Chapter III - River Camps
Turning West at Wyndham led us to Halls Creek, which we didn’t like very much at all. It was a bit grubby, there where no real places to enjoy much of a romp and Annie said it must have been ‘pension day’, not really sure what that means but a lot of people were carrying brown paper bags and were behaving rather badly.
Just after Halls Creek there was a rather pleasant free camp beside a little creek and close to one of the entry gates to the Bungle Bungle National Park. There were a few 4 WD and caravan rigs there, it turned out that some of the drivers were camping in this area and going in to the National Park most days.
One nice couple offered to take Annie in to the National Park for a day whilst another lady travelling with them stayed in camp and looked after us. Annie was a bit hesitant at first but as they also had a very well cared for Labrador she felt it was safe enough and enjoyed a lovely day out – we enjoyed a lovely lazy day with our new friends and that made for a nice change from travelling. Annie then returned the favour and looked after Harry the Labrador while his folks did a very long day in the National Park.
The next day we headed off again, still heading west. Another 2 nights in a lovely bush camp at a magical place called Mary Pool. The rising of the moon in the Kimberley region is really quite lovely as it comes up as an enormous soft golden ball. Sitting on my special persons lap watching the moon come up and sharing her nibbles (and a lick or two of her glass of red, if I am quick!) is quite a special time for this little Whippet.
We then came to a big T junction and although Broome was to the left Annie decided that we should head right towards Derby whilst so close.
There was quite a lot of interesting things to look at in Derby including a really huge Boab Tree that was so big it was once used to put bad people in – Annie said they could still put bad Whippets in there, so I was very good, just in case!
There was also the longest doggy drinking bowl I have ever seen – at least 3 thousand Whippets could all drink there at the same time I should think! Carlin jumped right in and enjoyed a good soak, I wasn’t quite so sure about that, it did seem rather uncouth to lay down in someone else’s drinking bowl, anyway I don’t like making big splashes. Labradors are not quite as couth as Whippets.
Annie read some of the story boards around the place and tried to have us believe that it wasn’t a doggy drinking bowl at all, but designed for watering 850 store cattle. I think she must have been joking, don’t you? I mean, honestly who would choose to have 850 store cattle instead of 3 thousand Whippets?
We also enjoyed a rather educational bush walk with lots of story boards about the indigenous uses of the plants and shrubs here in the Derby region.
Next we went driving some 80 ks. along the famous Gibb River Road, to the end of the bitumen, just to be able to say that we’ve been on the Gibb River Road! The road is a serious 4WD road and not made for our little HoW at all, everything would shake and rattle and break if we tried the whole thing.
Then it was on to Broome, the tourist Mecca of the North West of WA. Just like the real Mecca there were a great many camels, Annie wanted me to pose with one for a photograph.
Now I quite like camels from a distance, say about 2 ks, but get up close to one? No, thank you! They all have the hump and they spit a lot too, they are far more uncouth than even Labradors.
Whilst we were not allowed on the famous end of Cable Beach, where Annie sat and took in a Cable Beach sunset sipping on a yummy cocktail with a rather rude name, so rude in fact that she was quite embarrassed asking for it! We dogs are allowed on the other end of the Beach in the mornings though, so we got to have a lovely beach run with the local dogs, but shock horror! The water was not like my Darwin beach at all....it was brrrrr...much too cold!
We also made friends with some of local dogs who live near the overflow caravan park where we stayed. One was a rather elderly and portly yellow Labrador whose people have a very posh 3 level home. They have installed a small platform lift on both sets of stairs so that the old lad can easily get around the house. It is weight activated so he can get up and down stairs all on his own. I would have liked to have had a play on this rather special toy but I was not invited in.
From Broome we went to Barn Hill, a lovely ‘Station Stay’ on the beach about 150 ks south of Broome. Here we really relaxed for 3 days, walked for hours on the beach, playing with our new friend Marli, a Kelpie girl of my age and energy levels and enjoying the lovely home cooked cakes that arrived at the little kiosk every morning!
Driving the 10 k’s in to Barn Hill was a bit funny, there were several gates to open/close and at each gate there were Brahman cattle who thought they could ‘race’ Annie and try to get through the gate before she closed it again! Carlin and I watched out of the back window and laughed to ourselves, wondering if this was the gate where the cattle would win the game.
We enjoyed another couple of really lovely free camps on safe crocodile free rivers between Barn Hill and Port Hedland, 2 nights at the first and another couple of nights at the next one too. Again we caught up with our friend Marli. We also got a surprise out walking one evening when we came around a corner on a bush track and met a very handsome Afghan hound, in full coat I might add. He did look rather splendid and we were wondering how he kept so clean and tidy, he told me later that his people have a shower in their caravan and whenever he gets grubby or finds something nice to roll in they give him a bath.
I am so very glad our HoW is little and doesn’t have a shower! The Afghan and I immediately recognised each other as sight hounds and had a wonderful game! Now he really could do the ‘rips’ properly!Port Hedland was the next town we visited, it scared me a bit. We sat on the dock watching all the ships taking tons of Australia away (mostly to other Countries, to be made into things that Australians will then buy back). I got scared that if all these boats keep doing this, eventually there won’t be enough Australia for a little Whippet to stand on, let alone his Labrador brother, his special person, or his H.o.W.
Another 3 nights of lovely bush camping mostly by rivers or water holes followed and then we were in Roebourne. The last camp we enjoyed was right beside the Sherlock River, as we were relaxing there some local ladies drove up with their small children to play in the river. One of the ladies was visiting from Perth and swam quite far out into the river and only then called out to her friends to ask if there where any crocs in the river! We thought that was a funny.
We stayed at a caravan park here as Roebourne is close to Karratha, Dampier and Cossack. The Caravan Park allowed dog owners to run their dogs on an open area within the Park off leash, very understanding people. There are a lot of old buildings in Roebourne. I cannot not help but notice that as soon as there are 3 to 4 buildings, (one of which should always be a pub) and these buildings are at least as old as my special person, then the people make one of them into a Museum and fill it with stuff that Annie says she has used or owned.
Now I know Annie has a lot of grey hair and all that, but really she is not so old as she belongs in a museum, or at least she tells us she isn’t!
There was a nice little place close to Roebourne called Cossack, it was once a thriving town and Port but now all the buildings are in ruins. It is still famous though, as the home of the Cossack Art Prize, which is world renowned. All the paintings were still hanging when we arrived and we wandered around the gallery, do you know not one of them was of a Whippet? There was an artist in residence and I offered to sit for him, or stand or even roll over....but he just wasn’t interested in painting me, Annie consoled me by saying that he had no taste.
The other towns in this area were a lot like Port Hedland, very industrial, as it were. We did visit Dampier where there is a lovely statue honouring a red cattle dog who was nobody’s dog but wandered at will around the vast Pilbara region and it seems he was loved by all. Looking at the statue of The Pilbara Red Dog bought a tear to my eye and I think I heard Carlin snuffling a bit too.
Here at Dampier there was a turn off to the Burrhup Peninsula. A very ancient area with many hundreds of aboriginal art sites, sadly the mining and gas companies also have their sites located in the area and they want to expand.
We were not able to drive out to see the rock art as the road was closed, but I do hope they don’t ruin the place as art that is so rare and tells an ancient story in such an enduring way is worth far more than anything these mining chaps can dig up.
There was a very nice fish and chip shop in Dampier, called ‘Bob’s’, Carlin and I thought that perhaps our mate Bob from Darwin had come down especially to cook us our dinner, but no, it was a different Bob. The next morning we were off again heading for Carnarvon.
On the way to Carnarvon, the next major town we took a turn off and stayed a couple of days near a spot called Coral Bay. We camped out of town but went in both days, found good parking spots right beside the beach where Annie could go snorkelling on the Coral right off the beach! She spent some time on the beach and then would come back and take us out and have coffee or lunch and then back to the beach....it really was rather pleasant especially as it was quite cool with a nice breeze that had all sorts of lovely smells to tickle our noses.
Next stop was Carnarvon, it was nice to see real green grass ovals for us to play on and they even had doggy poo bags, so they must like us at Carnarvon. Here we enjoyed the friendly people we met whilst walking, a long ride out on a pier travelling on a little old train they call the ‘Coffee Pot’ to the old working Port. The growers market on Sunday morning was good and then we had a drive to a place about 100 ks out of town to The Blowholes.
We were very disappointed to find that we could have camped out there if we had known. Even more so after we had bumped into our friend Marli and her people and some of the people we had camped with way back in Kununurra, they where all camped out there so it would have been fun to be there too.
At The Blowholes the water comes up 20 – 30 feet rushing up into the air through holes in the rocks, really quite spectacular to see! I wanted to go and sniff at these holes but Annie wouldn’t let me, she told me that I would get a terrible fright if a spurt of water came up while I was out near the hole and lifted me 29 – 30 feet high, I suppose I would too! ‘The other thing we really enjoyed in Carnarvon was the Banana smoothies – we found a lovely place to enjoy these delights, set in the garden of the banana plantation and everything was home made and yummy!