Goodbye Kimberley, hello Tanami Desert.

We had a relaxing two days in Broome and caught up on a bit of washing and r&r. Trevor, Ria, Dean and Rhianna left us and headed down the west coast. We did manage to get a camel ride in on Cable Beach while we were there. The girls were horrified though when we passed the nudist beach on the camels.

Cable Beach sunsets

We headed north after Broome and camped on the beach north of James Price Point towards Point Coulomb. This was a fantastic little spot and we had a few kilometres of beach to ourselves with not a soul in sight. We camped here two nights and no one wanted to leave!

Water front real estate

Point Coulomb sunset (spot the nudey!)

This is supposed to be Gru off Despicable Me. Don't know why he's nude though. Sophie had the idea of the leaf.

Our camp

Tackling the waves

Next stop was Broome again for more supplies and then we headed south for home.

Called in at Tunnel Creek on the way past and the girls loved walking (and wading) through the tunnel. We even saw a few bats in crevices on the ceiling and a Cherabin (a small crayfish) tried to nip Tayla on her toes.

Tunnel Creek

Boab trees on the Tunnel Creek Rd.

Stopped briefly at Geikie Gorge near Fitzroy Crossing for lunch and a swim. The girls seemed to get dirtier by going in the water as there was a lot of mud on the bottom of the river. They weren't worried about the Freshwater Crocodiles swimming only 50m away.

Geikie Gorge

"I want to get eaten by Crocodiles first!"......."No, I want to get eaten first!"

We camped for the last night in the Kimberley at a free spot called Mary Pools west of Halls Creek and the number of caravans there had to be seen to be believed! There had to be at least 200.
                                                  
After restocking fuel and water at Halls Creek we turned south and headed down the Tanami Rd towards Alice Springs.

Apart from the occasional stretches of corrugations, dust holes and rocks the Tanami Rd was better than we thought and we got some of the best fuel economy for the whole trip, only because we couldn't usually do over 80km/hr.

The Tanami

Not far down the Tanami was Wolfe Creek Crater, one of the biggest meteorite craters in the world. This was made by a 50,000 tonne meteorite about 300,000 years ago.

Wolfe Creek Crater

One unexpected place we found on a side trip off the Tanami Rd was Lake Stretch and this little billabong on the Sturt Creek was full of birdlife. In the morning Brolgas briefly did a courtship dance and Whistling Kites were nesting with chicks in a tree near our camp.

Lake Stretch

Brolgas

Crested Pigeon

Whistling Kite

Zebra Finches

Painted Finches

Grevillea?

Green-flowered Mistletoe Amyema maidenii

Mistletoe on Acacia

Female Mistletoe Bird hanging around Mistletoes

Nankeen Kestrel

Military Dragon Ctenophorus isolepis on the Tanami Rd

Central Netted Dragon Ctenophorus nuchalis at the lip of Wolfe Creek Crater

On the Alice Springs end of the road we noticed one of the gas struts on the trailer had broken and it wasnt until we were camped at Alice Springs that we found the coil spring on the trailer had come out of it's mount too. We are now in Alice spending the second night here to get this fixed before we head for Ayres Rock and the MacDonald Ranges.