The Kimberley

They say that a bad week travelling is still better than a good week at work.  We have to agree.  I mentioned in the last post that Matt had an ear infection, and that he is atrocious when sick.  This proved to be so, and he has challenged us all; particularly last week. However, we already have our old Matthew back and life is great again.

We left Katherine on the Wednesday and drove West through Gregory National Park towards lake Argyle.  I hadn't read much about this area; it was quite beautiful.  Victoria River Roadhouse was too far away from Lake Argyle to stop there for the night, and we didn't like the look of Timber Creek...so opted for a free camp at Big Horse campground.  A big old red dust bowl...but next to the river so it had a tick in the Free Camps book.   Unfortunately we struck a pretty unfriendly neighbour, and did I mention the dust?  Matthew was in typical sick and therefore loud and demanding mode and there wasn't a lot for them to do.  I was thinking we probably should have opted for the van park at Timber Creek.  The boys had a few minutes of fun playing dust wrestling, then we fed and washed them (therefore pretty much running out of water) and all went to bed.



At least they got to have a bit of fun...



 Later that night, Matt had a bit of a cough and ended up vomiting - joy of joys, this is common when he is sick.   So all the clothes and bedding was stuffed into garbage bags to be dealt with at Lake Argyle.  Charlie had vomited the previous night in Katherine (probably from eating one too many sausages) so we were starting to feel a tad frazzled.  However, we made it through the Quarantine Checkpoint and on to Lake Aryle without any problems.  A bit of washing and cleaning and all was well again...except for Matt driving us crazy with his impossible behaviour.  We had decided to go on a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle, so threats were made and behaviours improved.  We all had a fantastic time and were so glad that everybody had been able to go. 



We all enjoyed a most magnificent sunset.

 So Lake Argyle worked it's soothing magic on us...and apart from the cough, Matthew seemed on the mend. 

I was sooo looking forward to swimming in this pool.
Unfortunately it was too cold :(



Our darling Matt with his rock and digger creation.

We needed to stay a night in Kununarra, to stock up before heading into the Bungles and further west.  This gave us the opportunity to go for a walk in another National Park and catch up on some much needed internet and mobile access.  Not having access can be a bit of a pain sometimes - making it hard to keep in contact with people. 

 


The little rock wallabies checking out
the rock formations behind our caravan park.

We were looking forward to arriving at the brand new caravan park just outside the Purnululu National park (Bungle Bungles).  Lots of people had never heard of it, there wasn't much word on the track about it...and it was quite pricey at $45 a night, plus an extra $5 each for the boys...but we believe it was worth every cent as we were closer and could spend the full day in the Bungles.  They had only been operating 6 weeks, but you could see they were trying really hard.  There was a campfire each night which always leads to much socialising.  The talk was all about:  how hard is it to drive in?  How bad is the road?  And you could tell that some of the menfolk who had opted to go on a bus tour in, were half wishing they were going to get the opportunity to tackle the 4WD track in themselves.  And, it WAS fun! It took 2 and a half hours to do about 50 km, there were over 30 creek crossings and lots of rocky corrugated roads...but it was still fun!!  Granted, because we only spent one day there (the boys can only handle so much walking) we did probably spend more time driving in and out than at the actual Bungles...but we don't really care 'cos it was fun!  Next time, the boys will be older and we will camp in there a few nights. 
 


On the walk into Cathedral Gorge. 

Cathedral Gorge:  magnificent!



Cathedral Gorge




Good old Pearl - she served us well. 



The largest of the creek crossings.

Matt really seemed to be going downhill again, so we opted to drive straight to Fitzroy Crossing so he could be checked at the hospital.  We had planned to free camp a night on the way, but felt that would be asking for trouble!  On the way, I noticed that Charlie seemed to have developed conjunctivitis.  What next????? 
Anyway, all was great at the hospital and armed with new antibiotics for Matt and eye drops for Charlie we headed onto Derby the next day. 
Some fresh sea air was just what the doctor ordered.  All is well now with us all and we are ready to head into Broome tomorrow for a week. 




Sunset at Derby

Hopefully now we will have more frequent internet access, so I don't fall behind with the blog posts again.  We have been really looking forward to the West Coast, as we really slow down.  I will leave you with a beautiful photo I took of Matt at Cathedral Gorge in the Bungles...we have always ridden a rollercoaster ride with that boy and we love him dearly!  Bless him :)


By the way..there is still some difficulty posting comments:  click on comments at the bottom of a blog post, write your comment and remember to add your name in the comment as you may need to select anonymous, then click on preview and it will ask you to type in a code word shown on screen.  Then your comment should be published and we get an email telling us there is a comment.  As I always say...it is fabulous to get any feedback at all whether via the blog, email or text/phone...so let us know what is happening with you :)

Cheers,
Tanya & Tony