Week 9 and 10.....maybe 11.....is anyone counting still???

What a few weeks we've had!  The Gibb River Road lived up to it's legend and although the Caravan itself appears bullet proof with nary a drama...the kitchen items we put in it are certainly not!  The fridge cracked a weld and dropped it's amonia and really cleaned the sinus'!  Then the micro wave decided to pack it in working and telling time and appearing to be working but 'magnatron' say nooo!  Hot water system cracked a weld where the water goes in and flooded the van so there were some fun times to be had but over and all the rattle of the road is still in our heads but we are safe and sound in Broome and all is being fixed and re-fitted (thanks warranty!)   We'll tell the tale with the following photo's and comments to keep you up to date!

First stop on the GRR was Emma Gorge, a great walk up into the coldest water Kerriann has ever in my knowledge consciously swam.  The water was freezing!  

Emma Gorge - The girls swimming back from the water droplets in the background that come off the cliffs that are bathed in sunlight and as such warmer than the arctic waters below!  They were swimming under the drips with mouths wide open trying to get a reprieve from the bitterly cold water...Jessica's laughter when she's in cold water is so great to hear...that kind of nervous hysterical ha ha ha ha ha ha I can't stop laughing or I'll die kind of laugh....!  

Zebedee Springs - El Questro Station.  The water although classed as a Hot Spring was only about 32 degrees and it was a cold day so keeping warm was an issue!  Nice spot except for the moron tour guide resplendent in his crocodile dundee teeth and all acubra hat who's every second sentence was "I'm the tour guide so this and that"... etc....while his back packer brain dead hanger on's insisted on swearing vulgarity totally unnecessarily in the presence of many children and elderly.....!  Needless to say I had a quite word and the morons moved on to the cooler water and were quietly spoken it seems!  Deep breaths.....deeeeep breaths we're on holiday.

Pentecost River Crossing, we had to drive across, drop Kerriann and Kacie with the camera's and return and do it again! The back drop was magnificent and photo's do nothing of the colour in the cliff faces as the sun was setting in the west!  We were so tempted to free camp by the river but kept on to Home Valley Station where we set up for a few days as a base camp before driving/camping up at Mitchell Falls NP.  The road to Kalumburru was closed.

We met some fantastic friends this last week or so with Paul, Sil and their 3 kids and Mike and Robin fresh out of PNG with there van named "Haus belong Raun" and Toyota "Mipela Raun"!  What a great time we had!
We left the van at Drysdale Station on the Kalumbaru Road and borrowed some kit from Paul and Sil and camped at Mitchell Falls National Park.  The 180km drive took about 5 hours (not including stops) to get into the camp and we felt very sorry for the people that day tripped it from a camp 60km south of Drysdale and from Drysdale also!
The walk from the camp to the falls including the swim across the river to get to the viewing cliffs is about 1 hour in and a fantastic set of falls in a beautiful part of the Kimberley!

That's us on the right at Mertens Falls that lead a magnificent gorge!  Only a few hundred metres from Mitchell Falls below:

Mitchell Falls!  Nice spot!  Had to actually swim across the river above these falls/photo to walk to this vantage spot.  The crossing was not actually open when we were here and it was a get wet or go home affair all round!

Never missing the opportunity to be a tosser, we came across a very recent burnt out m/c from a group of 20+ riders from Perth that were doing a run to Kalumbarru.  They had to carry spare fuel in coke bottles etc... and this chaps milk bottle of fuel in his back pack leaked and caught fire on the exhaust.  He was lucky to escape un-scathed.  So enter Mick I'manidiot Jones trying to kick start the dead beast for Paul and his crew coming from behind and after the 'yeah good one you knuckle head' I lift my left leg off and slice open my left calf about 4 stitches worth into the subcutaneous fat/tissue on a razor sharp pin melted on the frame (see hair still left on the tip second photo!)  Anyway, scrub out with betadine, a razor to shave the hair and a week or so of steri strips and wound is healing o.k.  Leg modelling career is in tatters!

A Mertens Monitor and a White-quilled Rock-Pigeon!  How cool.....that bloody bird had me ducking and weaving through the rocks for about 20 minutes to try and get a photo.......another tick in the Simpson and Day...!  Bird 326 to those in the game.

When we came back from Mithchell Falls NP - Mike and Robin in front left of photo had stayed back and looked after our van and kit.  Mike also had the satellite set up for the first state of origin game!  I was so upset I didn't have phone coverage to call Brucey Wildcard and Dibsy Withers and stir up the muck.....it was enough though that Qld destroyed the blues again......sigh!!! 

The swim across Manning Falls National Park / Creek.  There were poly styrene boxes to float your boots and gear across to the other side to then walk in the 45 minutes to Manning Falls which were well worth the effort even though the water was frigidly cold!

Cheryl bringing up the rear for the last swim crossing at Manning Falls!  Get busy living hey!?

View over the creek from one of the free camps on the GRR.   There were barra scales of a small fish on the bank and I set the Cherubin Pots and caught/released 2!  Very cold water however. This was about the time Broome had a 7 degree's night the coldest May Day in such and such years.  Nice for rugging up and sleeping!

We had a camp over damper cook off with Mike and Robin.  Kerriann nailed it with this fantastic 'Date Damper' that was devoured by all with slathers of butter, jam and syrup!  The third camp over in left photo has a beautiful Beef stew al-la-cheryl again a sensation with a second damper for dinner  (the Date damper was afternoon tea of course!).

WE had to go to Windjana Gorge of course...just have to try and convince Andrew from Winjana RV that he needs to correct his spelling????

We ran into Patricia whose travel partner had broken his elbow and flown to Broome and then Perth for surgery.  Is the only child of her mum and dad whom each have no family left.....there are only 3 of them on this planet!  No cousins, uncles etc....We thought how much her mum and dad must be stressing about Patty backpacking the world (as she's done) and she had her 23rd birthday with us.  Kerriann put up lovely Happy Birthday banner in her car and we sang Happy Birthday at a quarry in a bush camp. This photo is taken in tunnel creek which was an amazing walk through a cave that was a creek about 400 metres long and torch required.  Very cool and yes again the water was cold!

Prison tree at Derby.  The Boab's are incredible! All individually different and ancient not only in there scars from human blazing but also appearance next to 100 year old tree's that are blazed and less than a quarter the size of this one?

Bran Nue Dae!!! Broome YEH!!!  And as suspected although ringing through the exact model, serial number, part number and full description of the fridge that needs fixing a full week prior they sent the wrong part from Perth and we are stuck in Broome for at least 2 weeks I reckon!  Honestly....how hard is it to provide a service??????  I wonder what the service would be like if the accountability for actions was anything like the police?

Broome this afternoon at Cable Beach.

Cable Beach sunset

Thats a very short glimpse of the last few weeks.  The boat is set up and ready and tomorrow we'll be trying to get our money worth for the WA fishing license.  We even spent $40 on some dilly's as you get caught with munyanah crab pots here and you're gone!  So with some luck and a bit of cunning we hope to have fresh crab for tea tomorrow?  WE just had the second last fillet of barra for tea!

More to come, it's late..........good night! X