Parry Creek Farm Stay is only about 20km south of Wyndam and 8km in off the main road along a reasonable sort of gravel road. All this meant we only had to cover about 80km from Kununarra on the day we left. As you leave Kununarra you travel out of town to the west over the spillway for the diversion dam. Like we said previously the amount of water still coming downstream from the Ord River dam means that most of the overflow gates are open on the Diversion Dam and it makes a pretty spectacular sight. More than a bit distracting, when trying to tow a 24ft caravan, over a very narrow road! Weekly maintenance also sees one lane closed and lights set up for traffic control.

The drive to Parry Creek also takes you past the turn-off for the Great Northern Highway that leads the way west towards Broome. Also the Eastern access to the Gibb River road and El-Questro intersection are only about 60km from Kununarra. We were set up in our camp quite early, due mainly to one of our earliest starts and a very well oiled pack up routine we have by now, almost perfected. Crossing into WA and adjusting to the extra 1 ½ hour time difference was also helping us to be up a bit earlier. With this part of WA still so close to the NT and almost closer to the Eastern Time zone than the major populations of the western state saw the sun up at 5am, and most of the time us with it! Let me tell you the first night saw us all in bed and dusted by 8pm! The other side of that coin though is that 5:30pm and that's sunset in Kununarra. With us easing into summer the further west we have progressed we have really adapted to the 5:30am to 5:30pm sort of lifestyle.

Parry Creek Farm seem to have made themselves a nice little resort style park in the middle of nowhere. They offer nice clean amenities and a pool area that was lapped up by nearly all of us and most other people staying at the place. The water was possibly the coldest we have swam in! It was not what you would expect with the outside temp's above 30 every day and plenty of sunshine on offer. We had chosen a nice area as the dust was the only real hassle being late in the dry season and finding a bit of shade was also a high priority. We have found on this trip as the temp's rise and summer really sets in that the best way to keep our absorption style three way fridge running at a safe level is to ensure that it gets as much shade time as possible. This mainly means choosing a site where the RHS of the van can be shaded for as much of the day as possible and most importantly during the hotter midday and afternoon sun. Having used this idea as often as possible we have had no drama with our fridge whether it is running on gas or on 240 of Australia's finest coal fired volts! Keeping the kids out of it and not mucking around with the thermostat are also key ingredients to a happy relationship with your fridge?! The performance on 12V is more marginal but has still been enough to maintain our food while travelling. I hear stories of people driving while on gas, as they will tell you it makes no difference and is safe as houses, and while it may work for them don't pull up beside them at the servo would be my only comment on that matter!?

While there is the pool and a couple of small walks at Parry Creek we had mainly come to this area to see a few other more notable attractions of this part of WA. We planned a day trip around Wyndam and set off to check it all out. The history of this remote frontier town goes back a long way and has seen much of its industry focussed around its deep water port access. Cattle have been transported, exported and slaughtered here, including Water Buffalo! No meat processing goes on nowadays however, if our current government, ever pull their heads in there will continue to be a live export facility here for years to come. We saw some yards with a few cattle in them down at the docks and did here that a couple of ships were being readied to leave again with live cattle.

We pulled up at the little park near the port and the girls climbed all over the little old trains that were used to load and unload the goods from the ships of yesteryear. They climbed on and drove them "just like Nip Nip drives trains doesn't he" they both said. (My Uncle Warren = Nip Nip) Iron ore is also now exported from Wyndam and from the top of Five Rivers lookout you get a truly bird's eye view of the whole port terminal and just about everything else for as far as the eye can see! The view is fantastic! We enjoyed smoko up there before cruising back down the steep and very windy road into Wyndam. A visit to the big concrete crocodile statue and a quick photo of supposedly a 2000yr old Boab tree in the Wyndam van park rounded out our tour of Wyndam for the day.

We headed back home and on the way detoured further south to take us into the Grotto. Now this deep rock pool and waterfall are signposted and in all the tourist books you collect, however the place is really not looked after and apart from a bitumen road and a few bins in a very small carpark there is b***** all else to write about that makes it a nice place to visit! The steep, and pretty tricky walk down the 140 rough handmade steps, lead you to a water hole supposedly 300ft deep!? Now being the end of the dry it was pretty much a stagnant dark pool covered in bird and bat s***. (among others!) We did see two pretty big water monitors and that made the girl's day as they clambered over s*** covered rocks to get a better look at them.

While back at our Parry Farm base, after enjoying a fair bit of pool action and very little else, we made a decision on our Gibb River Road assault. Given many of the logistics involved in storing our van and organising food and gear for a minimum of almost a week to get to Mitchell Falls and back (our preferred destination if we were to go at all) we made smaller plans to travel a much shorter route and hopefully still get a bit of a feel for the area. Our route took us back to Wyndam and out along the King River road and then onto the Krunjie Track to reach the intersection of the Gibb at the famous Pentecost River crossing. Now all this in a day seemed no worries and it really was. Although some of the driving was truly amazing and the best bit of four wheel driving I have done all year!

Turning left at Wyndam the first stop along the King River road (dirt and more like a track after the first 20km!) was the Moochalabra Dam. This is the town water supply and in a pretty recent construction had its capacity increased. It originally replaced a series of rock pools that were pretty unreliable as a town water supply in the early days. Continuing along the road we found ourselves following the pretty high banks of the King River. We pulled over so I could get a better look at all the great snags and structure in the river that would easily be hiding a "thousand" metre long barra! What we did see though was a fair sized salt water croc having a snooze just out of the water on one of the mud covered banks. Good idea not to slide down the bank and throw a lure around for a while I decided. The main attractions on this first part of this track are the Boab prison tree and Diggers Rest camp ground. We pulled in at the prison tree for the usual tourist snaps and then continued on past Diggers Rest and onto the Krunjie track.

Now it was here that my co-pilot was bought heavily into the game. Roused from her usual, normally seated position for no less than seven gate openings! We all know the "Fate of the Gate........" story, don't we!? Travelling in a line that takes you out around the base of the Cockburn Ranges and right past Mount Cockburn itself, we followed this very rough and sometimes hard to follow track around the rocky base and out over huge salt pans that were very smooth and allowed you to slip along a bit. We only passed one other 4WD through here and as luck would have it we nearly immediately had some common ground with him. A lone traveller and enjoying a long trip all the way from Weipa, we soon found out he was mates with Rod and Tracey and worked with young Roderick also. After a quick exchange of names (as you may have guessed we have temporarily lost this lads name, but we will find it and amend this post!) we headed off along the track.

Now it was from about here that we encountered some very rough driving. Very deeply rutted tracks cutting through the deepest bulldust I've seen and only more sand or rocks if you left the track! The girls thought the sun had gone down at one stage as the bulldust was running down the windows and blocking the daylight out! Steep banks and long sections of sand and rock wound our way along to follow the Pentecost for about 30km. We passed through cattle water holes with huge herds camped at them and then onto a very sandy stretch that to our surprise popped us almost straight onto the Pentecost River crossing on the Gibb River road. To say that it is a beautiful river is to do it very little justice! It is definitely etched into my memory of this year as we all climbed out of the dust bucket our car had become and started splashing around in the crystal clear water with such smooth rocks and that crunchy sand that just massages your feet as you walk on it!

Now given that this crossing was very high on my list (and every other 4WD nut in OZ!) I could not resist taking a few pics and video of me and the Patrol crossing the river. It is not that it is a hard crossing but its sheer remoteness and beauty make it a real attraction. After these shenanigans we covered another 20km of the Gibb and headed into Home Valley Station, a resort style camp ground that caters to Gibb Road travellers. We were definitely impressed by Home Valley! A $10 day pass gives access to all facilities. The beautiful shady areas and lovely green grass are just not what you expect to see. A massive play ground with a huge solid roof cover meant plenty of time for Kylz and I to check the place out as the girls were in kid heaven.

After we had gobbled down our lunch, and a quiet beer, we took the girls to the pool for a "quick" swim. The pool was wonderful and bloody cold as well! We met another family from Newcastle travelling OZ in search of a new home, having sold up and decided on a change of scenery. Travelling with two kids each we had plenty in common and being the same age we hit it off pretty well straight away. We all had some very similar stories, beer, kids, work, beer, real-estate, cars, beer and caravans and ended up in the pool for nearly three hours! The girls did not mind one bit.

Leaving at three o'clock and with two very tired, but happy, kids we ditched any plans to see El-Questro and headed straight for home. Now a lot gets said about the Gibb River road each year and having only travelled 100km of it, I can't really add much to it. I would advise any sensible travellers though to keep a good eye out for hire cars and Britz fourbies being driven by back packers and tourists. Those b******s are f***ing nuts!! Nothing like being showered in rocks and s*** from some dickhead in a Pajero! Much of the road from El-Questro is bitumen and we had a good run home with the girls asleep nearly all the way.

We all scored an extra night at Parry Farm courtesy of a failed wheel bearing on the caravan, we discovered after covering the 8km out to the main road the day we were to be leaving. Pulling up at the end of the dirt for the routine inspection the smell was immediate as soon as we got out of the car. After some swearing and rolling around in the dirt to jack the van up and remove the wheel and block up the front axle to carry the van back to the park, we covered the 8km back into the park in about 45minutes at 10km/h! A quick strip and run into Wyndam for a bearing, and iced coffee and $2 sausage at the stall outside IGA and a couple of hours later we were back in business. Having found the failure prior to doing any real damage had really helped as replacing a wheel bearing is pretty straight forward as we all know. Having covered nearly 30,000km with the van ourselves this year, I was a little cranky at myself for not having a bearing with me, as I carry enough other stuff to nearly rebuild one from scratch, but also cranky at caravan manufacturers for using the same Ford trailer bearings on a 3t caravan as you would use on a bloody box trailer! Built to a price, not a standard!

Now while at Parry farm we had both spent some time coaxing Chelsea to get over her fear of riding Charli's pushbike. She can easily ride it but has always played on the fact that she was "scared of it" However with some persuasion and a few treats (like training a dog!?) she finally had it mastered. The only problem than was teaching them to share the one bike we bought with us!

Our trip continued the next day, trouble free, and with a few free roadside camps chosen and a trip to the famous Bungle Bungles we were both glad to be moving west.