• Weather: Another 'normal' day - Cold, cloudless blue skies, at 6:45am it was 4.8 ° outside, BUT it should get to the mid 20°s.
• Wind: 5 - 10kph Northerley.
• Daily distance travelled with fiver: 375 kms. Total towed this trip: 8,861 kms.
• Next G Mobile reception at Broome: Yes.
• Next G 'Blue Toaster' reception with or without external aerial: Yes.
• Telstra WiFi (MF-30) modem: Yes.

Yesterday, I had a runny nose, last night I put the heater on my snoring machime (CPAP)and this morning I feel better. It was still cold overnight, but I had my sleepingbag on, so I was snug as a bug in a rug.

I have started to pack up, while Marg is laying in bed watching 'Sunday Sunrise'. She will be getting up soon.

My next report should be from Broome, sometime later this afternoon. After we drive the 9kms on the gravel road back to the sealed highway.

Ok, we left Eighty Mile CP at 8:17am and drove the 9kms of gravel road with corrugations, stopped just at the North West Coastal hwy junction and I went and checked inside the fiver. A few things had bounced around and the plate rack was just about to crash to the floor, from its location on the bench. It's amazing how different the bitumen highway is to a corrugated road, we are so used to things just staying where they are put. Thank God, we don't drive on many unsealed roads. So, are checking inside, we turned left and started heading in a northerly direction.
Our first stop was at Sandfire Roadhouse, where we topped up with diesel at 9:05am, as we pulled out from the Roadhouse, a Road Train also was leaving so I radioed him to go first, as he would pass us later on. As it turned out the wind had slowed him enough, that I passed him, we had a good chat until close to the next rest area, where we parted ways. Next stop was at a rest area at 10:19 and about 93kms away. On our way to our next stop, we passed our truckie friend, stopped in a rest area, who had his curtains closed, so I didn't toot him, just in case he was asleep. Our final stop was at another rest area at 12:00 and about 148kms away and only 80kms from Broome. We arrived at the Cable Beach CP at 1:16pm.

The Cable Beach Caravan Park is huge, it has approx 550 sites, it has shady trees everywhere, in fact, we have not put our awning up, as there is no need for it. The sites will fit a van, awning and vehicle side by side, but most people park the car across the front of the site.
Even with all the shady trees, I still managed to setup the Sat dish. I was talking to our neighours (John and Patty from Torquay, Vic) and they were telling me about the bikepaths along here, so feeling guilty that I haven't even removed the bike from the fiver, I took it down and oiled it and pumped up the tyres.

Tomorrow, I plan to go for a ride. We will probably do some food shopping.

• Weather: Still the norm - Cold, cloudless blue skies, and should get to 25+ °. Update: 27.1° at 12:30pm.
• Wind: Light in the morning and building to 10-30kph back to 20kph by late afternoon.

It is very mild at night, still only a ONE blanket night.

I awoke about 6:30am and got onto the internet, about 8:30am, I turned into 'cycleman' and rode off to Gantheaume Point about 10kms away. I rode on the road for most part, but as I rode past the racecourse with about 1kilometer to go,the sealed road ,literally turned to dust. The dusty gravel road was a real prick to ride on, I kept sinking into the soft dust, but I soldiered on and made it to Gantheaume Point. At Gantheaume Point there was a house and a lighthouse, I rode down the track to wwhere the 'pretty rock' formations were. They were magic. Again, the photos do not do justice to the scenery. After taking some photos including the 'blue treadley', I headed back to camp, this time I took the bikepaths. Near camp I rode over to and through the Cable Beach carpark and paths along the top of the dunes. Got back to camp safely.

After showering, Marg and I drove into downtown Broome to Woollies, for some food shopping, we also went to the Port to check it out and bought an extension cigar lighter cable, so we can run our 12volt portable fridge from it. Hopefully, we will see.
I have decided to put my spare tyre on the front left of the mighty Navara, as the front left tyre is showing signs of wear, but the rim is not a magwheel, like the 4 wheels, so I have to change the tyres from the rims. I booked the mighty Navara into Tyrepower for 8am Wednesday.
During the afternoon I tried to remove my spare wheel from under the tray, but as it has never been removed, it has ceased, so off to the Nissan dealer for help. Reggie was the dude who showed me how to remove the spare wheel, so I gave him some money, he wouldn't take it, but I insisted and he kept it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, stressed to the max, we were both sitting outside in the shade, with a smoothing cool breeze, reading our books. I am still reading Karen Carpenter's life story, it is still great, but I have been slack lately and not doing any reading.

• Weather: Still the norm - Cold, cloudless blue skies, and should get to 25+ °. Update: 27.1° at 12:30pm.
• Wind: Light in the morning and building to 10-15kph by afternoon.

It is very mild at night, my sleeping bag is packed away again. It is a ONE blanket night.

I awoke about 6:30am and turned into 'cycleman' and rode off to Chinatown about 10kms away. I left early about 6:45am as yesterday I was a tad warm so I beat the heat today. The ride temperatures varied from 13 to 20 °s. this time I rode all the way along bikepaths where possible. I arrived in Chinatown about 7:30am and naturally, no one was about, so I had the place to myself.
I left Chinatown and headed back to Cable Beach. I asked some workers, how and where do I get onto the beach with my 4WD, they showed me, so I rode down the ramp andalong the sand, it was quite firm to ride on. Once I got onto the beach, I noticed that the camels had just started their trek, so I hurried along the sand to get in front of them without spooking them. I did and took some photos.

After showering, Marg and I drove to Gantheaume Point and walked down the path leading to the rock formations. just as we got there, someone yelled out that their were dolphins off the point, we did see them, as they were swimming away to the bay, but they must have spooked a stingray, because there was also a 3ft stingray, which stood out against the clear water. We didn't see the dinosaur footprints as the tide was in and the prints are only visible at low tide. we will be back. Thanks Arnie.

Over to Chinatown and we parked in a 2 hour zone and walked around it, checking out the shops and naturally, buying some souvenirs. Just as we were leaving we stumbled across an ice creamery and I had a beautiful English toffee with Rum and Raisin, absolutely yumma. Marg had double choc, which looked good, as she didn't leave me any.

The afternoon was spent very similar to yesterday, just relaxing on the laptop outside in the shade with a lovely cooling breeze.

• Weather: Still the norm - Cold, cloudless blue skies, and should get to 25+ °. Update: 27.9° at 1:30pm.
• Wind: Light in the morning and building to 20-40kph by afternoon and then abated by evening.

Another mild night, but by dawn it gets cold and I had to steal Marg's 2nd blanket, so I had 3 blankets, as my sleepingbag is stowed away.

Today was fix car day, nothing serious, but it still had to be done, my front left tyre was worn enough to replaced.. The tyre on the spare wheel had to be taken off the spare wheel and put on the mag wheel on front left and the tyre from front left had to be put on the spare wheel rim. I was booked in at Tyrepower at 8am, it took 20 minutes and $20, I then asked if they could alignthe front wheels, they couldn't but told me to go to Broome Wheel Aligning about 200 meters up the road, I spoke to the owner Ron and booked in for 3pm to be aligned. So I went back to camp and picked Marg up, as we were going caching today. She had found 5 caches that we were to look for, the first one was at Gantheaume Point, so we went there and spent about 30 minutes, but couldn't find it. So we went to the 2nd cache, it was up a dry creek bed, but it was overgrown and we were scare of coming across a snake, so we wimped out on that one. Subtotal: Caches 2 Frosties Zip. 3rd cache was at the war memorial, we found that one.

It was time to head back to camp, as I had my 3pm appointment with the car. I dropped Marg back at camp and then arrived about 2:55pm for my appointment. Ron was flat chat so I didn't leave until after 4pm, I went back to camp and picked Marg up and we headed down to Cable Beach to watch the sunset. Our caravan park is about 500 meters from the Cable Beach. We drove down the road onto the beach, the tide was going out, but we still drove the high tide track, as I didn't want to get the mighty Navara wet with salt water. We drove about 1 kilometer North along the beach, past all the camels which were getting ready for their sunset trek along the beach and past us. There would have been at least 50 4WDs dotted along the beach, it was so beautiful, the breeze had dropped to a zephyr. Check out the photos, some are bloody good, even if I do say so myself. After the sun went down, we drove back to camp and I cooked 'chicken with sticks up their arse' aka kebabs and Marg whipped up a salad, dinner was yumma.
We are having a quiet night watching TV.

• Weather: Still the norm - Cold, cloudless blue skies, and should get to 25+ °. Update: 28.1° at 2pm.
• Wind: Light in the morning and building to 25kph by afternoon and then abated by evening.

Another mild night, but by dawn it got cool and I had 2 blankets on.

I awoke about 6am and turned into 'cycleman' and rode off to Chinatown. From there, I headed along the inlet where Roebuck Bay is situated, the tide was out, so it was just a large mudflat. I continued past Town Beach , past the museum that we will visit later in the day and upto Roebuck Bay Caravan Park and then made my way back to Cable Beach, where I rode back onto the beach, as it is so beautiful there.

After showering, Marg and I drove to the Broome museum with an entry fee of $5 each, it was worth the visit. There was a cafe opposite the museum carpark, so we went for a coffee, but after reading the menu, we stayed for lunch, I had a chicken parma, very yumma. Marg had a bruschetta, it was lovely. Our waitress, Helen, was wearing a 'knotted bracelet', which Marg liked so she joined us and showed Marg how to make it. The cafe wasn't that busy. We called into a Telstra shop on the way back to camp, I needed to recharge my pre-paid mobile.

During the afternoon, while sitting outside in the shade, did I tell you that it got to 28.1° today, I nearly fell asleep, so I went and had a nanna nap. As we had a decent meal for lunch, dinner was just a scratch meal. We also bought the latest Harry Potter DVD today, as Marg loves him, so she is watching the DVD as I am writing this.

Tomorrow, we may visit Malcolm Douglas' Wilderness park, it's a pity that Malcolm died last September. I was looking forward to meeting him here.

• Weather: Still the norm - Cold, cloudless blue skies, and should get to 25+ °. Update: 27.6° at 3pm.
• Wind: Light in the morning and building to 30kph by afternoon and then abated by evening.

Another mild night, but by dawn it got cool and I had 2 blankets on.

I awoke about 6am and turned into 'cycleman' and rode off to Chinatown again. It is a very pleasant ride, after checking out Chinatown again and taking a few photos, I rode back to camp.

After showering, Marg and I went caching, there were still 2 more caches to be investigated. The first one was near the Cable Beach Life Saving club and the container was in a bad way, so we drove over to Woollies and bought a new waterproof container and a notepad and replaced them back at the co-ordinates. The second cache was over near the airport and was a bugger to find, but we did. So we found both caches and were happy.
During the afternoon, Marg and I visited the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife park, it was sad that Malcolm passed away last year on 24th Sept. His park was quite good, there were plenty of crocs, heaps of birds and a few reptiles with a couple of native aniamls, such as, dingoes.

Gary and Louise (Marg's fellow teacher) have arrived in our Caravan Park, so we had happy hour with them, it was very pleasant.

Tomorrow, we are going to the Markets.

• Weather: Still the norm - Cold, cloudless blue skies, and should get to 25+ °. Update: 28.4° at 3pm.
• Wind: Light in the morning and building to 20kph by afternoon and then abated by evening.

Another mild night, but by dawn it got cool and I had 2 blankets on.

I slept in until 7am and we got dressed and headed over to the 'Old Courthouse Markets' near Chinatown, they started at 8am, we arrived at 7:50am, some were still setting up. Marg bought a pearl ring and a flute stone, I saw some Zebra Rock jewellery, and by asking some questions, we ended up at a house in Broome who had Zebra Rock for sale, I chose 3 chunks that cost me only $70, so I was very happy.

Back to camp for lunch and then off to the Matso's Brewery to taste their wares. We left Matso's with some Mango Beer and Monsoonal Blonde Ale. On the way back, we called into Chinatown, Marg wanted some beads for her shell mobiles, we forgot that we are in WA and everything closes Saturday afternoon, the bead shop closed at 2pm, so I bought a 'Block' of XXXX Gold ($32) good value and tastes alright as well. We walked over to Gary and Louise's camp and had drinks. Another pleasant afternoon.

Tomorrow, we drive to Derby.

No Photos taken today. I am getting slack in my old age.

• Weather: Another 'normal' day - Cold, cloudless blue skies, BUT it reached 31.1°s at 2pm.
• Wind: 0 - 30kph.
• Daily distance travelled with fiver: 220 kms. Total towed this trip: 9,081 kms.
• Next G Mobile reception at Derby: Yes.
• Next G 'Blue Toaster' reception with or without external aerial: Yes.
• Telstra WiFi (MF-30) modem: Yes.

I awoke and got up about 6am and slowly started packing up, we left Cable Beach CP about 9am. what's that? Harry. Ok, we left camp at 8:51am and it took Marg 9 minutes to return our security pass and get the $20 deposit, as there were 2 lots of people booking in as we were trying to leave. How dare they inconvenience us. Our first stop was Nillibubbica Rest Area,it was a 24hour overnighter, was very nice even had its own CMCA Dump point. My photo of this rest area is a bloody pearler (not the people who dive for pearls, but a fantastic photo). Next stop was the Willare Roadhouse, we didn't need fuel, but we topped up anyway, as we were filling up a 4 trailer cattle road train pulled in, full of cattle, so the smell was a tad overpowering, we got fuel and departed. I did feel sorry for the 5 vans that were just relaxing. We arrived at Sean and Pat's West Kimberley Lodge and CP at 12:10pm. I had 'met' Sean through the Caravanners Forum on the Internet, so I thought as we were in the neighbourhood, we would drop by and introduce ourselves. As one does.

One of the attractions of Derby is their tide fluctuations, it was low tide at 3pm, so off to the jetty to take photos and a drive around Derby. There are 100s of Boab trees growing wild and some are bloody impressive.

I forgot to say, that it is very HOT.

Tomorrow, we are off to the High tide, Gibb River Rd, Frostys Pool and the prison Boab tree and probably do some food shopping.

• Weather: Not the norm - very warm overnight, so warm in fact that we left the Air Cond on ALL NIGHT. It reached 31.5°s at 3pm.
• Wind: 0 - 20kph.

As above, it was very warm, so we used the Air Con and only had a sheet on, and slept very well.

I awoke about 7am and got onto the internet, about 9:30am, I drove down to the jetty, as it should be high tide and I had to take photos. Marg didn't want to see the water, so she stayed at camp. At the jetty, there was heaps of action, the barge from yesterday was still there and they were loading it with containers and semi trailer trailers. I was told not to walk in a certain area, so I didn't.

I went back to camp and picked up Marg and we headed off to the Gibb River road and took photos, then over to Frostys Pool and then next door to the Prison Boab tree and took more photos, as we drove around town, I was stopping and taking even more photos of the Boab trees, they were everywhere. We spent some of the afternoon back at camp, in the fiver with the Air Con on, as it was uncomfortable outside. I also confirmed at Drive/Fly tour of the Bungle Bungles for next Saturday. More info on Saturday.

We are about to drive downtown and buy Fish and Chips for dinner.

Tomorrow, we drive to Fitzroy Crossing for 2 nights.

• Weather: Very warm overnight, we ran the Air Cond ALL NIGHT again. It reached 29.2°s at 3pm.
• Wind: 0 - 0kph.
• Daily distance travelled with fiver: 259 kms. Total towed this trip: 9,340 kms.
• Next G Mobile reception at Fitzroy Crossing: Yes.
• Next G 'Blue Toaster' reception with or without external aerial: Yes. With and without aerial.
• Telstra WiFi (MF-30) modem: Yes.

I got up about 6am and slowly started packing up, we left the West Kimberley Lodge and CP at 8am. I said goodbye to Sean and Pat who owe the Caravan Park, and away we went.

As we turned left into the Great Northern hwy there is a monstrously large Boab tree, so we stopped and took a photo of it. Our next stop was at the Boab Rest Area about 100kms into our trip, there was another large Boab tree there. As I have said before the Boab trees are everywhere, in all sizes. our last stop was at the Ellendale Rest Area about 90 kms from Fitzroy Crossing. We arrived at Fitzroy River Lodge CP at 11:40am and picked our powered site (Site 91), as I was driving through the CP, I saw another Trailblazer 5th Wheeler (Jeff and Lyn). We set up camp including the Sat dish and then went into downtown Fitzroy Crossing to find the Tourist Centre. We are going to Geikie Gorge tomorrow for the 9:0am boat cruise. After driving around town, we went back to camp and then we went over to Jeff and Lyn's fiver and had a chat and drinks. It was a quiet night watching TV.

Tomorrow, we are doing the Geikie Gorge boat cruise.

• Weather: Not the norm - actual it was cool overnight. It reached 29.5°s at 1pm.
• Wind: 0 - 20kph.

As above, it was a cool night, by dawn I had 2 blankets on, and slept very well.

I awoke about 6:30am and got onto the internet, about 8:40am, we drove to Geikie Gorge for the 9:30am river cruise at $28 each,it was a bargain. There were approx 40 on our cruise and as we headed downstream close to the sunny bank, there were heaps of 'freshies' (Freshwater Crocodiles) just basking in the sun and swimming. I even saw a baby one smaller than our 'Cyril the croc'. The scenery was awesome, beautiful rock formations, sandy beaches and cliff walls. It was truly stunning. The cruise lasted approx 60 minutes.

On the way back to camp we stopped at the Fitzroy Crossing IGA and it would have to be one of the cleanest, nicest supermarkets that we have visited. We bought some food shopping and headed back to camp. We spent the afternoon just relaxing and reading around camp. I am sitting outside in the late afternoon shade, it is a very 'hard to take' 28.8°.

Tomorrow, we drive to Halls Creek for 1 night.