Thanks for having us Kimberley, we love you.

We're alive!
We are now in Kununarra, on the WA/NT border after finishing the Gibb River Road. 24 days and we saw a massive amount of the Kimberley and loved every minute of it. Beautiful gorges, a huge variety of wildlife, 4 and 5 tiered waterfalls, challenging 4wding, and fishing off the North Kimberley coast.

A Map of where we travelled. We went pretty much everywhere. The black arrow is a place we went to called Bachsten Bush camp.

We needed food for at least 3 weeks (note essential pancake mix and chesse supreme dorritos).

One of the Freshwater crocs at Windjana gorge. We saw at least 30 sunning themselves on the bank.

Min swimming at Bell Gorge. Just working on her syncro moves.

Using her fine tuned radio-ing skills and call sign 'Mini Driver', Min let Mornington Wilderness camp know we were on the way.

About a 2 hr drive off the Gibb river road to Mornington. Mornington is owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and aims to protect the flora and fauna over a huge area. Over 200 species of birds are found there. James has gone from hating birds to being a 'tweeter'. He just loves the Gouldian Finch.

Canoeing down Dimond gorge on the Mornington property.

Manning Gorge

Ouch. $2.40/L. The less said the better.

Min getting arty with her new camera. The Kimberley rose. New camera because James broke her underwater one (apparently underwater cameras work well as long as you don't take them underwater).

Rock art found around Mt Elizabeth station. This is a Wandjina (a very important spiritual figure in Aboriginal dreaming). Dated around 1000-2000 years.

This is a Bradshaw (Gwion gwion) art work. At least 17000 years old, the local indigenous people don't know anything about this type of art as it isn't part of their dreaming. Theories exist that this art was painted by a pre-aboriginal group of people that may have migrated from the south east asia area. You can definently see a Polynesian, almost African element.

From Mt Elizabeth, there is a 140km track out Bachsten creek bushcamp. We were highly recommend to go with another vehicle and met a great young family who were keen to go too (Min was pleased as they knew A LOT more about 4wding than James). Adam and Pam with their kids Sophie and Bardin were great fun and we loved travelling with them for the 5 days. The drive was spectacular.

Min had the job of checking the depth of water crossings (there was no way James was going to walk through known croc infested waters!)

How good are the green sun shades we tailored to the back windows? Min isn't as enthusiastic as James. Now the car is known as the Green and Champagne beast.

Ann and Rick, the lovely owners of Bachsten bushcamp maintain the track out there (the Munja track) each year. After the wet season, with a tractor and convoy of 4wds, they clear the track.

The most beautiful drive we have done. Thanks for the tip Anna.

Bogged. The driver shall remain nameless.

Min, redeeming herself after getting us bogged.

Arriving at Bachsten bushcamp, Ann and Rick mentioned in a very understated way that we might want to go and check out Bachsten gorge because it is 'nice'. 5 tier water fall and we had it to ourselves for the whole day.

Having a swim in the second tier.

All you need when exploring is a strong pair of speedos and a camera.

Wren gorge, 14km north of Bachsten bushcamp.

We met a lovely couple, Elly and James. She had a whole lot of homemade quince paste and kindly gave us some. Min enjoying some with cheese on damper. Delicious. Thanks Elly. Oh yeah, Mitchell falls in the background.

Min sneezing or spasming, not sure which.

Mitchell falls. Good. Watching the tour group cross the river to see the falls and seeing 3 of them fall in the water. Better.

Fine tuning the art of damper. Sesame seeds on this one. Crowning glory was the one with sultanas and cinnamon.

We travelled right up to the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu, on the North Kimberley coast. Adam (who with his family we continued to stalk after Bachsten) went out and caught a 1.4m spanish mackrel after 10 minutes. We camped at Honeymoon beach. A locally family run campground with a great, friendly atmosphere.

Ken and Shirley, a lovely couple from Moama, come up to Honeymoon beach every year for three months and go fishing. They offered to take us out on their boat, show us some of the coastline, & drop a line in. Min caught this saddle tail snapper almost straight away. You call that a fish?

This is a fish. 1.2m, 16kg Mulloway.

James didn't do it all by himself! Min hooked it but being so big it took all four of us a turn at reeling it in before it tired and James could reel it into the boat. Ken and Shirley, thank you so much again. The Golden snapper, Saddle tail snapper and Mulloway you helped us catch gave us the three best meals of the whole trip.

Crossing the Pentecost. When James passed some big exams last year, he sent a similar photo to Min to let her know he passed and the trip was going ahead. To actually be there and  to drive it ourselves was awesome. We loved it so much, we crossed it 5 times.

In the thermal pools of Zebedee springs, El Questro. The thing on James' face is his June attempt at a beard. Apologies if it offends anyone with a real beard.

Emma Gorge, El Questro.

No surprises here who collected the firewood.

Now James has realised his dream of 4wding through the Kimberley, he immediately starts on his next dream.

It's all east from here.

Hi everyone!
We have made it to Broome and just about to embark on our Kimberley adventure and cross the top of Australia via the Gibb River road. The car is still going and fingers crossed we make it to Darwin.
North West WA is just amazing and we have loved coming up here. From Kalbarri National park, to Cape Range National Park bordered by the Ningaloo Reef, to the Iron Ore rich hills of the Pilbara and Karijini National Park, these are certainly three of the best National Parks we have ever been to.

Nature's window at Kalbarri NP. James decided to impersonate Jerry Seinfeld for the day. I mean, how good are sneakers and jeans?

'Z bend' Kalbarri NP

Nicki the Dolphin at Monkey Mia. Each day, dolphins come into the bay and are fed no more than 1/3 of their daily requirements. We saw 16 of them.

Min got to feed one after pushing a small child out of the way.

A freaking Emu in our boot. Now James says he is only scared of birds that can fly, however his womanish scream was not consistent with this.

View from our campsite at Steep Point. You'd think the most westerly point in Australia would be easy to get to, but it is 30km along a 4wd track. Has the tag of best land base fishing in Australia. Needless to say, Min and I fit right in with all the fisherman camping nearby who book their campsites 1 year in advance. We talked about bait and stuff.

The fisherman out on the point fish off the rocks and haul in huge Marlin and the ocassional shark, like this 2.5m shark they caught the previous day. They use helium balloons to send the lines out and when they catch something, they lower gaffs down the lines to cope with the weight of what they are bringing up. We don't understand what any of that actually means but we nodded politely when the fisherman explained it to us.

Outside Carnarvon Woolies putting the groceries away. James insists on putting things away as things have their spot. "No Min, the cumin seeds don't go next to the cardamom, they go beside the star anise."

Each campground in Cape Range NP has a campground host. Usually it is a grey nomad couple who volunteer for months at a time. We stayed at boat harbour right on the edge of the Ningaloo reef. Michael, the campground host, took us out on his tinny so we could snorkel on the reef just off shore.

We moved to Ned's camp up the road after 2 nights at Boat Harbour. What's happy hour I hear you ask?

Everyone meets and brings a beverage. Mostly nomads, we covered a broad range of topics including superannuation, grandchildren, gammy knees and what's the best way to address a letter of complaint.

James went out to snorkel with the whale sharks. Saw 5 whale sharks and was in the water when three Humback whales swum past.

Biggest fish in the world. The tour had a diver who took photos of the dive. This was one of the whale sharks James saw. The Sharks are filter feeders and very placid but some of them measure up to 9m and being only 3m away from them is extraordinary.

Turquoise bay. Cape Range National Park.

Yardie Creek. Cape Range National Park.

Exploring Hancock Gorge in Karijini National Park.

Eventually, you reach Kermit's Pool.

Wading through Weano Gorge.

That opens up to Handrail pool.

Karijini is right in the middle of where all the Iron Ore mining is occuring. Lots of mining vehicles go through the area, like this huge road train. We tuned into UHF channel 40.

A conservation would go somewhat like this. "The 2 in the Champagne Prado, are you on channel? We need you to go slow and over to the far left, there is an 8.5m coming through" Min would usually reply " That's a 10/4 good buddy. This is Mini Driver and Collie Dog reading you loud and clear. Roger that, will make way. Over and out."

Hammersley Gorge. Karijini NP.

Tea and a Venetian at Hammersley. Tea has replaced beer... the first worrying sign of becoming a nomad.

James, enjoying sweeping the tent out. Also, how good is matching grey tracksuit top and bottom?

Up at Cygnet bay Pearl farm, 200km north of Broome. $14000 Pearl strand. "I'm a Lady".

Cape Leveque, the Northern tip above Broome. A rough trip up there but worth every bumpy minute of it.

James showing the rest of the campground at Broome just how to expertly assemble a tent.