Our stay in Broome was very pleasant. Every day we went to the beach with the car. It was allowed to have the car on the beach and that was very handy. The nightlife in Broome consists of a bar and a club. Somehow it was pretty reasonable for such a small community. We made some friends: Johnny, Lee and Barnie.
On the 25th we left Broome, together with Sebastiaan, a German, who got a lift from us. Recommended by the ones mentioned above, we went for Karijini National Park. Halfway the trip we dropped Sebastiaan in South Hedland, where he took the bus to Perth.
The park was really beautiful. Since we could only see very little of the Kimberly's, this appeared to be much better. After the first night on a campground near the Dales Gorge, we visited the Fortescue Falls. The falls were situated at the bottom of a deep gorge and ended in a pool with beautiful fresh water, where you could swim without being afraid of crocodilles.
After some swimming and jumping off rocks, we went walking through the gorge. The Circular Pool was our next target. However, the waterfall over here was dried out. The pool was still there. Somehow we were lucky, because in the rain season it is not possible to walk through the gorge, because of the amount of water running through it. It was a tough climb. Later at night we went down in the gorge again, because our fresh drinking water was finished. We had the idea of tapping of the water which runs out of the rocky walls. It appeared to be perfect drinking water!
The next day we drove to the other campground in the park. Close to Hancock Gorge. We also visited this gorge. This time we learned how spectacular a gorge really can be. The Hancock Gorge is one for climbers with experience, who are not afraid of getting wet. Well, curious as we were, we ignored all the warnings. After climbing down 50 meters it appeared that it would have been better to leave your stuff at home, because there was a lot of water in the gorge and that meant taht we had to swim if you wanted to go further. So we left our stuff behind and went for a swim. The whole trip consisted of swimming, climbing, jumping, swimming, strugling, etc. Sometimes we had to climb down along a waterfall, it was very spectacular. At the end we were on the bottom of the gorge, about hundred meters deep.
Later that evening I quickly visited the Joffry Gorge and the Joffry Falls, while the others were eating. This gorge was not really special, compared to the Hancock Gorge, but still worth visiting.
The next day we drove to Mount Bruce. This mountain is 1235 meters high and offers a beatifull outlook over the park and over the ore mine at the other side of the mountain. It took us more than two hours to climb the mountain, but it was really worth it. Afterwards we drove to Tom Price, a workers town for the mines, to stay the night.
On the caravan park where we stayed, they kept young kangaroos, mostly comming from roadkill, where the mother finds death, but where the baby survives. These youngs are brought up on the campground. The owner of the campground showed us a young kangaroo of three months old, covered up in a large amount of blankets. The young was not bigger than a young cat. Mario had the honor to get on the picture with this very brave kangaroo.
The day after we drove towards Exmouth. Underways we saw cows, loads of kangaroos, camels(!), Emus and sheep. Almost without fuel we arrived in Exmouth. For the first time since long we decided to stay in a hostel: Marine Beach Retreat.