Wow, it's been a little while since we updated but here goes. We spent all up 3 weeks at De Grey River before returning to Broome on the 13th to catch up with my mum for a week.
We did a lot of the touristy stuff like going to Gantheaume Point and checking out the dinosaur footprints at low tide, swimming at Cable Beach (nice but I think overrated, Sunshine Coast is much better), shopping, cafés, more swimming, markets, Japanese and Chinese Cemeteries. I cannot get over the colour of the ocean, we could see the beach from our Roebuck Bay Caravan Park site and it was a gorgeous turquoise colour. The beaches are similar to Fraser Island in that at least one 4WD get lost at low tide every week.
Last Friday we drove out to Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge (800km return trip) which was well worth it. Tunnel Creek was fantastic and a welcome break from the heat – the creek flows for about a kilometre through a very dark tunnel and torches are definitely needed. Erin finally got to see freshwater crocs in the wild at Windjana Gorge, swimming is not recommended here there are far too many freshies.
We figured we'd be back in Broome by about 8pm, what we didn't figure on was the police and fire brigade closing the only road in or out of Broome at about 7.20pm. For the past week there have been a number of fires blazing along the highway and the road has been closed on and off due to it flaring up and blocking visibility. This night, of all nights, they decided to close the road for the night and back burn the whole lot. We tried very hard to talk them into letting us through as we had accommodation in Broome but they said no and started the fire right next to us at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse. Big thanks to Mum for putting us up in the on-site dongas, our first night in ages with a TV and we were too tired to watch it; we did enjoy the air conditioning though, the temperature during the day had reached 42.
We left Broome this morning and headed back to DeGrey River, just for an overnighter this time, before continuing on to Karratha and Robe River, hopefully to catch up with some friends that are ahead of us.
Geoff has sent off some job applications to Perth so we may be stopping there over summer to top up the bank before returning east. Thankfully we haven't had to use the credit cards yet, touch wood we won't need them either. There seems to be plenty of work on in the Pilbara with positions vacant signs everywhere for all fields of work. The wages are also good with rumours that juniors in MacDonalds, Karratha get $25 an hour to keep them out of the mines and tradies are on at least $50 an hour. Accommodation is expensive with a two bedroom house renting for around $1250 a week, also in Karratha. Too hot for us in a Camper Trailer with no air-conditioning and too expensive to find an alternative. If it was over winter, we'd probably stay but it's already too hot and, for Geoff, welding is no fun in hot weather, no matter what dollars are offered.
Finally got around to updating the photos, hope you like them.
Very belated Happy Birthday to Jessica (double digits now) and Alison, hope you both had great days. Happy Birthday to Mum for next Sunday, enjoy your day off.
