Emily@ El Questro

Our car is in the mechanics so we hired a car to explore.The first day we explored around Kununurra, including the markets, Mirima National Park, some water holes and the Zebra Rock Gallery.Zebra rock is a stripy rock only found in the East Kimberly. The Gallery was full of things that were made of Zebra rock and was on the edge of the Ord River. We went down to the river with bits of bread to feed the fish. There were catfish and black Bream and my, weren't they ugly.Yesterday we left early to drive to El Questro, a three million acre property on the Gibb River Road. We were all busting for a swim, because the day was 36 degrees, so we decided to go for a walk to Zebedee Springs to have a swim. Mum thought it was a bit too warm but we all thought it was relaxing and didn't want to get out after an hour and a half! Then we went to have lunch. Fish and chips, beef burgers, Caesar salad and ice cream to follow. After lunch we went on a beautiful 2 hour walk down Emma Gorge. Teddy had to come too! When we got to the end there was a lovely waterhole. It was very cold and we enjoyed it thoroughly and Josh swam all the way to the waterfall and back. It was a day we will all remember.

On the road again...sort of...

It has not been the week one would plan for on an adventure around Australia. As we have been carless and many kilometres from shops etc. we have made our own entertainment. There has been recycling our rubbish into vehicles small and large, playing music on various instruments and much, much whittling of sticks into whistles and boats.
The wildlife and interesting trees here have been categorised and checked against bird books. The red tailed black cockatoos yesterday were very impressive and loud.
Today we climb aboard our transport for the next leg of the journey. The photo below is a new one, but very similar to one you may have seen on this blog before!
See you in Kununurra!

Josh@ Fitzroy Crossing still...

We are still at Fitzroy Crossing. It's alright to be stuck here as there is a pool and a tennis court for only five dollars an hour. They also give you rackets and balls.
The first night we were here we went and had Barramundi and chips in the lounge area of the lodge. We were very surprised because when we were served, all our food came in polystyrene boxes even though we were sitting at a table eating in. There was so much rubbish in the room as each table had the same containers.
Where we are camping there is a tree nearby that a hawk seems to be in most of the day. Yesterday lunch time we had bacon and eggs and then after lunch we got all the bacon fat and threw it bit by bit onto the road when the cars weren't coming and the hawks were farely near. We then saw the hawk spiral down and pick up the bacon fat and then lift off again. Below there is a picture I took while the hawks were swooping down to pick up the bacon fat. It was also fascinating to watch each time.
Our car needs a new water pump which has been ordered from Perth and should arrive by Wednesday, so until then we are here to swim, play tennis, ride our scooters and feed the hawks.

Land Rover 4 sale @ Fitzroy Crossing

For sale: 2000 Land Rover Discovery TD5.

Features include:
- Brand new fuel pump and filter
- New (unused) spare tyre, not a brand you've ever heard of but sure to be quality
- Recent transmission fluid change
- 2nd battery which mostly works ... just carry a few spare fuses with you.

Has a special Land Rover safety feature where the engine cuts out in the event of a crash .... or when traversing outback corrugated roads at even relatively low speed.... frequently. Just a quick lift of the bonnet, press the inertia (reset) switch, disconnect and reconnect the battery, and you're on your way again.

Probably needs a new water pump due to dodgy bearing making very loud noise and currently keeping vehicle off the road.

Vehicle in Fitzroy Crossing and likely to be for several days at least, so plenty of time to pick yourself up a bargain.

All enquiries to Bruce but don't worry about calling because Optus ain't too good out here.

Will accept trade in on Toyota Landcruiser- they seem to be reliable on all terrain.

Cheers, Bruce

Wandering @Winjana

We finally left Broome with the car purring and feeling refreshed for the next leg of our adventure. The road into the national park was quite rough and the corrugations meant we took it slowly. Even Mannie, Abby's Teddy drove!! We arrived at the campground in the middle of nowhere to find flushing toilets and lovely hot showers. What luxuries!
Early the next morning we headed into Winjana Gorge and even by 8 am it felt hot as we walked away from the camp ground. Abigail led the way as we wanted to motivate our weakest walker!
The walk started with a climb through cave like rocks and then we were in the gorge. The limestone and pink coral rock walls were stunning and their sheer size was overwhelming. We were very eagerly looking about for 'freshies' and it wasn't long before we spotted some. It was very hot walking through the sandy gorge floor, but was really worth it.
We returned to the campground for a cold drink and then headed back into the car for the drive to Tunnel Creek. We thought it was 30km, but it ended up being more like 40km of the worst dirt roads we've seen so far this trip. As we went through a dip we heard series of explosions and below you can see the results. Our jack was not tall enough, so we were rescued eventually by a German couple with a big air pillow jack. What an adventure in the heat of the day!
The trip to Tunnel creek we took very slowly as we no longer had a spare. It was amazing to walk through the pitch black tunnels knee deep in water and see limestone formations, bats, fish and another underground world. It wasn't always predictable how deep the water would be and Oliver and Josh both had deep water experiences... Very funny.
We head out today through the last 80km of rough road towards Tunnel Creek where hopefully we can get a new tyre.

Pool time@Broome

Our days currently go something like this: wake, eat breakfast, workbook time/ play UNO, go to pool, eat lunch, 2 hours quiet time, go to pool ( where we spotted Tawny Frogmouths), showers, eat dinner, little ones to bed, play banana-grams, go to bed. It's tough, but we are hanging in there until we get our car back.

Emily in Broome

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a lovely one, I even got a birthday cake. Today was even better. Mum and I went to Pearl Luggers, a museum and pearl retail business, while the others went to a water park. In the tour that we went on we were told about the clothes that the divers wore(see bellow) up until 1975 and how they often died. In the shop I held a real pearl that was worth$100,000!!! I also bought a pearl necklace for myself(see bellow) with some birthday money. In the afternoon we went down to Cable Beach to ride the well known Broome camels. It felt funny to be so high up and was bumpy! On the ground next to the camels were their shadows that looked funny. After our camel ride we watched the sunset. It was beautiful!