Australia, the return, part 3

Broome is at the base of the Dampier Peninsula and is the home of the famous (if you're a birder) Broome Bird Observatory so i was really quite excited to finally arrive.

We stopped in at the observatory on the way in and booked a birding for trip later in our stay.

The next morning we strolled along Simpson Beach, being watched by this Osprey:

The colours in Broome are unforgettable, the sand white, the seas that special shade of blue when there's white sand underneath it, the soil bright orange to red in places:

We booked ourselves on a boat trip to see the dinosaur footprints, a strange trip but one that didn't disappoint:

The compressed footprints are the last things to break down as the sedmentary layers of rock are eroded by the sea, the wind and the sun leaving unexpected prominances that are very definitely dinosaur footprints, with traceable tracks:

Some footprints from the predator species are present too:

The boat also took us into Dampier Creek, apparently a large salty had been seen there recently so definitely no swimming!

Another morning we went out to Streeters Jetty, at low tide, to see what looks like a ninja crab, one of literally thousands coming out of their mud holes to feed:

The bird observatory trip was somewhat mixed in results, we did see a Yellow Chat, albeit somewhat distant, however as we were waiting for night to fall to look for owls, a small storm blew-in and started pouring rain, and being then on a very thin salt crust layer we had the strange experience of being driven in a 4x4 and then sliding at right angles to the road with no grip or traction whatsoever while making a hasty retreat to more solid dirt to then drive out.   So we didn't see any of the three owl species we'd been hoping for.  Hey ho, watching the storm blow over the salt flats and seeing the sun set through the rain clouds was still a spectacular, and highly unusual for the time of year, sight to see.

From Broome further West along the '1' for Port Hedland,or Dante's Inferno as i think it should actually be named, leaving the Kimberley and entering the Pilbara.  It is a huge industrial port with train lines stretching inland and all manner of Australian 'produce', from live and dead cattle to 2km long iron ore and coal trains, going into the harbour onto boats and off, mostly, to China.  The scale was breathtaking, as was the fine iron ore dust coating everything an eery shade of burnt red.  Also weird was the gourmet restaurant we ate at in our motel, the best food we've enjoyed down-under outside of Sydney.  Weird.

Moving on we headed inland past some of the mining operations to Tom Price and Karijini National Park, the 'home of the gorge' (I made that bit up), stopping on the way at a roadhouse which had kept some of the older equipement to one side:

Karijini literally is gorge-ous, with swimming holes, hard to get to gorges, open gorges, walking tracks around gorges, etc:

A fascinating spot that is well worth a visit.  The red dust from the proximate mining operations did get everywhere however, so while we enjoyed our visit it was a relief, especially for my lungs, to be heading out and back to the coast and to our next stop in Exmouth.

Exmouth was our last stop in tropical West Australia before we headed firmly South and the to-be depature point of Cath and Nortbert as they flew via Perth to the Christmas and Cocos Islands.

We headed out very early one morning to Yardie Creek, the furthest accessible point on land of Cape Range National Park.  Early enough to see the Short-eared Rock-wallaby in its natural habitat (they are endangered by habitat loss, hunting, disturbance, etc., the usual human stuff):  It's a beautiful setting for a beautiful animal:

If you've been watching Channel 4 and Bill Bailey's Aussie stuff he paddled boarded here, though by the looks of the programme he did it earlier in the year when it was cooler and so later in the day.  It was going to get to 38c+ for us as the day drew on...

Another beach, another tide, another cool looking crab:

The morning after we'd had to drop our roadmates off at the airport for their onward journey, we strted early again, this time to visit Charles Knife Canyon (ditto Bill Bailey)

The sunrise was beautiful:

The vegetation on the canyon typical with small trees, fire killed husks, spinifex grasses:

I'm really quite pleased with this landscape taken on my phone, they are getting better and better as time goes on:

The gorge is very serrated in terms of peaks and troughs, with paths on quite inaccessible looking ridges:

Another morning (we tended to hide from the heat in the afternoons) we went back into Cape Range and found these turtles relaxing in the surf, some pairs were breeding offshore and some were laying eggs higher up the beach with much swishing of sand as they did so:

A pair of Greater Crested Terns were conducting the same pair bonding ritual we can see in Sandwich Terns back at home:

Crested Pigeons look magnificent with the crests, eye and plumage colours:

Back in town, exploring the mangroves and the adjacent waterfront we saw this little beastie sunning itself:

From Exmouth we headed south staying in Carnarvon (the Space Museum is unexpectedly great and well worth a visit!) and then detoured, en route to Geraldton, via Kalbarri National Park with its iconic views over the Murchison River.  The colours!

Then it was on to Perth, to meet up with some family for dinner, to meet-up with friends up from Albany, to do a bit of shopping, and of course to pop over again to Rottnest to see our friends the Quokkas:

A few of them were on-and-off awake (being a nocturnal species by nature):

We explored as much of the island on foot as possible, seeing areas we'd missed the first time and making use of the hop-on, hop-off bus service.  The geology and colours are outstanding:

So that was the end of our mammoth journey around the edge of North and West of West Australia, next stop, South Australia!

Australia, the return, part 2

From Kakadu we drove to Katherine, picking up our friends and travel companions, Norbert and Catherine. After a night there including a few refreshing beverages we drove to Kununura, via the WA biosecurity border checkpoint. Having settled into our second caravan park of the trip we got up bright and early the next morning and headed first to Kelly's Knob for sunrise and then on to Mirima National Park, a small but delightful little oasis.

The park is sandstone escarpment, with lots of sedmentary layers and is home to the Sandstone Shrike-Thrush, which we saw boldly perched and singing on this our fifth distinct attempt to see the species!

The park has a walking track that takes you through the colourful landscape. By 8am it was already heading to 30c in this the 'dry hot' part of the tropical seasons in the Kimberley.

The landscape is clearly very old and indeed very eye-catching.

We along with most other visitors were looking for both the Sandstone Shrike-Thrush and also the Chestnut-quilled Rock-pigeon, we finally saw a small group feeding on the ground before the sunshine hit, and were able to point them out to some other folks on the trail

It's a lovely wee spot, well worth a visit.

We also saw Red-winged Fairy-wren

And a vocal Western Bowerbird

We explored other spots around Kununura, separately and together but all agreed on taking a boat trip on Lake Argyle. It was probably the best value activity we did on the whole trip. They provided a bus to and from the town, the boat trip, crackers, nibbles, cheeses, cold beer, a fun commentary and a memorable trip. First stop these Short-eared Rock-wallabies:

The lake itself gave the impression of being an 'infinity pool', it's a vast man-made freshwater lake that is fractionally used for agriculture, fishing, etc., although it looks like it will drive more exploitation of the land through cotton production next.

Some of the tree remnants from the damming and flooding

The tour was properly enjoyable and was used by those who swam for a couple of dips, this one as the sun headed down. Catherine and Nortbert were among the silhouettes in the water, we were drinking beer aboard!

Before leaving a glorious sunset skyscape

Another spot we checked out was Ivanhoe Crossing, unsafe on foot due to Salties and not looking that safe in a 4WD to be fair! We kept a safe distance....

Frum Kununurra we visited Marlgu Billabong, stopping at the ruins of a homestead in the middle of a busy and noisy flock of Zebra Finch

At the junction for the BIllabong a Galah was feeding on the ground, for once alone instead of in a noisy gregarious flock that we're used to seeing them in.

The Billabong is a famous site for the Australian Painted-snipe and Gouldian Finch so unfortunately we weren't able to stay for too long but we did see Monarch's using lilly's as foraging perches

Together with Grebes (here), Pygymy Geese, freshwater terns, etc.,

together with the photogenic Australian Pelican

On the roadside we finally saw our first Cockatiel (here) and Budgerigars acting like the leaves on a tree just like we'd read about. Our first visit in the 10th year of drought saw none of these birds, however after three good years of rain the flocks were back and the birds adundant.

From Kununura we headed next to Halls Creek and a compound that was more of a gilded cage. This whole region of Australia has experienced a spike in copycat crime focused on cars and burglaries so the hotel is fenced and caged with security access at every point. We spent our day here (instead of at the Bungle Bungles but that's another story) driving out on the dirt road to Sawpit Gorge and then heading back.

We'd started out early again, to make the most of the cooler part of the day, driving along the road as the sun rose and the smoke haze from the recent controlled burn was clearing

We scrambled, walked, mooched and climbed our way around the gorge, stopping for a slightly sweaty tour selfie on the way

On the road to and from Halls Creek a number of abdandoned and indeed decaying vehicles can be found

In various spots

And in various states

We visited the 'wall of china', a horizontal quartz seam that runs throughout this part of the Kimberley, there's a number of places that carry this name from rocky outcrops to chains of sand dunes...

We visited the site of old Halls Creek, the flying doctor memorial and another place for abandoned buildings, vehicles, machinery, etc.

We stopped at a small gorge with a pool no one would swim in (especially given the croc sightings) however White-quilled Rock-pigeon were surprisingly confiding and easy to see, unexpected!

From Halls Creek we drove as fast as possible through Fitroy Crossing and on to Derby, catching the sunset over the town jetty, the smoke of a growing fire to the south adding to the effect of the fading light

The next morning we visited Munkajarra Wetland, another misty morning

with golden light on the water

highlighting the many birds including this White-necked Heron

As the day warmed and air cleared butterflies came out to warm

and to feed. Our stop at Derby was brief but enjoyable, from there it was onwards, further West towards Broome...