12/9/25 Back driving around

 

    Here we are again , driving up to Broome for a look around . We managed to get a spot for 3 days , extend for another 3 , then another 2 , before it was time to get moving again . There's been some changes in Broome , a brand new jetty beside the old one , it is nearly finished . The old jetty is in front in this photo .

    It wouldn't be a visit to Broome without a sunset at the southern end of Cable Beach .

      The red pindan cliffs around the bay always get our attention as well , such a contrast in colours .

     Looking toward Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point at low tide .

    Paspaley Pearls Showroom , love the moulded glass in the doors and above , would have cost a fortune.

     We happened to be in Broome for the start of the Shinju Matsuri Pearling Festival . There was a street parade with floats and a dragon .

     There were floats from the local schools , fire brigade and rescue squads and others . They were armed with water pistols and sprayed everyone - I shielded the camera and copped a blast in the back .

      With the festival kicking off , we decided it was time to head off and get ready for our departure in the morning . We spent most of our time swimming and catching up with several people we have met here and other campsites . 

     Next morning we packed up and put our swimmers on , time for a dip before we leave to cool down , and we don't know when we'll be getting another pool for a dip . 

     The highway heading up to Derby was busy with lots of caravans heading to Broome . We stopped along the way at a rest area and had some lunch , before deciding to continue on to another rest area east of Derby toward Fitzroy Crossing . Its claim to fame is a large Boab tree . We didn't get this one to ourselves unfortunately , sharing it with 5 other vans and a rooftop tenter .

     Another warm night , and we got organised and headed off to Fitzroy Crossing for some fuel . We didn't worry about checking out town , and kept going to another favourite spot Ngumpan Cliff Rest Area. Trouble is the word has got out , we had to share it with about 50 other vans etc - may as well been in a caravan park ! 

     The area on the western side of the rest area has been burnt in the last 6 months , and wildflowers were starting to come out , as well as spinifex . This shows how high above the valley we were .

     Here are some of them , fortunately for us we had the last spot beside the fence , and nobody came and setup on the other side , so we were lucky enough to have space around us .

     Next day we headed toward Halls Creek , finding a campsite along the Tanami Track about 6klms from the highway . We thought we were going to have it to ourselves , but another van turned up , there was plenty of room though . 

    Sunset was good again , and we had a peaceful night .

    Next day we got sorted and headed into Halls Creek to get some fuel . With all the dramas that have been reported lately , we were a little apprehensive , but it was early in the day and we had no problems at all . Up the road another 110 kms or so , we pulled up at another rest area at Dunham River for the night .

   Heading toward Kununurra we found there had been bushfires in lots of places - not just your average burn offs - these went to the top of the mountain ridges and beyond . There was a large section of roadworks as well - well overdue !! 

   We drove into town and parked at the visitor info , going across to a nice green park with lots os large trees . There were some large crimson flowers on the ground below one - they were the size of my hand . They were from the Sausage Tree - the fruit of the tree appear like sausages - I wouldn't want to be hit by one falling from the tree , as they are quite weighty .

    One of our days out was to the Butterfly Cave . We'd visited it before , but thought we'd have another look , and we also wanted to check out the Old River Irrigation Area . There were thousands of butterflies again , most were just resting , hanging from the rock ceiling .

     This is the cave , fresh water is flowing out of the cave in a small stream , creating a cool oasis in amongst the heat of the adjacent scrub .

     Another day we headed out to Ivanhoe Crossing , here it is in the background - behind the 2 photo bombers . 

     This is the view from the western side of the crossing - I spotted a barramundi here that was about 1m long !!

    Out in the irrigation area , the newest crop is cotton . Seems the sandalwood plantations are slowly being removed and cotton is taking over .Most of the are in this photo has or had cotton growing . If you can enlarge the photo , you can see all the round cotton modules ( round bales ) in lines - there are hundreds waiting to be transported to the cotton gin .

     This is the very new cotton gin that processes the cotton modules into bales . It wasn't here 3 years ago when we were here , the modules were being trucked to Queensland for processing , so that will save with a lot of transport costs .

    We've spent the rest of our time keeping cool in the pool and getting the van back into shape . Time to head off again tomorrow . Here's a map link:- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=194QfKbxsb1feVNkH6tk9BAwwuD_zomg&usp=sharing

26/8/25 Catchup time

    Back again , thought we'd disappeared ?, well we did for a while , but here's a condensed version of the year so far .

 Starting back in March , we headed toward the goldfields again , stopping in several towns along the way to Kalgoorlie . You have to stop and check out the superpit , as it changes so much year to year . It's being expanded and more and more ground being dug up . It's like watching ants move around -  very busy !!

 

  Then we headed back to Leonora , stopping overnight at Lake Goongarrie , a salt lake that we've stopped at previously - it is huge !!

    Leonora has had plenty of rain over summer and it  shows , with lots of water still around . 

    We spent 3 months in and around Leonora trying our luck , some good , some bad . This is a good spot .

      It wouldn't be our blog without a sunset or 2 .

   And yes , it did rain while we were out bush , this was one downpour .

   We met a few of the locals as well .

      And a Gecko .

   And a Pebble Dragon .

    Campfires were a popular addition .

      There are plenty of old mine shafts around the place , some nearly 8m deep - a decent hazard !!

Yes another one .

     As the Winter was starting to get colder , the gold disappeared , so we headed north to warm up . Even the termites have attitude . This was up north about 30 kms south of Newman at a great campsite we'd stayed at previously .

     This is a sculpture at Newman - it's been done in stone , and looks cool .

     We had a few wide loads to negotiate , fortunately we met them in wider sections where we could get off the road far enough .

     A drive north always has to have a stop at Albert Tognolini Lookout , the views and scenery are stunning .

     Fires had burnt through the area in the earlier part of the year , it changes the look of it a lot - it's also a very popular free camp now - there would have been 50 vans staying that night .

     Up to Karratha so someone could have a look at our fridge - making strange noises . A service call and a few adjustments made , the noise had gone ( it has returned again , but not as loud or regular ) .

    Sturt Desert Peas are out in flower , and are a stunning flash of colour .

     From Karratha we head to Port Hedland for a hectic night at the free camp at the racecourse - people everywhere , it's unbelievable how many people are travelling now !!

    From Port Hedland , we drove out toward Marble Bar , finding a nice free camp at Coongan Long Pool , lots of people there as well , but we went further up the track and picked a good spot away from the soft gravel beside the river , it also had no one really near us . This is it , we are on the left of centre .

      This is looking down the river bed to the north - the river bed is about 500m wide , and would have been flowing all over that and some more in the floods earlier this year !!

  This hardy old grevillea was out in flower .

    We drove out to Dooleena Gorge - only a few kilometres south of us . It's another popular camp site , but had been washed out badly by the floods - we drove through bull dust and gravel to get there - glad we didn't bring the van here to stay , it would have been a huge challenge just to get it in without getting bogged down, so much gravel , dirt and silt has been moved and deposited here .

    Into Marble Bar and a look at Chinaman's Pool , it also changed with the flooding ( it's the same river as where we are camping ) . It's now very wide and long since we were here last .

     After a week here we decided it was time to go further north to Broome and beyond , but that's another story .

Singapore 12/8/24 - 14/8/24

 

    Well the time had to come , we weren't ready for it - didn't want to be , but here it was time to leave the UK and probably not return for year or 2 maybe ???? 

   It was an early start , someone booked a 10:15am flight on a Sunday - wonder who that could have been?? . That just meant we had to be up at 6:30am so that we could make it to Gatwick for our flight . Justin kindly volunteered to drive us to the airport - about an hour away - and made sure we got there . Everyone piled into the car , and we headed off , we were in the back with Isla , amusing her by playing corners - you know how hard that is when she's in a solid children's car seat ?? 😂 - she had a ball and we enjoyed the trip . Arriving at Gatwick , we headed into the multi-storey car park , driving slowly in a line of traffic from the bottom layer to the 5th and top layer , only to find no spots - there was 20 mins of fun . Down & along to the next one , we found a spot on the 3rd floor and headed across to checkin , There were armed police , sniffer dogs and a heavy police presence - the airport was the busiest we'd seen it ! Over to Singapore airlines check in , and queue up . There were 3 people checking people in - but all of them had someone with oversized baggage , which seemed to take forever to clear - meanwhile our queue had grown to about 150 people and growing still . Not much longer and we were through and clear of our baggage , now the hard part - time to say goodbye 😟 , many hugs later , maybe a tear or 2 and we were left to go through security . Out of 15 weeks away , I think we spent about 8 weeks with them - time very well spent !!

   Security was running flat-out , we had to take our shoes off , go through the scanner , then wait for our backpacks , shoes etc , before going into the departure area's . Being with Singapore Airlines , I thought we would have been at a closer gate , but as the time ticked away , finally our boarding gate was put up . We had been through gates 46 & 48 previously , and they were right at the end of one boarding area , today we were going to gate 41 - has to be closer right - we turned off where the arrows pointed and found ourselves in an airbridge over parts of the airport , on a couple of travelators , down some escalators , finally at gate 41 - we must have been early , there were plenty of seats , so we sat and waited . It took us 30 mins of walking to reach the gate !!! 

   Everything looked to be going well , passengers were arriving , cabin crew flitted in & out , finally we were loading , takeoff was getting closer , people were being ushered to seats very orderly . We were at our seats - either side of the aisle !! we didn't have any choice , they were our seats - we sucked it up and figured it was a mostly night flight , so who needs a window seat anyway .

   Our flight time came and went , we were still at the gate ! , finally we got pushed out and started the long slow taxi out to the runway - we managed to take off 45mins late !! You miss your time slot at Gatwick and you have to wait for someone else to be running late and slot in there . It was almost like bumper cars getting to the main runway , we managed it without getting collected 😆 and away we went - 12 hours of the longest flight we'd had for about 14 weeks since the overnighter to Athens from Singapore . 14 weeks is nearly long enough to forget how much fun it is - not !

   After attempted sleep , a few movies , music , watching the jets progress as we flew , just closing our eyes and pretending to sleep . Our flight path was a bit interesting , from UK we flew across France & Switzerland , across to the Black Sea and toward Tajikistan , we finally turned and headed toward Nepal and flew on the southern side of the Himalaya's - we got some turbulence there as well - till we reached Kolkata , and headed over the water towards Singapore .

  Arriving at 6:45am , we were only just past our stated landing time - they made up some time during the flight ! Our longest wait was for our bags , breezing through immigration , we headed to the MRT train system and got aboard a train into the city . We were staying at the same hotel , so we knew the way and made it easily . Our bags were put into storage , then we went & changed and went for a swim while we waited for the room to be ready at 10:30am - that was the best thing , refreshed us after our 12 hour flight & 1 hour car ride and 40 mins on the train - it was nice to be still !! 

   We checked in and went to our room , before headed back out to Chinatown for a rather nice lunch of Chilli beef and fried rice . We dodged the storm that came over as we ate , dropping some cooling rain .

    The old parts of Chinatown have some great looking buildings , different colours , shutters and terracotta roofs .

  

    Precision parking required here .

 

    A nice street art scene in a side alley .

   The Sri Mariamman Temple is at the end of Pagoda St , and is one of the most photographed Hindu Temples . This is the main gateway .

     They do elaborate decorations all around the compound .

    Humidity was getting up again , so we headed back to the hotel , arriving just before the storm covered us in a veil of rain - great timing . We lasted till, 8pm then crashed big time - waking again at 8:30 am - needed that !!

    Next day we head down to Marins Bay Sands , with the intention of going up to the observation deck - it has got very busy in Singapore from our last visit 14 weeks ago - it was all booked out , no time slots till 9:30pm ! Here's the Merlion , one of Singapore's older attractions .

 There's Marina Bay Sands , where we won't be going up to .

   This is inside The Marina Bay Shoppes shopping centre  - 3 levels of the most expensive brands . They have gondola rides on this small waterway - just like Venice ( only on a much smaller scale ) - they go up about 50m , turn and come back . A novelty for some , as people were queued to get into the boats .

   There was one garden full of Singapore Orchids of course - yes they are real !!

                                       More from inside the shopping centre - water features .

      This shop serves nothing but High Tea - all the tables were full and there's a queue of people waiting to get in . All the staff were dressed in suits / uniforms and there wasn't a coffee to be seen or had here!! 

    Outside the Singapore Art Science Museum are ponds full of waterlilies , appropriate seeing the building is shaped like a lotus flower .

    Looking over the lillies to the financial district .

    This is the Helix Bridge , leading across to the Singapore Flyer .

    Our main mission today was to see the night show at Gardens by the Bay , so we made our way across to the gardens with what felt like half of Singapore haha , found a spot to sit on the ground and waited for it to start . 5 of the larger tree's were used in the show , and it was best to sit or better still lie down and watch it unfold above you . Very hard to watch it all , better to focus on a couple of the trees and enjoy that . Not many photo's of it , it was better on video , so we now have several videos showing it happen ,

    A magical light show enthralled all who saw it , no-one leaving early , but it was a huge exodus after it ended . We made our way to Satay on the Bay for a nice icy cold drink to cool down , the humidity was taking it's toll on us . There was some sculpture on exhibition as we wandered along , I was taken by the round lights and the curved roof above .

     This one also took my fancy .

    We headed to the train and made our way to the hotel , time to crash again , before our flight home tomorrow . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=15OVhCQBv8EfQ7w57D9zVV0iLMvqAMPg&usp=sharing