The Top End 4 – Go west,young man!

Life never goes according to plan . We woke up next morning to no caravan power. The nice people we met at the I site came to help, Pete is an electrician, but works  on the national grid ! Robbie and Pete spent the day testing various components without a lot of luck. Our autosparky son in NZ talked us through checking things and we tracked down the local company who might be able to help . We made dinner for our new friends who were camping in a $60 tent while they wait for a new caravan axle to arrive. 

Next morning  we were at the autosparky gates when they opened  (together with quite a few other dying caravans) but they were flat out so we left it parked in their yard and went off to explore. Drove to Wyndham about 100km north, on the edge of the Joseph Boneparte Gulf, stopping on the way to climb down to “The Grotto” a beautiful wee gorge with croc signs at the top but a rope swing over the billabong at the bottom.We didn’t swim. Another kiwi couple climbed down- the lady had gone to school with one of our neighbours at the lake and the guy had been at Vic university studying geology at the same time as Robbie 🙂

Off to Wyndham which is an old port , up to the lookout hill for a 360 view of “Five Rivers” a  huge estuarine system full of guess what ? Bought lunch from the Aboriginal supermarket, explored both the pioneer cemetery (many died of heat stroke) and the Afghan cemetery – where the camelteers were buried together  with their camels, so the graves are huge! Most of the camelteers weren’t Afghan but were actually Indian Moslem. The camel teams were used to move building supplies and other stuff, incredible photos of them loaded up with metal tanks and all sorts of things.

We tried a “shortcut” dirt road on the way back  , but it got rougher and rougher so we abandoned that idea . Picked up the caravan so hoped to start out again next morning. Rum with our new friends under the stars to debrief.

Next day we got up early to finally embark on the Gibb River Rd- we were both a bit apprehensive about the Pentecost River crossing, about an hour into this 800 and something km dirt road. “It’s only a river, get over it” is probably what we’d say in NZ. Vehicles park up either side the crossing till the tide is low, as  there is about an 8m tide on this coast and it comes through at speed. The crossing is about maybe 100m wide with a base of rocky shelves and holes, and slippery round rocks on top of it all, so it’s rough and you have to keep going once you start (and there are you know whats in the river too). Finally someone on the other side decided to go for it and ploughed through while we all watched 🙂 he was ok so we all got ready. Robbie waited til the ute ahead was well through, we didn’t want to get stuck in the middle if he stopped!  Finally it was our turn and we bumped and crawled our way across , I didn’t dare look either side and we were both relieved to crawl out the other side! No turning back now.

Off we headed on the very corrugated dirt road, shaking loose the number plate (guy behind spotted it) . Watching our towing mirror fly off and the radio aerial crazily  rotating itself undone!

The huge cattle stations along   the Gibb provide camping areas, fuel  and food.We stopped at Ellenbrae Station for one of their “famous scones” – not as good as NZ but we were glad to try them . Then headed off and found a campsite in a quiet quarry for the night . Watched over by a huge full moon.

Back on the road and despite all the things we’d heard about the Gibb not being suitable , most of the other vehicle were caravans! If you stop for anything someone usually stops to check you’re ok, which is great. We called in to Mt Barnett Station to try one of their “famous burgers” for morning tea, which was yummy- their own beef I think. And we were glad we had stopped because when we checked the solar the batteries were at 0. Hmm. We stopped to check every now and then and suddenly the power monitor started flashing crazily – according the manual that could mean that “the batteries may be on the point of catching fire”! We quickly got everything vital out of the van , grabbed the fire extinguisher and Robbie drove as fast as possible to try and get some reception – 400km to Derby. So the road which should have taken up to 10 days we crossed in 29 hours. We did miss side trips to gorges etc but to be fair , they were packed with vehicles and tourists! And luckily nothing caught fire.

Recovered for the night in Derby then drove to Broome , where we spent a week waiting for  someone to look at our problems  . No fridge going so  ate ts range meals consisting of whatever might go off first! It broke my heart to bin halloumi and feta but we didn’t want to get food poisoning 🙂

Broome was packed for the school holidays , so we camped 20km out but at least had plenty of water and showers etc. People come to Broome especially to see “Staircase to the Moon” which is basically looking at the moonlight reflecting on the sea and sand! There are “S to the M” markets, a fairground etc etc. Not sure what else they do for the three weeks but the places certainly humming with tourists. 

There are huge areas of preserved dinosaur footprints in the coastal rock shelves  and we saw where they might be  …. but of course, you have to book on a tour to really see them. Most things  here require you to book on a tour. Visited the Bird Observatory which was a lovely spot on the coast south of Broome.And the Chinese and Japanese cemeteries , where many of the early pearl divers were buried . That was an industry which used pretty much slave labour on both Aboriginal  and Asian divers, to provide trinkets for the wealthy West.

Finally after three days we got hold of an  autosparky who took out the lithium batteries for testing. Both kaput. He replaced them both but still no power, so something else was faulty.

Sadly, we decided we’d just have to abandon plans to drive down to Alice Springs and Uluru and head down to Perth instead, in the hopes that Jayco there would help sort this mess. 

Making the best of a hunk of our holiday time and  money )disappearing, we drove south into the Pilbara. One bonus was catching up with good friends from the lake who are living in Newman for 6 months, it was really good for us all to catch up.  We camped again at several spots we enjoyed last year ,  and last night visited Mt. Gabyon Station . They have special Iberian Shepherd dogs . They’re huge and look like newfoundland/golden retriever cross who stay out with the cattle all the time, defending them from dingoes and, unfortunately, poachers. Just this week the lady who owns the station was attached by someone with an axe telling her that it’s his country , it’s all very sad.   

This morning we spotted this  amazing church – Our Lady Of Carmel – at Mullewa. Built by hand by a Spanish priest/architect  in 1920. They were just finishing mass  and happily showed us through their beautiful building , which  reminded us of Gaudi. (Niki M- the same Monsigneur who built the Geraldton Cathedral.)

After over a week  we’ve reached Cervantes, just north of Perth – hopefully we’ll finally get our electrics sorted this week before we need to head back to NSW.

We’ll survive- all first world problems 🙂