The Savannah Way

Last night, we had a seafood platter at Zender's on Cable Beach. We ate early, at 5:30, so as to be able to enjoy the beautiful sunset. No green flash of course, the clouds saw to that, but the sunset colours in those clouds were just gorgeous.

Wednesday dawned drearily, said to be most unusual for the Kimberleys. Even ABC radio news is led by this exceptional weather. For us, the day started off with another 6:00am run along Cable Beach followed by a swim for Mike. This morning, there was a dawn camel ride going on on the beach. We thought these were only at sunset.

Departing the campsite at Cable Beach, we reminisced that it had the best (cleanest, most modern) facilities of any we had stayed at, but at $35/night, it was getting close to double the price of most others. While the spaces were generous, the ground was much too crowded, and we really prefer the private campsites concept elsewhere, despite the lack of power and facilities. We don't know if we'll see any more such places the rest of this trip.

Before leaving Broome, Clare retired her old Nike walking shoes, which had been good for years, but gave up the ghost in one of the gorges, and bought a shiny new pair of Dunlops, and we dieseled up, and got take-away cappucino, the last we'll see for nearly two weeks, at the Old Zoo Cafe.

It was a driving day - we covered 400km to Fitzroy Crossing where we'll stay at this small, run-down but still too crowded (powered) caravan park for two nights, so we can go to Geike Gorge tomorrow. We hope for better weather. It's drizzling lightly here, and quite cool - it reminds us of our old camping days at Durras - but the weather here is supposed to be hot and reliably sunny here in winter.

We are fascinated by how the owners of caravans which never leave the bitumen seem to wash their cars and vans lovingly in the caravan parks every night. We sat here under our tattered awning (out for the first time to protect us from the drizzle) beside our very grubby motorhome, having a cup of tea and watching everyone washing their cars in the drizzle. The Fitzroy River must have boundless water for this to be allowed!

On the way here we encountered patches of drizzle only, and the sky was very threatening. The drive along the Savannah Way (Broome to Cairns) was boring, the only point of interest being the rest area where we had lunch. This area surrounds a massive and ancient boab tree. Also parked there for lunch was a huge fifth wheeler caravan, which must be more comfortable than our modest Apollo truck. Mind you, these fifth wheelers, and indeed any regular caravans, are not able to do the Gibb River Rd! Apart from our friends' Steve and Alan's fifth wheeler, you rarely see these vehicles in the east, but they are reasonably common over here.

The town is very depressed with the usual samples of indigenous population camped out at the shops.They throw down their rubbish anywhere, even though there are plenty of bins, and it is very dirty. From what we saw, only the tourists use the rubblish bins.