Tuesday 10th May 2016

We arrived at Gantheaume Point at 6.30am, it's 15 minutes off low tide. We climb down the rocky cliff and search for the fossilised Theropod Dinosaur footprints. They weren't too hard to find with the aid of the map. Some of the footprints were very clear and showed a distinct walk.

We hook the van back up and head off North towards Cape Leveque. We pull into our planned overnight spot "Buckley's camp", our plan was to park the van and head off for a day's drive. Upon arriving, we find they do not allow children to stay at their place. They have a dam, and despite our kids living with a dam and being very good swimmers, there was no changing their minds. We felt very tied as to what to do, we want to explore north, however being unfamiliar with the roads, knowing the roads has only just been open for 48 hours after the rain, we wanted to err with caution and not take the Van. So we negotiated that we park our van, provided the boys didn't even get out of the car and pay him the full overnight rate!

We headed out Quandong Point Road via Willies Pearl Farm. The main road to the farm was closed off, there was another way in that was open, this road would have been too narrow for the caravan. In the shop, was a pearl necklace retailing for $100,000. I decided to pass and not have to re-mortgage the house to buy it! The setting of the farm was very pleasant, right on the creek, it was almost high tide and the water was moving so fast, ripping up the turquoise coloured water. Thankfully we had no sighting of the resident salt water croc today (only the imitation was spotted, he almost took Cam's head off (see pic.).

We continued on to Quandong Point, (for you wikicamper's, the photo on the main page of the app is taken from here). We then went a little further onto the Cape Leveque road, but saw no point in continuing on as time was passing and we still had to make plans for where we were staying the night.

After much deliberation, we settled on Cable Beach Caravan Park. A nicely treed park with 500 camp sites and not too far from Cable Beach.

Wednesday 11th May 2016

The morning quickly passed with odd jobs.

This afternoon the boys went on a camel ride on Cable Beach. They were very lucky to get the first camel in the train. As they loaded every one onto the camels, one camel at a time, some of the camels were very grumpy and put up an argument when they were asked to rise. They were growling, showing their teeth and trying to say I am not moving. Cam was quiet concerned with this behaviour, unsure what was next to happen. He got over it and was very glad he got the front seat and Lachlan in the back seat had the rear camel breathing down his neck, Lach wasn't concerned though.

With the camel ride, came a voucher for a 2 for 1 cocktail at the Restaurant overlooking Cable Beach, we couldn't turn that down and had a lovely drink overlooking the ocean and the sun starting to set. We dashed back to camp to have a quick swim before the pool closed.

Thursday 12th May 2016

This morning we do some further planning for the Gibb River, we decide to buy a couple more jerries for diesel to store on the roof racks. There is only one fuel supplier along the track, and seeing as we could be there for possibly 8 plus days we would prefer to have some extra fuel. We explore around the port and the jetty area, the boys have to toss-up between fishing the jetty this afternoon and lazing around the pool which we really have not done. They all agree on the pool.

We have a lazy afternoon around the pool. For dinner we treat ourselves to fish and chips on Cable Beach as the sun sets.

At this stage we are still tossing up whether we stay here one more night or head off tomorrow and start the Gibb, we will sleep on it! The Gibb River Rally starts on Sunday; it's a team based bike ride through the Gibb, there will be 400 riders plus support crew. We have no choice, but to be in there when they are, however, they will be faster than us though, they ride the 700 kms in 4 days then have 2 days of relaxation at El Questro Station . Hopefully we can be out in one of the gorges when they pass. Either way this will be our last blog for a while, as internet reception is unlikely.