Now I'm a believer

I knew as soon as we drove up over the hill overlooking the beach at Cape Leveque what everyone had been raving on about. Wow!

The next confirmation came upon seeing our accommodation for the next five nights.

Yep, Cape Leveque was everything I could have hoped for. 

Beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Magical swimming.

Beach driving.

Local culture.

And quality family time.

I suspect that at the end of our big adventure, I will be telling people that the Kimberley was incredible, and Cape Leveque was the peak experience of the Kimberley. I could go back in a heartbeat. 

So that's what they were talking about

Many of our friends when they have returned from their big Aussie adventures have talked in reverent tones about a few key places they visited. When you haven't been to those places , you can feel a bit on the outer , not part of the special club. We can now include ourselves in the special group who have made it along The Gibb River Road. We can speak the exclusive language and have acquired the signature handshake or is it a body shake developed through 1000+ kilometres of corrugated , dusty, rocky road . I should point out that the girls in our party are not so sure they are really happy to have earnt their way into the club.

Nevertheless, we did manage to enjoy many aspects of the Gibb River Road, especially the many gorges and the rugged beauty of the Kimberley. 

Friends at El Questro

Near Home Valley GRR

Wunumurra Gorge on Mt Elizabeth station

Our own private gorge for most of the day

Manning Gorge - also mostly to ourselves

Taking the leap at Manning Gorge

Galvan's Gorge

Bluebush Waterhole Mornington Wilderness Park

A great family day on Dimond Gorge - Mornington

Dimond Gorge

Bell Gorge

Charlie at Bell 

Early morning walk at Windjana

I thought we had made it through unscathed. A good opportunity to display advanced man skills to the children

We made it - Cable Beach Broome

More comfortable than the Troopie on the Gibb

Staircase to the moon- Roebuck Bay- Broome

Tomorrow we head north to join another exclusive club. The  Cape Leveque Club. We often hear people say that the Kimberley was their favourite region in Australia and Cape Leveque was their favourite spot in the Kimberley. Expectations are high. Then it will be back to Broome before we head to yet another favourite - The Karijini.

I'm excited

Well I was excited a couple of weeks ago as we were heading for the Kimberley from Darwin. Now I'm just exhausted after making it to Broome. Will include a more extensive post when I can work out the Internet here. Things have been hectic and my gang needs a good rest and a chance to wash off the dust and swim in the saltwater again without the threat of being eaten or stung. 

Lake Argyle

Branco's lookout El Questro

The Bungle Bungles were incredible and the Gibb River Road was hard work but very rewarding. Just the one decimated tyre and a slow leak. Somehow managed to limp our way to Broome and will base ourselves here as we explore coastal Kimberley. More later.

Go West

After spending a few weeks in the Top End, it's time to move on. We would be happy enough to stay but with some limits on our time, we have to head west. The weather has been a highlight with daytime temperatures between 28 and 33. Not bad for winter. No wonder there is a conga line of grey nomads filing into Darwin at this time of year. Who can blame them.

Enjoying the waterfalls of Litchfield NP

Favourite bird - Jabiru

The jumping crocs

Lazing in Litchfield

Classic Darwin sunset

Waterfront pool handy when you are nervous after the croc cruise.

Ma Ma ( Alison's Mum Julie)  joined us for a week in Darwin

Apparently it's not too bad in the Kimberley either so we will head there tomorrow. At least we will head in that direction, as like most things up here, it's not just down the road.

To do or not to do

That is the question we had come across about Kakadu , mostly from the more seasoned grey nomads. Fortunately, I had never taken it seriously and had always intended to have a good look at what sounded like a pretty amazing place.

We took a cruise on Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park before heading north. People tell us that by the end of an Aussie lap you can become "all gorged out" . This has not happened yet and we thoroughly enjoyed our 2 gorge cruise which was just the right length of time for the concentration span of our party.

Katherine Gorge

It was then up into Kakadu starting with Gunlom Falls at the Southern end of the park. We had been especially keen to visit these falls after seeing the Evans' spectacular family photo taken in the infinity pool. While the falls themselves did not disappoint, my many attempts at securing an equally spectacular family shot were not successful even after mastering the self-timer.

The next few days were spent in the heart of Kakadu where we enjoyed two of our best days of the trip. The first was a full day travelling to the Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls with our friends the Hammonds from Mornington. Then a trip to the Northern area of the park where we included a short trip into Arnhem Land. Visiting these areas makes you see why some people might not like Kakadu. They take a bit of effort to get there but you are richly rewarded for your efforts. The scenery into Arnhem Land was spectacular and makes me want to investigate this area in more detail in the future .

Yellow Waters sunset

Heading into Arnhem Land

Twin Falls

Alison swimming at Jim Jim Falls

Jim Jim Falls

We left Kakadu and headed to Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge where we planned to take a cruise on the Mary River Wetlands. The cruise was amazing with some excellent opportunity for wildlife spotting including salt- water crocodiles, all sorts of birds and beautiful flowers. Unfortunately my efforts to photograph the wildlife were not overly productive so I will not bother including examples here as they do not do justice to the flora and fauna on offer.

We are now in Darwin after some time around the Berry Springs area where we swam plenty and enjoyed a few trips into Litchfield National Park which had some amazing waterfalls and rock holes . Our swimming was limited somewhat by a croc sighting in Wangi Falls , the day after we had all been enjoying  a very pleasant dip. No wonder Ruby and Ella had been a bit on the nervous side. 

We will be in Darwin for a couple of weeks where we will be joined by Al's mum Julie ( MaMa) . Everyone is looking forward to her visit. 

Moving right along

When I was planning this trip and how long it might take and what we might be able to see, I think I had visions of us cruising around, taking our time and wondering what to do with ourselves. How could I be so naive? I suppose the fact that the planning stage lasted about two or three months could have something to do with it. We have friends that planned for three years. This country we are so fortunate to live in is massive and has heaps of cool things along the way.

Since Uluru, we have completed the Phil Burgess highlights tour of the West Macdonnell ranges. "Quick everyone , back in the vehicle , we have another four gorges to cover". Yes, it was a pretty busy day and we covered some miles but we seemed to manage to enjoy ourselves and the scenery was awesome. Finished the day with a wild ride into Palm Valley then back for a rare restaurant meal.

Standley Chasm

Ormiston Gorge

Glen Helen Gorge

Redbank Gorge

Palm Valley.  "We've had enough Dad, we're out of here."

We left Alice and headed North for some warmth. The nights were pretty cold in Alice and you can see by the attire on the highlights tour that the daytime temps were a bit on the low side. First overnight stop was the Devil's Marbles.

We then made it to the iconic Daly Waters Hotel which was packed with grey nomads both in the adjoining and very dusty caravan park and the pub at night for the Beef and Barra' barbie with accompanying entertainment of country music and bush stories. A funny place out in the middle of seemingly nowhere.

A shorter drive the next day brought us to Mataranka where we spent a couple of days lazing in the hot springs. One afternoon, the kids and I spent about four hours in the relaxing waters which were a perfect 32 degrees and crystal clear. We happened to be in the Northern Territory for Territory Day which was a return to a good old fashion cracker night. Pretty feral but noone seemed to lose a limb or an eye where we were.

Territory Day Cracker Night.

We are now in Katherine where we visited Edith Falls today which was one of our best swimming days yet. Tomorrow we plan to cruise the Katherine Gorge before heading further north into the Kakadu National Park. The only disturbing thing about that is that I cannot imagine finding a TV at Gunlom Falls to watch the Wallabies. Such is life.