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Hello again. i bet you all thought we'd ridden off the end of the Earth - no blog for three days! We're still all alive and well and generally managing to keep the 'rubber side down'.
Since my last blog in Broome our trip has continued to get better and better. We took the detour into Derby after leaving Broome and experienced our first truly warm weather. The picture on this blog was taken in Derby as Jonah and I borrowed a 4wd vehicle to transport our lunch accross some rough terrain and into the park.
Kylie managed to befriend a local lady who took it in turns guarding the dunny door. Meanwhile Jonah and I relaxed under a Boab tree and concumed lunch. The scenery at Derby we found more interesting than Broome, with Boab trees all over the place. We enjoyed a ride around the jetty, stocked up on groceries and headed east again along the Great Northern Road. We found a spot recommended in our camping book and camped near a freshwater lake with quite a few other people. Two of them, Mark and Janet, were particularly friendly, giving us a drink on arrival and various other items as well as friendly conversation.
In the morning Kylie was thrilled by the arrival of a mob of cows - these in much better condition than those down Hedland way.
We were advised to go to Fitzroy crossing to camp - not Halls Creek, by people on the road. However Fitzroy was only about 90km into the day's ride for us so we decided to risk it and head toward Halls Creek regardless.
At Fitzroy Crossing we detoured in to Gieke Gorge where much to Jonah's disgust we narrowly missed catching a ride on the Gorge tour boat. We did manage a walk along the river banks though and got the feel of the place pretty well. It's an interesting contrast of Granite, red dirt, and water.
As mentioned above we ran out of steam for the day at Halls Creek. The man in the visitor's centre recommended the caravan park, besides, we were out of metho (for cooking) and they were apparently the only place in the Kimberly with the stuff for sale.
We really enjoyed our night in Halls Creek and can recommend the place. We enjoyed it more than Broome actually. The shops are not as good but the scenery is far better and the people were lovely.
The scenery all the way from Halls Creek to Wyndham was lovely, especially around Mabel Downs and close to Wyndham. We made it into town on dusk and Kylie blasted up through the hairpin bends to enjoy the Five Rivers Lookout. It was a lovely evening up there with still rivers meandering below and smoke from bushfires on the horizon.
We stayed last night in Wyndham, where Jonah coaxed us into the pool for a swim. Took our breath away at first but great after the day's ride on a day when the temperature hit 33 degrees.
This morning Jonah would not let us leave town without another Croc farm visit. These crocs were bigger than the Broome ones and the guide was a character too.
This evening we are in Kununurra and this blog and photo's are necessarily short. We are booked on a Lake Argyle cruise in the morning and need to ride out to the Lake tonight. It is going dark outside so we'd better go before the Kangaroos catch up with us.
I'll write a more meaningful blog at the next computer which might not be until Darwin now - yes we're nearly there!
See you soon
Jeff
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