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Day 6 – Fitzroy Crossing

Day 5 – Derby

Out of bed at 3.55 am for the sunrise shoot at 4.45am inside the Derby airport grounds – the same location of one of Ken Duncan’s famous photos of the boab tree with the red dirt surrounding it. The local airport dude (called Ken – not Ken Duncan) informed us that the sun rises earlier in this area so we believed him being a local and all. We waited and waited until first light at bloody 5.40 am, almost an hour after we were originally told by the local. Note to self – rely on the Boom website next time.
Getting to the site of the boab trees within the airport grounds was by escort only. A strange feeling driving up the runway in a four-wheel drive bus. The sun gods were generous to us that morning giving us good colour.
Breakfast – 7.30 am back at the King Sound Resort Hotel.
After breakfast a quick tour around Derby before heading to Fitzroy Crossing, about about 260 km. Fingers crossed no bus breakdowns this time.
Arrived at Fitzroy Crossing at 4 pm. No official sunset shoot so I wandered around to the back of the Fitzroy River Lodge (our accommodation) to take some snaps of the Fitzroy River that ran straight past the Lodge.
Dinner 7 pm.

Day 4 – Cape Leveque via Beagle Bay to Derby

Sunrise shoot, the last for Cape Leveque. Out of bed at 5 am and on Swimmers Beach for sunrise at 6 am. Sunrise turns out to be a bit of a dud due to overcast conditions. If only you could control the weather. A quick cook your own breakfast in our safari tents and on the bus at 8 am to travel to Derby via Beagle Bay to photograph Sacret Heart Church. A beautiful church decorated with pearl shells.
Beagle Bay township, the scene for our 2nd bus breakdown. A part on the air compressor decided break that meant no brakes for the bus. Fortunately for us there was a mechanic at a place near Cape Leveque call One Arm Point with the part we required to fix the compressor, it would be a 3 hour wait. Plenty of time for more photographs.
Finally on the bus we raced towards Derby to capture a sunset.
We arrived at Derby about 6 pm. It was overcast and the sun had gone down but enough light to check out tomorrows sunrise shoot and snap a few test shots.
Our accommodation and dinner was at Kings Sound Resort Hotel. Definitely a set up from the safari tents at Cape Leveque.
Hit the sack about 10 pm, early rise tomorrow.

Day 3 – Cape Leveque

After a good night sleep it was time to get up for the optional sunrise shoot – the time is 4.30 am. I needed to be at Swimmers Beach by 5.30am for the first light and sunrise at 6.00 am. It was a 15 minute walk with back pack and tripod in hand and headlamp lighting the way. Not everyone got up for the shoot because of the previous exhausting day. I was determined to shoot every opportunity I got as I don’t know when the next time I would get the chance to come back to the beautiful Kimberley’s.
Once on the beach not knowing what to expect and how to shoot it was a challenge I was keen to conquer. Ken and his assistant Luke were also scoping the beach looking for that wow factor.
On the way back from the beach I saw the big blue bus. The word was it got back last night about midnight after the roadside repair. A big effort by the mechanic and Lukie the bus driver considering the remoteness and night time conditions.
A do it yourself breakfast, bacon and eggs at 8.00 am. Everyone was paired up for the accommodation side of things and at Cape Leveque we stayed in Safari Tents with an ensuite. We also had a BBQ on the patio overlooking the beach – what a way to have breakfast.
After scoffing down breakfast, the far end swimmers beach was the location to shoot the red and white coloured sand dunes before it was our turn for a glass bottomed boat ride around the tip of Cape Leveque looking back at the vibrant red and white cliffs.
Lunch was at 1pm, a little bit of time to our selves before the sunset shoot at Western Beach around 4.30pm. I used my spare time to back up my photos I took from the previous day and made this a daily routine. I was not taking any chances in loosing any photos.
7pm was dinner at the restaurant and bed 10pm.

Day 2 – Broome to Cape Leveque

Optional sunrise shoot at Roebuck Bay, Entrance Point, Broome. 4.30 am rise out of bed. Meet the bus at 5 am and at location 5.30am for sunrise. I had high hope of a spectacular sunrise after the sunset yesterday.
Breakfast 7.30 at the resort for a 9am departure for Cape Leveque.
60km out of Broome on the red dirt Cape Leveque Road the big blue bus comes to an abrupt halt. In searing heat, no mobile phone reception, not a building or telephone pole insight, little or no shade we file off the bus while Lukie (the bus driver) searched for the problem.
A single broken 14mm bolt that holds a belt bracket which in turn drives nearly the whole motor paralysed this 18 tonne monster in the middle of nowhere. There will be no quick fix as we had no spare plus to remove the broken bolt most of the motor would have to be stripped to get to it.
You have to be prepared in the NT when conducting tours because of the sparseness and the unpredictability of the country. A satellite phone was packed. An urgent telephone call was placed with the bus company to organise another bus in Broome to pick us up and continue to Cape Leveque while a mechanic comes out to fix the bus where it stands. There was nothing to tow the bus back to Broome for repairs.
A fairly serious situation having 25 soles stranded with little water or food in 40 degree heat.
A sweltering 4 hours later our temp bus (another 4x4 bus as a conventional bus would not handle the corrugated sandy red dirt road) arrived to transport us to our next destination 200 km up the road, Cape Leveque. Our bus driver stayed behind to wait for the mechanic as assist in the repair.
We arrived just in time for a rushed sunset shoot on Western Beach at Kooljaman – Cape Leveque.
Dinner is at Kooljaman Restaurant before a much needed rest in our Safari tents.

Day 1 – Arrive in Broome

I arrived at Broome International Airport about 12.30pm WA time after the “Booking In” dilemma at Sydney Airport. (Booking In dilemma – Because we were booked as a group, booking in your luggage was almost impossible as we arrived at different times to check in, the computer system could not handle it and had to be manually checked in. If you had excess luggage as I did that just made it even more complicated, the last resort was used, the old manual credit card machine. So much for the wounders of modern technology in this case.)

Once off loaded in Broome Airport we boarded our transportation for the next 16 days, a large 4-wheel drive air-conditioned blue bus. Very impressive on first impressions, a converted Mercedes truck, total weight empty, 18 tonne.

Once loaded we were given a quick tour around Broome then arriving at our accommodation for one night Cable Beach Resort.

A sunset shoot was first on the agenda photography wise at Cable Beach. A 5-minute walk from the resort and the topic was what ever caught your eye. Cable Beach is famous for it camel rides along the beach at sunset. Because it has been photographed to death I thought I’d try my hand at some of the interesting rock formations with the beautiful sunset in the background.

Dinner was at the Café & Grill Bar in the resort about 6.30 pm.

David is currently touring the northern part of WA, he sent through this pic of the sunset on the first night... not too bad for day 1 eh? or for an iphone pic!

David Phillips is exhibiting his latestly landscapes at the TJ Framing, Gallery on Evans, north Mackay. All are welcome for the opening night, however you MUST RSVP to info@davidphillips.com.au or to 0488 377 210. The exhibition will include new releases not shown on our website along with some releases from his first exhibition 'First Light', approx 12 months ago.

Just came back from a huge weekend near Cathu State Forest. It was a huge weekend, long hours and lots of fun for the photographers. What a beautiful area and property. Thanks to all the competitors and organizers. We will be posting pics of the vehicles over the next week, so keep your eye out. Some Amazing pics were taken, but I feel Wendy took the "Pic Of The Weekend" when she was able to capture a roll-over which happened right in front of her. When Wendy was asked if she was scared,

Welcome to Cherish Artz, a place where we will share our photographic adventures and thoughts. This website has a been a dream of ours for a little while now and it is great to see it come alive, we hope you enjoy the journey through our site and our blogs. We have never blogged before, so be patient with us and above all we hope that you enjoy what we put up and keep on checking back on a regular basis.

Recently Cheryl travelled to the Hunter Valley, as it was a girls trips it was decided not to hump all the gear around, tripod etc and opted for a small compact camera and the iphone. Of course the perfect photo opportunities arised, with no memory left on the compact camera card and with only the iphone, I did the best I could. The scene was early morning, the sun’s rays streaming through the bushland, and with a little more interest of a kangaroo or two hopping about. It was been now 2 weeks since then and Cheryl is still kicking herself… on a positive note it is a perfect just an excuse to travel back to the same destination.