The Kimberley Region

First stop after Katherine was Timber Creek for one night. Only went a few hundred Km's and I like to think I was easing my way into the whole leaving Darwin business, incase I wanted to go back! Caravan Park was basic but OK and although the pool was freezing we got in twice because the temperature has been in the high 30's. It was Father's Day and the kids gave their dad a t-shirt with a fish on the front.

Next day we moved on to Kununurra and W.A., where we spent 3 nights so we could take in all the sights. Spent a day going to Wyndham (and sorry that we did!), it was a total dive. Our first clue should have been the write-ups about it being an HISTORIC town, the second should have been the lack of traffic heading the same direction as us, and the third should have been the 2 second drive down the main street. But alas, we wanted to give it a chance so we went to all the recommended places...the port (which is a group of old meat works sheds and a locked area that is still in use), the Afghan cemetary (which was 3 piles of rocks without a thing written on them), the big croc in the main street (which was a ghastly shade of yellow and green), the largest boab tree in captivity (which was at the back of a tiny run down caravan park and was BIG if nothing else), and then on the way home we went to see the Prison Tree (a hollow boab tree where prisoners were once kept out in the bush and which took us over 22km each way down a rough 4WD track to find "the tree" and nothing else) and the Grotto (which would have been more impressive in the wet with more than a splash of green water in the bottom of it). The saving grace of the whole day was the little cafe where we had morning tea/lunch. Without that we would have given up and come back to the caravan park early I think. Chris and I had a laugh about it but the kids were less than impressed and said they never wanted to go to Wyndham again!!

Next day was a better day. We went to Lake Argyle for a quick look around the lake.

Unfortunately you can only see a tiny piece at the end where the water outlet is and we would have had to pay $200 to go on a boat ride to see a tiny bit more, but still nowhere near the entire thing, so we came back to Lake Kununurra and hired some canoes for a little paddle there instead. Laura and I were in one canoe and Chris and Will in the other. Will was terrified and held onto the sides for most of the ride, until we told him we were heading back, then he wanted to paddle and even got game enough to give me a splash with his paddle!!

Mary Pool was our next stop and it was a really sweet little camping area with lots of shade, right beside the river. Met a lovely couple from Albury/Wodonga (Justin and Katherine) who are travelling with their little boy Jed and had a great night chatting and trading stories.

Had to cross this bridge which was covered with water and could be a little scarey in the wet season I'm sure!

Willare was our next stop, just at the crossroad before you turn off to Derby. We stayed there two nights for a little R&R but couldn't swim because council had closed the pool. Spent one day checking out Derby and after our misadventures in Wyndham we were a little dubious about another small town but it was actually quite nice. Went to the pier but the tide was out so there was hardly a drop in the entire bay area, as far as the eye could see was mud. The tides can have a 7 metre shift, pretty impressive!

Found a prison tree in Derby too, but this one was right near the road and much easier to get to than the one in Wyndham (wish we'd known that at the time!). Apparently the prisoners were walked from here to Fitzroy Crossing which is hundreds of km's. My god, it's a wonder any of them survived!

Look what else we found...BP Colac (named after a ship wreck in the King Sound they tell me).

What next? Well then we got to Broome where we are presently relaxing. Staying 3 nights. Caravan Park is very tidy and the pool is glorious...check it out...

It even has a 25m lap pool so the kids can jump around and have fun and the serious swimmers won't get annoyed. Gotta love that!

Went for a drive yesterday and had a look at the local beach. Tomorrow we are off to Cable Beach and up the coast.

Laura at the beach in Broome.

Chris went fishing today but alas, NO fish! I stayed home with the kids and believe it or not, it was raining and I had to put on my long pants and a jumper. It got down to 22 degrees in the day, but it's even lower now so I will be cuddling up to the doona tonight. Brrr!