Saturday morning in Broome

A last swim at Cable Beach, check out the colour of the water.
And a visit to the Saturday morning market, big boab trees in the park and an aging hippy selling ceramic flute stones to another aging ex hippy - who now has something else to do as well as the crossword!

Laid back in Broome

This is our second visit to Broome, when we were here last year we did all the tourist stuff, this year we have been enjoying the laid back atmosphere and the climate. We are staying at the Broome Caravan Park, on the outskirts of town - the park has lots of shady trees and a magnificent pool - so dips in the pool, a chair with a good book in the shade or a visit to Cable Beach have been the go! We have been into town, a 5 minute drive away, to lodge a postal vote at a special polling booth set up for people from interstate, to stock up on supplies and for a visit to the outdoor cinema Bran Nue Dae is showing, very appropriate!
We leave here Monday for a week at Port Smith and then on to 80 Mile Beach, neither of which have an internet connection so don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from us for a couple of weeks.

Fitzroy River and Crossing

Since leaving Kununurra we had our first overnight stop at what is commonly known as a “free camp” a road side stop some of which have facilities including water, toilets and fire place. This one at Mary Pool is on the side of a river, so lots of trees plus 3 long drop toilets for about 100 caravans but many vans now have their own toilets and showers on board and a power supply. (photo of 3 A'vans at Mary Pool). Free camps are very popular with retirees on a limited budget and we will be happy to give them a try now and then.
We spent 2 nights at Fitzroy Crossing - good to be able to have a shower - the area regularly floods and the ablution block in the camping ground is built up high to allow for the rising waters! We took the boat cruise down the Fitzroy River which runs through Geikie Gorge in the national park owned by the local Bunaba people who call the gorge Darngku.
The jagged limestone peaks are actually the top of ancient reef that formed in the Devonian Period prior to the evolution of mammals and reptiles - pretty old rocks!

Lake Argyle and Ord River Cruise

Kununurra’s water is available because of the damming of the Ord River and the formation of Lake Argyle - previously during the wet season and annual floods the river ran out to sea and during the dry season the land was parched cattle country. Now with water available all year round the vast black soil plains provide irrigated plantations which are green and productive.
We took a tour, bus to the lake and head of the dam and then a 50 km river boat cruise back along the river, we saw lots of crocs, bird and animal life. The surrounding countryside is just stunning, the river snakes through cliffs of the Carr Boyd Ranges and we arrived back to a spectacular sunset.

Rum and ...

Kununurra’s important assets are plenty of water, sunshine and good soils - there are acres of mango trees, vegetables, sandalwood trees and until recently a lot of sugar was grown here too. That’s not the case now and the sugar that is grown is for rum production. We have never been great rum drinkers but yesterday we visited the local Hoochery and were pleasantly surprised at the range they make. After several tastings we even ended up buying some!

Trainspotting in Katherine

We are back in Katherine and would you believe, it is raining today!

But yesterday was a beautiful day and we got up early to see the Ghan arrive from Adelaide. You may well say, why don’t you just go down to Keswick if you want to see the Ghan, but there are beautiful huge outback skies here and fun to see the long train appear out of the bush. Also a chance to people watch, about 300 tourists got off for a quick tour of the town and local highlights. Lots of old legs, limping in new pristine sneakers!

(For OS readers, the Ghan connects Adelaide to Darwin (via Alice Springs) by rail and is named after the Aghans who opened up much of the outback with their camel trains.)

We leave tomorrow for Kununurra.