It was really good to catch up with the boys, but this time to have my own transport at hand. This gave me the liberty to explore at will. We had been plotting for a while now to do some fishing on Cable Beach in the afternoon and then withdraw to the dunes at a certain spot on Cable Beach and camp for the night.

We had prepared by getting into the bush earlier that day and cutting up some dead timber for the fire.  The fishing was pretty uneventful and we had a long swim in between. Just before we stopped fishing I hooked a large stingray and landed it on the beach. It was really beautiful with electric blue dots on light beige wings. I pulled out the hook and returned the fish to the water, all the time carefully avoiding the tail that was whipping from side to side.

We drove along the beach for another kilometer and unloaded the wood. By then the others started arriving and we set up tables and chairs and got a decent fire going. The evening was spent catching up on the last year and a bit of gossip (J) It got to be pretty late by the time we got to bed. I rolled out my sleeping bag on a tarp and slept in the open air on the beach; very invigorating. The next morning we had a swim and packed up.

Fire Devil

Boat Cruise

One of the days in Broome we were booked on a day trip on the big Catamaran Karma IV. The boat is a 70ft x 33 ft Catamaran. See  http://www.karma4.com.au/index.html  .The agenda was to cruise across Roebuck bay to the Eco Beach Wilderness Resort, have lunch and then spend the rest of the day whale watching some 50 km out at sea.

We launched reasonably early at the boat launch place at Gantheaume beach. It is very pretty there with so many boats moored off the beach, just beyond the low water mark. Our boat the Karma IV looked resplendent as she waited for us. A shuttle boat got us boarded and we were off heading south towards the Eco village. That time of the year the seas in that area are calm and we had an enjoyable cruise. Refreshments were available all the time as we rocked gently across the waves in this big catamaran.

Gantheaume boat launch

Yours Truely

We arrived at the Eco village after two hours sailing. The eco village is across Roebuck bay some 40 kilometers away. When we arrived a tour of the village and their accommodation had been organized. I was very impressed with the level of luxury and the degree of self-sufficiency that had been designed into the place. A really great lunch had been organized at the village dining room that was situated on a hill behind the horizon pool that overlooked Roebuck bay. The buffet lunch had a huge variety of produce including heaps of King Prawns.

Once we had eaten all boarded the Karma once more and set off to the whale area. Tricky things these whales. Every whale we sighted, as we got closer, we could not see the whole whale at any one time. There was no breaching, no exposure of the whole whale on the water. It was almost as if they were playing silly buggers with us. Yet, I have a few pics below of half whales and ‘bits’ of whales. We got back to the launch place just after sunset.

Crabbing Trip

Jacko had purchased a boat and was keen to show off the new toy. Three of us took off in the morning from Broome beach and headed south towards Dampier creek. We reached the creek at low tide and set up 3 traps.  We then trolled our lures in the estuary. My mate Jack caught a decent size shark and Neil and I caught a few smaller fish. The result was ok, but nothing to get excited about. At high tide we collected our crab nets but had only two small crabs for all our effort. Even though the result was not great we had a great outing in the sunshine.

What happened to day 5??   Aah yes; we had an issue. I keep saying that the gods laugh at the best laid plans of mice and men. When I got up on day 5, I could not unlock the driver’s door on my Patrol. I also found that the rear door on the same side did not open either. I had to get in from the passenger side to shuffle to the driver seat to start up my car. Needless to say, I could not do thousands of kilometers like that.

I did some serious begging with the local Nissan dealer to get my 4WD booked in for a service that day. It turned out that an overload of dust had stopped the locking mechanism from working. After a good clean and some oil the doors were as good as gold once more.

So I left early on day 6 to head north of Alice on the Stuart highway to head for the Tanami track. 20 kilometers north of Alice I reached the turn off heading northwest through the Tanami desert towards Broome. This is the shortest road to Broome from the southeast of the country.

The Tanami track is just around 1100 kilometers long and is mostly unsealed and in average to poor condition of corrugation. The distance from Alice to Broome is just shy of 2000 kilometers. The track has been improving over the years because of the mining development along this area. As a result the road looks like a ‘W’ with a raised middle section bordered by a culvert on both sides that catches the water if and when it rains. That water is then diverted at drainage points. If it is wet and you end up in the mud in a culvert it is game over. You are not going anywhere in a hurry.

The tricky bit is that the trucks that carry the ore from the mines come in the shape of road trains with 3 or 4 trailers. The total thing is over 100 tons on the move and it is not able to move off the center of the road as the gradient would cause the train to roll over. So one plays chicken with the road train and eventually you get the message to pull off the road and wait for the monster to pass. These trains kick up so much bulldust that you are not able to move until the dust has settled a few minutes later.

The corrugations at times are so bad that you are not able to drive faster than 50 kilometers an hour. Once again the scenery along the road is stunning with many trees, grassy flat areas and dry countryside in other places. You are travelling through the Tanami desert. However the land does not look like a typical desert. There is a good deal of vegetation around. The other thing one notices is that there are very many, very large termite hills all over the place. I love their color which is a rich ochre and looks grand in the setting sun.  The backdrop to the landscape is one of long hills and mountain ranges. Once again this is not a flat country.

By now the sun was getting lower and I had done less than 500 kilometers. The road conditions made it impossible to travel at any decent speed. In looking for an ideal camping spot I had noticed during the day that at every 50 kilometers along the track there was a microwave repeater station/mast. The spots were some 50 meters away from the road and had a cleared area around the masts. There was evidence of fires where travelers have used these spots for overnighting. This seemed like a gift to me and I pulled over at one of them and set up camp for the evening.  I put down my swag  at the rear of  the car and set up the requirements like table, chair, gas for cooking and collected some fire wood.

A good meal and a beer  later I turned in for the night and went to sleep. A while later, it must have been around 1:00am, I was woken up by the strangest noise: grrrcunch, grrcrunch, silence, then again grrcrunch. I gently lifted my head without making any noise and saw a dingo in the moonlight, not 30 meters away from me eating a small animal that he had caught and killed. As I lifted my head my sleeping bag made a slight noise which caused the dingo to look at me and disappeared amongst the grasses. I went back to sleep until daybreak.