A week after we had expected to leave Mt Elizabeth within 24 hours, we drove away feeling relieved.
That ‘extra’ week whilst we waited for a station employee to eventually turn up made quite a difference. It gave us a chance to get over the initial shock & to adapt to the idea that our time there was over.
Our relief on leaving was however tempered with uncertainty. We really had no idea where we were going or what we were now going to do. We had expected to be at Mt Elizabeth for another 3 to 4 months after which we intended to head slowly back eastward & on toward East Arnhem Land in June. But now we had no choice but to head west back to Derby along the Gibb River Road backtracking along the way we had driven in because the Gibb River Road going east was closed by flooding.
The road west had also been recently closed & we had tried to obtain a ‘Permit to drive on a closed road’ from the roads department at Derby Shire Council. After some initial confusion it became apparent that the Derby Shire council are not responsible for the GRR & that the road is actually a State responsibility. Our initial confusion about this was compounded by confusion at Derby as the person usually responsible for issuing permits for Shire roads had only very recently gone on maternity leave & no specific person had yet been allocated to her role. We made application to the Main Roads Dept but luckily whilst we were waiting for a response from them we learned that the road going west had been briefly re-opened after the Lennard river levels had dropped, making the bridge across it driveable ‘for now’ … just in time for us to leave.
However a storm was forecast – one which threatened to bring water levels of the Lennard River back up quickly. And so we were under pressure to get across that bridge or risk being cut off for an unknown period of time. So the drive ‘out’ became a bit of a race against time.
It wasn’t a huge drive, around 300kms I think, & whilst care was needed to avoid occasional sections of road damage (the worst being ‘gutters’ – washouts crossing the width of the road – mostly not too bad but a few with potential to do serious damage if we hit them too fast.
In actual fact we were surprised at how good the condition of the road was in the main & seeing one of the things we had come to see – the Gibb River Road lush & green was a cause for celebration, a tick off our imaginary bucket list.
Many sections of the GRR flood during the wet season, & we had plenty of small water crossings to traverse which just added interest, but as yet the monsoonal rains had not yet arrived. Prior to the ‘big’ rains coming the most common ‘bottleneck’ in the east is the Lennard river Bridge where water levels see the bridge opened/closed & quite regularly.
Brown & dusty had been replaced by verdant growth in a variety of green hues, some so green it was almost ‘hi-vis’. Many small creeks crossed the road – in the tourist season most would be passed by without even noticing their dry beds or shallow depressions existed. We expect that at times of heavy monsoonal or cyclonic rains that even the smallest creeks could become car stoppers. Too deep &/or too wide with no sense of where the road edges were. Along with the new grass which made the road look narrower in many places, it was a joy to see the many boab trees in full leaf.
We were however ‘on a mission’ to reach & cross the Lennard River bridge before the forecast storm saw it impassable again, so there was not time to dally, despite temptation to do so. The hardest temptation was just past the turnoff to Bell Gorge. We arrived at the Bell Creek, which was over the road, but we couldn’t proceed as there was a ute parked on the road, in the creek blocking our way. The owner , a young fella and his dog were having a lovely soak in the creek just at the side of the road. It was a hot humid day, & nothing could have been nicer. He & his dog ambled back to the car both got in dripping. He apologised “I hadn’t expected any other traffic” to which I replied with something like “Sorry there always one”. His was one of three cars we saw that day.
About 30kms before Lennard Bridge, from a light non threatening sky above us a lightning bolt came diagonally across the front of the truck about 20 or 30 metres ahead of us, & was accompanied by an instantaneous almighty clap of thunder as loud as I’ve ever heard it. It sounded like it was right on top of our roof. If we could have jumped out of skins in fright we probably would have. We looked at each other, mouths agape & then laughed & carried on.
From then we watched the sky closely in our rear view mirrors, not for lightning bolts but to see if it was getting darker & more threatening … to determine whether we needed to outrun it. We could see dark clouds coming up behind us but they still seemed some way off, nevertheless we were pleased when we crossed the Lennard River before it caught up with us. We pulled off into a roadside clearing just past the bridge to camp for the night.
Camping again for the first time in just over 3 months still felt familiar. We were set up very quickly & enjoyed a cool drink from the fridge, sitting in our chairs watching the dark clouds roll toward us. It did rain that night, but nothing like had been forecast & all the thunder were heard sounded distant, & not a single bolt of lightning. Next morning we had puddles & mud to negotiate to get back to the road, but water had not come up over the bridge. From here on it was sealed road the rest of the way. Clouds of dragonflies sporadically materialised in our path to splatter on our windscreen.
Overnight we had talked about whether to head east from Derby, back towards Kununurra or west to Broome. Having plenty of time up our sleeves we had decided to re-visit Broome. A town we have loved previously during the wet season, but far less so during the tourist season. What we would do once there we weren’t certain about, how long we might stay was also up in the air, the latter would depend on the former. 🙂
From where we had camped by the Lennard River Broome was approximately 330kms. We had no reason to call in to Derby on this occasion, so would pass through no towns until we reached Broome. We had considered camping for a few nights again at one of our favourite spots on the Fitzroy River, but crossing the river & seeing how much water was flowing under it’s many bridges told us the chances were high that our ‘usual spot’ was likely under water, & at this time of year the chances of us becoming cut off by floodwaters, or bogged, was a risk not worth taking. However being in no particular hurry we decided that stopping somewhere overnight before reaching Broome would be a good idea..
Roadside rest areas are rarely our preference, & along this stretch of the northern highway there were 2 or 3 of them, which were pretty much our only options. Only one had loos & roofed shelters so that was our choice. We have our own toilet, a simple portapotti, but nice not have to use it if we don’t have to, but it was the sun shade which had most appeal as we would arrive in the early afternoon.
Nillibubbica, which is a nice word to say, even if we have no idea of it’s meaning or origin, was set a short distance off the highway with multiple shelters all with tables. A few folk came & went through the afternoon, but we had the place all to ourselves that night. There had been rain before we arrived, & there were a number of large but shallow puddles. These, it turned out, were a real bonus, attracting quite a variety of birdlife to keep us entertained.
Driving into Broome the next morning felt nice, there is something to be said for familiarity. Discovering new places is great & something we love, but reaching a town we like & where we already know our way around is special. Something to be savoured. We had looked online for places to stay & chosen the Caravan Park at Town Beach. In January it was the cheapest & it is also the only caravan Park in Broome with beach frontage, ambient temperatures were high & a breeze off the water plus some nice shade trees would be welcome. It turned out to be a good choice. We had no idea how long we might stay for, but paid for just two nights initially.
$27 per night for a powered site wasn’t bad, considering it costs $144 during the tourist season!
An online friend had given us a contact to follow up about somewhere out of town to stay for a while. If the possibility eventuated it sounded like a lovely spot to give us some breathing space whilst we considered our evolving plan of action. The elderly owners (well a bit older than us!) of a privately owned 10 acre waterfront block about 45 minutes to an hour’s drive from Broome, via dirt road & 4wd track across dunes, up at Willie Creek & about 1 km from the well known Willie Creek Pearl Farm had been told to expect a call from us. As the crow flies Willie Creek is not far from Broome, basically at the far northern end of Cable Beach. We walked that way, along the beach, years ago when we walked the songlines for that country with the Goolarabooloo mob. 100kms over 10 days , back when our knees & bodies were stronger! At Willie Creek we had had to cross the water by boat & would have continued walking past where we now hoped to camp. Craig & Corellie, the owners as promised knew of us when we called & arrangement was made for us to drive out to meet them, with a view to staying there for a couple of weeks in return for giving them a bit of a hand around the place.
They are a pair of old school characters, who have lived a hard but exceptionally interesting life. Craig worked in the pearling & diving industry as well as running tour boats for tourists. In more recent years their sons have taken on the business whilst they continue to live on the block which Craig’s fathers had had before him. Many stories & anecdotes. The main thing Craig was hoping for from me was an extra pair of hands to put some new solar panels up on a roof. Something needing two people. We were to stay for a couple of weeks until late January during which time we would see what possibilities we could find for house & pet sitting. If that were possible we thought we might stay in or around Broome for a while longer.
We enjoyed Craig & Corellie’s company & hospitality. They once had plans to run a low key camping site there, & had set up the required facilities, but it sounded like the enterprise had not lasted long on account of exorbitant insurance costs. However for us it was perfect with a functional amenities block & an outside shower tied to a palm tree. Every day we asked about jobs, but they never eventuated – it seems that the solar installation will wait until cooler weather. All we really did was to turn a few sprinklers on & off & move them around as required. Craig when not telling stories about his colourful life was, it seemed quite shy, but Corellie regularly baked scones to share with us for morning teas. She & MrsTea have continued a weekly relationship with each other since we left, regularly going out for coffee etc together in town, to a variety of hidden little favourites coffee shops & cafes know predominantly only to locals.
Tawny Frogmouths.
Advertising our availability on some local Facebook groups brought a surpringly good response & we were overwhelmed by the number of folk interested in having us look after their homes & pets. We quickly learned that lots of responses don’t necessarily translate into agreed sits as of course ‘juggling’ dates to meet homeowner’s needs plus our need to minimise gaps between sits was required We didn’t feel we could accept offers for a month or two ahead, before we had something arranged between ‘then & now’. And we wouldn’t dream of making commitments with a view to cancelling if something better came up. Although we have completed a number of sits in the past organising back to back sits over a period of time was new to us. We did make a couple of agreements for folk only to later have them either cancel on us or to change what had been agreed upon. The folk who did this were quite apologetic for letting us down. Things come up for folk unexpectedly & plans have to change, but each time a familiar knot of uncertainty in my stomach re-appeared.
So all the juggling was a bit stressful (more me than MrsTea who said on a number of occasions ‘don’t worry, something will turn up”). Well she’s always right (so she tells me) 🙂 & was on these occasions. We have ended up with some beautiful houses & pets to care for, back to back, with no gaps between them to take us right through to mid May. I daresay we could find more to go beyond that time, but our love for Broome is for ‘Off season Broome, less so for the busy tourist season.
Knowing we had 2 ‘definites’ which would take us 9 weeks from when we left Willie Creek in late January, and another for 4 weeks after a 10 day gap would take us to Mid May. There remained a reasonable chance of filling the 10 day gap, but if things didn’t pan out like that we could head out of town to free camp. We would keep our fingers crossed though as free camping would involve a mix of mozzies, sandflies & very hot temperatures. Not ideal in a motorhome without air con. I suppose if we had to returning to a caravan park for the 10 days was also an option but April prices were a lot higher compared to early January, so we kept outr fingers crossed that MrsTea’s optimism was well placed.
Days at Willie Creek were generally fairly lazy affairs, leisurely beach walks, getting to know the dogs & of course scones & morning teas. There were however a couple of notable exceptions. One was the realisation that our water monitor was no longer telling us the truth. Not a major issue whilst we had a continuous water supply, but knowing how much we have in our tanks when we are on the move is something we deem ‘critical’ The existing system, without going into detail, was a very expensive one. The fault may possibly have been fixable for $150, but me not fully understanding how it worked, managed, via inappropriate fault finding techniques, to make the whole thing worse, when I inadvertently ‘let some smoke out” & damaged the printed circuit boards of the two tank sensors & melted insulation off cables Each of these capacitive sensors cost north of $500, but the bigger problem was there was insufficient clearance above the stainless steel tanks to remove & replace the sensors. To achieve this a huge amount of difficult dismantling of things would be required. Very complex 3D jigsaw & requiring some tools I didn’t have with us. A job for back home in my workshop. Several days were taken up with fault finding & learning about the system, the problem & what to do about it, aided by folk more knowledgeable than me online. I have since found a workable solution which doesn’t require tank level sensors at all. I bought a Bluetooth capable inline flow meter & have fitted it whilst house sitting in Broome. It tells me how much water we have left via an app on my phone.
Then there was Severe Tropical Cyclone Luana. ‘She’ was a difficult one for the Bureau of Meteorology to forecast a path for. A category 3 – so whilst a ‘Severe’ category, the lowest level of ‘severe’. As she got closer it became clearer that she would impact the Dampier peninsula somewhere. We watched tracking forecasts closely having decided that if we were likely to be directly impacted we would evacuate & go into Broome to the public cyclone shelter. That was dependent upon rain not making the Manari road impassable. We were confident we would be able to get back over the sandy tracks across the dunes if it rained, but around 10kms along the red pindan road could become very sloppy & slippery, & large track wide puddles could become uncomfortably deep. Potentially impassable. On the Wednesday evening we decided that first thing Friday morning would be the latest we could make our ‘stay or leave’ decision.
In the end we decided to stay. It looked like the eye of the cyclone would most likely cross over land 70km to 100km north of us & then pass to our east heading towards Derby. We would get sustained gale force winds, but felt we could batten down inside our truck during the worst of it, window shutters closed in case of flying objects. We would also move the truck away from the the cliff’s edge, not because of any concern about a storm surge, but because parking it behind the big heavy & solid old Pearling lugger on a trailer would afford us some protection from the wind. At 7 tonnes, I was confident the wind would not blow us onto our side but had to work at reassuring MrsTea of this. Being on the southerly side of the Cyclone we could predict the direction the wind would come from when at it’s most intense, so as well as sheltering behind the lugger we pointed the rear of the truck into the direction of the wind. The hardest thing would be being stuck inside for a while which would be confined & hot. Opening the door, windows, shutter or roof hatches risked damage in what would undobtedly be very gusty conditions
As it turned out the whole ‘show’ was milder than we had feared & the wind whilst constant & needing the precautions we had taken, wasn’t as bad as we thought it might have been. We got lucky! Rain was constant for a day but not especially heavy. Potentially ferocious became just a very wind day. Waves did what waves do in the wind, but there was no storm surge.
Sadly a couple of communities further north where the eye of the cyclone passed were quite badly impacted however.
So now early April & we have approximately 5 more weeks left in Broome before we begin heading east again. More about that next time.
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