns, pumpkin  and broccoli. Matched this evening with what really is (this time!) our last bottle in the “cellar” brought from Sydney. A “Hart of the Barossa”  Limited Release organic Shiraz. It’s from one of the cases left over from my 60th. Donna and Cathy really chose some crackers….thank you if you happen to be reading this. We really do have to go wine shopping tomorrow! 

The evening is perfect with some Eilen Jewell signing her gorgeous melodies in the background. If you haven’t had the listening pleasure check out “Queen of the Minor Key”. Fabulous album, full of sultry blues, and acoustic food for the soul. 

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Day. 34: 2 July – Derby Hospital for Mrs A

Author: Mr A

I note that Mrs A failed to tell the whole story yesterday (she was very tired last night, so forgiven). She awoke in the early hours of yesterday labouring to breathe – we were on a boat, miles from anywhere, and every single breath was a struggle. Her airway had swollen and her face puffy – at first we assumed it was related to her old airway issues, but the swelling was so sudden and severe, we realised it wasn’t.

 Just by chance, she took some Travel Calm tablets to ward of sickness on the flight, and this contained antihistamine – and cleared things up enough so she could get back to Derby safely. Of course, being stubborn, Mrs A refused to visit the hospital after this episode (despite my advice).

So, on to today. The day started, of course, with a 7am visit to Derby Hospital, the only one in the Kimberley. Catherine was still struggling to breathe, so off we went with expectations of long wait times, since it was Derby’s biggest annual event yesterday, the races, so we thought lots of drinking injuries would be sustained. But no…Derby folk must be more restrained than the major Australian cities, it was empty!

We were seen immediately and only waited a few minutes for a doctor to come in. Catherine was given some more medication to try and reduce her swelling. It could be all the dust we have lived in for the last few weeks coming along the Gibb finally took its toll. Who knows, but a pretty serious response all the same.


Smiling here, but unable to complete a sentence. I was enjoying the break!

Anyway after that exciting start to the day, we decided to set about cleaning the van inside and out. Four hours later it was time to cycle down to the sunset again. Our last one in Derby before heading off to Broome tomorrow. 



Back now in the van for a home cooked chicken pad thai, and the last of our bottles of red brought from Sydney. How about that for timing…as Broome will be the first place we will hopefully be able to buy some decent stuff. 

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Day 32: 30 June: Mudflats and horizontal waterfalls

Author: Mr A

Our day started with a dawn cycle across the mudflats that surround Derby. 

Big Bertha, as I call my big old fat bike, loved ploughing through the dried mud that stretched to the horizon. Quite an eerie landscape. 

The sun climbed up once again into a perfect blue sky, and the mud flats glistened. Miles and miles of nothing but caked mud out to the horizon. 

We were soon back and coking up a BBQ brunch as we had to get ready for our big trip out to…the “Horizontal Waterfalls”. Let me explain..Derby has the second highest tidal changes in the Southern Hemisphere, and we had booked a trip out by seaplane to see them up close. We were waiting to board and the pilot asked for a volunteer to be “co-pilot”. I piped up and was in the hot seat. 


We took off and climbed to 5,500 feet and flew out over some of the 1,000 islands that comprise the Bucaneer Archipelago. Between several of these islands there is a tidal race that is called the Horizontal Waterfall, as up to 5 metres of difference in height can exist between the two sides of the race. We flew over and saw the huge volumes of water pouring through the narrow gap. 


We landed on the water, (odd feeling – our first time in a sea plane)  – I kept well away from the controls, and within a few minutes we were transferred to a powerful speedboat and were racing off to the “falls”. This boat was amazing – it took us up to speeds of 120km an hour and tore across the water towards the gap. Wow what an adrelinin rush as we weaved our way through the maelstrom of water. Back and forwards though the gap we raced, bouncing around like a ….well….fly in a cyclone. 

As the sun started dipping it was time to head to our home for the night on this large houseboat. We were offered a swim in a shark tank. Catherine of course was straight in, well someone needed to man the camera and that was me.


The same sharks (Tawny Sharks) have been fed and handled for 10 years, seeming to enjoy the interaction, or more likely associating human noise with being fed chunks of barramundi!

Dinner on the top deck was freshly caught barramundi for us too, just delicious, and there we are in the middle of this huge wilderness of islands, staring up at the stars and feeling very privileged to be here. 

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Day 30: 28 June – Windjana Gorge and back to “civilisation” 

Author: Mr A

We absolutely loved our walk last night into the gorge – so it was up at dawn and in again – this time armed with bacon and egg wraps and a thermos of herbal tea. Very civilised. Even the crocs looked jealous. 


Then it was pack up the van (so easy!) and off to Derby. We were counting down to hitting the bitumen – first time for a couple of weeks – and mixed feelings about getting phone reception back. We knew there would be much to sort out after being offline for 10 days.  As it turned out, the world had pretty much carried on turning without us. Amazing really…

We rocked up at our caravan park in Derby and queued along the road outside to check in (it’s Australia’s last great wilderness, remember?) and got ourselves a lovely big site right near the front of the park. There’s more than two hundred sites here – so probably over 5/600 people. And they aren’t all grey….Catherine for instance is turning blond…not grey…she’s not amused as her gorgeous brunette hair lightens in the sun…I look on and smile…

We booked a table down on the wharf a 5 minute drive away and watched our first sunset over the ocean in Western Australia…finally it dawns that we have driven to across a continent. Feels pretty good. The lovely Mrs A chose the snapper and chips, and I went for the MASSIVE PORK RIBS! OMG – they were huge – so big I immediately lost 50% to my dinky wife and got in return a very small piece of fish. Not a good trade for me. This was our first BYO place since Sydney so we were excited to take our Saperavi from Gapsted Wines in the Victorian high country – a fabulous drop we think. 

With an enormous sunset flooding the sky all is again good with the world. 

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Day 28: 26 June: A perfect setting for a swim, and creativity in the kitchen…

Distance driven: 147km

Time:  3.5 hours

Author: Mr A

We packed up this morning and tackled the 2 hour drive out of the Mornington Wilderness, reflecting on what a great experience it had been to stay there. A quick top up of diesel at the Imintji Road House, $2’s a litre (ouch – but cheaper than they last fill! Two apples and a pallett of strawberries were procured, as our first fresh veg we’ve seen for weeks), and we were soon pullling up at the Slient Grove campground. This was where we left the van and headed up the short track to Bell Gorge, a short walk/rock hop (Kimberley classic walking track) and a climb down to an amazing swimming hole complete with a perfect waterfall framing the view.


We are privileged to be in these wonderful places. I can’t help but always wonder for how long humans have been swimming here and feeling the same simple pleasure. The latest estimate would say from the last Ice Age, around 50,000 years. Have we changed that much over those years in how we feel about taking a plunge in such a beautiful place? 


Back at the van its a lovely shower in the en suite and a vodka, soda and fresh lime al fresco, with the left over garlic damper from last night. Dinner followed…how about this…a chicken jalfrezi with a “Kimberley Aloo”. Now you might not find that on your local curry house menu, but after 3 weeks down the Gibb and no access to fresh supplies one needs to improvise. So the only fresh veg left at this point was kumera, and the freezer had some frozen peas, so in a unusually inspired moment I suggested a variant on Bombay aloo (peas and potato in a curry sauce). Mrs A being the wonder cook that she is, excited on this grand design and there it was on the plate…awesome. A Chocksotne Shiraz from the Grampians stood up nicely to the power of the spices. Dessert will be the strawberries bought today and some dairy free ice cream from the freezer. Who could want for more?

Interjection from Mrs A: 

Kimberley Aloo Recipe (serves 2-3)

Kumera (sweet potatoes) x 2

1 tsp turmeric 

1 tsp garam masala

1tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp chilli powder (more to taste)

1 tsp cornflour

2 bay leaves (fresh, dried or frozen ok – we had frozen)

250 ml/1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

  • Boil a pan of water and add potatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes
  • Meanwhile mix up spices, stock and cornflour in a separate bowl
  • Drain potatoes
  • Add spice mix and peas
  • Cook up, stirring regularly
  • Once sauce thickened, serve.
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Day 26: 24 June – Mornington Wilderness Camp – Twitching and Packrafting…

Distance driven: 28km

Total drive time: 2 hours

Author: Mr A

What a cracker of a day!! Up before dawn and out on a birdwatching trip, guided by the lovely Sally, an Australian Wildlife Conservation  (AWC) twitcher. She and 20 other staff live here on the property for 7 month sat a time. Most of the staff won’t leave the property for the whole time, given its a 2 hour rough drive just to get back to the rough “main road” then another 3 hours to the closest “town”. Quite a few backpackers among the staff I talked to are looking for a different experience from the usual booze tours down the coast. 

We saw an amazing selection of birds as the sun climbed its way up over endless plains of spinifex, with boab trees standing sentinel and providing great avian lookouts. We learnt about how the AWC is engaged across millions of hectares of NW Australia in a fire management program that ensures there are burns early in the season when the spinifex roots can resist and recover. Basically taking over from what the traditional aboriginal custodians of the land were doing for thousands of years, very successfully. 

Next on the agenda was an hour’s drive out down a rough track with numerous water crossings to reach Dimond Gorge on the Fitzroy River, where we inflated our packrafts and headed off down a fun little rapid and out into this stunning landscape where we were dwarfed by towering cliffs on either side of us. It was truly awe inspiring, to feel so insignificant on the water next to these sheer cliffs rising up 70 metres vertically over our heads. We drifted down the river – when there’s not much current a packraft is not the fastest thing on the water, but we weren’t in a rush, just spinning round admiring the scenery. 


It was soon time for our picnic lunch, up on a rock platform, what a spot. There was nowhere else I’d rather have been, no fancy restaurant could have lured me away from that spot, with a delicious smoked salmon and pasta salad, and a cuppa of course. 

All too quickly we we’re back at our little rapid and had some fun trying to see if we could get back up it. I love these little boats. If we had had our big plastic kayak with with us we would not have been able to get in and out of the water. A big tick for these lightweight boats. At the end of last year an Australian company started up designing their own boats to compete with the much more expensive US market leaders, Alpacka Rafts. Check out www.Packraft.com.au. We have been very happy with them so far, and Geoff the owner has been super helpful.  They are a little heavier than the US boats, becuase they are double skin to their single skin, but for less than a kilo more, I choose robustness. 


We decided to have dinner in the AWC restaurant as we were pretty bushed, and locally caught barramundi was on the menu. We invited over the couple we had been birdwatching with that morning, they run a sheep farm outside of Bathurst, and all learnt something about the other couples very different lives. That’s one of the things we are really enjoying about this trip – mixing with people who otherwise our lifestyles would not put us at the same table. 


Another sound sleep coming up with the stars shining though our roof hatch…

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Day 24: Thursday 22nd June: Another day another great gorge 

From: Barnett River Gorge

To: Manning Gorge

Author: Mr A

All gorged out? No not yet. This was a cracker again today. After navigating out of last night’s camp without causing damage to the mobile apartment…phew…we turned our nose westwards again on the Gibb. The road is in better shape on this section. Some corrugations but nothing like what we experienced from El Questro to the Drysdale Sation turn off. No sharp “cut your tyres as soon as look as you” rocks…corrugations still but sandier. We think the grader might have come through as well. 

We pulled into Mount Barnett Road House and got our day pass for Manning gorge (’tis privately owned), thinking we wouldn’t camp here given it was a mere 3.4 on WikiCamps (our cut off point usually 3.5), but after a longish walk into the gorge and then a swim and a bake, we found our fresh water tap was not spewing forth the good stuff. We decided to try changing the filter, and got so far, then stuck. A kindly neighbouring van man helped us get it off (I can do it next time!) and still the fresh tap wasn’t working. Ah he said “that will be a fuse then”. Sure enough one of our fuses had been dislodged. So all sorted. People are so friendly and helpful on these camps. It’s a great atmosphere. So after a few beers together we ended up staying here the night (or long term parking as our neighbours termed it). 

But back to the gorge walk. It was a hot one – no, not the ‘backpackers-walking-in-their-bikinis-and-boots’ hot, the temperature, of course. A fantastic swimming hole awaited us, framed by a picture-perfect waterfall. It was simply wonderful. A feta cheese and beetroot wrap (sheep cheese of course, given madam’s dietary needs), and a lovely cup of herbal lemongrass and ginger tea and we were set. 



So dinner was another magnificent concoction from Mrs A, a gnocchi based dish with a chicken and chorizo in a tomato, ginger and garlic sauce. A Barossa Shiraz just kept it company nicely. Now we will take the rest of the bottle down to our neighbour’s campfire and exchange travel stories, and tips of how to live and love life on the road. 

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Day 22: Tuesday 20th Jan: The Truth about the Gibb River Road

Author: Mr A

The road: hundreds of kilometres of corrugations with jagged rocks. Just under $500s this morning for a new tyre. If you’re towing a van there will be issues – cabinetry will rattle to pieces however well built. It’s punishing. The grader clearly hasn’t been around for a while and with this volume of vehicles that is a recipe for painful driving, and this morning on the Kalamburu Road from Drysdale was even worse!

The campsites: the air is constantly thick with choking dust from all the vehicles charging up and down oozing machismo.  Some of the campsites at the stations are OK, but don’t expect to find a quiet bush camp, everywhere we’ve pulled off there have been other campers. 

The scenery: so far hasn’t been very inspiring when driving, with days of low dusty scrub lining the road.

So why do so many people drive the Gibb? We are puzzling over that question, judging by our experience so far. There are so many more attractive parts of Australia with incredible wildlife and fewer visitors. The whole east coast Main Range from Brisbane to Eden for instance. Thousand of kilometres of trails where you will often find quiet camping and always awesome scenery. This is the Australia we know and love. Australians, I know, do like the idea of a vehicle based challenge. Driving tough tracks as an end in itself. There’s certainly plenty of that to be had up here. For us, we see the car and van as a means to get us somewhere beautiful and preferably with no one else around, where we can then get out amongst it on legs, bike or kayak. 

So why are we are doing it? Because we haven’t been here before is always our starting reason! Perhaps we got sucked in to the hype of the “Australia’s last great wilderness” tag line. It certainly hasn’t felt like that when you see a vehicle at least very 10 minutes. We can drive though National Parks 2 hours from Sydney and see less traffic. 

So what have been the highlights today? We decided not to drive up to the Michell Plateau to see the falls, but instead splashed out on a plane ride over them. The thought of spending another two days in a car top do a 4 k walk at the end to the Falls didn’t inspire us. The flight was brilliant (well better for me than Catherine who had to take advantage of the sick bags provided when we started circling over the falls). Seeing the country from the air gave us a whole new perspective on the sheer scale of the Kimberley. The pilot was a great guide as well and full of interesting facts on the landscape spread out beneath us. 




We then drove the excruciatingly corrugated 70km out of Drysdale and have found a quiet camp just off the road that we had to ourselves for around 15 minutes, before two camper trailers pulled up. Ah well, its a lovely spot by a water lillied river, surrounded by bird life and even a cow! We would have loved to get the packrafts out, but its still saltie country. Catherine whipped up some walnut damper and we stuck that on the Weber. Fabulous with jam and a Pale Ale! Followed by a pre-made meal from a couple of nights ago – chicken madras curry. 

Tonight’s dinner was accompanied by a smooth as….Leconfield Cab Sav. A couple of episodes of Good Wife on the iPad and then….WE HAVE WATCHED ALL 7 SERIES!!! OMG…what next to pass these dark evenings? 

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