From Geraldton to Broome

G'day Mates!

Back to the travelling stories;  29 th of July

Though the forecast said rain it's still dry during our packing up, luckily. We have been 4 night in Geraltdon and had a good time. The first day we'd been biking all over the place, it's a bit hilly so we where exhausted, not used to it any more. During this bike ride we came at the HMAS Sydney II memorial;

 To design a Memorial of National Significance, which commemorates the loss of HMAS Sydney II, the greatest single tragedy in Australian Naval History, and dedicated to the lost Crew and their families.

The waiting woman

The Dome of Souls

The other days we spent with shopping, checking the car batteries, doctors appointment etc.  my uncle urged me to go to the museum but unfortunately we didn't had time for it and just to stay another day for that and paying $ 36.00 for the caravan park was a bit too much.

When we left Geraldton and took the road up north, the scenery was really beautiful, great green and yellow paddocks again and nice hilly, looked like England or Bavaria.  Along the road were much wild flowers but because it had rained a lot and the soil along the road was very muddy we couldn't stop to make some pictures, unfortunately.

Just a few from out of a driving car

How green compared to the Gold fields 

After approx. 300 k's the road became more flat and it went dryer, the blue sky came back, as we had some drops of rain before, and so we were happy. Let's see where our first stop will be.

Well that was at a roadhouse, just two of us were in the park. The weather was lovely and it had been a long time since we could sit outside so long.

Next day we went further north towards Exmouth and the traffic was ridiculous!! One caravan after another passed us and we can recall that in the old days, when we were on holidays in Australia, these roads were nearly abandoned, you could drive hours without passing a car and look at it now!


Most special was that 90 % of the traffic was caravans, camper vans and camper trailers. Hundreds of them, the other 10 % were Road Trains and just once and a while a normal car.
Crikey, they must be all grey nomads as there are no school holidays at the moment. No wonder all these caravan parks ask sky high prices, they have customers plenty!

The second stop was a free camp it was great again, lovely weather and a full moon;

Just look at how bright it was, I used no flash light;

During our stay here we met people who came from the national park and Exmouth where we were heading to. The national park is Cape Range National park and is part of the Ningaloo Marine Park.

 They have 8 places where you can camp and in total 112 spots.  From them we heard that as well as Exmouth as the national park was chock-a-block. You either had to go to the entrance of the park and be there at approx. 6 o'clock in the morning as they let the same amount of caravans, campers etc. into the park as comes out! Or you can book 48 hours ahead for a spot but then you have to spent 2 nights in one of the caravan parks of Exmouth for $ 52.00 a night!! Most people did that so also these caravan park were packed.

We also booked online, did had reception at the visitor centre and after some investigation we found out that there was a caravan park near the entrance of the park which was a bit cheaper $ 38.00 and so we decided to go there. That was a treat! We had a great spot and the park was great. The amenities were old but clean and that's important. There was no phone reception but just, if you were lucky, a minute or two some internet, but very very bad. 

We've been to the beach opposite the park and see what they provided here;

After these two nights we drove to our spot in the park and like Lucky Bay, this looks like a heaven on earth. Just 80 meters from the beach;

Picture this; just the two of us on a pristine beach, sitting on our chairs with a little umbrella for some shade, having a cold beer in the hand and then we see some fins, flippers and other shapes coming out and tossing around in the water a bit further to the left. It comes closer and there are four Dolphins playing around just in front of us. Amazing !!

Our first night was terrible though.  There was so much wind, our caravan was shaking and the awning made noises, we didn't sleep at all!

In the morning, still a lot of wind, we began an other challenge; fishing! Armed with a rod each and some bait, we took off to the beach.

After a few tries Fred caught the first fish but it was so beautiful we sent it back into the water.

The second one was mine, that was such a dangerous looking thing with very big teeth, that one also went back. But the third one, Fred's caught again, was a nice big Mackerel, we had a whole meal of that one fish. The fish was good I just didn't put the right spices on it, it was a bit flavourless.

The last two evenings were lovely, almost no wind but during the night the wind came back but not as bad.

We did a day trip to Sandy Beach .....

Here we had our lunch

and on our way back we saw some wild strangers....

It is a bit far but on the right in the distance behind some scrub, there is a kangaroo watching...

It wouldn't be us if we didn't do a walk and so we did the Yardie Nature Walk. It started at the caravan park so that was easy!

 As additional to this easy walk was the Yardie Gorge Trail, this moderately difficult trail takes you high above Yardie Creek with views over Ningaloo Reef.

Nice walk but we didn't finish it till the end. That last bit was so steep and rocky, we didn't dare to go further, but we heard from a lady who came back from that part, that the nicest few was at these rocks so we didn't miss anything.

and beautiful wild flowers everywhere...

On our way out of the park we again saw these wild strangers, now a bit closer;

and also these strange wild flowers; Amazing, isn't it? 

After leaving the national park, we did some shopping in Exmouth and filled up both tanks, our water tank and our fuel tanks. The water was free but the topping up the fuel every time shocks me.

West Australia is very colourful during this time of the year....

We left on Wednesday and after a few free camps we ended up in Dampier were we had a lovely shower after nearly a whole week because also in the national park there were no showers, just toilets. I went into the sea though but that's salt of course.

Dampier and Karratha aren't worth going to if you don't pass it. They are industrial towns, salt and iron ore mining, but still it was just nice being on a caravan park for a few days. The caravan park in Dampier was nice but packed. Especially the host was very kind.

We did a little trip though, to an aboriginal site with engraves;
(in the middle you see a mouse looking thing)

and this is Fred haha....

and this I don't know, a weird looking thing on our mat....

(he looks friendly though) 

We have to be in Broome on Sunday the 16 th as we are going house sitting again. We're looking forward to that. We've been in Broome before and we can remember we liked it but just to go there now and go to a caravan park is much too expensive. The caravan parks costs approx. $ 52.00 a night, outrageous !! So we are lucky having a dog to look after.

Between Dampier and Broome is except a few roadhouses nothing really, so we stayed at a few free camps again. And I must admit, there were a few very nice one with even free Wifi. Here some examples.

The first one is Robe River;

Even with free WiFi, good on you council!!

What did I see during a walk around the park;

of course the river....

Some aboriginal paintings;

Some young curious little birdies......

a young Owl in all his wisdom.....

and some lookouts, protecting their territory 

Second one;  Herbert Parker  (Yule River) (no Internet)

Last but not least, the third one; The Grey River (Free WiFi at the parking place near the toilets)

Great place!! Loved it !!

That's it guys!! We are in Broome at the moment looking after Jack. Do you realise what that means?? I did catch up!!! This is now, not the past!

So, a bit of Broome next story??

Will be going on Monday the 31 rst of August towards Darwin where the end of September our son is coming for holidays with his girlfriend. Looking forward to that but of course in between there is approx. 2000 k's with new adventures!

Cheers!