I spent a great time in Broome (nearly 2 weeks) and this time was very relaxing and joyfull on the Cable Beach, with walking along the beach. I found a great spot where I could put my hammock up in the shade and so I was pretty much hanging arround during the day, also because it was quite hot there. I also spent most of the time with Brendan the son of Jan and Paul where I stayed in Perth. Brendan was sooooo nice to me, and I definitely enjoyed his company... I could stay in his clean, airconditioned house play with his 3 dogs, fall in Love with Aryba, watched some videos with Aryba sitting on my belly, enjoyed Brendans cooking talents and the explanations from Darren to movies, politics and other things.
I enjoyed a sunset at gantheaume Point, and my first fishing with a fishingrod experience when Brendan took me to a nice and very lonely place on the beach. I really caught a fish called : Whiting and Yellow finn bream And we spent some time in natural water pools where little fishes nealy bite in our legs. We did a lot more and I miss all of them already,and hope to meet them again and they have always a place in my heart
On the 27.10. I left Broome with a very heavy heart ( I don't know if this expression is also used in englisch) but it was quite difficult to leave. I then went with Peter our Tourgiude from Kimberley Adventure Tours and 8 other people on the Tour to Darwin. During the first days on the Gibb River Road we had pretty much the same routine during the day. Peter woke us up with a nice bird noise (great) but at 5:30 am which is not really my time. We slept in a moskito tent and everyone had a Swag one of these great Australian matresses with blanket and Pillow, much better that sleeping bag and Airmattress easy to roll up and together. However, after putting down the Mozzie tents and rolling up the swag we had a short breakfast (no showers available because we slept all 8 nights in the bush,except one night on an island on Lake Argyle) and then after packing filling the waterbottles we went to one of the more than 10 gorges that we swam through.
Windijana, Lennard and Bell Gorge, at Manning Gorge we spent a half day hiking up the gorge and swimming down after some great jumping and diving experiences at the dry Waterfall. We were swinmming with sandals and t-shirts on which was also a new experience for me. Then we walked down the gorge, swam parts of it, one part was only 2 meters wide and not very deep, and full of spidernets and spiders which were hanging above our heads. With his special creativity Peter build a kind of swimming ring out of our nearly empty Waterbottles and a rope for one of us and so we all were able to swim through the longer parts of this gorge. So we spent the first 3 days in almost 10 gorges enjoing the water and waterfalls, the nights under clear stars fresh air although it was also at night quite hot. In the evening Peter found a place where we built up our Buschcamp, build up the mozzi tents, we chopped some veggies or meet (I always chopped to much and too small, stupid me) but Peter was able to cook great dishes, with pasta, or a stew and we always had an cold beer and crackers with a nice dipp while chopping, maybe this is the reson why I liked this vegetable chopping job so much. Sometimes after dinner we had some more beers and some great neck massage sessions started just because we can do it, but also because our muscles were so tensioned. We were sitting with 8 people in the back of this car, all tired, dirty, sweatty and with not much space but this really strengthens our group and makes us stick more together (this is what I think) and ofcourse Peters energy and effort he put in the group.
After 3 Days in Gorges and Waterfalls we arrived at El Questo a 1 Million Acres Cattle Station where we had a great swimm in Emma Gorge and believe it or not the first shower :-). I felt so clean after that...
We went oin to the Molly falls where we camped overnight and also had a swim in the evening which was good to cool down for the night. Then on the next Day we drove to the Bungle Bungle Ranges and walked through Echidna Gorge and bushcamped in the Nationalpark, watching the sunset in the evening. Next day we went to the Frog Waterholeand Cathedral Gorge in the south of the Bungles. It was so bloddy hot! Gillian had a thermometer on her daypack and as far as I remember it showed nearly 40 Degrees Celsius in the sun at 10.00 am in the morning. In nearly every waterhole we wettened our shirts or sarongs and hats which we put on our head just to stay a little cooler.
Then in the evening we went to the Airstrip of the Bungles NP and some of us spent 180 $ for a great helicopter flight over the bungles. I was quite scared before we stared because the helicopter had no doors and so the only thing to hold back from falling is this little seat belt. But then it was really phantastic, and I enjoyed it a lot. The helicopter started very slow, and got higher very slow and stable. I had no panic like I had when I were in the elevator of the Eiffeltower in Paris long time ago, but this experience is still in my memory and one more time I experienced how great the feeling is when I ignore my fear and just do it, without thinking of it. Streching is great and I thank everyone who supported me in this during the last years, Abundance group, hi to all the Artisten, friends, and ofcourse everyone on this tour. You were great travel companions as well as the guys from Westcoast Explorer (HI Big AL, I am still here, thanks also for your suppost!).
However another highlight of this trip is the Lake Argyle experience. On the 2 nd of November we arrived at the lake Argyle arround noon. We loaded all the swags and lots of Beer and Champaigne onto one speedboat and Peters father Don as well as some friends Kim , Greg and Garry drove the boats to an island on the lake Argyle. It is a very huge lake and the island is quite small but they build up a tape for shade, have cooking equipments and everything which is needed. So we spent the evening with some drinks on the beach and in a little gum boat which was drawn by the speedboat and you have to take care not to fall off. It was a kind of wild and rough game and I can still feel my throat mussles from holding on the gumboat. It was great fun and very exhausting. Then we went up to watch the beautiful sunset, had another great meal from Peter and sat on the fire while Greg was playing Digeridoo and telling stories before we started to paint our bodies with red ocker colour to get prepared for the nightly crocodil hunt. It was a little weird and the only white thing in this dark light were our teeth. So walking down to the boat I did't know what to expect. We drove over the lake and found lots of crocs, some 15 cm long with quite a lot of teeth and some new born where the eggshells were lying on the beach and the crocs were nearly blind, had their eyes closed. I thought a short time that the crocs parents probably would be arround somewhere while we were jumping over and in the water catching their babies, but it was so exciting that I forgot about this thought very soon.
After our nightly croc hunt we stayed on another beach,some of us tried to wash off the red coulour which was not so easy, others were sitting by the fire starting to sleep and getting warm from the fire. I still have this picture in my mind.
Next day we left this nice island and our new friends and continued our trip spent another night in the bush, visited the hot springs in Katherine and the Edith Falls and now I am in Darwin in the YHA and get filled upwith energy refill my batteries before I go on a trip to the Kakadu Nationalpark and further to Alice Springs.
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