Farewell To WA

I think I have been subconscioulsly delaying finishing off the posts about our trip because I really don’t want to believe that it is all over.  I love looking back at our trip photos, it truly was the most amazing time of our lives!!  This post will I think be the third last post recounting our adventures, nooooooooooo!

Anyway, ‘get on with it’, I hear you say!

We left Emma Gorge after a well earned ice-cream from the resort shop and a sandwich in the car park.  The kids slept off the exhaustion of our morning’s walk into the gorge and Matt and I nervously counted the kilometres in to Kununurra as we were seriously in need of fuel (being frugal and not wanting to spend the $2.10 per litre to fill up at El Questro Station!).

At this point in our trip we only had 7 days left in order to get back to Cairns for Matt to catch a plane to the Gold Coast for his cousin’s wedding, so our plan for the next week was just to drive, drive and drive.  After arriving in Kununurra and immediately filling up the car and getting a new tyre to replace the one we blew on the Gibb River Road, we decided to have a quick stop at ‘The Hoochery’ rum distillery.  Matt did the taste tasting and we choose a bottle to take home for my Dad to try – the consensus being that the rum was not bad, but not in the same league as the favourite Bundaberg Rum.

Taste testing at ‘The Hoochery’ rum distillery in Kununurra

Just a cute pic of Tobes in Dad’s hat at the distillery

From here I took a stint at the wheel while Matt snoozed off the afternoon’s taste tests and drove us back across the border into the Northern Territory!  I did make several stops along the way though, still trying to get that elusive ‘sunset boab tree’ shot.  Matt did pretty well with this one I think!

Farewell WA!

That night we pulled up stumps at Timber Creek.  We had a quick overnight stop in what was a really lovely and cheap caravan park!  Nice shady sites, old but clean amenities and they do free crocodile feedings at the creek behind the campground in the afternoons (we arrived too late unfortunately).

Lovely caravan park at Timber Creek

Our overnight set up

Great little kids playground and pool at the caravan park too

After a very slow pack up the next morning (yes we definitely dragged the feet towards home!) we arrived in to Katherine for lunch, a grocery supply stock up and to pick up a belated birthday parcel which was waiting at the Post Office for Toby.

Tobes very excited to open his birthday parcel – thanks Grandma and Grandad Bill!

Lunch in Katherine. We also videoed our ‘Time Capsule’ messages here!

The other amazing thing that happened in Katherine was that we had our first ‘blog spotting’ moment!  The kids and I were in Woolies getting some supplies when a voice politely asked ‘are you Jess, from Are We There Yet?’.  I was so surprised it took me a second to answer, but it was so lovely to meet Simone and her family who were also travelling and had been following our blog!  You can check out the Laing Family Road trip adventures here – there are some great photos of their time in Western Australia!

From Katherine we put a few more kilometres under our belts and decided to have a night at Mataranka, this time staying at the Territory Manor Caravan Park so we were close enough for one last swim at Bitter Springs.

We loved Bitter Springs!

Jack amusing himself in the campground – Mataranka

Last swim in the lovely warm Bitter Springs.

Next post, the Savannah Way – probably the roughest road on our whole trip, but the best free camp spot along the way, can’t wait to show you the rodeo photos too!