Did anybody pick up on the mistake in the last mail? I'm counting the days from the start of our trip, not the start of our tour from Alice Springs. The result,you've got more posts to come and I've got more writing to do on the subject.

Wednesday 24th, sunny and hot. We leave Bruno and crew to clear up camp at Mabel Downs while we board the coach for Wyndam on the Cambridge Gulf. We paused for morning tea on the way

Wyndam on the Cambridge Gulf. Funny little town. Lots of history, but with an air of abandonment. I've just looked up Wikipedias comments on the town and I quote them here.

"Wyndham is the oldest and northernmost town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, located on the Great Northern Highway, 2,210 kilometres (1,373 mi) northeast of Perth. It was established in 1886 as a result of a gold rush at Halls Creek, and it is now a port and service centre for the east Kimberley with a population of 800. Wyndham is split into two areas. The original town site of Wyndham Port is situated on Cambridge Gulf, while Wyndham's Three Mile area is the residential and shopping area of the town. Wyndham is part of the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley"

Now that makes sense. We basically saw the wharf and the strip along side the gulf.

Its not the main town. The wharf infrastructure is quite impressive. There is a delightful little museum just before the wharf, a pub but not a lot else. There were very few people about.  We spent some time in the museum. The things that impressed me in particular were the copies of the Japanese surrender documents and a lot of wartime historical information. Naturally I suppose, Wyndam as much as Darwin, would have been in the thick of the defence and attack in those years.  How ignorant am I in my lack of knowledge of this country's history. Did the rest of civilian Australia have any clue what was going on up here?. Perhaps not!

We headed up to the Five Rivers lookout. A steep winding road to a remarkable lookout with views across the river flats out to sea, perhaps. There's a white tower up here. Its a radar tower owned by the Met. Office.  The view is magnificent  and I actually got to use my tripod, that I've carted around all this trip, for some panorama shots. Once this was done I joined the rest of the folk at lunch before we climbed aboard again to pose in front of the huge concrete Crocodile for which the town is well known.

We travelled the Gibb River Road on the way to El Questro.  I don't quite know what I had expected of this road. Everyone I spoke to implied it was a horror strip and certainly it was pretty rough in places, but no worse than the Bungle Bungles road. The volume of traffic was significant, not by city standards of course but it included road trains and lots of 4WD's. El Questro when we arrived was more like a park with large trees, green tended lawns and substantial main buildings. Bruno had us well organised with the tents all in place including the large dining tent. There was to be, we understood, a wedding here tomorrow and our tents were tucked away by the side of a creek and roped off from another group of campers. They had a fire going and were already well into the grog. We discovered later that these were in fact the advanced party of revelers for the wedding.

After organising our sleeping quarters we headed for the showers which were almost palatial after Mabel Downs. Next task was to catch up with the inevitable pile of washing and, after dinner, pegging out the clothes to dry. Dinner was as always excellent, and we retired to our tent, alongside the noisy neighbours, for a good night sleep, despite the racket. Tomorrow we are to visit Zebedee Hot Springs and have a cruise through Chamberlain Gorge.