Now it is only about 3,000kms to home (about 2,700kms to Mingenew for our meetup)
Sunday 11th August, 2024
We stayed at a couple of good campsites on the way here. The first was in the Gregory National Park, and required payment, even though it is just a basic 24hr camping spot. In fact, there were no bins, as there would be in a normal 24hr stop.
We walked down to the waterhole, but stayed back from the bank as there was a notice about crocs. Likely freshwater crocs, but we didn’t know for sure. Anyway, after someone telling me that freshies can grow to 6’ in length, which is larger than me, I decided to Google the difference. The narrower snout and not quite such fearsome teeth is probably why they are less dangerous than salties.
When we arrived at the Victoria River Roadhouse I regretted not paying extra to stay there as the scenery is marvellous. It doesn’t get much of a rap on Wikicamps, but who cares when the surroundings are magnificent.
Last night we stayed at a very pretty campsite called Saddle Creek Rest Area. We secured a spot with shade and lovely green bushland and we surrounded by cliffs and hills.
This morning we had about a 120km drive to Kununurra. We stopped at a 24hr Rest Area for a cup of tea, then at the WA welcome sign, then went through our quarantine inspection. They are courteous, but thorough, and warn you that they are filming everything.
We booked one night in a caravan park, but have decided to stay two nights. This caravan park is in the town, very convenient, not too expensive, and is small and quiet. All of the caravan spaces in this main area have good shade, though there is an overflow area without good shade as well.
After resting for the afternoon we walked over to the local Coles Store to get some food for our tea. As we have changed time zones we were actually having tea when we phoned Matt. We chatted with him for about 40 mins before he yelled out for a support worker to help him end the call.
Monday 12th August, 2024
Today we had had to move places this morning, but keep feeling surprised at how early it is as we have sort of ‘gained’ 1.5 hours. Anyway, it’s 10.00 a.m. and we’ve done two loads of washing, now hanging on a Hills Hoist which we can see from our back window now that we’ve moved. We have less morning shade here, but have put out the awning to make things better.
Today is a rest day, and, apart from driving to the next row in the caravan park anything we do will be on foot. Fortunately, located as we are in the centre of town we have lots of options: shopping, including going to a Mitre 10 to see if they have a caravan step as our other plastic one broke, doing more shopping in Coles, going to a nice café for lunch and we can even walk to the local lagoon to see the birds.
Broome is still about 1,000 kms away and it will take us a few days to reach it. Although we have to book the Broome Bird Observatory for camping it’s a bit too early to know just when we will reach it.