Going home.
Bugger
Couldn’t get out of the habit of getting up early so went in to town on the first bus….Broome is a pretty small place but a big tourist town. The town seems full of art galleries and shops selling pearls (Broome is a historic pearling town). Spent the morning just browsing the shops.
Got the bus back to Cable beach around lunchtime and just spent a couple of hours round the pool and down on the beach.
Found that Broome also has ‘Break glass in case of Emergency Vinegar’ on the the beach for Stingers…no problems today as its not that time of year. This bit of Cable beach is the ‘busy’ end. Its goes on for 22km north and you can easily find your own few Km’s to yourself.
About mid afternoon the Camels started being led out onto the beach for the the sunset rides
Not being the slightest interested in Camels I’d decided to do a Kayaking trip off Cable Beach. Broome Adventure Kayaking picked me up at about 3pm. There were fifteen of us. As I was on my own I was ‘buddied' in the 2 man kayaks with Kim – one of the organisers. Kim was very nice but she was probably less than impressed with my paddling technique!
We just paddled slowly round to Gantheaume point and landed at a small beach. Had a drink and a few nibbles and explored some of the caves. Started to paddle back about 5pm and stopped paddling to watch the sunset into the sea, just bobbing on the calm sea…the colours as the sun disappeared into the Indian Ocean were pretty spectacular.
Got back to shore about 5:30pm and after a shower, made my way to the Divers Tavern to meet Tim Grylls for a beer. Tim is the Kimberley Wilderness Adventures guide that had taken us across the Kimberly. He gets to spend his time travelling through this beautiful country and get paid for it…not that I’m jealous at all.
Still in denial about leaving tomorrow….might just go ‘bush’ for a while rather than going back to work. My visa doesn’t run out for another 8 weeks yet!
After our last night in a camp we made our way west again on the Gibb River Road, crossing the King Leopold ranges.
We crossed the Lennard River and brought an ice cream from possibly the worlds most isolated ice cream vendor. An old guy who lives in a shack next to the Lennard river and sells ice creams…
After leaving the Lennard River, we turned off the Gibb River road down the Fairfied ?? Track. We covered almost the entire length of the Gibb, there’s was about 100km left before it reverts to Bitumen again.
Arrived at Windjana gorge at about 10:30. Windjana is in the Napier ranges.
Spotted loads of Freshwater crocodiles…
Next stop was Tunnel Creek. Tunnel creek is….a creek that runs in a tunnel (under the Napier Ranges). With our torches we all made our way to the entrance then clambered down a ledge into Tunnel creek. At this time of year the water wasn’t actually very deep – just below knee height in the deepest spot. The creek runs for about 750 metres under ground with some daylight about a third of the way where there’s been a tunnel collapse. We walked the length of the tunnel then walked back. We saw the orange glint of the eyes of a few fresh water crocodiles in the torch beams. Everyone was pleased that the whole group had made it through!
We left Tunnel creek for the drive to Fitzroy crossing. Fitzroy crossing is a tiny little place where the Gt. Northern Highway crosses the Fitzroy river. We stayed at the Fitzroy River lodge and had the last group dinner.