Adventure in a van.: Week 26- Sunday 11th- Sunday 18th September

Mimbi Caves, WA

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

Mimbi Caves - The land of smoking ceremonies, swimming under rocks, amazing rock formations, delicious damper and baby bats. At Mimbi Caves (Mimbi actually means cave in the Indigenous owners traditional language, so the name is pretty much Cave Caves!) we had a terrific time on the Mimbi Caves tour. Our group consisted of ten people, including us and our guide Harrison. The tour started at a carpark just outside the caves and when we had walked into the shade of the rocks Harrison lit a fire, put some wet gum leaves on top and we all walked around it once, that summed up the smoking ceremony. Afterwards, as we walked through the spectacular rocks Harrison explained about lots of plants that all had their own different qualities; there were some that were bush medicine, some were bush food, there was one that's leaves were like mini helicopters...there was even a species of of tree the Indigenous people use as a calendar!

When we got to one of the entrances of the caves we donned some helmets and torches and headed on in.... In the first set of caves we crossed a little stream and on the way over (Warning- if you love cane toads then you should not read the following) we saw a cane toad that scrambled under a rock ledge in the water trying to get away from us (I didn't realise we were that scary) and it drowned itself, then we saw its lifeless body floating spreadeagled in the water!! In those caves we also saw some rock art, some bats and a dead snake that was in one of the small passageways! In the second set of caves the things we saw were even better, there was amazing fossils, incredible stalagmites and stalactites and best of all, BABY bats!

When we had finished wandering the caves we went and sat around a small fire and had tea and fresh damper! It was yum. When we had finished with the food Dad, Jackson, Mum and I left the group and went into the caves, got into the water and swam out in to a little tree lined pool, it was so cool, and actually a bit scary, to be swimming under the rocks inside the cave (Harrison had told us that he'd seen a humungous python shoot down from a rock and eat a large kangaroo whilst the roo was drinking from the waterhole so I kept looking everywhere while we were swimming in case one was coming for ME!). When we had dried ourselves by the fire the tour ended and we all went back to the cars and left, us four went back to our caravan and got changed into bathers. When we were ready we went to Galeru Gorge (a secret gorge) and had a swim. After our swim we found a dead croc (freshwater) and Jackson and I got the croc's jaw and lots of it's teeth! After that we packed up the van and left on our way towards Broome.

When we stopped for lunch on a river on the drive to Mimbi Caves Jackson and I found a tree that was super fun to climb!

To enter the caves we had to go through a smoking ceremony. Harrison lit a fire and put wet green gum leaves on top so it made a lot of smoke, we had to walk around the fire once so we each got a bit of smoke on us!

The rocks at and around Mimbi Caves were awesome, some of them looked like Christmas trees!

We had to put helmets on to go into the caves!

There was some amazing rock art in the caves that Harrison explained to us.

The rocks were jam-packed full of fossils!

Some samples of fossils found at Mimbi caves.👆

Before the tours had started in the area some geologists were found camping in the caves by Harrison's uncle and were chased off, but they left a surprise....there was a game of chess carved out of rock found in a shady spot under some trees!

At Mimbi Caves we got to have a refreshing swim under the rocks!

We went for a swim at a hidden gorge and there was something surprising there...a dead freshwater croc! Jackson and I got its jaw bones and some of its teeth!

We went and explored some of the rocks that were just opposite our camp, they were beautiful!👇

The beautiful sunset at the Mimbi Caves campground.

Broome, WA

Star Rating:★★★★

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

These are all the things we did at Broome:

We spent a heap of time at the caravan park's massive pool, there was even a cave that you could swim into from the deep end (although it wasn't as amazing as our cave swim at Mimbi Caves)!
We went down and watched the sunset on Cable Beach both of the nights we were at Broome.
We relaxed at camp.

But by far the most exiting thing thing we did was that we swam in the sea!!!!!!!!!! We haven't swam in the sea since Magnetic Island because there have been saltwater crocodiles. It was so satisfying to jump the waves and even though my eyes hurt heaps from the salt water it was super fun!

We saw some dinosaur footprints in Broome. The one above is one of the ones rarely seen, as you can only see these ones at super low tide, and even when it is super low tide they are usually covered by sand.

The magnificent sunset at Broome👇

I found a cake urchin at Broome, it looks awesome!

Barn Hill, WA

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

When we got to Barn Hill the first thing we saw was a lot of red dirt which is what we have been seeing for the last couple of months, but every thing we saw after that was like something we had never seen before! We saw magical sunsets contrasting between the bright red cliffs and the lapping waves below them, we saw a dolphin fin poking out of the water and we also saw the most whiting we had ever seen.....

Dad and Jackson caught 28 of them! I also made a friend there, her name was Mackenzie and she made earrings. I bought a pair and they are beautiful! On one of the evenings we were there Jackson, Mackenzie and I walked up to the awesome playground (it was made out of bits and pieces found on the beach) near the office and it was super fun. On the full days we were there we did a session at the beach in the morning and a session in the afternoon. I think we could have stayed at Barn Hill longer as it was so beautiful!

Jackson found a low rock ledge and it was super shady underneath it, so I set my towel up there.

Jackson buried me in the sand but I buried him even more.....I put my towel on his head and when I finished covering him in sand you couldn't even see were he was!