Karijini to Broome – July 09

Tuesday 14 July – Exmouth to Karijini

• Left Exmouth at 8.30am and arrive at Dales Campground in Karijini National Park around 5pm
• Drove into Nannuntarra Roadhouse with fuel light burning, also stopped in Parabardoo to make phone calls.

Wednesday 15 July – Dales Gorge

• Walked to Fortescue Falls from our campsite and swam there, walked through the gorge (Dales) to Circular Pool where Raf swam.  This night was freezing, there was ice on tents.

Thursday 16 July – Kalamina Gorge

• Visited the visitors centre and Kalamina Gorge. Walked the gorge to the end then back to the waterfall for a freezing cold shower.
• Visited Jeff, Kiri and their gang at their campsite who are travelling to Broome for the wedding.

Friday 17 July – Weano and Hancock Gorge

• Visited Weano and Hancock Gorges. Climbed through Hancock Gorge, including the challenging Spider Walk to get to Kermits Pool.
• Heard a guy calling for help at the pool beyond Kermits Pool, Regans Pool. It’s a Stage 6 section and you’re not supposed to go there without qualifications and ropes and climbing/abseiling equipment. He slipped and went down the slippery slide to the pool. It as too slippery to get back up and climbing the rocks around the top/sides was high up and very dangerous.
• After Doug looked into helping the guy out, we decided to get help as it was too dangerous. I went back to his wife who was waiting before the spider walk and told her the situation. I decided to go for help (we had seen the emergency radio near the carpark at the top of the gorge) because I’d be faster than her. Took me about 30 minutes to get back up the top, then used the radio who contacted the Park Ranger (Karijini 1 to Emergency Radio bla bla, over) who contacted other rangers and told me one would be there in 10minutes to get more information from me. In the mean time he drove to the Visitors Centre(he was close) and called the Tom Price Police who contacted the SES. From me they mainly wanted to know if he was injured, as they’ed need to hitch him out from above with a stretcher if that was the case. But he wasn’t injured and looked around 35 and fit. And he was Dutch, heh. While I waited with the ranger to hear how long the SES would be I had some water and chatted about the park. When I knew it would be 2-3 hours, someone had to go down to get a message down that he shouldn’t try to get out, because if he injured himself it would mean a LOT more work. So I headed back down, taking extra water and some snacks from the car with me (chocolate and cashews). Part way down the steps I passed a couple who I’d seen down there and knew what was going on, and they told me the dutch guy had got out. I rushed back up the waiting ranger who passed it on to the park ranger and then got relayed to police and SES. I think they probably just hadn’t got in the car yet, so it was lucky we found out when we did. The couple also told me my friends were waiting for me in the gorge, so I had to go in again! When I got there Raf and Doug told me an aussie guy had helped the dutch guy out and they’d climbed around the side and it was very very dangerous. They also told the dutch couple and the aussie guy to find me when they got back to the carpark, but they didn’t, they didn’t come to the emergency radio/ranger’s car which was . Luckily the other couple told me! Anywayyyyy… then we climbed out again and went to Weano Gorge, which involved more climbing and a rockpool where I washed under the cold waterfall again.

Saturday 18 July – Karijini to Nullagine

• After swimming in Fern Pool(above Fortescue Falls) for our morning bath, we drove out of Karijini at 11.30am and headed for Nullagine with plans to camp near Marble Bar.
• At Auski Roadhouse we turned into Roy Hill Station Rd, a 145km minor gravel road on which we didn’t pass one single car (just saw a tractor on a side rd). Halfway we flat tyre and Doug and I changed it. All good. But we didn’t want another, we had another 70km to go on this ‘in the middle of nowhere’ road, and then another 100km on the highway(between Newman and Nullagine) which was also a gravel road though there would be more passers by.
• Made it to Nullagine though not till 5.30pm, gravel roads are slow going, especially when you are trying not to get another flat tyre!

It’d been 17 years since I’d been to Nullagine and it looked nearly exactly the same. We set up tent at the small caravan park, cooked dinner then headed to the very basic outback pub. We were warmly greeted by 4 backpackers (3 behind the bar) and around 8 people of the Irrangadji community, probably Martu people. I started chatting to them nearly immediately while Doug and Raf mainly chatted to the backpackers who were so happy to see other young travellers.
I soon discovered people I remembered, woah! D, who was in high school when I was there (1992, for 10 months, I was 10 years old), M, who I remembered flew with mum to Port Hedland for a social security course once, and V, who was my friend and is in some of my  old photos!!! It was all very cool and exciting for me, but also a sad, seeing that nothing much had changed. Alcohol abuse still a major issue with a part of the community, with people ending up in jail because of drink driving or aggression. But there was also a positive,  a group of people, including some girls like V herself, worked at the mine in Newman. V works 2 weeks on, 1 week off driving one of those big trucks. Unfortunately she is away from her kids in that time, but there are other family members to take care of them, as is the aboriginal culture, the whole community is family for children.
I promised to send her old photos and a new one I took of her, and she gave me the name of her sister-in-law in Bidyadanga/La Grange to say hi to when I’m there.

We were only in the pub for about 2 hours, but it was good times. A few drunk people, but everyone was really friendly.
Back in my tent I had a lot of trouble sleeping half the night, maybe partly because of a few people loudly leaving the pub later in the night, but mainly processing everything I’d experienced. I am very glad I made the crazy detour to get there, to see the surrounding area, the town itself and talk to some locals. Very excited I found people who I recognised/remembered and vaguely remembered me or my parents. Hopeful about the fact that some people are working in the mine. But depressed that so little had changed, still alcohol problems and still a lot of segregation. I have no idea what the solution is, and obviously there isn’t an easy one. My whole life after living in Bidyadanga and Nullagine I’ve been interested/aware of the difficulty of the aboriginal situation, more so in recent times, and I’ve been reading more about aboriginal culture and history. I feel I need to read and then do more.

Sunday 19 July  – Nullagine to 80 Mile Beach

• Got up before sunrise(!!) and took some photos at the lookout, then some around Nullagine
• Headed to the roadhouse/shop/garage when it opened at 9am(sunday…) to find out if they could fix our flat tyre. No. And the road to Marble Bar was in quite bad condition, so take it easy, was the advice. We made it, going an average of about 60km/h for 100kms. Marble Bar couldn’t fix it either.
• Had a nice picnic at Chinaman’s Pool and visited Marble Bar pool. The rocks around it are jasper, not marble as once thought. Marble Bar is known as the hottest place in Australia.
• Skipped Port Hedland as it was 50km out of the way and being Sunday they probably couldn’t fix it either so drove on to Pardoo Roadhouse. The guy there took a look and found a large hole on the side, he said the tyre is unfixable. Gah, a tyre I paid $90 for 3 weeks ago!! He said to up the tyre pressure (I’d made it low because of the dirt roads) as the car is so heavy, and stick to 90km/h going to Broome, as it makes a big difference with how hot the tyres got.
• Stopped at 80 Mile Beach Caravan Park for the night, the biggest caravan park I think I’ve ever seen!

Monday 20 July – 80 Mile Beach to Broome

• Drove to Broome. Passed Bidyadanga(I lived there for 11 months in 1991), planning to visit on the way back.
• At this stage we’ve been out of mobile range for 11 nights and had no internet for 6 nights. I am quite sure this is a record for me since I first got internet and a mobile phone :D

Tuesday 21 July – Wedding!

• Bought a new tyre, sorted out some other errands (I snapped my drivers license in Exmouth!), got a haircut and in 10mins bought a dress for the wedding I got invited to that afternoon! I know Kiri vaguely from Bridgetown, and when she knew I’d be in Broome she and Jeff were kind enough to invite me :)
• Wedding was at Cable Beach, which was closed because a crocodile had been spotted. But there were still heaps of people on the beach. Nice ceremony which included a lot of song lyrics and Justin Walshe played a song while the others were signing. A few drinks on the beach during sunset, then the reception at Matso’s Brewery, awesome!

Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 and Friday 24 July – Quondong Beach

• Wednesday afternoon headed north on the Cape Leveque Rd and turned left after about 30kms. First checked out Prices Point then headed south to Quondong Beach. No camping spots (we flattened grass), no toilets no water, no bins, no tourists, only some locals.
• Raf bogged the car looking at spots, it was very soft sand. Another 4WD kindly helped us out.
• Lay on the beach the most of the 2 days, and saw some people, but literally noone walked past our spot on the beach!
• Strong tides made the water up to the dunes one moment and way down low showing all the rocks and rockpools the next. Lots of hermit crabs and other crabs
• Raf and Doug also spotted octupus, a sting ray, a puffer fish and some kind of sea centipede.
• Remembered why I fear the ocean, it was definitely living up this way as a kid.
• Awesome sunsets. Crazy amount of flies (not on the beach tho).
• Headed back to Broome on Friday afternoon and went to see Samson & Delilah at Sunset Pictures. Cried. A lot.

Photo on right by Raf.
Saturday 25 July – Alison, the camel lady

My family met Alison (and maybe even Solomon, the name sounds familiar) while living in Nullagine (near Marble Bar) 17 years ago. She was known as the camel lady then, and still is now. She spent years in the pilbara/kimberleys trekking with camels. Then living in Nullagine for ~8 years. Now has been the owner of Broome Camel Safaris (the camels in blue!) in Broome for at least 10 years I believe.
I don’t think my family has had contact for about 15 years now, but my parents had seen her on the news regarding something about the camel rides in Broome a few years ago. So I picked up some brochures, found one that mentioned Alison the camel lady and called, the visited. Alison made sure I was on the first camel (Solomon) so we chatted the whole way, awesome!

This day we also met up with some couchsurfers in Broome and had dinner at Divers Tavern. And this morning we said goodbye to Doug, who found some english backpackers to travel with to Darwin. Aww!

The next morning, Raf and I headed south.