Trekkin

Before setting out I decided to photograph the dust that came into our “King of the Road” even though it has good seals it was just inevitable where the poor thing has been dragged through.  The outside & the car certainly look the part of an outback wilderness adventure.

The sun was up as we started the day threading our way carefully back out of the Barnett River Gorge track & back onto the Gibb River Road, which is now more of a pleasure to drive on as the road surface has improved considerably, still some bad parts, far outweighed by the good.  Our first stop was at Barnett River Roadhouse, just at the end of 26km of road works that was very nice to drive on.  John & Sue picked up a few groceries & took advantage of the Telstra phone to arrange for replacement shock absorbers to be sent to Broome.  Our next stop was Galvan’s Gorge, a parking area at the side of the road & a nice 1km walk into an absolutely beautiful waterhole with a small waterfall trickling into it, plus, as an added bonus, some Wandjina art that you can see while swimming.  We were very fortunate in having the waterhole all to ourselves & the water was so nice to swim in, with inquisitive small fish with no fear of us.  We met some French backpackers on the way out & they told us that our planned next stop, Adcock Gorge, was not worth going to as the road in was very rough (we are over bad roads) & the waterhole was stagnant with a green scum on the surface.

We soldiered on, admiring the landscape as the Phillips Range then the Leopold Range started to dominate the landscape.  These ranges are very pretty with the colour of the cliff faces & rising straight up out of the flat Kimberley Plains.  Imintji store was our next stop where we had fresh kangaroo pie for lunch washed down by a nice Bundaberg Ginger Beer.  This store was amazing, it had all of the necessities, plus a workshop out the back with a myriad of used tyres adorning the fences – it clearly indicates how many tyres get blown on this road.

We decided to skip Mornington Wilderness Camp (very reluctantly because this was a place we all really wanted to see) as it was a long way in, then back out over some very rough road almost 200 km & too much of a challenge for John’s broken shock absorber.  Instead, we decided to visit Silent Grove & Bell Gorge, so drove the 19km into Silent Grove on a good dirt road & set up camp under a few shady trees.  There are flushing toilets, hot showers (heated by solar panels) & a working Telstra public phone this far out in the bush, it is a real luxury.  The camp ranger even put on a display & caught by hand a King Brown snake that was in the tour operator amenities block, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.  He was very competent & caught it surprisingly quickly by the tail & dropped it into a bag.  We kidded with him that it was a tame snake that he used to impress tour groups.  He released the snake a few kilometres away at Bell Creek. We camped in the generator area & charged our batteries for a few hours whilst preparing & eating dinner.  Again the full moon is wonderfully bright & thankfully a breeze has sprung up that will hopefully cool things down a bit, it was 36C today.  The locals say that the hot season is about a week early.

John cooked another great meal, braised lamb shank in garlic & herb with Tereza doing a great job with the vegies, all washed down with a lovely sparkling red.

After a sunrise breakfast we packed up & went for a swim in the lovely waterhole in the King Edward River, we were trying to delay the inevitable – that rotten road to Drysdale station, then even worse, the horrible 59km from Drysdale Station to the Gibb River Road.   John found one of his shock absorbers leaking.  We drove very carefully, stopping for a family of 3 Brolgas at one creek crossing just after we got going, then stopping every 20 km to check equipment.  At Drysdale they told us that the plane would come in on Tuesday & they would order 2 new shock absorbers, (their policy is to always order 2 of every spare part) over lunch we decided to keep going.  We often drove on the shoulder of the road to get some relief from the corrugation (it felt like we would tip over).  Slow drive but finally we got to the Gibb River Road.  It started out great until we got to corrugations, sharp rocks, big rocks & bull dust (big hole covered over by very fine dust).  Things got better & some patches were even good.  Ron & John had a very hard day of driving, a shade over 200km in 6½ hours, averaging about 32 km an hour.

We had a beautiful sunset but we needed a place to set up.  We came up to Barnett River Gorge camp area – 3 km drive in from the road.  The road in was a real 4WD delight – something we did not need especially at dusk.  It was a bush camp & we were the only ones out in the sticks.  Our microwave oven nearly fell out of its cupboard, we pushed it back, hopefully it will stay put.  John cooked a tasty Italian chicken dish & I provided the vegies, all washed down with another nice red.  It was a most beautiful night under the moon & stars & we talked about the election & all of the possible scary outcomes.  May be we should just keep on trekkin & never find out the result.

First light & we were up with the birds again so we could get an early start up to the Mitchell Falls.  We had breakfast & were on the road just as the sun was rising, around 6.15am.  What a road, 82km of corrugations, rocky outcrops, rocks, steep water crossings, hills, washouts, ruts, narrow, windy & dusty, you name it.  Absolutely no respite at all, rough all the way.  This was a real bugger of a road.  We reached the falls a little after 9am, that’s right, nearly 3 hours to do 82km.  On the way we came across a 4WD that had hit a big hole at the top of the hill & ripped the suspension off on the left front wheel & folded the front wheel under the car, so it was sitting forlornly half way down the hill at the side of the road.  On the way home the owner was fixing it.

We decided to catch a helicopter to the top of the Mitchell Falls & walk back the 4.3 km, as luck would have it, we were on the Bell Jetranger helicopter at 9.30am for the 6 minute ride to the falls.  The view was fantastic, we could see all the way to the Indian Ocean & the pilot gave a great description of all the watercourses & falls.  We were very fortunate that the falls were running well as there was a late end to the wet season, usually at this time of year they are dry.  The Mitchell Falls certainly are a great site with the four drops over 80m.  The temperature was pretty hot as we wandered around looking at the falls, so on the walk back we had a swim at the top of the Big Merten Falls in the pool before the drop, it was lovely & refreshing with the bonus of no freshwater crocodiles bothering us.

The walk was interesting as the path wandered through different plant varieties, bird life & great big rocks.  We had our lunch in a small rainforest area under some fig trees.  The next stop was near Little Merten Falls where we again saw some Bradshaw aboriginal art with some more recent paintings over the top of them.  We got back to the car park around 2pm.  It was damn hot & the rocks reflected even more heat it was a smart move to do the helicopter ride up.  The trip back to our campsite at King Edward River was just as bad as the trip up, our average speed was 33km/hr. If the road would have been half decent we could have enjoyed the lovely Eucalypt & Livistonia Palm forest.  It wasn’t just bone rattling corrugation but swaying from side to side as Ron tried to avoid sharp rocks, big rocks, pot holes & at times the car would plane across.  You couldn’t talk from the noise.  Yes, the Mercedes rattles & shakes, groans & moans too under such conditions (most probably it was us groaning & moaning, not the car).  We had beautiful scenery but it is stupid to put your vehicle & yourselves through nearly 500 km return trip on a mother (or better still father because mothers could never be that bad) of all bad roads like this one – a card from the falls would have sufficed.    We could hardly walk when we got out of the car.   Sue & I ran out of colourful Hungarian adjectives about the road & we were too exhausted to laugh.

Back at camp we chatted to the duty rangers & they said the temperature reached 40C today, its still winter.  Tereza whipped up a delicious pumpkin soup & lasagne (from home frozen) & this time we washed it down with a very good 15 year old white.

Up with the birds & sunrise plus a hearty breakfast then we headed back into Drysdale Station to get a road status report on the condition of the Kalumburu road from Drysdale Station to the Mitchell Plateau turnoff.  We were lucky enough to talk to a couple that had just refuelled & had just come back from up that way.  They said the road was bad for the next 30km then improved so we decided to continue the journey.  We left Drysdale Station at around 9.15am & reached the campground at the King Edward River 4 hours later & 105km.  The road was very corrugated & rough for a fair length.  Along the way we had stopped to fix the rubber boot from the Karavan shock absorber that had come loose & the back number plate of the car had shaken loose, it was very close to falling off.  The graders were out & doing roadwork for about 6km near the Mitchell Plateau turnoff.

The campground was right on the King Edward River so we set up then ventured down to the river to rinse out our washing that had a thorough shaking on the trip & have a swim in the waterhole.  The water was crystal clear & a lovely temperature to swim in.  It was very refreshing & the freshwater crocodiles kept their distance.

There are two aboriginal art sites nearby so we went for a good wander around both of them.  The sites are amongst outcrops of large sandstone formations & the rock art is of a style that Tereza & I have not seen before, the art looks out of this world & both Bradshaw & Wandjina styles.  We stayed wandering around until the light started to fade, the spirituality of the sites is intense.

Dinner was a fine Madras Chicken Curry by John with vegies by Tereza & another fine red.

Movem on movem out, we left at 8.10 am & it was 32.5C.  We thought that the Gibb River Road was bad until we turned off onto the Kalumburu Road to Drysdale River Station – 50 km, it took us over 2 hours, terribly corrugated, it is definitely a sports bra type of road.  A short distance but long drive today.  I kept on wondering how come 2 mild mannered men like Ron & John with reasonable intellect would take on an adventure like this.  The car, Karavan & even the filling in our teeth were in danger of shaking to bits.  Sue & I started to speak Hungarian as the words are more evocative to express our feelings.  We would try to outdo each other by thinking up more outrageous words & then roll around laughing.  (Even our brains got blended).

Arrived at the rustic Drysdale River homestead, come restaurant etc. & a big car repair place – they fix tires etc. & they make over $100,000 a season on shock absorbers alone.  (Why would they grade the road that lays the golden egg).  We chose the Miner’s Pool camp which is by a fantastic big water hole instead of the homestead camp by the drinking hole (bar).  We thoroughly enjoyed frolicking in the beautiful lukewarm water hole.

Tereza whipped up a great tortilla meal that we washed down with a very pleasant red.

Sunrise started our day again as it was moving day.  A leisurely breakfast followed by cleaning & packing & we drove out of the El Questro campsite at 8.15 am.  The turnoff back onto the Gibb River Road was a bit of a reality check as the corrugations & bad road surfaces hit home again.  We stopped for a photo shoot at the Pentecost River with the magnificent backdrop of towering ranges behind us, then a further stop on a lookout a little further up the hill where we could see nearly back to Wyndham, apart from the smoke haze.  The road improved after the Pentecost River & our speed increased a little to a reasonably constant 60km/hr.  We reached Ellenbrae Station around 4 ½ hours after leaving El Questro, a distance of around 140km.

We had lunch at the homestead & were entertained by a crowd of Double-Barred Finches & Crimson Finches feeding & bathing, plus we saw a cute kangaroo with a joey in its pouch.  We setup at the Ringers Campground then went for a swim in the local waterhole, hoping that the local freshwater crocodiles in the water weren’t too friendly.  The water was brisk & refreshing.  The amenities block at the campground is certainly rustic & must be seen to be enjoyed.  The open walls are local sandstone with the flush toilet & shower having basic modesty screens made from shade cloth.  The water heater is a “donkey” that is wood fuelled in the middle of the floor.  As I said, rustic & I hope the photos did it justice.  Tereza also took the opportunity to give me a well needed beard trim & haircut.  (He looked like a real bushy).

The Moroccan Lamb cooked by John was very tasty with Sue providing the vegies & Tereza the salad.  I provided the wine, a nice Margaret River Merlot (I had to do something not just look handsome after the beard trim).

The sun was up as we got going this morning & we shared our breakfast time with a friendly pair of butcherbirds & half a dozen blue winged kookaburras that have a nesting tree just above us, they are magnificent looking birds.

Our first venture today is to Zebedee Springs, a short walk from the car park to a set of hot water pools fed from a spring that comes out of the side of a cliff.  Its very popular to lay in the pools in water that is pleasantly warm & crystal clear.  The setting is absolutely beautiful with Livistonia palms growing very tall & crowded straight out of the creek bed & you are lying in water surrounded by these palm trees reaching to the sky.  El Questro close the springs at 12pm to the plebs so that the resort guests can use it in the afternoon & evening.  (They pay $2,000 per person per night, a minimum of two night stay at the resort).

Our next stop was El Questro gorge & it is a more challenging walk up the creek bed, climbing over larger rocks as the walls of the gorge get narrower. It is amazing that you are right in the heart of it all. One very pleasant aspect is that the gorge gets cooler the further you walk up it.  Words can’t describe how pretty it looks & again the photos don’t even come close to doing it justice.  The reward at the end of a long walk is a beautiful pool at the base of a small waterfall caused by two massive boulders blocking the gorge.  The walk continues past this spot but gets very strenuous so we decided on a swim in the crystal clear waters of this pool.  As I was walking into the water I was greeted by a small school of pan size fish that had no fear in coming very close.  There were the roots of a tree hanging down off the cliff face into the water, Tereza & Sue decided to play Tarzan on the vine.  The water was great in & we had the pool to ourselves for a long time.  We got out after some more walkers arrived & dried off by sunning ourselves on the warm rocks.  The walk back out of El Questro Gorge was just as rewarding as the walk in as the views were taken in from the opposite direction.  Again, the exit from the gorge was a rude shock as the heat beat down on us.  We headed back to campsite for lunch.  John, Sue & I had a siesta while Tereza read.

In the late afternoon we explored the camp a little more, viewed some works by the resident artist & he is very good (No, I did not buy any, I was tempted but Tereza made sure I had my swimmers with no pockets for my wallet).  We went to Chamberlain Gorge, a 3km expanse of waterhole that has a warning sign about crocodiles, so we decided not to go for a swim.  We took a photo of the sunset & headed back to camp where Tereza prepared a fantastic Steak Dianne for dinner with John & Sue preparing the vegies, again washed down by another nice red.  We were entertained during dinner by some flying foxes in the tree overhead & solved the political problems in Australia yet again.

Another start before sunrise to walk the banks of the billabong at Parry Creek Farm and watch the birdlife. We  disturbed a nankeen heron from its night roost & watched the birdlife starting its day, the sunrise wasn’t spectacular, however, the birdlife at the end of the billabong was good.  Halfway along the billabong we came across a crocodile trap & at the end of the billabong another crocodile trap.  We made sure we were standing well up the bank & away from the water edge.  We watched a black kite catch a small bird & fly off with it and 3 brolgas fly into the billabong.

We only had about 7km of dirt road before we were back onto the bitumen and drove into Wyndham for a look.  There is a new part of town and the old port town about 5km away where we walked through the town museum, which was very interesting.  Tereza snuggled up to a croc on display in the park & really, that was the highlight of Wyndham.

Down the highway the way we had come & onto the Gibb River Road.  We stopped at the signs for the obligatory photo shoot and started on the next piece of hard gravel road.  We are travelling  fairly slowly, around 60km/h as the road has a lot of very sharp stones & loads of dust, so we are spaced a fair distance apart so it is safe to see.

Our first stop on the Gibb River Rd is Emma Gorge, it is a very pretty gorge that has an hour walk in along a very pretty shaded creek bed with lots of big rocks to climb over (I thought that I will never complain about the 10 minute drive to our local swimming pool again) and a beautiful swimming hole as a reward at the end. We came across a juvenile tawny frogmouth (bird) on the walk into the gorge & it was trying its hardest to look like a dead branch, it was so cute.  The swimming hole is at the base of a very high waterfall & the water is a bit chilly when compared to the 35C air temperature (yes, that’s right, its 35 degrees centigrade here, in winter).  We donned our swimmers & dove in, it was a bit brisk to start with, however, soon it was very pleasant.  In one corner a hot spring was feeding into the pool and droplets of water were seeping out of the overhanging cliff face and huge drops were falling into the pool like rain.  The walk back to the car park was also very pleasant until we got out into the sun again & the heat hit us.

Back onto the Gibb River Road & a further 10km to the El Questro turnoff and another 16km into the campsite.  The private road is very well maintained and just for excitement included a couple of long & rocky water crossings over the Pentecost River.  The campsite at El Questro is on the banks of the Pentecost River & we were fortunate enough to get a campsite right on the river bank. (These million dollar real estate are still around, you just have to drive a heck of a long way). This is a 5 star bush camp site, no electricity, but it has little huts with proper toilet, washbasin & hot/cold showers & to top it off its got cattle roaming between the camp sites. Unfortunately we couldn’t set our Karavan up this time so that our kitchen was facing John & Sue’s kitchen. John cooked up another great seafood dish with fish & garlic prawns while Tereza made the rice & vegies, all washed down by another nice wine.  After dinner we caught up with Jenna & Kevin, camp friends we first met in Alice Springs & had a great long chat with them.  In camp most people get up with the bird & go to bed with them too, by 7 or 7.30 pm the camp is almost in darkness, except for some mad blog writers & a few rebels sitting around a camp fire sipping a glass of wine & talking quietly but even they turn in by 9 pm.

Up before sunrise again with the birds & flying foxes squabbling as they came home to roost, then eating breakfast watching the sun rise on Kununurra Lake.  We were told that a 3.5 metre long saltwater crocodile was pulled out of the lake about 2 months ago.  Food for thought.  We went for an early morning shop to refuel & top up the groceries at Coles, then packing, cleaning & dumping waste.

Today’s journey was a short one to Parry Creek, about 75km towards Wyndham & in the Parry Lagoon Nature Reserve.  The dirt road was in good condition with only one interesting water crossing.  We set up camp then I had to find out why the battery charger wasn’t working when we were connected to 240v power.  After a bit of searching I found that an electrical connection had vibrated apart, then I had to work out how to fix it.  After a couple of hours I had jury rigged a system that should be fairly robust, importantly, it works & we are now charging when plugged into as 240v.  The temperature was 35C during this little exercise & the sweat was pouring off me, while the girls & John went for a swim in the swimming pool where a big goanna was sunning itself.  The  lagoon is beautiful but it has crocodiles we were advised against a swim in there (last week they pulled out a 4 & ½ metre crocodile).

Next we visited Marlgu Billabong, a RAMSAR wetland & spent the late afternoon there as the sun went down.  The lagoon is alive with all different types of waterbird species & crocodiles you can only walk on a board walk we spent a couple of very enjoyable hours in the bird hide.  I counted more than 20 Brolgas, lots of magpie geese, & whistling ducks, plus 3 nankeen herons.  The sunset over the lagoon was also very special as the water lilies all went to sleep.  We didn’t bring the TV with us & we haven’t missed it yet, we watch sunsets instead.

No time for cheese & bikkies as it was dark by the time we got back, so Tereza whipped up a magnificent veal schnitzel dinner that we washed down with another nice red.

No rest for the wicked, our bird alarm clock went off before daybreak.  Holidays or not bills have to be paid (that little plastic card won’t do the trick otherwise).  The internet works a little bit faster before everyone else wakes up.  We had time to catch up necessities like paying bills, washing, cleaning dirty windows on the Karavan & vacuum sealing some of John’s meat.

We booked on a bus & boat cruise with JJJ Tours for a trip down Lake Kununurra (the dammed Ord River).  At 11.30 am the bus picked us up on a 70 km trip to Argyle Dam.  Our driver, Jeff was full of information about plants, animals, history of Kununurra & district, the Ord River & the Argyle Dam.

We had a short lunch break at the Argyle Dam pub & then travelled to the Durack Homestead, which really was 25 kms away, now under the Argyle Dam.  The original stones were used to rebuild the house, the grave stones were replanted too.  The Durack’s are famous because they owned the enormous Argyle property plus some of them wrote the well known books “Kings in Grass Castles” & “Sons in the Saddle” plus “Duracks of Argyle”.  The other famous thing no one seems to think important is that Fanny Durack was the first female Olympic swimming gold winner in 1912.

Into the purpose built cruise boat with twin 350hp V8 Yamaha outboards for the 55km trip back down the river.  Our boat driver, Grant was very informative and a good helmsman.  We had a lot of stops on the way down to look at the wildlife.  We saw a lot of freshwater crocodiles & a large number of different bird species.  The views of the mountains & valleys was again a highlight with the colours changing with the light as we moved downstream.  We stopped for a great afternoon tea lovely pumpkin scones, carrot cake, fruit, juice, coffee & tea at a JJJ Tours camp on the riverbank before heading downstream once more.  The tour boat sat very comfortably at 50km/hr with over 40 people on board.  We stopped a few more times to look at wildlife, including some amazing birds called Jacanas that appear to walk on water.

The final stop was to watch the sunset before we were dropped off at our caravan park on the riverbank. John & Tereza whipped up another great dinner of salmon & salad, which we washed down with a glass or two of red. (yes, we have restocked the supply)  During dinner we were swooped silently by an owl & before dinner we found a couple of tawny frogmouths to add to the wildlife excitement.

This is likely to be the last update for a couple of weeks as we will be travelling the Gibb River Road & will be out of mobile phone coverage.