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Gunbarrel | Tanami | East Kimberley | Broome Region | East Pilbara
NORTH KIMBERLEY TRIP DIARY
DAYS 24 - 35
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Day twenty four |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Sunday 15/7/01 | Pentecost River | Drysdale River | 248.6km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 4.56hrs | 61.2km/hr | 4.03hrs | 9.01hrs |
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Pentecost River Crossing |
After soaking up the beauty of the Pentecost River we turn onto the Gibb River Road and headed west towards Jacks Waterhole (65km). The corrugations were very rough and we later found out that the road had not been graded for the last 3weeks because the grader driver had an accident and has been in hospital – but he is due to resume again tomorrow!
We are amazed at how different this section of the Gibb River Road is from our last trip here in 1998 when we didn’t find any water at all, other than at the major gorges. Today however, we found water across the road at every creek, which made for a very pretty and enjoyable drive.
Jack’s Waterhole has been upgraded and they really improved facilities. David and I used to avoid station stays and established camping areas but that was when there were less people out here travelling. Things seem to be very different, with every man and his dog all wanting to camp by the water. We’ve changed our approach somewhat and would now fully recommended staying at the established areas such as the stations for a better way to enjoy the region. At Jacks’s waterhole for example you can swim, hire a canoe and explore one of the most beautiful rivers in the area.
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Last trip we camped in the dry river bed of the Durack River – just look at it this year! |
At Dawn Creek, we found brolgas and some good camps on western bank, but they were taken. In fact, every possible campsite was taken and just finding a vacant tree by a river crossing for lunch was quite a task, with campers occupying every available spot.
118km past Jacks Waterhole we came to the junction of the Gibb River Road and the Kalumburu roads. There is now a well setup roadside stop here with an information board, picnic table, shade hut and large clearing.
We turned right and headed up the Kalumburu Road – signposted 262km to Kalumburu. We aim to visit both Mitchell Falls and Kalumburu but with so many tourists still on the road, we will leave Mitchell Falls for the trip back down in the hope that some of the visitor numbers will have thinned out by then.
Coming across the mighty Gibb River at 3km past the junction, we were again surprised to find hoards of people frolicking about in cossies, scores of kids and about 20 campers set up on all sides of the banks. It is about the best river camp we have seen in this area, with water flowing over the causeway and lovely shady camps in the sandbanks.
The Kalumburu Road from the junction to Drysdale River was in much the same condition as the Gibb River Road at the time – very corrugated and not recently graded, with decent water at all the crossings and one very long stretch of bulldust on approach to the Drysdale Station.
Without getting myself into trouble, I should mention that I am using one of Ron & Viv Moon’s guidebooks, “The Kimberley – an Adventurers Guide” but have found that it contains a few errors, although I have the latest edition, that we stock in our shop. Without realising it, we camped illegally at the Drysdale River. There was no sign to indicate we were doing anything wrong and I was simply following camping advice from the book. Mind you, it was the single most beautiful camp we have had in a long time.
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Day twenty five |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Monday 16/7/01 | Drysdale River | Kalumburu | 238.7km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 2.35hrs | 60.2km/hr | 3.57hrs | 6.33hrs |
Although we were camped at the Drysdale River, which is a few kilometres past Drysdale Station, we all wanted to backtrack to see if we could purchase alcohol and to meet up with Anne (after previously exchanging emails regarding road conditions for ExplorOz) and to just have a general look around. It was here that we learned that someone had winched back the roadblocks and removed the sign that Anne uses to keep campers off the Drysdale River. There is camping further along the eastern edge of the river at a rockpool on the station called “Miners Pool” or you can camp on the station with full facilities, green lawns, bar, good hot food etc, but as I told Anne, were weren’t to know as we were just following the guidebook. Mareki from Jacks Waterhole also was disappointed about errors in the Kimberley Adventures Guide book – but as I told them, it’s the same with all books – they’re usually out of date the day they hit the bookstores and that’s why ExplorOz works, because the internet can be updated daily.
As you can imagine, we have focussed on work a fair bit out here. Talking to people, distributing flyers and stickers as well as recording our track logs on GPS that we will have available for download within our new trek notes at the end of this trip. Keeping the computers and software running is a bit of an effort – we are concerned that the corrugations may affect the hard drives as we have to have the computers running to be able to interface the mapping software with the GPS unit. So far, all has been pretty smooth – however occasionally, OziExplorer has crashed and we haven’t noticed which means we lose the track log, but its simply a matter of downloading the data from the GPS unit back to the laptop. Both ourselves and Colin are recording in this manner so every few nights we network our laptops and run backups of one-anothers computers in case one machine does have a permanent failure.
Between us we have 4 computers – each vehicle runs a laptop specifically for track log recording, whilst a second computer is for work/correspondence and is only used when we have mobile phone service to pickup email.
When we eventually left Drysdale Station it was midday but we anticipated about a 3 – 4 hour drive to Kalumburu. Before we left however, we began collecting “fines” from ourselves as “swearing tax” to fund Leah’s schooling. They way we’re behaving this trip we think we’ll have the next 15yrs paid off before we get home! Unfortunately, it is likely that her first word uttered may turn out to be some form of blasphemy…
The track north from Drysdale Station to the Mitchell Falls turnoff was rather more straightforward than we had anticipated. After everything we’ve come through to get this far, this was just another bit of track but with a lot of wet creek crossings. The conditions varied considerably, and up this way conditions can change daily depending on how much traffic has passed through between grading and how early/late in the season you are travelling. For us – we encountered numerous creek crossings, some no more than wet the tyres, whilst others were about as deep as the top of the tyres. There was a lot of traffic on the road and in fact the major concern was the passing traffic. Again, we found most travellers were towing either camper trailers or small boats.
It took us 1hr 25mins to cover the 103km from Drysdale River to the Mitchell Plateau turnoff. There is a large clearing and plenty of trees for either a lunch stop or if your desperate enough to camp besides the road, you could easily camp here. It is well signed here with distances to all the areas of interest on either the Mitchell Plateau Road or further north to Kalumburu. At this point it is still another 103km to Kalumburu.
We continued north at Carson Creek, about 20km south of Kalumburu found possible camps besides a beautiful flowing river with a decent enough crossing to get a good washdown!
We arrived into Kalumburu a little before 4pm, just in time to arrange our permits. The community office closes at 4pm but you can also get your permits from either McGowan Island or Honeymoon Bay camp grounds. There is no real stress about this permit – in fact we found the community office to be well organised. You will be asked to fill in an official form with your home address and details and for $25 you will get a sticker to put on the windscreen of your vehicle for the duration of your stay. You will also get a 4 page info sheet with useful info and a mud map.
This info should be more readily available to people before arriving so our trek notes for this region will include detailed visiting and planning info.
About the only thing the map doesn’t tell you is how far, or how long it takes to reach the camps… be prepared, the tracks are a bit narrow, sandy and slow and it will take about 35minutes to reach Honeymoon Bay (the furthest camp) – the signage also isn’t that great!
We have heard from all sorts of sources that Honeymoon Baby was the place to visit so made the effort to get there, even though it was the furthest from Kalumburu and it was nearing sunset. Actually, we were quite disappointed on arrival. Local kids were crawling about the place, which looked like a dump and it looked nothing like we’d expected – no beautiful coastline, just dusty camps at the top of a hill with a distant view of a rather ordinary bay. But, it was late, we were tired and we agreed to reserve judgement til the next day.
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Day twenty six |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Tuesday 17/7/01 | Honeymoon Bay | Honeymoon Bay | - |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| - | - | - | - |
When we arrived last night we asked about fishing tours and was told that there were 2 places left on Wednesday’s boat. The boat takes 5, with the other 3 having booked in about 10minutes before us. I wasn’t planning on taking Leah on the boat of course and was happy to spend a few hours on shore and I think we all assumed Sandy would do the same meaning the 2 fishermen would be Colin and David… an ensuing debate between Colin and Sandy resulted in Sandy being the one who was going however!
Anyway, we had today to get a feel for the area and look around. The facilities at the campground were rather light on, which doesn’t normally bother us but for $10 per person you may expect more.
From our camps at the top of the hill a short dirt track leads down to “the shed”.
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The shed is a favourite with regulars and suits those who have a boat and a big group. There is a makeshift bush shower, a roof and 4 walls, but open on all sides. It provides good shelter on hot days and would help keep fridges cool. It’s obviously long been a landmark of a Honeymoon Bay and holds an interesting anthology of past visitors who have signed their name or created a bit of “shed art” – similar to the shed at Captain Billy’s Landing on Cape York. |
A little further on is the beach proper where we found about 5 more camps. These are also pretty rough with little shade but at least you are right on the beachfront. About the only complaint is that it has been a little “camped out” and the black ash from previous camp fires has ruined the white sand, turning it black right where you’d like to walk around camp.
We realised that Honeymoon Bay is probably the true “fishos” camp and best suited to travellers who have their own boat and know exactly what to expect – as many others obviously did. We saw people arrive in groups of 2-3 cars, sharing a boat, all carrying fuel, supplies etc. We even saw one group arrange for a hired fridge to be carted up from Kalumburu!
The amenities (one dirty communal block of 2 cold showers and 2 toilets – flushing but without toilet paper) aren’t much but you do have access to power – bring a few 30m leads and you can even run your power all the way down the hill to the shed!
The place is run a big, very jovial Aboriginal bloke called Les. His entire family – and there’s loads of them, live there and you’ll get to meet them all without a few minutes of arriving. My blonde haired, blue-eyed white skinned baby was a real drawcard to Les’s grandchildren who were constantly wanting to hold, kiss and play with her. Sandy was very happy at the opportunity to get some lovely natural photos.
Unfortunately there is no kiosk or shop to buy bait for beach fishing but Les and his family are constantly fishing and are happy to share a bit of mackerel or queen fish for bait! The kids spent their days either playing UNO, basketball or spear fishing – and they always seemed to find the biggest fish of the day.
Dave and I went for a drive around mid-morning to see what the other camping area was like at McGowan Island. We found it to be probably a little more scenic for camping and sunsets, slightly cheaper for both fishing tours and camping and run by whites. Here, the camping area is all in one place, which is flat and opens right out onto the beach. There is little shade, with the best site being under a small grove of pandanus palms. From all the camps there was a clear view of the fishing action from the nearby rocks where queen fish, trevally and mackerel were being caught.
We decided to drive back and get Colin and Sandy to consider lifting camp to here instead but we found them filleting an enormous queen fish that Les had given them to share with the other 3 campers that were also waiting out the day before the fishing tour tomorrow. I think we all felt a bit sheepish and couldn’t very well leave when he’d just been so generous.
Anyway, with a mackerel as well we had a bit of bait and some dinner but not quite enough to feed 4 so we spent the remainder of the day beach fishing until David caught a big cod – in fact he caught 5 fish in 5 casts but only kept the best.
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Day twenty seven |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Wednesday 18/7/01 | Honeymoon Bay | Honeymoon Bay | - |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| - | - | - | - |
Les’s fishing tour for 5 adults was an absolute nightmare! 7 people turned up at the beach ready to get on board and all hell broke loose when it was realised that there’d been a double booking! In the end, both Colin and Sandy ended up going with David and another couple from Geraldton, while I stayed behind with Leah and got bitten by sandflies!
The fishing trip was apparently quite an event! After the debacle on the beach with the double-booking (and 3 people who didn’t get to go) their fishing day was full of action but very little catch at the end. All I’ve heard about is Tiger Sharks lunging after their bait and spinning through the air like a corkscrew about 4 foot off the water. They spent hours fishing for “something big” but lost all their rigs and David even broke his rod trying to get one shark to the surface. They came back with a cod, a GT, and a trevally between the 3 of them but full of stories.
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Day twenty eight |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Wednesday 18/7/01 | Honeymoon Bay | Mitchell Falls | 218.3km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 2.24hrs | 49.7km/hr | 4.23hrs | 6.48hrs |
The fishing wasn’t as productive as we had hoped and the area not really well suited for much else so we left Kalumburu knowing that if we ever returned it would be with a boat and well prepared specifically for the area.
Headed back into Kalumburu we took a few side tracks to check out the rest of the area.
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At a place affectionately known as “The Washing Machine”, because one is dumped at the track junction, a track leads to a rocky plateau. If you get out of your car and walk a few metres you see the beautiful King Edward River – salt water crocodiles are here but so too are the barramundi (not at Honeymoon Bay or McGowans Island). Shame we didn’t find it earlier as it was the ideal spot for the style of fishing we all prefer. |
Back into town we bought a few supplies from the supermarket (including Frosty Fruits) and then Colin bought fuel ($1.50 diesel!) before heading back to the Mitchell Plateau turnoff 103km south. The drive to/from Kalumburu isn’t that bad, but there are rough sections – probably the worst being around the hills near Theda Station.
We have always heard of good camping at the King Edward River crossing, just 8km along the Mitchell Plateau Road and there is also hoards of camping at an established camping area a little further along past the crossing. We managed to time it nicely for lunch before the crossing but just past the signpost “King Edward River”.
The track into Mitchell Falls is very well signposted and we found it incredibly busy (even though school holidays are now over in all states). Yet again, here we are in the Northern Kimberley and you’d think you were in Sydney! No one minds other travellers but it sure would help if everyone understood how to pass one another when the track is just single lane width.
Road conditions are pretty much as you hear – corrugated and full of potholes and wash-aways. But what no one else tells you is that the scenery is fabulous! Quite different to the drive along the Gibb River Road or even on the Kalumburu Road, the Mitchell Plateau road is amass with Livingstonia Palms creating a feeling of entering a rainforest. The temptation of knowing that one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world lies in wait ahead makes the corrugated and washed out road pale into insignificance.
We were rather pleasantly surprised to find the Mitchell Falls campground to be large and well spaced out with plenty of decent camps with large shady trees and a few long-drop “Eco Toilets”. The campground backs onto the main walk to the falls and also the helipad, but they don’t start up until 8am in the morning and the last flight is well before sunset so it is rather civilised. We pulled into camp around 4pm and was able to book right onto a heli-flight for the following morning.
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Day twenty nine |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Friday 20/7/01 | Mitchell Falls | Mitchell Falls | - |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| - | - | - | - |
It was David’s turn to baby-sit Leah so Colin, Sandy and I shared our first helicopter experience on a 48 minute Coastal tour taking in the Mitchell Plateau out to the coast at Port Wanderer, right up the Mitchell River, along the Surveyor River to Surveyors Pool and finally right up through the falls of Little Mitchell and the main Mitchell Falls where we landed at the top of the falls and met up with David who had walked the 3.5km from camp to the falls arriving at about the same time. It was the best $230 I have ever spent and one of the most memorable experiences of my entire life so far (mind you I am not that great with heights, so the exhilaration of coping with this whilst hanging my cameras out of a “no door” helicopter was thrilling).
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Aerial views over the Mitchell River |
After the flight, we all met up and spent some time climbing to a good vantage point for more photos before taking the return walk to camp. We had to wade across the top of the main falls where the water was running quite strong and up to our thighs in one spot. The track is very poorly marked and quite rocky - not recommended at night. There are plenty of swimming opportunities – both at the top of the Mitchell Falls (brilliant!) and then at Mertens Falls 500m along, then 2.5km to Little Mertens.
Once back at camp, we made a few trips back to the nearest creek for cooling off in the late afternoon and again the next morning. (No facilities at the Mitchell Falls campground other than long-drop toilets).
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Day thirty |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Saturday 21/7/01 | Mitchell Falls | Gibb River Crossing | 245.5km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 1.19hrs | 57.8km/hr | 4.14hrs | 5.35hrs |
Although we originally considered driving to Surveyors Pool and Crystal Creek, once you have been in the area you soon realise that its probably not really worthy of just a quick visit. We spoke to 2 couples we met in Kalumburu who had just made the trip along that track. Their comments were as follows:
15km back along the Mitchell Falls access track is a clear sign indicating the turnoff to Surveyors Pool but sorry everyone, we didn’t drive out there to give you a first-hand report!
After a short stop at a clearing/lookout about halfway along the Mitchell Plateau Rd Colin checked his front shocks and confirmed that the suspected noises and sudden oily smell he had experienced this morning was 2 busted shocks – nor was he carrying spares.
He managed to “float” into Drysdale Station by mid afternoon by driving no more than 50 – 60km/hr. Other than feeling “sea-sick” they managed to hold it all together. Every bump was dramatic although they said the flat sections were almost worse, as the car would get up a harmonic vibration.
Unfortunately, Drysdale Station were unable to provide long-travel shocks to suit his Patrol, but they did have some Toyota ones…
Some options were considered:
In the end, he chose option 1 and took the chance of driving with no shocks, so with that decision made we moved on after a leisurely stop at Drysdale and setup a late afternoon camp on the sandy banks of the Gibb River just 3km before the junction of Kalumburu and Gibb River Roads – this is a highly recommended stop and one that I would like to plan to spend more than just one night. It is probably one the most popular spots we’ve come across but there are many excellent camps – all with shade, river access and an abundance of clean sand to pitch your tent upon. Firewood is the only thing lacking and we needed to drive out to get enough for our campfire as did most people.
The drive today back along the Kalumburu Road from the Mitchell Plateau turnoff was significantly better than last week as the grader had just come along. Lucky for Colin and Sandy, because the graded track was about as perfect as you could get for a car with no shocks! We just hoped we could follow the grader all the way to Windjana Gorge!
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Day thirty one |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Sunday 22/7/01 | Gibb River | Manning Gorge | 127.8km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Overall Average | Total time |
| 1.35hrs | 54.8km/hr | 32.5km/hr | 3.56hrs |
It was hard to tear ourselves away from such a beautiful river camp but the Jacka’s are already way behind schedule and unlike us, everyday of travel in the Kimberly is another day further from home. As Colin had hoped, the graded had indeed been ahead of us so the 82.2km to the turnoff to Barnett River Gorge wasn’t too hard (although he did remain under 70km/hr and we made it to the Gorge about ½ hour before him). It has been fascinating to see this part of the Kimberley in another season – this time with much more water around. The turnoff to Barnett River Gorge is marked 3km, however there are quite a few tracks, mostly winding, and no more signs to indicate which to take. If you are using digital mapping software, you will see the Barnett River runs pretty much parallel to the GRR. The gorge itself is to the right. You pass a number of bays where either lunch stops or overnight camps are possible but you can’t miss the gorge itself if you continue sticking to the right. The track continues through a short, sharp and rocky dip (no water) and then solid rock plateau where you can choose to either drive the final 200m over the rocks (turn hard left after the dip) to a big boab and the start of the gorge walk or stop at the start of the rocks and walk from there.
We drove and parked in the shade of the boab, but the Jacka’s had to park their “bucking bronco” on the rocks as it was too rough for a car with no front shocks.
The walk from the boab is marked with stone cairns but there are a couple of options for heading down the cliff to the water below. Keep an eye out on the left for the first set of markers as this will bring you to the better swimming section of the gorge with sandy beaches and clear deep pools. I continued following the cairns further up the gorge and once down the cliff I was able to walk along the sandy shore back to where the rest of our party were already swimming (no - I wasn’t lost… just exploring!).
The walk and swim took some time so we skipped lunch and headed straight to Manning Gorge – terrified that there might still be hundreds of people there! Rumour has it that 2 weeks ago there were 350 people camped here!
It was a late arrival and there certainly were a lot of campers but not quite as bad as we had feared – just 78 campers! Again, how different we found it travelling earlier in the dry. We were last here in the month of October and been the only campers which meant we could take poll position under the 2 enormous boab trees nearest to the swimming hole. We think next time we will try coming as early in the dry as possible and just contend (enjoy?) the wet conditions as the trade off for a bit of solitude.
Watching the tour groups here we have commented to one another that it must be very disappointing to be an international tourist coming to the “remote Kimberly” and paying thousands of dollars for the experience of a lifetime to be shared with hundreds of other tourists. Sounding cynical? Yes and I’m probably to blame with 20,000 people reading our website each month. I think from now on we may need to keep a few places “secret”.
Camping permits here are $5.50 per person/per night. We would love to stay a few days – and there’d be plenty to do but it’s not the same with so many other people around. Other than a sunset swim in the main pool we didn’t do any other exploring, keeping the main walk for tomorrow.
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Day thirty two |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Monday 23/7/01 | Manning Gorge | Saddler Springs (bush camp) | 84.8km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 1.52hrs | 66.3km/hr | 1.16hrs | 3.09hrs |
Last night was rather cold and it was disappointing to have to get out the polar-fleeces again. Kalumburu was certainly much warmer than this! The day’s have been very warm, but as soon as that sun goes down…
Although we didn’t cover a lot of kilometres today it was a big day. We decided to set off for our walk to the Upper Manning Gorge and Falls quite early, leaving our camps to dismantle on our return – which wasn’t until after lunch.
We met 2 young couples travelling from Perth – Belinda and Jervis from Trigg and Yvette and Ian from Hillarys - it seems impossible to get away from the neighbours! We also recognised a couple we’d chatted to at Drysdale Station and spoke with a Melbourne couple travelling with their 14mth old boy. They were quite interested in our baby back-carrier, as they had carried him on their hip all the way to the gorge – at least an hour walk!
Leah turned 9mths old today and I can hardly believe she is growing up so fast.
After departing camp and picking up a few more supplies from the Barnett River Roadhouse, we headed off again towards Galvans Gorge.
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It was totally different to how we remembered it – a real oasis. We swam, found the aboriginal rock paintings and tried to find the water monitor that someone had just seen. |
Unfortunately, Adcock Gorge was closed. The whole way along the Kimberley we’ve seen mustering and cattle trucks transporting stock but it was still surprising to find the access track to Adcock blocked by drums saying “No Access – Holding Yards”.
So that makes 2 trips along the Gibb River Road and neither trip have we been able to visit Adcock Gorge.
We recognised a convoy of Toyota Landcruisers heading the other way and selected what we know to be the Sydney TLCC club channel and asked if they were who we thought they were – and sure enough it was. Every time we travel, we always bump into Steve Curtis and Co. from the TLCC. One time we found them in Litchfield Park in NT, another time at Kinchega NP near Broken Hill, this time on the GRR. They had a convoy of 7 vehicles (couldn’t think of anything worse!) but had just turned onto the GRR after having tracked through some great country between Mt Elizabeth and Beverly Springs Stations and up at Bachsten Creek etc. Someone in their convoy had car trouble - the only petrol car in the group had lost oil pressure. So after a chat the Jacka’s finally bounced along (still without shocks) and we continued west.
We were planning to camp at Silent Grove or Bells Creek with a walk to Bells Gorge tomorrow but we all prefer camping privately so when an appealing spot at the right time of day presented itself we stopped – on the RHS just before the crossing of Saddler Springs Creek. We didn’t realise until it was dark that we were just 1km from the Imintji Store (Saddler Springs Roadhouse), which accounted for the large number of dogs barking.
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Day thirty three |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Tuesday 24/7/01 | Saddler Springs | Bells Gorge | 198.km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 2.14hrs | 53.5km/hr | 3.43hrs | 5.58hrs |
With a very early start this morning we timed it nicely to Bells Gorge. Our camp was only 9km from the Bell Gorge turnoff, with another 19km into Silent Grove or 29km to the Bell Gorge car park.
We passed many cars leaving, so had we wanted to, we were in the ideal position to pick up a tag for one of the beautiful Bell’s Creek campsites. I will update our GRR trek with more details of these camps, but the idea is first-in gets the camps. We found that at 9am there were 5 camps available but by 11.30 when we left they had all been taken again. If you miss one of these camps, there is still ample camping at Silent Grove – both areas cost the same but you are more secluded if you get the creek spots.
We drove past all the camps and parked under the shady trees in the car park at the start of the gorge walk. There were probably 30 cars here by the time we set off.
There are no distances marked for the walk and the trail is not clearly marked however it takes about half and hour to reach the bottom – which is actually the top of the waterfall. Some people end their walk here – you can get a good view of the falls and can wet your feet in the rock pools above the falls however the more adventurous will want to get right down into the main pool below the falls.
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You can either walk directly across the rock pools at the head of the falls (it is slippery and up to knees in some spots) or traverse right around the back of the top pool, although you will still need to get your shoes off to make it across the 2 wet crossings. |
We scrambled across the head of the falls, baby and all, which is far quicker and then followed the stony cairns up and over the rocky ridge for a few hundred metres until the track starts to point to the left where you can scramble down to the water level.
The water was too cold for Leah but David, Colin and I had a lovely swim. Only a few other people were down at the water but none of us were as brave as they 2 young guys who jumped from the top of the falls into the pool where we swam. It didn’t surprise us either when we recognised them from the 2WD VW Kombi van we’d passed on our way in. The pommie and the Israel were still working out who was madder than the other!
We could’ve stayed all day, but it was just another gorge and there were plenty more of them to come. David and I had decided we’d make the diversion out to Lennard Gorge on our way to Windjana Gorge today, whilst the Jacka’s would mowsie on at their own pace and meet us at camp.
Somehow, we had missed visiting Lennard Gorge on our last visit to the Kimberly so although we were rather tired already we persisted on. We had heard that the track into Lennard Gorge was rough but the gorge was worth it. Colin didn’t think it was worth pushing his car though and Sandy said she wasn’t walking to any more gorges anyway.
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The turnoff to Lennard Gorge is signposted on the LHS of the road after the bitumen hill climbs through the Lennard Range. Almost immediately after turning left off the GRR take the next right-hand turn (straight ahead is Mt House Station) and here you start the 8km track down to the gorge. |
The first part of the track was in a mess but on our way back out a road-building crew were setting up. There had been some recent rains and lots of traffic that had chopped up the track, but generally you could see that this was just another dirt track. However the final 1-2km requires a high clearance 4WD and we even used low range to negotiate the rock steps. The car park at the end is just a very small turning circle with little shade so if possible it would probably be best to drop a trailer off at the top, although we found a few in there.
The walk down to the gorge is quite overgrown, steep, rocky and unmarked. Getting down to the water is quite an effort but it is certainly a specie gorge – a mighty river that has forged and polished a narrow gorge through ancient stone.
We scrambled and explored and thoroughly tired ourselves out so it was a relief to make it back to the comfort of our car, however on the way out we hit a boulder with the front passenger side wheel and dented the rim (GXL rim is steel not alloy so it survived). Amazingly, so did the tyre! We have decided we rather like these Coopers Tyres now that we’ve got the tyre pressures right. As Terry from Coopers advises, these tyres are designed to be run 4-8psi lower on dirt than you use on bitumen. Since doing just that we’ve not lost a single tyre, over the Tanami, Kalumburu, Mitchell Falls and Gibb River Roads, whereas those in our convoy have lost 3 tyres on the same roads. But we’ve a long way to go just yet!
We pulled into Windjana Gorge close to sunset and again found masses of campers. There are now 3 camp grounds - quiet camping, generator camping and tour camping. We had a good chat to the rangers about ExplorOz this afternoon and also spoke with some tourism researchers from UWA, who believe we doing the governments work in providing a national reference on 4WD travel and would probably qualify for a government grant to continue operating.
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Day thirty four |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Wednesday 25/7/01 | Windjana Gorge | Fitzroy Crossing | 153.5km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 1.58hrs | 68.7km/hr | 2.14hrs | 4.12hrs |
We packed up camp this morning before our walk along Windjana Gorge, although walking in the late afternoon is best for photos of the gorge walls. We walked the full length of the track, which winds its way along the gorge sometimes besides the river, sometimes under the shade of the vegetation. We saw bats, birds of all varieties and fresh water crocodiles.
After our walk we continued heading south along the road to Tunnel Creek, which was full of people but still a delight and then onto Fitzroy Crossing so we could take a boat tour along Geike Gorge tomorrow. We’re pushing quite an itinerary now, because Colin should have already turned back east by now and we still haven’t made it to Broome, and we don’t mind as we’ve been to all these places before.
The Fitzroy tourist information centre is not recommending visitors go to any of the usual accommodation places in town other than the Fitzroy Lodge – something to do with operating without a licence! The Fitzroy Lodge was pretty good after so long in bush camps. We had our first hot showers in 13 days and even treated ourselves to a counter meal topped off with a few gins and whiskeys from the bar. Sandy didn’t think we’d be allowed to take Leah into the bar but this is Fitzroy – everyone goes to the bar!
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Day thirty five |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Thursday 26/7/01 | Fitzroy Crossing | Broome | 454.3km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Total time |
| 3.5hrs | 85.3km/hr | 5.19hrs | 9.1hrs |
We left our camp at the caravan park (Fitzroy Lodge) while we headed out to Geike Gorge. Rather than drive back into town and along the routed way to the gorge we turned left on the Great Northern Hwy out of the lodge and then turned next left onto the dirt road than skirts the caravan park, past farming property and over the “Old Crossing” of the Fitzroy. This was the highlight – a fantastic crossing as this photo shows.
The Geike Gorge boat tour is $20 per head and runs a few times per day. It’s about a 20minute drive the way we came and it is suggest you turn up 20minutes before the cruise to purchase tickets. Run by CALM, the rangers conduct the tour with a good commentary and other info about the area is available. Afternoon light is probably better for photography, however we saw plenty of wildlife in the quiet of the early morning.
Back at camp Colin needed to make some slight repairs – replace a fuse in his rear taillights & to remove the source of a rattle in the driver’s side rear wheel, which was a broken brake-disc cover. After all the corrugations of the last few weeks he also found quite a few loose lock nuts etc.
After another quick shopping visit we headed out of Fitzroy, bound for Broome for our first tar driving day since leaving Yulara 4 weeks ago.
There are numerous excellent bush camps along the banks of the rivers heading out of Fitzroy – Minnie Bridge, Fitzroy River etc although the best spot is probably the Willare Picnic Area on RHS after crossing the one-lane bridge over the Fitzroy River.
On the tar, Colin was pretty much able to stay in convoy with us, even with his busted shocks and amazingly he rolled into Broome having made the entire journey across the Gibb River Road without causing anymore damage to his vehicle – we were all quite relieved.
We didn’t time our arrival into Broome quite so well however, as it was the day before the Broome Cup and we found all the caravan parks were full. The only option for camping in Broome was overflow in full sun at the Police and Citizens club.
Someone suggested “resort” and after a few phone calls we got a beautiful bungalow at Cable Beach Club Resort with kitchen, bathroom, and all the luxuries for just $165 per night for all of us.
It was quite a shock for the system to have running hot water, real beds, a kitchen sink and even a microwave. And we were thrilled to have the porter bring his electric trolley to our vehicles where we loaded out all our food boxes, cameras, computers, bags and fridge contents.
Once in the bungalow we asked for a highchair and the porter brought back not only that but also a baby bath and a stroller – all complimentary.