9th
June 2012
We arrived at the Kimberley Entrance caravan park in Derby and booked in at $38.00/night. Nice park and although Derby did not look like much when we drove in, it is a nice place and we enjoyed our short stay there.
We had a drive around to look at the Boab prison tree; this is fenced off so you can’t get inside to have a look. I guess thanks to people who can’t help but leave their mark.
Grabbed some fish and chips from the restaurant/take away at the jetty – very nice!
We then drove out onto the jetty to watch the tide come in which is amazing, even though we knew about these large tides, it is still fascinating to watch!
While there got chatting to a couple who'd driven up from Barn Hill for the day (as they used to live in Derby) who were crabbing and catching nice size mud crabs, sooo next day back we went at low tide with our two crab nets and left two hours later with 5 size muddy’s, ate 2 for dinner that night and saved the other three for later.
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| Cooked ready to eat!! |
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| Boab "Dinner Tree" at sunset |
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| Barney in the Boab |
13th
June 2012
Left Derby and headed towards Fitzroy Crossing but stopped at “Ellendale
Lake”, a free camp spot about 100k’s short of Fitzroy Crossing. The station owner allows people to camp by
the lake, which is really just a large dam.
There were about 5 or 6 vans inside the fence that night and about the
same outside by the road. The cows took
a little time to check us out while they were wandering back and forwards for a
drink but we didn’t see any wildlife.
14th
June 2012
Off into
Fitzroy Crossing and into the Fitzroy River Lodge at $35.00/night. Very nice, large green grassy sites. The town itself is what you would expect out
here, we took a quick look at the Old Crossing Inn, which is run by the local
indigenous people, along with a caravan park and art store, but we didn’t go
in, also visited the old town site and
the original concrete causeway.
Next day we went out to Geikie Gorge and booked on the DEC run boat cruise which was nice. Did a bit of one of the walks but it was hard going in soft sand, very hot and John’s new boots were rubbing badly so we figured we had already seen the gorge from the boat and we turned back about halfway in.
Next day we went out to Geikie Gorge and booked on the DEC run boat cruise which was nice. Did a bit of one of the walks but it was hard going in soft sand, very hot and John’s new boots were rubbing badly so we figured we had already seen the gorge from the boat and we turned back about halfway in.
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| On the boat |
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| Some amazing colours here |
16th June 2012
Left Fitzroy River and headed for Mary's Pool - a 24hr rest area (#636 in camps book 6) for an overnight stop. Got the gold detector out and did a bit of fossicking in the river bed but as usual only found some nails and tin cans.
The camp spot got fairly full by about 5pm but people kept on coming in, very nice spot though with new long drops and a nice lagoon.
17th June 2012
Next day off to another free spot, Dunham River (#648 in Camps 6), just out of Kununurra, again a nice spot. We got in early and got a nice camp spot but by dark it was full.
18th June 2012
Into Kununurra and into the Hidden Valley Caravan Park at $28.50 per night. Just as we were booking in our friends Ron & Joan Pettett from Canberra also turned up. Got settled in and started sorting out the camping gear for the Gibb River road trip!
23rd June 2012
With both cars loaded and fuelled up we left the vans in storage at Hidden Valley and with mixed emotions of anticipation and excitement, plus a dread of camping, in a tent for the next 18 days, we headed off down the Gibb River Road.
First stop Home Valley station. The road really was a road, pretty good so far with some corrugations but not bad, we sat on around 70 - 80ks an hour and found it very comfortable. We quickly found out though, that there were a lot of people on the road and most seemed to be on a tight time frame, especially the hire cars which seem to go much faster on dirt roads than others, they must be made stronger, even the little two wheel drive camper vans seem to handle the corrugations at a higher speed than 4WD's, amazing! The best solution we found to avoiding these was to slow down even more and give them most of the road, believe me they needed it, a lot of them were only barely in control!
First stop Home Valley station. The road really was a road, pretty good so far with some corrugations but not bad, we sat on around 70 - 80ks an hour and found it very comfortable. We quickly found out though, that there were a lot of people on the road and most seemed to be on a tight time frame, especially the hire cars which seem to go much faster on dirt roads than others, they must be made stronger, even the little two wheel drive camper vans seem to handle the corrugations at a higher speed than 4WD's, amazing! The best solution we found to avoiding these was to slow down even more and give them most of the road, believe me they needed it, a lot of them were only barely in control!
Anyway we crossed the first river crossing, "The Pentecost River"; great scenic views but quite shallow this time of year, see photo.
Headed on into Home Valley and booked into the river campsite with beautiful views of the Pentecost and Cockburn ranges behind, for our first night camping, although it was a nice site and we enjoyed a glass of champagne to celebrate, it was a windy day and very dusty. Later a mob of Yobbo's from Kununurra turned up and partied till three in the morning with very loud music and very bad out of tune singing, despite Ron asking them to quiet down the volume was still loud enough to keep us awake. So next morning four very bleary-eyed people packed up camp. We complained to the management at Home Valley but it fell on deaf ears.
Not a great start to camping, but undaunted we headed down the Gibb to Ellenbrae homestead for our next stop, by this time the wind had stopped. This is a quaint place and a bit quirky, there is a Boab tree with a tap, the camping area we were in had a "donkey heater" see photo.
This is a wood fired water heater, which the manager fired up in the afternoon, and was very efficient. The spot also had one toilet, you can see the entrance just to the right of the yellow chair, but that was in with the shower and bath, so if someone was in the shower you couldn't, get to the toilet! Luckily there were only about five couples camped there on our night but it was still a battle getting to the loo in the morning.
Ron stoked up the Donkey in the morning and I don't think all the people having warm showers realised how the water got hot, without him doing that they would have had VERY cold water. Nearly forgot, when we arrived here I found the right rear tyre going flat, $60.00 later it was patched, and back in as a spare.
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| Crossing the Pentecost River (Gibb River Road) |
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| Our first camp - Joan and Ron Pettett on the right |
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| Interesting heater but it worked well |
Ron stoked up the Donkey in the morning and I don't think all the people having warm showers realised how the water got hot, without him doing that they would have had VERY cold water. Nearly forgot, when we arrived here I found the right rear tyre going flat, $60.00 later it was patched, and back in as a spare.
Next stop on our trip was a slight diversion off of the Gibb River road onto the Kalumburu Road and the Drysdale River Station camp. They have two options, one at the homestead and another campground about 7k's away on the river called Miners Pool, nice swimming hole but no amenities apart from a very basic long drop, the station camp had flush toilets, hot and cold showers and a basic laundry so was a much better option.
This was our first very COLD night, luckily we had collected some wood on the way in and the camp fire was very welcome.
Ron showed us a great idea, for a cold night around the campfire, he cleared a small area under our chairs and placed about a third of a shovel full of coals under the chair - "instant back and bum warmer!" - very pleasant.
Even though Barbara and I had 0 degree double sleeping bag I got heaps of cuddles during the night and still Barbara was cold most of the night. We heard it was about 3 degrees C overnight.
After fuelling up we headed further up the Kalumburu road and then turned left on the Mitchell Plateau road and into the Mitchell Falls national park for a three day camp.
Again nice spot with plenty of bore water for washing etc. We used our shower tent here for the first time and it worked a treat, with heaps of hot water thanks to the solar bags. The evenings here were a bit warmer, possibly because we were up higher and closer to the ocean.
This was our first very COLD night, luckily we had collected some wood on the way in and the camp fire was very welcome.
Ron showed us a great idea, for a cold night around the campfire, he cleared a small area under our chairs and placed about a third of a shovel full of coals under the chair - "instant back and bum warmer!" - very pleasant.
Even though Barbara and I had 0 degree double sleeping bag I got heaps of cuddles during the night and still Barbara was cold most of the night. We heard it was about 3 degrees C overnight.
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| Breakfast time at Drysdale Station |
Again nice spot with plenty of bore water for washing etc. We used our shower tent here for the first time and it worked a treat, with heaps of hot water thanks to the solar bags. The evenings here were a bit warmer, possibly because we were up higher and closer to the ocean.
We decided to take the 18 minute helicopter flight over the Mitchell Plateau, Mitchell Falls, Big Mertens Falls and Little Mertens falls, pus some other falls on native land.
Ron and I got off at Mitchell Falls to walk back and Barbara and Joan stayed on to fly back. The walk back was fantastic and the views of the falls up close, definitely a wow moment.
Little Mertens falls had its own magic as you can walk behind the falls with a little bit of easy rock hopping.
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| That's Barbara in the co-pilots seat! |
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| Magnificent - especially from the ground |
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| We walked in behind Little Mertens falls |
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| Veiw from behind the falls |
Nights still very cold and showers and laundry in high demand, we managed to score a washing machine at 07:00AM and by 10 past seven there were three people lined up at our machine, waiting!
We found with camping that it was hard to stay up once it got dark and eight o'clock seemed to be time to sleep, on the same token usually awake at dawn, around 6 AM.
After Drysdale and the 500 kilometer detour to Mitchell Plateau we headed back to the Gibb River road, and headed to Barnett Station and the Manning Gorge camp ground. Paid our fees and picked our spot, again showers and toilets here.
That afternoon we walked down and looked at the swimming hole then back for Happy hour, also joining us was Brian and Jenny who we kept bumping into at camp spots.
Next day we took the "power your own punt" across the river and walked into the gorge, about three hours return. Beautiful gorge but water was bloody cold, Ron went for a swim and I soaked my feet, OK so I'm a wuss!
Off again the next day to Silent Grove and Bell Gorge but on the way we stopped at Galvan's gorge, only small but definitely my favourite gorge, it had a really peaceful feel about it and very pretty.
Next stop on the way to Silent Grove was Adcock gorge and for the first time we needed four wheel drive and we needed to wade into the creek to check for holes. It wasn't deep, about 40cm but fun anyway, we were the only 4WD in the car park at the falls all the others stayed the other side of the creek and walked in! Again different and nice.
Arrived at Silent grove and into the camp ground with the usual amenities, we couldn't decide whether to stay one or two nights so we drove down to the gorge and had a look from the top, about 45 minutes walk, decided then that Ron and I would like to have a walk down to the bottom which takes a bit longer so went back and booked in for two nights.
Ron's turn to have a puncture here so next morning we went back down the road a few k's to the Imintji store and he got a patch on the tyre for $70.00! Great little store with wonderful people and if you ever get there ask for a coffee and ask who makes the coffee machine noises, bit hard to explain here but we laughed a lot.
That afternoon Ron and I set off to the bottom of the gorge and unfortunately after this the pictures are not so good as I took a quick swim with the camera around my neck, thought that wasn't such a good idea so threw it in the general direction of Ron, but hard to throw while you're treading water, so it bounced off some rocks and landed hard on some others. I retrieved my hat and sunglasses and as much dignity as I could muster and wallowed out of the water.
The camera was off but full of water, we removed the battery and SD, card put the camera in the backpack and started back to camp. I considered sending a note and staying somewhere else for the night rather than tell Barbara I had drowned the camera but I braved it and I am still alive to tell the tale!
We decided to hang the camera up every chance we got to see if it would
dry out and continued on using our backup video camera that does take stills,
just not very well. Luckiliy our friends had their camera and were happy to
share their photos with us.
Had a great camp here and next morning headed for Fitzroy Crossing, with a stop at Tunnel Creek on the way.
I don’t know how anyone found the entrance to this as it just looks like a pile of rocks, but after climbing through the entrance, the cave is awesome, there is an opening half way through where there has been a cave in at some stage but even so it is a long way through and requires some wading, the water was not too deep but extremely cold, apparently earlier in the season it was nearly up to the neck for most people, which means I may have had to swim. J
After this pleasant sojourn we headed into Fitzroy Lodge for a night to catch up on washing etc. Had a very nice dinner and bottle of red at the Lodge on the first evening in.
Break over and up the road to a free camp and another very cold night, up early and into the Bungle, Bungles. We had booked two generator sites but when we arrived at the office in the park, after 2 hours driving, the lady doing the bookings told us that she had made a mistake and the area was full, however she put us in the tour operators area. We were a little worried that we may have tour busses coming and going at all hours but we really were lucky, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, our own long drop and firewood supplied each night by a very cheerful camp host.
On the first day we decided to see if we could get a flight over the Bungles in a chopper and as we drove up a couple were just getting out and we managed to get straight in AND we got a 10% discount as it was the same company that we flew over Mitchell Plateau with, in fact the guy booking us in was the same person, he definitely gets around!
It was a great flight and really the only way to appreciate the enormity and ruggedness of the Bungles.
Next day we went out to Mini Palm Gorge which was pleasant and then into Echidna Chasm, which is awesome!!
The day after it was into Cathederal Gorge and again it is hard to do it justice with a photo, it is huge!
Next day pack up camp and back into Kununurra and the caravan with a very Happy Barbara because the camping was over. I don't think she will even consider camping again for at least three years! :) She was so happy to see the van she kept trying to hug it!
Well thats all folks, hope you found it interesting, we definitely had a ball and travelling with friends made it even better.
Till next time, keep smilling.
Cheers
John and Barbara
We found with camping that it was hard to stay up once it got dark and eight o'clock seemed to be time to sleep, on the same token usually awake at dawn, around 6 AM.
After Drysdale and the 500 kilometer detour to Mitchell Plateau we headed back to the Gibb River road, and headed to Barnett Station and the Manning Gorge camp ground. Paid our fees and picked our spot, again showers and toilets here.
That afternoon we walked down and looked at the swimming hole then back for Happy hour, also joining us was Brian and Jenny who we kept bumping into at camp spots.
Next day we took the "power your own punt" across the river and walked into the gorge, about three hours return. Beautiful gorge but water was bloody cold, Ron went for a swim and I soaked my feet, OK so I'm a wuss!
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| Pulling the boat accross for the ride over |
Off again the next day to Silent Grove and Bell Gorge but on the way we stopped at Galvan's gorge, only small but definitely my favourite gorge, it had a really peaceful feel about it and very pretty.
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| Nice spot |
Arrived at Silent grove and into the camp ground with the usual amenities, we couldn't decide whether to stay one or two nights so we drove down to the gorge and had a look from the top, about 45 minutes walk, decided then that Ron and I would like to have a walk down to the bottom which takes a bit longer so went back and booked in for two nights.
Ron's turn to have a puncture here so next morning we went back down the road a few k's to the Imintji store and he got a patch on the tyre for $70.00! Great little store with wonderful people and if you ever get there ask for a coffee and ask who makes the coffee machine noises, bit hard to explain here but we laughed a lot.
That afternoon Ron and I set off to the bottom of the gorge and unfortunately after this the pictures are not so good as I took a quick swim with the camera around my neck, thought that wasn't such a good idea so threw it in the general direction of Ron, but hard to throw while you're treading water, so it bounced off some rocks and landed hard on some others. I retrieved my hat and sunglasses and as much dignity as I could muster and wallowed out of the water.
The camera was off but full of water, we removed the battery and SD, card put the camera in the backpack and started back to camp. I considered sending a note and staying somewhere else for the night rather than tell Barbara I had drowned the camera but I braved it and I am still alive to tell the tale!
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| Bell Gorge |
Next morning we headed off early to Windjana Gorge but stopped at Lennard Gorge on the way. As this
was a fairly hard walk the girls decided to wait at the cars and have a coffee.
Ron and I headed off and when we got to a large waterfall, thought oh, OK, but
not much really, then Ron decided to climb a little higher and there was the
WOW moment, two gorges meeting in a Y that was every bit as good as some of the
gorges at Karijini National Park. Unfortunately the pictures do not show the
depths or vastness of it all. When we got back to the cars, we couldn’t wait to
tell the girls what they had missed.
Off again to Windjana Gorge campground to set up the tents again. We
then went for a walk into the gorge and again it was well worth it, it has a
small cave like entrance that then opens up into the gorge, great fun and it
definitely brought out the small boy in me! We were lucky enough to see a python sunning
itself just as we got into the gorge, he was gone by the time we came back. This gorge is different again, with some very stunning colours and formations and heaps
of Fresh water crocodiles that just ignored us, at one point we counted about
20 in one spot.
Had a great camp here and next morning headed for Fitzroy Crossing, with a stop at Tunnel Creek on the way.
I don’t know how anyone found the entrance to this as it just looks like a pile of rocks, but after climbing through the entrance, the cave is awesome, there is an opening half way through where there has been a cave in at some stage but even so it is a long way through and requires some wading, the water was not too deep but extremely cold, apparently earlier in the season it was nearly up to the neck for most people, which means I may have had to swim. J
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| THE WAY IN! |
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| Entering the cave/tunnel |
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| Small waterfall inside the tunnel |
Break over and up the road to a free camp and another very cold night, up early and into the Bungle, Bungles. We had booked two generator sites but when we arrived at the office in the park, after 2 hours driving, the lady doing the bookings told us that she had made a mistake and the area was full, however she put us in the tour operators area. We were a little worried that we may have tour busses coming and going at all hours but we really were lucky, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, our own long drop and firewood supplied each night by a very cheerful camp host.
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| THE BUNGLE BUNGLES |
It was a great flight and really the only way to appreciate the enormity and ruggedness of the Bungles.
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| A part of the Bungle Bungles from the air |
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| The Entrance |
Next day pack up camp and back into Kununurra and the caravan with a very Happy Barbara because the camping was over. I don't think she will even consider camping again for at least three years! :) She was so happy to see the van she kept trying to hug it!
Well thats all folks, hope you found it interesting, we definitely had a ball and travelling with friends made it even better.
Till next time, keep smilling.
Cheers
John and Barbara
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