Mount Isa

We have done the washing, will wash the Jeep, and have given the dogs a run in the terrific off leash dog park just along the road near our caravan park. It was shady and free of prickles.

We also found a great store called Worn Out West. There were lots of customers getting their gear for the rodeo which is in a couple of weeks. We will miss the rodeo but couldn't resist updating our outback wardrobes.

Tomorrow we will continue travelling east towards the coast.

Camooweal

Camooweal is a small town of less than 300 people about 20kms the Queensland side of the NT/QLD border. Mount Isa regards Camooweal as a suburb and claims the 188kms of Barkly Hwy between the two places is the longest main road in the world.

We had dinner at the Post Office Hotel and stayed at the hotel's caravan park. There was not much to see during the drive from Renner Springs and the only places to stop were roadhouses.

The Threeways Roadhouse is at the intersection of the north south Sturt Hwy and the western end of the Barkly Hwy. We turned east and the road signs reported the distance to QLD.

Before we could refuel at Threeways we had to hand over ID which was returned when we paid for our fuel. Apparently many vehicles have driven off without anyone paying for the fuel.

Queensland

We have crossed back into Queensland and are spending the night at Camooweal.

Grey Nomads

Most of the people travelling in caravans, campervans, mobile homes or converted buses could be considered to be grey nomads. Most are retired but some look for local work. Our neighbours at Lake Argyle had been there for 9 weeks doing housekeeping in the villas. We were chatting to them after they came to congratulate us on our well behaved dogs!

We have seen a few Asian travellers but otherwise the demographic is white Aussies and in this large population only the men can drive! The vast majority of grey nomads travel as couples. A few travel with friends but each couple has their own vehicle and caravan.

Most travellers are friendly and behave appropriately, but we have had a couple of strange encounters.

At Kununurra Anita was cooking dinner outside our van and had the TV on the 7pm ABC news. A sole female traveller in a campervan asked her to turn the TV down. Anita obliged even though she couldn't hear the TV herself when outside. She was not so obliging when this woman told her to turn out the light she was using to see her cooking and let her know it wasn't even 7.30 and her request was unreasonable.

Yesterday morning at 5am the couple next to us made a lot of noise packing up. We were already awake but were not impressed when they reversed their motor home out of their site and the loud safety reversing beeper woke up anyone who had still been sleeping.

While the wine label is catchy, the contents of the bottle were not up to the expectations created by its origin being McLaren Vale.

Renner Springs

We drove on to Renner Springs and set up camp at the roadside caravan park. This is just a one night stopping place and everyone backs in and leaves their vans connected to their vehicles.

There is some sort of spring but the water is murky and green. There is also a 17m swimming pool but it has an unattractive greenish bottom and
wrigglies in the water. Noone was swimming.

I asked the young Englishman who served me what enticed him to be working in a place like this. He said it was to get a second year on his visa. I couldn't help thinking that was akin to blackmail, but the workforce in these remote locations is mostly young Europeans so the policy it is working.

Daly Waters

Daly Waters is "famous" for having the NT's oldest pub and first international airport. We managed to find a shady tree to park the Jeep under to keep the cats cool while we took the dogs for a sit down lunch. There were tables in the shade where we could keep the dogs under the table.

The food was acceptable and the quirky pub was interesting. Every wall and tree branch is covered with collections of things such as number plates, foreign currency, thongs and road signs.

We could have stayed at the caravan park but decided to keep driving south down the Stuart Highway.

Mataranka

I remembered Mataranka from 1976 when I was notionally in charge of an Army convoy of semi trailers taking supplies to Darwin after the cyclone. This huge tree was there in 1976 and doesn't look any bigger for its extra 40 years of growth.

It was heart breaking then to see the way the Aboriginals lived under decrepit tents, and we saw this again today.

In 1976 there was one store which was also the hotel. The proprietor had total control over the locals' money and most of it was spent on alcohol.

Today there are other facilities to service the caravan/travelling non Aboriginal population, but I only saw Aboriginals congregated outside the original pub. Their accommodation now includes car wrecks parked amongst the tents.

Katherine Gorge

I went to Katherine Gorge and climbed many rough steps to the lookout where the photo was taken. The view wasn't spectacular but after climbing up I had to have something to show for my effort!

We drove to Knotts Crossing which is where Europeans first established a crossing over the Katherine River for cattle. As this is croc country the dogs were not able to get out for a swim and we didn't loiter.

The rest of the day was spent shopping and packing away supplies for our journey south towards Tennant Creek. We will leave tomorrow and visit Mataranka and possibly stop overnight at Daly Waters.

Drive to Katherine

The scenery for much of the drive to Katherine was interesting, from red cliffs to the greenery of Victoria River in the NT. We crossed the border early in the trip so are now on NT time.

There was a lot of traffic going both ways particularly in the morning. The main stop between Kununurra and Katherine is Timber Creek and there was a queue of caravans waiting to refuel.

The road did not permit overtaking in many places so caravan convoys developed behind the slowest vehicle. At one stage a military convoy passed us going in the opposite direction. It was mainly US troops and vehicles presumably headed for one of the training areas in this region. Most of the highway has a maximum speed limit of 130kph. I could not imagine driving any vehicle at that speed on these roads, where there are many uneven sections in the floodways.

We will stay for 2 nights at the Riverview Tourist Village which is a 10 minute walk from the hot springs, but we have not yet explored the river view or the hot springs. We had a quick trip to town to buy fuel and milk and will cook our pork chops at the camp kitchen.

The main attractions in this area are the Katherine Gorge and Edith Falls, both of which are in the Nitmiluk National Park so we again will not be able to visit with dogs.

Lake Argyle

In 1970 the Ord River was dammed to form Lake Argyle which is a massive body of water estimated to equate to the volume of 20 Sydney Harbours. The dam water is used for irrigation downstream in and around Kununurra. The infrastructure built to house the workers who constructed the dam is now used by the Lake Argyle Resort which is where we have stayed for two nights.

 

The term "resort" seems to have a fluid definition but here there is a licensed restaurant, expensive fuel, boat and helicopter tours (for a fee), and an infinity pool. The pool is located above the lake and positioned so that the pool water and the lake water can appear to be the one body of water. It is a lovely pool and we can admire the view from the cool water.

 

I took a 2 hour breakfast boat tour which was informative and enjoyable, particularly as there was no wind so the trip was in calm water. At the boat ramp there were hundreds of fish visible in the crystal clear water. Later we took the dogs to the boat ramp so they could have a swim.

 

Busloads of tourists come through the park each day and there must be more than 200 caravan and camping sites. Fortunately we arrived early enough to get a powered site. The main drawback here is the lack of telephone and internet service. The park provides WIFI for a couple of hours in the afternoons, but given the number of people here every dry season it is outrageous there is no telephone/internet communications tower, particularly as Kununurra is only 70kms away.

 

Tomorrow we head for Katherine but we may not get that far depending what time we get away in the morning and the number of stops we need to have. Dog number one seems more willing to get into the Jeep now we are in areas where the temperature is 35 degrees plus. I cool down the Jeep and she has happily hopped in. Hopefully she will do the same tomorrow when the van is attached.

 

Wyndham

We drove the 90 odd kms from Kununurra to Wyndham on the coast. There is a terrific view of five rivers but a wide angle lens is required. The recreational jetty was especially built for fishing, but the is no shade. It was 35 degrees so I didn't fancy fishing from a concrete jetty - and this is winter so summertime fishing would be worse.

The Rusty Shed was the only place open for lunch and it was doing a roaring trade. We settled for takeaways because it was too hot to have the dogs out of the car.

Around Kununurra

The photo shows the early morning light on the lagoon in front of our camp. We left early to go to the local markets which were very interesting. I could not resist buying more art works from a local photographer who has managed to print her boab prints onto zincalume mini orb. The market allows dogs on leads so I took top dog with us as we wandered around and she was admired and patted by several people. Number two dog was guarding the Jeep as he can easily get spooked in crowds.

The staff at the visitor centre were very helpful making suggestions about places we could go with our dogs. One suggestion was Swim Beach but we didn't get there and our park neighbours told us there was a new crocodile warning so we are glad we missed that opportunity. The waters here are fresh but saltwater crocs can be found 200kms up fresh water creeks and rivers. While travelling with dogs in the heat can be challenging, I am not ready to see them gobbled up by a saltie!

We drove around some of the farms which are irrigated from the Ord River system and visited the Sandalwood Factory which sells all sorts of products made from the Australian grown sandalwood. We had lunch at the Hoochery Distillery which produces rum and very expensive whisky. The food was good and we could park the dogs next to us in shade in the garden. I liked the sentiment in this sign at the Hoochery. We didn't sample any of the spirits but they have won several awards. 

Warmun to Kununurra

Yesterday we drove from Warmun to Kununurra. As we left the roadhouse I noticed this sign explaining why the gate should be secured. Any stray cow or wild horse in the small compound would wreak havoc! We saw several wild horses during the 180kms drive to Kununurra. The scenery along the route was very interesting.

When we arrived at Kununurra we were not able to secure a powered site in the caravan parks that allow dogs. We settled for an unpowered site and called tradespeople to see if they  so could fix our gas leak. The plumber tested everything, pulled up the gas stove, admired the neat plumbing in the van, but could not find any leak. He had been able to smell LPG but no leak registered on his instruments or when he tested with soap bubbles.

By the time he left it was after 3pm and our fridge had not been operating since we arrived 4 hours earlier. It was 35 degrees so when we finally turned the gas on the fridge struggled so we got some ice to help cool it down.

Our site has fabulous views across a large lagoon in the middle of Kununurra, but only has morning shade. All of the sites are quite small and we had to leave room both sides of the van to put up shade awnings. We had the option of moving to a powered site this morning but the thought of packing everything up again and unpacking in the heat on another small site was underwhelming so we opted to stay put. We erected shade on three sides but had to keep our poles and guy ropes within our site boundary so the structure reminds me of Kurilpa Bridge in Brisbane as the poles are at strange angles. At least it has been effective so we hope there are no strong winds to test the engineering.

Fitzroy Crossing - Halls Creek - Warmun

We travelled about 450kms today from Fitzroy Crossing to Halls Creek then stopping at the Warnum Roadhouse (which used to be known as Turkey Creek). The scenery along the road was interesting but there were hardly any places to pull over near the best views.

One place it was possible to stop was at the Ngumpan Cliff Rest Area. The photo taken there does not show the best of the Cliff as seen from the highway, but it was still worth stopping. There was plenty of spinifex grass and some wildflowers. Most of the land was much greener than that to the west of Derby so we hope to see more wildflowers in this area.

We refuelled at Halls Creek but there was no reason to linger. The Coles Express was doing a roaring trade. There is an IGA in town but many of the local Aboriginals do their grocery shopping at the service station. At least Coles does honour its specials so we are still only paying $2 for 2 litres of milk and getting 4c off per litre of fuel. Diesel was $1.42 which is much cheaper than it was when we were in the Kimberleys in 2000. 

There is a small caravan park attached to the Warnum Roadhouse with powered sites. As we can smell gas in our van we are reluctant to run our gas appliances until we can have this checked out. The gas bottles are turned off so it is not a serious problem as long as we don't turn anything on. Without gas we need power to run the fridge overnight.

Warnum is an Aboriginal settlement and the roadhouse and art gallery are run by the local community, which in reality means backpackers work in the store and restaurant. The tourist attraction here is access to helicopter flights over the Bungle Bungles which are World Heritage Listed. Anita has flown over these in a RAAF aircraft and has great memories of the scenery. I don't do helicopters or small planes so I will not get to see this spectacular scenery until we return without dogs or cats and can drive in. The road is serious 4WD but from what I have read will be well worth the effort. The picture is from the official Australian tourism website just so you can see what you are missing!

Derby to Fitzroy Crossing

It may be hard to believe but we have not heard much country music since we left home. Very few radio stations play country, and there are hundreds of kilometres where there is no radio reception. So it was good to hear Alec Beckett last night at our caravan park. He played country classics but forgot his lines a couple of times.

We drove to Fitzroy Crossing today and set up camp at the Fitzroy River Lodge which is beside the Fitzroy River. It is a pleasant park and we again scored a shady site when I explained we had no awning to provide protection for our dogs.

I went on a boat tour of the Geike Gorge which was fantastic. Anita stayed in the caravan park with the dogs because the Gorge is in a national park and dogs are not allowed. The Gorge is the only place of interest near Fitzroy Crossing other than the confluence of the Fitzroy and  Margaret Rivers which have very little water at this time of year. The Gorge has water all year round and it would be sensational to see it during a flood. It has been estimated that the volume of water passing through Fitzroy Crossing is so high it would fill Sydney Harbour in 4 hours. The sand washed up from the bottom of the Gorge scourers the limestone cliffs and leaves them white up to the water line. There were a few fresh water crocs resting along the banks.

We came here 16 years ago as part of a 4WD tag-along-tour. The reason the tour guide took the group to town was to watch the Aboriginals leaving the pub early in the morning, and to view the mountains of beer cans. We were disgusted this was considered some form of entertainment and did not participate. Today I asked at the information centre about the current policy regarding liquor and was told the only alcoholic drinks that can be sold in town are low alcohol beer (no more than 2.7%). It is against the law for people to bring other alcohol into the town and sell it, but it is ok to bring it in for personal use.

The women elders instigated a community ban on most alcohol about 8 years ago after 50 people had died either from domestic violence, assaults or suicide. There has been a great transformation to the town but it still has to deal with the consequences of previous alcohol abuse such as of foetal alcohol syndrome disorders. 

Around Derby

The main attraction at Derby is the wharf where people go to see the impact of the macro tides. The tide variation is the highest in the southern hemisphere, anything up to 11m. The area around the town is tidal mudflats so when the tide is out there is a large expanse of mudflat which cars drive across but I can't see why.

Boab trees are protected in this area and the most famous is the prison tree which is estimated to be 1500 years old. It is not very attractive as it is surrounded by a fence and covered in engravings by vandals. The boab photo I prefer is at One Mile Camp where drovers used to rest before their sheep or cattle were loaded at the wharf.

Tonight at the caravan park country singer Alec Beckett is performing. Tomorrow we head for Fitzroy Crossing.

Derby WA

We finally left Broome and drove to Derby, a trip of 220kms. There was still a fair amount of traffic even though the school holidays have finished. From Broome we travelled east to rejoin the Great Northern Hwy. We crossed a couple of single lane bridges which was surprising given the volume of traffic and the fact this is part of Highway No 1.

We have seen hundreds of termite mounds along the roads but in one section we travelled today they resembled a graveyard, hence the pics.

Derby is 42kms off the highway to the north. We had booked into the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park on the recommendation of several other travellers. Originally we planned to stay just one night but when I was booking in I decided it would be worth a two night stay. The park is lovely - there is plenty of shade for the van and the dogs which is good as we have no awning, the facilities are clean and modern, and the park is spacious. There is a tall cyclone fence around the boundary, which is reassuring as there are tidal mud flats the other side of the boundary closest to us so the fence will keep out those pesky crocs!

Woman Lost at Port Smith Lagoon

News of a woman being lost in the Port Smith Lagoon probably didn't reach the eastern states. As we were there recently we could appreciate how easy it would have been to become disoriented. The ABC news report stated A 76-year-old woman has been rescued after spending 20 hours stranded in crocodile-infested waters in Western Australia's Kimberley with her two dogs. I am not sure the waters should be described as croc infested but at least one croc is known to be living in the lagoon.

When the tide is out there is no clear marker to show how to return to the road up to the caravan park. At least this story had a happy ending for the woman and her dogs. She managed her diabetes with lollies she was carrying and wrapped her arms in dog litter bags to keep off the sandflies. She climbed up a mangrove tree with the two dogs but she was still up to her neck in water until the tide receded.

The police were not immediately available to organise a search so one of the caravan park regulars rounded up other park visitors to form a search party. Fortunately he had considerable search and rescue experience and eventually one of the searchers in a dinghy heard the dogs barking and she was located. The picture is compliments of the ABC.

Hanging out in Broome

Tonight we enjoyed a lovely meal at a restaurant called 18 Degrees. We shared a number of small seafood dishes. Last night we ate at the Mangrove Hotel which was just as nice but more conventional fare. That is the hotel where people go to see the stairway to heaven when the full moon rises in the east over the tidal flats at low tide. We will miss the next full moon as we are leaving Broome on Monday.

We have been able to drive around in the Jeep which seems to be fine with its new battery and alternator compliments of Jeep Assist. The problem may have been caused by our Jeep service centre at the Gold Coast fitting a lead acid battery instead of an Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) battery. The AGM batteries are much more expensive. The battery sent up from Perth cost more than $500 excluding transport, and the alternator was $2,000. When the towing costs, hire car charges and my accommodation costs for one night are added in, supplying the wrong battery was an expensive mistake. One of the conditions of our extended warranty is that we have regular services by a Jeep dealer and use genuine Jeep parts!

The winds have eased but the temperatures are still lower with maximums around 27 degrees. We are hoping to have a warmer weekend so we can go for a swim at Cable Beach and take the dogs for a dip to wash off some of their red dust. This evening we joined hundreds of others viewing the sunset at Cable Beach to take the mandatory photo. I  didn't realise I had caught a kayaker in the reflected light on the sea because of the glare at the time I took the photo.

I enjoyed the music played by the Aboriginal buskers at the sunset gathering but noticed hardly anyone else made a contribution to their collection box.

Windy Broome

Winds over the past three days have made the beaches less attractive. This morning the tide was receding and Roebuck Bay had white caps, while the water at the shoreline was grey instead of the usual turquoise. 

Yesterday the awning on our caravan succumbed to wind gusts which have reached 40kph. We would have taken it down earlier but it is risky taking it down in the wind so we secured it with a wide strap over the top to stop the material from billowing. This worked well until the framework of the awning itself gave way with a bang. At least that didn't happen in the middle of the night.  

We have been resting in Broome waiting for the Jeep parts to arrive. They turned up yesterday so hopefully we will get the vehicle back today. We want to drive it around Broome for a couple of days to make sure it is ok before leaving for more remote areas. If the Jeep is ok we will be leaving Broome on Monday morning when the school holiday traffic should have gone.

There are some very serious 4WD adventurers in our caravan park. They have travelled the Gibb River Road and other remote tracks. We visited those parts 16 years ago so will not be driving those roads this time, except possibly some day trips in the areas north of Broome on the Cape Leveque peninsula. There are very few roads near the coast so the best way to see the area is by boat or from the air. Next time we will take a 4 or 5 day cruise along the Kimberley coast.

Broome Town Beach

The Town Beach is only a couple of blocks from our caravan park but dogs are not allowed. The beach itself is only a hundred metres wide. We walked around the boat ramp, the playground which includes a water park with sprays and showers to keep the kids cool, the picnic area and a café. To the north the bay has beautiful red cliffs and red sand.

There are mangroves either side of the beach and this warning sign caught my attention - the most recent crocodile sighting in the area had been on 6 July 2016 at 12.30pm. Despite this there were still a few swimmers in the water and plenty of footprints in the sand near the mangroves!

Port of Broome

Today we had lunch at the Wharf Restaurant at the Port of Broome. This restaurant has at least 4 star ratings on TripAdvisor but there are some negatives. Our food was ok but not brilliant. We shared barramundi wings which are the fins deep fried with a tempura style batter. These were not bad as they were served with a salsa dressing. I had the slipper lobsters which are more like Moreton Bay bugs and Anita had garlic prawns, both served with decent chips.

Our table was in the shade of a tree overlooking Roebuck Bay, but the restaurant is literally at the beginning of the wharf is used to export live cattle. Several loaded cattle trucks passed very close to other diners. When we walked around after lunch we had to dodge cattle dung that had been squirted from the trucks only a metre or so from some of the tables! There were two ships at the end of the wharf - the live export carrier and a cruise ship - I doubt that combination of ships could be found anywhere else in the world.

The road along the wharf is fenced but there is a pedestrian crossing which is accessible when no traffic is on the roadway. On the other side there is a hidden beach at the bottom of a dozen steps. It is surrounded by red sandstone cliffs and at high tide it was lovely. There were a couple of fishers and I noted dogs are permitted on leads so we may return when we have suitable transport.

Cable Beach

We loaded the dogs into their cage in the hire 4WD and covered it so they could not be seen. As we were driving out of the caravan park to go to the kennels we spoke with some of the volunteers who run the park and they were very sceptical about the quality of the Broome Pet Motel. They said it would be fine to leave the dogs here while we went on outings so we turned around and two very happy dogs resumed lounging around the van.

There was a market in town so we wandered around then headed to Chinatown for coffee. The dogs had not caused any problems so we went out again later to Cable Beach. We saw the camel train heading towards the beach for the late afternoon ride. They travel down the track used by 4WD vehicles that drive along the beach at low tide. There were so many vehicles the camels had to wait their turn and this provided a good photo opportunity.

Tomorrow there is a marathon run along the hard sand of Cable Beach with Steve Moneghetti participating. Could be the next challenge for those of you out there that want to use up heartbeats on such activities!

Broome 2

A loss of internet connection caused half the last blog entry to drop off.

The rest of the saga centred around the hire car provided by Jeep. The original car allocated was a 2WD that is not allowed onto dirt roads. More phone calls and eventually I was provided with a 4WD vehicle that is allowed on designated dirt roads. I had repeatedly explained to the people in the Jeep call centre the logistics of travelling from Port Smith to Broome, but it appears not to have registered.

After I left Broome headed back to Port Smith there were several more phone calls because the RACQ had not sent the written authorisation for the tow truck to pick up the caravan. When I eventually returned to Port Smith Anita had packed up most of the van and we waited for the tow truck. The driver very skillfully backed the van around the park in the narrow spaces. There are short posts marking the boundaries of van sites and we had seen 3 people hit these posts in the 3 days we were there.

The hire car company prohibits animals in vehicles but we had no choice so covered the back with tarpaulins and put the large dog cage inside so both dogs were contained. The cats had to stay loose but soon realised they were better off in the back rather than having to suffer icy cold air conditioning in the front. The tow truck driver was relieved to learn he was not transporting 2 dogs and 2 cats!

It was weird to follow our own caravan when we are used to having it behind us. We arrived at the PCYC but there was no powered site available so we had to prop for one night on a non powered site. The helpful volunteers here moved us to a nice shady site this morning. We set up the van with all shade walls and table and chairs. The dogs like to sleep under the van while the cats love the warm caravan. 

The latest on the Jeep is the battery has to be replaced even though we had fitted a new battery in March before we left on our trip. A new battery has to come from Perth but a new alternator has to come from eastern states via Perth. Consequently the predicted one week to have the Jeep fixed is looking optimistic.

The dogs are going to spend the weekend in the Broome Pet Motel because we don't want to be seen taking them on trips around town in the hire 4WD, and we can't just leave them here by themselves all day. Anita is not authorised to drive the hire 4WD so that is another limitation, but we may be able to fix that with a visit to Thrifty tomorrow. In the meantime we at least have access to phones, internet, supermarkets etc not available at Port Smith.

Broome!

While I was in Broome early Thursday morning I contacted the RACQ to see if our ultimate care package would cover towing our van from Port Smith to Broome and it does so that was a worthwhile investment. The RACQ towing contractor turns out to be the same business that is fixing our Jeep. I had to communicate with Jeep and the RACQ over the vehicle, accommodation, hire car and timings, and everything had a hiccup. Jeep had to deal with their insurer Alliance so it was essential to have phone and internet to be able to sort things out.

Firstly the accommodation organised by Jeep turned out to be a twin room at the YHA backpacker hostel, which would have been fine if I was 20 years old! The tow truck driver that I travelled with contacted his wife who used to work at the visitor centre and she located a room at the McAlpine Hotel for $294. The insurance company has a limit of $150 per night but I was happy to pay the difference for a decent room.

Fortunately the boutique hotel is only a 5 minute walk from the PCYC overflow caravan park where guests must have a cat or dog to be able to stay here.

Low Tide

When the tide is out at Port Smith Lagoon some 4WD vehicle owners drive to the water to fish instead of walking, but we always left the Jeep on dry land as we don't want salt water damage.

When walking across the mudflat there is a lot to see such as the patterns on the sand made by critters in these shells which are about 1cm long.

Port Smith Lagoon

Our first stop after leaving Port Hedland was a free 24 hour roadside parking area. These are established and maintained by the Department of Main Roads and provide basic toilets and a dump site, but generally with no water. About 20 groups stayed that night and it felt safe. There was a young Japanese man who had ridden his bicycle from Brisbane via Katherine - he was very skinny! I asked him if he needed drinking water and topped up his bottles. Other travellers offered him food and water, all concerned about his welfare.

We booked into the Port Smith Lagoon Caravan Park for 3 nights. This park is 140kms south of Broome along the North Coast Highway, and 23kms along a dirt road. The sandy road was reasonable and the park is friendly. There are some limitations because of the remote location - power is rationed limiting the number of appliances that can be used at one time; water is precious so the laundry closes by 5pm to allow for showers; and most significantly there are very limited telephone and internet connections. Instead emus this park has kangaroos wandering through, particularly late afternoons. One cat got a big surprise when this kangaroo hopped nearby, but I suspect the kangaroo also had never seen a cat before.

About 700m further down the dirt road is the lagoon - well there is water in the lagoon at high tide! It is a lovely swimming location for people and the dogs. It seems those fishing from boats have more success than land lubber fishers. At low tide it can be a half kilometre walk across the sandy mudflat to the water's edge as the tides here are extreme. One Toyota owner parked his rig below the high water mark, where it may have been quite safe the day before. Apparently the owner's boat was stranded on the receding tide!

We packed up this morning and were driving out the park entrance when the Jeep electrical system had a complete meltdown. Fortunately we stopped under some shade while one of the caravan park workers (Rob) tried to get us going again. The Jeep started with a jump start but kept failing after only a couple of minutes. We are so glad this did not happen on the dirt road or the highway! Rob towed our van back to our recently vacated site while we organised with Jeep for a tow into Broome under the terms of our extended warranty which provides cover Australia wide. The RACQ has limits on its roadside assistance and we would not have been covered at this location.

We were warned it may take up to a week to have the Jeep repaired if parts have to be sent from Perth. I came up with the tow truck to pick up a hire car, because we need supplies to last that long at Port Smith, and because we will need transport to get back to Broome when the Jeep is fixed. I am staying one night in Broome because it is too dangerous to drive after dark with the risk of cattle and kangaroos on the road. I also would not fancy being on the road at night if the hire car were to break down!

There is not much to do at Port Smith so we will be reading a lot and improving our Scrabble techniques. Depending how long we are there we may have to work on our fishing skills!

Port Hedland

Iron ore mined from surrounding areas is taken by train to Port Hedland and loaded onto bulk carriers to be taken overseas. The whole town has a rusty red tinge reflecting the ore dust blown around by the winds. The port is famous for having the highest tonnage rate in Australia.

As none of the caravan parks take dogs we are staying at the race course for $10. There is no power, no lighting, no water and no toilet other than 300m down the dusty track. All caravans are supposed to be self sufficient with their own shower and toilet, and have pets, to be able to stay here, but it seems several people are just taking advantage of the cheap overnight stay. It is pure red dust with star prickles that stick in paws and shoes. We will end up with two red dogs after our stay here. This will be a one night stop because of the poor facilities.