Karijini and Ningaloo

Finally the rain ceased at our campsite near the Karijini National Park and, after breathing a sigh of relief on finding our tent had survived the night, we made an early start to visit the beautiful gorges and pools that make up the park.

After a couple of beautiful sunny days and a 600km drive, we found ourselves stocking up in Exmouth before heading into the Cape Range National Park. Not only does this border the fabulous Ningaloo Marine Reserve, but it is also home to plenty of wildlife.

We have enjoyed ourselves so much that we have stayed the last 3 days, just outside the park, spending all our time by and in the water. Even Little B has managed to use her new snorkel mask to see the amazing corals and fish - Francesca, as usual, is impossible to keep out of the sea, even after spotting a shark from our glass-bottomed boat tour this morning.

As a break from swimming and sand-castling, we spent a morning at Mangrove Creek where the low tide enabled us to explore the mud flats and channels looking for crabs and stingrays.  Tomorrow we will head a little further south along the reef to Coral Bay for more water-based activities.

The Wet Season?

From Darwin, we headed South East towards Kakadu National Park. We stopped for a night at Mary River, an underrated National Park bordering Kakadu. There was a delightful riverside campground and we made sure there were other tents between us and the crocodile infested river. We took an evening boat cruise to view the wildlife and, as a result, decided only to swim in the pool!

We loved the area, and decided to abandon our intended trip to Kakadu - without a 4WD, much is out of our reach. Instead, we stayed around Mary River and explored more or the wetlands.  On returning to the Stuart Highway, we stopped for lunch at the Adelaide River Inn - now home to Charlie the Water Buffalo of Crocodile Dundee fame.  We stayed the night just north of Katherine at Pine Creek, where Liberty was fascinated by our next door neighbour, a bower bird, and she spent the morning collecting things for it to add to its nest.

Having retraced our steps as far as Katherine, we now turned right and set off for West Australia and the Kimberleys.  We overnighted at tiny Timber Creek, near the Victoria River, an unremarkable campsite apart from a cacophonous bat colony and the evening "croc feeding" which involved audience participation.

Over the next few days, we travelled through the Kimberleys to Broome. Again, we were unable to reach some of the more interesting areas without a 4WD, but the scenery was great and we particularly enjoyed walking along Geikie Gorge. Although there was water here in the Fitzroy, many of the river beds were dry as the wet season doesn't start for another couple of months.

Next, we spent a couple of days in Broome on the beach and in the sea. The weather was beautiful and despite Tony's previous experience on camels (a 3 day trek in Rajhastan resulting in blisters in unmentionable places), we treated the girls to a ride along Cable Beach.

Our plan was to go south and inland to the Karijini National Park, so we broke the journey at Eighty Mile Beach and spent more time doodling on the sand. The girls collected thousands of shells and set up a shop in our campsite: "Shells for sale - 50c each". They have yet to make their fortunes.

We left the beautiful sunny skies of the coast and are now sitting under a shelter at the Auski Roadhouse just outside Karijini. It has rained solidly for 30 hours and we are blogging late into the night to give the girls time to test the weatherproofing of the tent. It just about stood up to the rain last night, but we are less hopeful about tonight... 
The highlight of our rain-sodden day has been watching the road trains go past - and learning that when Australians use the 'Oversize Load' sign, they really do mean it! In this case each trailer alone, bearing ore-crushing equipment, had 448 wheels...