The Kowsas' Big Lap: Broome to Exmouth

Bless me father, for I have sinned. It's been a long time since my last Blog...

We have been having too much fun and had no time to do computer tasks! More to the point, we have spent a lot of time out of service over the last few weeks, so updating the Blog has not been easy.

Broome was a lovely place and we ended up there for nearly a week. We were lucky enough to snag their annual festival, so were treated to a few extra things to see over that time. Our highlight though was a trip up to Cape Leveque with a nights stay at Kooljaman. This was a spectacular and raw area and we could have easily spent another week there just to explore it a little more. Monday morning we booked a tag-a-long tour with a local Aboriginal guide and had our best day to date. The girls were entertained by Brian, just as much as he was entertained by them!

It was hard to peel ourselves away from Broome, but the promise of more beach and maybe a big fish moved us on. Eighty Mile Beach put us into holiday mode and our 2 night stop turned into 4 nights. Lots of fishing was done, but unfortunately only the smaller version of salmon were caught. We did endure 3 nights of fish however...someone's gotta do it! In the end I think we all pulled in a fish, even Tom and Shan. The huge tides were another amazing thing to be seen at this beach, not to mention the sunsets at low tide.

We headed inland again for a bit to Karijini National Park. When we first arrived at Dales Camping Ground late in the day, I will admit I was almost a little cranky about being back in the red barren lands again, but little did I know about what was waiting for us.

Our two big days of adventure are hard to describe and I still can't believe some of the places we saw and took our two little monkeys to. Day 1 we started close by and ventured into Dales Gorge. The walk to Circular Pools was relatively easy, but the reward at the end was beautiful. The girls had a quick dip and we started our climb back to the top.

After lunch we ventured on out to Kalamina Gorge. It too was beautiful, with snippets of running water and amazing rock structures. It was then time to head back to camp with a quick stop back at Dales Gorge for a swim/bath at Fern Pool. Paddy and the girls ventured in with our travelling buddies the Kenagy's, but I opted for a warm rinse off at home.

The next day we did a bigger drive and aimed to have some fun at the Weano Recreation Area. We weren't expecting too much, as we had been told we may not access too far into the walks, as the park caretakers didn't think the kids would handle much of the treks.

Well our day turned out to be a massive adventure and once again, the girls overwhelmed us with their strength and willingness to venture on. I won't go into full detail of the day, as I am a little strapped for time, but be assured it was an incredible adventure.

First stop was Oxer Lookout where you can see the point where 4 major gorge systems converge. Apparently it was voted as the best lookout in OZ. It was then onto Hancock Gorge and our trek took us down a steep decent, ladders and then onto the gorge floor. We moved on through freezing water, the Amphitheatre, Spider Walk and down to Kermits Pools, with each section leading me to believe we wound't get the kids through, let alone us two mums! There were high fives all around and lots of shivering little bodies.

After a refuel, we tried our luck at Weano Gorge and managed to give myself and Sarah heart failure. The handrail section in particular was the true heart stopper, but once again the kids all took on the challenge and revelled in the excitement once the task was accomplished. Our amazing day was finished off beautifully back at camp with a BBQ, helping Trent celebrate his birthday.

We still can't believe that we managed to achieve a Class 5 walk with 5 kids in hand. The photos just don't do it justice and a lot of the time we were unable to have the camera out, so not much to show in that department unfortunately.

Yesterday we had our biggest drive to date and arrived in Exmouth just before dusk. This morning we will grab some more supplies and venture down to Cape Range National Park for five nights and hopefully enjoy some snorkeling, swimming and fishing.