After spending some time in Darwin it was time to have a look around some places a bit further out so why not go all out. I ended up booking a couple of relocation campervans for cheap, one from Darwin to Broome and then the next from Broome to Alice Springs.
After setting of and realising how bloody far everything is apart in Australia and that I would be back tracking from Broome back along the same road to get to Alice. I wanted to give rides to other backpackers to share the costs and so put up notices on a noticeboard and got some call backs.
I introduced a German to putting crisps into a sandwich and in turn was told about a cut of meat that they eat which the translation is something like eating dead grandmas, slightly at the other end of the scale of the old salt and vinegar but hey.
The far north parts of NT and WA are amazing.... if you have a 4WD. There are only two seasons up this way, the wet (hot and humid) and the dry (bloody hot and dry), I lost count of the number of bridges that I drove over with no water underneath but that can be flooded during the wet. It’s definitely a place I would like to come back to with a 4WD and a few months to get a proper look around places like the Kimberley National Park and the bee hive rock formations.
A highlight between Darwin and Broome on the highway was the Gieke gorge, the German and I took a grey haired boat cruise down the gorge and saw several freshwater crocs sunning themselves. There are amazing colours in the rock which show the level of the water during the wet. Someone told us some fact that enough water flows through it per day to fill Sydney Harbour several times over.
We pulled into 24hour camp sites each night which are fairly basic car parks with long drops and non drinking water was amazed to find hundreds and hundreds of baby boomers migrating north from Perth and the comparative cold for the winter. Living the dream I suspect. We met a couple who had been on the road for 13 years, he contracts to Toll so had a big truck for moving stuff and was towing the biggest campervan in the site, all filled with motorbikes, a 4WD, bicycles, full size BBQ. Toyed up Bogans. Choice.
Arrived in Broome and dropped the campervan off. It’s a nice town and pearls are big here (like everywhere else), stayed near the beach at a rowdy backpackers and went to sleep to the sweet murmurings of people mourning the loss of the King of Pop. If I have to listen to Thriller one more time in the next few months it maybe too soon.
On the spare of the moment booked a day trip tour out to Cape Levaque, the guide Led was awesome. Like normal everyone else was bordering Zimmer frame age so I ended up sitting up the front with this guy. He was very knowledgeable about the Aboriginal culture and recommended a booked called ‘the man from sun rise side’ which is an aboriginal account past to present about the changing in their culture over time.
Cape Levaque was picturesque and went to see a fish farm, a couple of small communities and the cape itself. It was well worth heading up that way for a look around, plenty of dogs on heat and cars left on the side of the road which Led reckoned had nothing more than a broken belt wrong with them. (No not the drive train Tim)
Darwin to Broome ended up sharing the driving with a POM in a 4 person flash campervan. OK so quickly to get this done before we leave to Saumalaki it was a good trip the highlights where floating around in a moat a couple of times after the heat of the drive, stopping at a pub with money on the wall. Locals used to do this so they could afford a drink next time they stopped through, it was amazing I listened to the guy behind the bar ask everyone who came in where they were from and then proceed to point out all the money on the wall old and new. A day of Camel racing and cold beer in Alice Springs, a big rock and the Olgas in the middle of the country, 24 hours on a train, bar in Alice where the handles for the doors are on the wrong side and the taps for the sinks are for the one on the other side of the room. Must be Australian humour, oh and making fun from of seeing how many consecutive waves from the drivers coming in the opposite direction.
The low lights, loosing camera with everything since I left Darwin on it, 24 hours on a train also, seeing a few too many black eyes on women and males pea cocking outside the pub and being further from the sea I have ever been.
Oh and happy birthday NC
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