Derby

We had a quick stop in Derby to stock up on supplies before the Gibb River Road and have a quick look around.

Cape Leveque

Cape Leveque is three hours north of Broome. The highlight of our trip was a fantastic mud crabbing tour with a local guy, Bundy. The kids made a spear and then off we went scouring the tidal creek for mud crabs. It was an amazing day that went on for four hours longer than it should have and ended with us cooking our catch (along with the fish Bundy's boys caught) on the rocks next to the creek. Combine this with more beautiful white beaches and amazing sunsets, its was one of our favourite stops!

Broom, broom to Broome

Having been to Broome on two separate occassions we knew we were going to enjoy ourselves. Tim unfortunately had to leave us to go back to Alice Springs for three weeks but Broome certainly looked after us well. Cable Beach is still as beautiful as ever and there were many free events to enjoy including The Festival of the Pearl and a performance by the Bangarra Dance Theatre.
We were very lucky to catch up with the McAvoy's from home, which was fantastic, and we also met lots of travellers, with lots of kids around to play with. We made some new friends (a special hello to my fellow blogger Felix and Milo, Poppy, Natalie and Doug, Jack and Tegan) and had lots of adventures that included dinosaurs, camels (thanks mum xo) and crocs!

80 Mile Beach

Another beautiful piece of Western Australian coastline! There were lots of shells and Lola spent hours walking the sand with her head down. 

Port Hedland

I dont know what we really expected in Port Hedland, but what an interesting town. The port is one of the busiest ports in the world and is surrounded by trucks, diggers, cranes, trains, bulldozers, salt pools and huge salt piles... its hard not to bring out the eight year old boy in anyone! The beach was beautiful (clothing optional) and we caught up with the family we met in Coral Bay and spent a fantastic afternoon and evening with them (thanks again guys). The morning we were leaving Tim spotted a wedge tail eagle fly over with a snake in its talons, we then watched as a crow swooped at it and it dropped the western brown snake not far from us. The snake didn't survive unfortunately, but it was pretty amazing to watch.

Karajini National Park

What a beautiful place! The gorges were incredible and the swimming holes just so inviting! We did lots of great walks with many swims in between.

Dampier

The kids were adamant that we had to visit Dampier because that's where 'Red Dog' is from, so we headed to Dampier to look at the statue of the Pilbara wanderer. We then travelled down the Rio Tinto Rail Access Road to make our way to Karajini National Park. The road was a short cut and it was great to see some of the huge iron ore trains, but it was pretty rough. Rex renamed the road Rio Tinto Rail Access Corrugated Crap Road.