June 2013 – great life – got nothing on

130622 Marysville

Trying to get away on a Friday night is just impossible with bookings for early Monday morning coming in at the end of the day. We leave at 10:00 for just a short journey across the Great Divide to the little village of Marysville.
This town was burnt out in the February 2009 bush fires with just three businesses and less than ten houses left standing. The visitors centre has a great display showing the devastation that came in the form of a ‘fireball’ that rolled over ridges and down into the tourist town.
We stay at the local campground which is located across a creek near the town. The rebuilding of the town is taking shape with modern architectural designed buildings and lots of new trees planted to replace those to the fires. The sky is a brilliant blue and helps make the landscapes a delight to behold.
After a very cold night around negative 4, we venture out at around 10:00am. Lyn’s sister Earlene and Rod arrive for lunch and we help the local bakery a little. We take the ‘walk around the town’ and then a short drive to Steavenson’s Falls. The trees in the valley are showing regrowth but it will be a long time before we see things back to pre-fireball days.
Yes, Marysville is a great, quiet little village to put on your list of places to visit someday. You will enjoy!

Early Morning Frost

Looking up the main street of Marysville

Kids new playground

Water channel

Magnificent reflections

View up the Main Street

The Visitors’ centre

LOvely Red Breasted Parrot overhead

Site of new conference centre with 100 rooms

Steavenson River

Marysville

Steavensons Falls

Steavensons Falls – with Lyn with Rod and Earlene

Trail to the Falls

Colourful flower bed.

Wow – a ‘real’ self-serve fuel stations

Looking down from the Marysville Bakery

130611 Kimberley Adventure

Still without the Motorhome, we ventured into the Kimberley’s region of NW West Australia today flying with Kimberley Aviation in a single engine small plane.
Leaving Broome Airport at 8:00am, one hour away to our first highlight spot, was Horizontal Falls which get their name due to the rush of the tide between two land masses. We circled a couple of times and set off across the Buccaneer Archipelago towards Cape Leveque. An outback breakfast awaited us followed by a short swim in crystal clear waters nearby.
A short 4 minute flight to Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm enabled us to take a fast boat ride to the Sunday Island group to view the unique powerful giant tides squeezing through the thousands of islands in the archipelago. The whirlpools truly were powerful.
We had lunch followed by a presentation on how pearl farming works, then the sales chat with the hope we would buy a string of pearls – $16,000 for one of them. (Er, not purchased during our visit)
We touched down back at Broome at 5:00 after flying over Pender Bay, Carnot Bay, James Price Point, Willie Creek and the camels doing their evening walk along Cable Beach.
A truly wonderful tour, thanks to Charles our pilot and the company we had with us.

Sunsets are magnificent in Broome

Cape Leveque

On the way to the strong tides

Beautiful Blue

If turbines were in the tides – free power

The ‘sea-legs’ boats used as ferries

The Horizontal Falls

Cape Leveque Beach

Buccaneer Archipeligo

Cable Beach

Around Cable Beach Resort

China Town in Broome

Ready for take-off

Aerial of the coastline near Cable Beach

130609 Cable Beach – without GR8L1F

As Lyn is in the top 200 Qantas Holidays consultants in Australia, she won a selection of great adventures to be taken within a 12 month period. We have chosen 5 nights at Cable Beach Resort in Broome over the Queens Birthday weekend. What a bonus. The weather is superb after some out-of season rain, some 140mm in 24 hours.
Tomorrow, we are doing a full day trip to horizontal falls with some stops along the way including Cape Leveque, cygnet bay and the Buchaneer Archipelilego.