A long journey around Australia (page 4 of 5)

Monday, October 23, 2023 Eco Beach Wilderness Retreat Broome



The longer we settle in, the more the place empties out. I think it’s likely we’ll be alone tomorrow—just us and our frogs. Dom headed off to tackle the communal puzzle. There she met X, one of those *so* many French women trying their hand at the Australian adventure.

She’s in her thirties, a masseuse. She has no trouble finding work in the area’s luxury hotels. She crossed paths with Y, a young English guy who runs a bar in Broome.

We bonded by the pool, but it’s like with Robert and Kareen—we exchange contact info, then go our separate ways. That’s just how it is; there’s no bitterness, it’s the nature of the game… Otherwise, it’s all chill: pool, beach, happy hour, and all that jazz.







We had happy hour with our brand-new friends. Y, a Brit who became a New Zealander, is searching for his future and keeps coming back to conspiracy theories about “the Covid event.”

X has really been around—everywhere. Tahiti, the Bahamas… When we decide to head to the beach, she warns us: “Watch out for the rocks, watch out for the jellyfish…” At the pool, it’s “Be careful of the Australian sun—it’s a sneaky cancer dispenser!” and so on. She’s anxious about time slipping away. She’s asking herself questions: How to buy a car, buy a house… How to settle down? Where? And then there’s traveling… She’s worried because she can’t picture a path forward. She, who’s lived freer than most, now craves roots.

Dom and I have our own questions too. Maybe three nights here was one night too many? We’re craving vast landscapes! Here, it’s pool, beach… it’s starting to feel a bit repetitive!

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 Eco Beach Wilderness Retreat, Broome Here, it’s the international bird festival. You wouldn’t believe it! This racket, especially in the morning! Unbelievable sounds! Stockhausen vibes! Little musical phrases so beautifully crafted. As usual, I wake up early—6 a.m. at the latest. I settle on the terrace and take in the day’s program. It’s high-level stuff!



In three days, we’ve already settled into a routine. Breakfast, then ablutions, Dom rushes off to tackle the puzzle while I mumble my nonsense here. Then pool, then beach, then pool again. We chat with an Australian adventurer who’s been to some of the places we’re heading. He reassures me about the roads in this region, which have a terrible reputation. I run through our planned itinerary with him. He freezes at the Purnululu/Bungle Bungle part. No way! There’s a 53-kilometer stretch that’s badly damaged. Impossible in a 2WD! Im-pos-si-ble! That’s four days in my schedule! Besides, it’s too hot over there these days! You wouldn’t be able to sleep in the car. You’ll die! Dehydrate! Everything else is easy—it’s like driving in town—but Purnululu? No way!

Dom had spotted on the laminated map from the site the start of a “bush trail.” Shall we check it out? And sure enough, it’s a “nature” trail that winds deep into the small savanna. It’s really nice in this heat—a shady walk. We come across families of wallabies here and there. Pure magic, I’m telling you! We hear the heavy “plop” of their jumps. They’re super shy and bolt at full speed. Only one was curious enough for me to capture it for eternity.

Wednesday, October 25, 2023 Broome Echo Beach is a parenthesis. A haven of peace. A way of life stolen from the reality of humanity’s social condition. We linger there a little longer. It’s very early. The wallabies are still at work, figuring their detestable enemies are still asleep…

We set off for two and a half hours with our "feet on the ground" and wallabies regularly bounding into the bushes… Broome immediately gives us the vibe of a charming little town… We have lunch there. We buy 12 liters of water because we go through a ridiculous amount! Then there are my old sandals, which I sealed up not long ago. One of the straps is only held together by two weak stitches. It’s gonna snap. Gotta accept sacrificing some cash. Here, shoes are crazy expensive! We take our time. The cheapest "wearable" pair even has a bottle opener under the heel! "That’s Australian," whispers the young salesgirl who studied near Lyon. I make a thoughtful purchase. I try on several sizes. We decide. We pay the equivalent of a 14-carat diamond and hit the road. We continue our visit, stopping whenever a shop seems like it might replace my fleece. But here, a fleece…

Suddenly, an Aboriginal man approaches us. We recoil. We don’t understand at first. It’s about a phone. Dom deciphers the message: "Your phone! Where is it?" It’s the shoe salesgirl who spotted it in her display when I put it down to try on shoes! She couldn’t leave her shop, so she flagged down the first guy she saw to chase after us. What description did she give him to identify us so confidently? Anyway, once again, my cognitive dysfunctions put us in danger. This dual-SIM phone is way more central here than in France. It lets me make calls in Australia and be reachable, but most importantly, through my Telstra plan, it gives me access to an essential GPS. For the car, on the street, during our walks, for "where to grab a beer?" or "where to eat?"… Plus, I’ve got a copy of all our travel docs as a backup in case the PC crashes. Losing it would’ve been a major blow!

Here, the climate’s different. It’s noticeable. It’s the tropics in the dry season. For example, you’ll find loads of baobabs, flame trees, papayas, banana trees… There’s an airport that splits the town in two. So you regularly see planes flying low—small ones, big ones, helicopters…





Oh, and people pray a lot here too. In the streets, sitting on benches in front of Virgin Mary statues. There are churches everywhere—of all kinds, except Muslims are totally absent from the area… We stopped by the information center. The girl there gave me no chance. The upcoming reserves are closed. Just closed. And the roads are in terrible condition. It’d be really dangerous to go there; you’d be all alone with no phone coverage. A car breakdown would be the end. Don’t go! I’m devastated. We’ve got 10 days of wandering along the only decent road in the region, and there’s nothing around it… I try to console myself at the gorgeous Matso's Broome Brewery… that helped!



We check in to our pretty luxurious hotel… Then we visit Town Beach…







Before taking almost all our clothes to a laundromat. Half an hour of washing, half an hour of drying…

It’s also here that the Aboriginal issue hit us more starkly. The contrasts are glaring—descendants of settlers in their massive 4x4s with sunglasses, while the Aboriginal people are crammed into their old, beat-up cars where the back window’s been replaced with plastic wrap… We see loads of them, emaciated, stumbling, clearly wasted to the max! It’s still a problem, one visible consequence being the impressive number of cop cars patrolling the city. With Dom, we walk—you know her, 10,000 steps is the minimum. When an Aboriginal man walking behind me calls out, long hair, wild-eyed stare, I don’t understand a word of what he’s screaming in rage. He’s holding a beer bottle. Then suddenly, he hurls it at me. Violently! It shatters at my feet. For a moment, he regains some lucidity and mutters a string of "sorry, sorry." Then the rage returns, and he grumbles things that are clearly not friendly. Dom and I pick up the pace. Our aggressive drunk had no chance of keeping up. We saw his threatening silhouette disappear into the distance…

Here, people vote. It’s simpler than back home, Australian democracy. You’ve gotta vote "yes." Never, ever have we seen a sign or poster or anything suggesting a "no." Meanwhile, the "yes" injection is everywhere—on sidewalks, giant billboards, stickers on lampposts… Later, I ask X about it, and she explains it’s about deciding whether to cut the kind of welfare given to Aboriginal people, based on the well-known principle that this aid encourages them to sprawl out in parks drinking with their mates. It’s about "responsibilizing" them, "integrating" them by cutting their benefits to force them to go work. We don’t live here, so our opinion… But asking a people to integrate when they’ve been here for millennia? I don’t get involved. It’s clearly a complicated situation.

So we met up with X and Y at the bar Y manages. We drink. We chat. Then we went to dinner at Papa Fuego, an Argentine place that was way better than just okay!

Thursday, October 26, 2023 Broome – Derby We’re in no rush to leave the place. We visit the pearling district. Streets where that’s all you find! Pearls in every shape and form. The price tags are so steep they put an end to any Christmas gift ideas! There’s Streeter’s Jetty, where Japanese oyster divers used to plunge in the 19th century… A community very present in the city… Today, the jetty barely overlooks a mangrove with the ecosystem’s characteristic wildlife (crabs and "fish that walk on water").

For everyone, Broome goes with "Cable Beach," a gigantic beach, white sand against an emerald sea, but sorry—we’ve seen that everywhere already… To finish, we went to Gantheaume Point, a surprisingly ochre site topped with a lighthouse…





After that, it’s Australia—there’s always road ahead, vroom vroom, two and a half hours… A much more scenic route than the previous one, though. Lots of baobabs, rivers, plenty of them, roadworks with unexpected red lights in the middle of a track, road trains…

Whatever… Derby was initially supposed to be the last stop before diving into wild Australia—the Gibb River Road, the crocodiles of Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. We gave up on that part of the trip, strongly encouraged by everyone we talked to about it. "If anything happens to you, your bleached bones won’t be found until next year!" They threatened us with the worst! I finally caved to the pressure. So Derby became more than just a quick stop—we’ll actually spend two nights there.

Walking around town on foot, as our protocol demands, we quickly realize there’s not much to see. Birds, lots of them, and baobabs everywhere.

The hotel is as miserable as can be. The room is minimal. But it has the essentials: a fridge and AC. The pool is unusable. The water is… and there aren’t any lounge chairs. The owner explains they were stolen. No Wi-Fi? Because of the heat, the "box" burned out. No breakfast? "It’s low season, there’s no one here…" etc., etc.

Very good steak in the evening, though. They show us local paintings. Petrina Bedford with her "Arrawaddi Wandjinas"

Edna Dale and her "Gulingi Wandjinas." Let me know fast if you like them—each costs 8000 AUD. At today’s exchange rate, that’s 4800 €.

Friday, October 27, 2023 Derby The forced stay is exactly what it’s supposed to be. Derby is nowhere land, but worse. One shabby hotel, one restaurant (actually two), one gas station, barely-there internet… And the worst is yet to come. Telstra coverage ends here for several days… Gonna have to learn to live without it (but we’ll manage).

In the meantime, we’ve got to kill the day. The pool’s out… Let’s try the beach. We take the car, head straight for the sea. The welcome’s a bit chilly right off the bat…

Everything’s brownish. Blanketed in some kind of eerie haze. A fog that blurs all the lines. There’s a wharf… We bravely approach it…

Joined by a big guy in sunglasses… He calls out to us: - Hey Guys, you will believe I’m sort kind of a detective, won’t you? - ???!!!! - Everywhere I go, I see you! Actually YOU are everywhere! I noticed you first at the brewery in Broome, then at the fuel station, where you were washing your car… And now here! Look! That’s so strange! We chat. He’s a nice guy. We laugh. We part ways. Maybe see you later?

Okay, so… No pool. No beach. How about the municipal pool?

And that’s how…

In Derby, we met Nicolas, stuck here for eight weeks to get a long-term visa for Australia. Derby’s definitely a tough place, we find. Luckily, he’s here with his “boyfriend.” Alone, I think he’d already be dead. We talk. No matter who we’re talking to, the conversation always comes back to the “Aboriginal problem.”

When you buy alcohol, even a bottle of wine, you have to show your passport. “They” control the quantity you buy. No more than… Nicolas tells us about the ingenious tricks Indigenous people use to get around the system.

We’ve gone from “no need to lock your cars” in Perth to “don’t leave anything lying around. For a pair of sunglasses, they’ll smash your windshield!”

We have dinner at a pizzeria we spotted yesterday. Good call! The place charms us immediately. The owner’s a fan of old Italian motorcycles… He displays artworks, tempting art books, a playlist mixing Olivia Newton-John and Nico… The pizzas are decent… You can bring your own wine… This is definitely the place to be in Derby!

Then we finish up with cocktails at the Boab Inn bar, chatting with Nicolas… There’s some kind of lottery… They hand out tickets… A number is drawn… The one chosen by fate gets to pick a card from behind a locked glass… If they find the ace, they win 2700 AUD… Darn! Missed again!

We’re having fun...

Hi there. Forget the haters and the jaded—I’m loving it! Keep it up, your trip reminds me of my own time in Oz. Kind regards! Whis.

Saturday, 28 October 2023 Derby – Halls Creek We know the drive map. It’s a long way to go! We get up early. With the sun! The hotel is completely shut. They refuse to let us have breakfast in our windowless cell. We pack our bags with yesterday’s purchases and settle on a few badly damaged plastic chairs and a table covered in bird droppings by the pool with its disgusting water, but it works for us. We’re much better off here than anywhere else in this soulless prison-like place…

The Mainroads Travel Map site is a precious ally. The 550 kilometers to cover are impossible according to Google Maps, which, after noting a bridge under repair, forces an alternative that stretches the trip to… 8 hours! On Mainroads, we can clearly see that the authorities suggest a short detour. It’ll still take us nearly 6 hours! Along the way, we stop at the Baobab Prison Tree, a gi-gan-tic, hollow tree that was apparently used to keep prisoners warm while they were being transferred to forced labor sites (how nice of them…)





Then it’s the road…

It stiiiiinks! !

Are there… traffic lights?



Vroom, vroom…

We make it. A peaceful drive. Some (good) podcasts, always, and an excellent car… We cover hundreds of kilometers without any hassle, the landscapes change… We come across plenty of carcasses, mostly kangaroos but also cows, and very often abandoned cars by the side of the road… Halls Creek—right away, it’s noisy groups of a bit drunk Aboriginal people, old beat-up cars overloaded with shady-looking folks giving you the side-eye with furrowed brows… not exactly inviting to go out! The hotel offers a room slightly better than the one in Derby—hard not to be, there are windows!

Sunday, October 29, 2023 Halls Creek - Warmun One last dip in the pool, then we’re off. We want to see crocs. Apparently, about fifty kilometers along Duncan Road, there’s a gorge that might be home to some. Let’s go! The famous track takes us to where the old town was founded in the early 20th century, when the region was overrun by a rush of gold prospectors… We’re visiting… There’s a small cemetery there that tells the stories of kids, barely over 20, who died of thirst, disease, or snakebites…

A monument celebrates the Royal Flying Doctor Service. People here had grown tired of surgical operations performed by the postman following instructions from a Perth surgeon, communicated in Morse code. After dozens of hours of work, the injured person would often end up dying. They’d bury the bodies. One after another. They’d start digging graves… They’d chat… The idea of doctors arriving by air, like some kind of superheroes, really took hold in their minds, darkened by fear… But enough of that—gotta get going (maybe?)! We keep going, but from the start, the smoke nearby has us worried. Then it becomes more than that. We see the flames. They’re getting closer… Every man for himself, we turn back—so much for the crocodiles!

Change of plans. We’d heard about Caroline Pool as a paradise-like spot with a beautiful swimmable waterhole… We get there… It’s dry… Swim in the only puddle that hasn’t evaporated yet? Yuck!!

Okay-okay-okay-okay-okay… what’s left? The… China Wall? A natural wall of white stones standing in the middle of this ochre landscape… Should we check it out?

Now, enough fun—time to start heading back up Highway 1. Of course, we feel relaxed, we’ve got time, we stop whenever something catches our eye…

Like, for example, a cemetery…

The graves tell stories… Sometimes people still settle scores… Beyond death… A charred grave,

a destroyed statue…

Sometimes you even come across a touch of humor, like Charles Homer letting us know it’s 5 PM "somewhere." Happy Hour! !

We don’t just stop for roadside memorials! When we see a body of water… we hope to spot a croc… No luck, though…

On our long drive, no hotel offers its services until Lake Argyle. Gotta camp. We’d spotted a nice spot for the night. 30 kilometers before arriving, a sign points to it down a left track, while Google Maps tells me to ignore the sign. It’s all the easier since the sign mentions that the "Service" is closed. We end up in the middle of an Aboriginal community where everything suggests we don’t belong. With great difficulty, I try "Campermate," which finds us a "Roadhouse." It’s doable. We’re gonna try sleeping in the car!

There are quickly a few things that don’t work out. The site lights shining brightly into the car, and especially the "legs" part of our mattress, which is punctured and stays that way despite Dominique’s attempts to patch the hole with a measly patch provided and the glue bought to make my sandals last a bit longer.

We even have our current series!

Monday, October 30, 2023 Warmun – Kununurra

No surprise, we wake up exhausted. It’s mostly because of the deflated mattress. Then we hit the road again for a little over two hours... With a few stops... We see wild cats. Not lynxes, mind you! The ones we come across look exactly like our domestic cats. But they’ve chosen freedom, ditched their dependence on humans, and live in the bush. A disaster for endemic species...

We mostly check out waterholes. Searching for a prehistoric animal. Still no luck... We arrive in Kununurra. At the information center, again, a no-nonsense tone. “Emma Gorge”? No way! She’s firm. Definitive. It’s getting annoying. Crocs? Try the end of Ivanhoe Street!

At the end of it... A dam. No crocs in sight. The only thing even remotely scenic is Mirima National Park. Finally, something a bit grand to sink our teeth into!

Dom spotted a tiny wallaby I almost missed with my Sony. I’d have preferred a juvenile Monjon, but I’m no expert. A really nice walk despite the fatigue and the relentless sun!



We went to check out the town... There’s really not much! It’s 1:30 PM. We discover our hotel, which is spotless. Except the pool’s closed for maintenance!

It’s a huge property with remarkable birdlife and amazing lizards that run super fast on their hind legs! We’re by the Lily Creek Lagoon...



We went to celebrate at Kelly's Bar & Grill! Huh? They grill too? Fire up those steaks!

Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Kununurra - Lake Argyle

Dom takes advantage of the pool, which has finally reopened. Picks up some laundry washed yesterday and hung on the clothesline, since they have a washing machine available here for free. We leave this charming place a little after 10 a.m. and arrive at the Lake Argyle campground almost an hour later.

We join a large group of young French travelers, and I must say, it doesn’t surprise me. That overflow pool with its stunning view of the lake… How many times have I come across it while browsing travel forums about Australia! "Above all… don’t miss this," we’d read. And I have to admit, the tip is spot-on—even if it means we’re now outnumbered and French chatter is everywhere.

Well, the studio is gorgeous, the place is gorgeous, everything is gorgeous…

Dom and I are thrilled. We decide to take the boat tour organized by the campground—apparently, there are crocs involved. When we find out the cruise only runs every two days and the next one is tomorrow, we don’t hesitate: we cancel the hotel we’d booked in Timber Creek and extend our stay here. It’ll mean a 6-hour drive the day after tomorrow and cost us an arm and a leg, but we really don’t want to leave this place so soon!









Around 4 p.m., the parrots show up. Here, they’re absolutely stunning!

At 5 p.m., it’s (unofficial) Happy Hour. We have dinner at the campground restaurant. A… slow-cooked pork belly? While Dom tries the lake fish. Apparently, it tastes like fish… In the evening, we squat the gorgeous terrace of one of the neighboring luxury villas. Comfy chairs, a view of the lake (though, well, it’s nighttime…). We sip our "fruit juices" under a sky that sporadically lights up with those pre-storm illuminations—but rain here? Really?

Wednesday, November 1st, 2023 Lake Argyle It was surprisingly cool, with a nice little breeze. The sun was kept at bay by a thick blanket of clouds. Clouds—we hadn’t seen any until now! Of course, we took the chance to scramble along the Ord River Gorge Lookout Walk. Come on, we’re taking you with us!







We weren’t alone. There were flies, too. Lots of flies. Australia! As a reward for our efforts, we had a little moment of privacy at the pool before the French post-teens showed up. I should mention that the whole site experienced a power blackout. Total outage. No purchases, no computers, no AC… A bit of panic on board!

Around noon, everything was back up. Time to leave for the famous cruise, the one we changed our original itinerary for by skipping the intermediate stop between here and Katherine. They drove us by bus to the dock… A super big boat. We were lucky—just 13 of us on a boat that can hold 60 passengers. We had plenty of space!

We wandered around, cruised past little islands, and watched life settle in… In a branch of the river, stuck between two islets, a spot well-known to locals for its insane density of fish—apparently not popular with fishermen. They gave us slices of bread… A few crumbs in the water and it was total chaos! We saw a bunch of things, mostly wallabies, to be honest. As for crocodiles… not much to write home about. According to our guide, it was way too hot—the reptiles had gone deep to find cooler temperatures. At best, a few blessed babies no bigger than my forearm… As part of the “no fear” vibe, everyone jumped in the water afterward, armed with one of those pool noodles. Our two tyrants were tossing beer cans into the water. And why not? They float, right? We were sipping away peacefully! They even served us glasses of champagne!

After 10 minutes of splashing around and sipping on drinks, our co-passengers—who we’d ignored until then—became lifelong friends. The chatter was next-level! And the “ha ha ha”s were on point! Let’s just say it went *really* well! That evening, we settled into our usual routine of drinking herbal tea while watching an episode of one of our shows. Sometimes, I’m so wiped out that—I swear this never happens at home—I fall asleep. Tonight, while watching the screen, I noticed something crawling quickly under the little bed in the corner of the room. I tried to rationalize it. It was so weird I refused to believe it. A snake? A spider? I went with a lizard. Convinced myself it was just exhaustion playing tricks on me. Decided not to say anything to Dom so she wouldn’t worry about my mental state. It was her, a little later with the light on, who spotted the creature. A decent-sized gecko. We adopted it immediately. It then bolted behind a shutter that Dominique, curious, went to lift. No luck. We never saw it again!

I finished the excellent book by Chris De Stoop, *The Book of Daniel*...

- Everywhere I go, I see you! Actually YOU are everywhere! I first spotted you at the brewery in Broome, then at the gas station, where you were washing your car... And now here! Look! That’s so weird!

It’s a bit like on VF on a Sunday, isn’t it? 😎

We don’t just stop for cemeteries!

But a "practical sociologist" with a taphophile side—under your pen, cemetery visits become delightful.

Okay, wit and imagery are great, but how about some music for the long road? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbATaj7Il8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEPmA3USJdI

it’s a must! 😉

I'm so glad this brings back memories of your own adventure! I don’t know how much of this near-continent you’ve explored, but next, we’ll head to the other side to see what’s happening (teasing!) 😉

Good evening,

Same here. I’ve been quietly following your adventures (and misadventures) from the start. Your story is vivid, unfiltered, and you’ve got a great sense of humor. I love it. Keep it up!

Coming from you (I went to check out your amazing guide on dream islands), I’m over-flattered! Thanks! 😛

I’m so glad this brings back memories of your own adventure! That said, I don’t know how much of this near-continent you’ve explored, but we’ll head to the other side next to see what’s happening (teasing!) 😉

I did Brisbane/Cairns/Mossman via the Bruce Highway and returned through the interior via Clermont and Sapphire. 35 days in a camper van. It was a few years ago now, but the memories are still vivid. Whis

Hello! A huge thank you for this story—I’m loving your adventures and your writing style. I’ve just returned from my 3rd trip to Australia (the southwest this time). Be warned, it’s an addictive country!

I don’t know the Derby area or beyond Broome, nor Lake Argyle unfortunately, since I limited my 2nd trip to the Northern Territory and the west coast from Broome to Perth. No fires for us, but temperatures hitting 46°C near Eighty Mile Beach campsite. In Broome, a great memory of Cable Beach at sunset with camels in single file, and locals pulling up on the beach in 4x4s with their beer packs!

Anyway! I’m following your discoveries with immense pleasure. Thanks for this Christmas gift!

This is a trip that (almost) circles the continent. The full journey requires several travel journals: Continuing from this one... - A trip to Australia: the Northern Territory (December 15, 2024)

A trip to Australia: the far north of Queensland (December 18, 2024) - A trip to Australia: New South Wales (January 9, 2025) - A trip to Australia: Tasmania (January 17, 2025)

-A trip to Australia: Great Ocean Road (January 23, 2025)