Kimberley Trip Planning and Communications

Andrew,

A UHF is all you need but a Sat Phone would be handy if the budget will go that far.
Cape Leveque would be great to put the tinny in however in all the places that are good to go fishing you can always hire a tinnie. Just have to crunch some numbers, extra fuel, trailer breakdown wear and tear.

The road to Mitchell Falls would have to be the worst road, no it can't be called a road. The corruations to the Falls are horrendous.
You have been to Cape York, well that is nothing, from the King Edward River turn off it is about 70klm to the falls. It took us over 2hrs to go one way. Another convey took over 4hrs just to get there. The road is very winding and you just can not get the speed up to skip over the corruations.

Kalumburu is about 120klm from King Edward River turn off.
We got there at 11am paid the $35 per vehicle to enter the town. At 11-30 am the whole town shut, and I mean the whole town. The shop, the servo, everthing.The town reopens at 2-30 pm when we have to leave.
The bakery no longer runs and the Church is closed.
We went to have a look at the beaches,AKA tip, and they wanted to charge us to $5 to have a look at the beach and $25 to fish.
Make up your own mind on this one.

Cape Leveque is the place to stay, Just like Broome with out all the buildings and people. Caravans are not permited and the road is in the middle of being tared.

There are plenty of gorges to visit up there and all are worth the trip off the main road.
You will not be alone up there as this is the main time that people travel in that area, might even see you up there.

Wayne

People like you who get bogged at their campsite need all the help they can get...hahahahahaha. Remember the Flinders in October? Never know when you need comms

Hi
Looking roward to responses. We are in the same boat as you. Will be travelling to Wa from south to north leaving Brisbane in April and Returning in JUly. Travelling with a boat on top of a Trackabout Camper Trailer behind a Nissan GU Patrol. Hope to see you on the road.
Our thoughts are do we really need in car aerial for the CDMA phone, do we need a GPS, a new UHF receiver as we have the old Cb. Although we have been told it is great to have an in car one and a hands free one so that when we hook up the trailer u use the hand held one to tell the driver where to go to hook up to the off road hitch which can be a pain in the a... to hook up. What type of folding boat trailer to take so that we can launch the boat easier in croc rivers. Really hated launching the boat from the top of the car and fitting the motor ect at the rivers edge back then.
We travelled in the northern parts of Austustria from 1990 to 1994 without these items with no problems but alas that was 10- 15 years ago. Gee its great when the kids finish high school and leave home so that u can travel again.
Our trip less than 8 weeks with heaps of plannign still to be done
Jenkie

Communications, well thats really up to what you feel comfortable with. As a bare minimum I would have at least a good UHF set.
First Aid Kit I would suggest that you have something a bit better than basic and the knowledge to use it. Just remember that from where you intend to travel there will be times that you will be a long way from immediate medical assistance and without sounding pesamistic there is lots of things that can happen, specially when tempting my old mate Murphy.
Wet season. Well we haven't had a wet yet this year (Kununurra area) just enough moisture to green things up but not restrictive to bush activities as yet. That might or might not change before the tourist season. There's always somewhere to put a tinnie in and have a fish but the dry is not the most opportune time to guarantee any fish action.(Thats why we like the build up, wet season. Plenty of fish and few tourists as opposed to plenty of tourists and few fish).
Have a good trip and I'm sure you will love the adventure and landscape.

Regards WAL

G'day Doc Holliday, If your passage to the NorthWest is via the Tanami Rd then down to Broome and onwards and upwards along the Gibb River Rd, up to Mitchell Plateau then back to Kunnannurra etc or vica versa, I don't think you will need a Sat phone or UHF. (You could always hire same anyway) There should be sufficient traffic to render assistance if required and if Jen dons the bikini and flags down a passing local whileyou and the kids are hiding in the bush, you will get the car fixed really well.
Have a great trip you lucky bugger.

Andrew,

Just thought of a couple of more things.

Which way do you plan to go?

From the south via Broome, from the east Katherine or from Alice Springs?

How much do you want too see,
The Bungles,
Kununurra,
Lake Argyle,
Zebra Rock Gallery,
El Questro,
Gibb River Road,
Drysdale River Station,
King Edward River and the Aboriginal burial sites,
Mitchell Falls,
Kalumburu,
Manning Gorge,
Bell Gorge,
Windjana Gorge,
Derby,
Broom,
Cable Beach,
Cape Leveque,
Beagle Bay,
Fitzroy Crossing,
Geike Gorge,
Old Halls Creek.

Wayne

Hi guys , How long are you going for ? If your going to be back before 20th of June , your welcome to borrow my sat phone. It just sits in the cubord and collects dust when I am not on trips . Let me know if you want it and ill drop it off for you .

Burke and Wills didn't have pooncey satphones, UHF, HF, GPS, epirb or a car for that matter - they seemed to manage OK.

We will also be up there along with half of the forum by the sounds of it.

We will be in Kununurra around end of April to commence the WA part of our trip.
Maybe we'll run into some of you people up there.
We will be doing most of the areas on the previous replies.

Geoff.

Two tin cans and a piece of string works OK for me.
You'll be right Mate!

G'day,

I'm surprised that no one mentioned an EPIRB.

I am reminded of those poor folk (or croc - he ended up dead) at Cape Melville, what saved them was an EPIRB and off course the GLOCK didn't go astray. Can't beat one of these in a real medical emergency though.

Plan on taking mine when I go in July, much like you will take the tinnie and be running all over the place figured a hand held GPS might also help get me back to camp and a hand held UHF to call camp.

Kind regards

goodday people
my recomendation is to take some form of long distance communication after hiring a hf set before we went i bought a 2nd hand 1 (2xs hire rate more than 2nd hand unit) it can also double as a form of evening entertainment but there are some very lonely places out there and just a reassuring voice sometimes is a help and if you have a problem hf can sometimes get you a hand not to far away

steve

Andrew,

The Zebra Rock Gallery is located just outside Kununurra, there are plenty of signs.

The rock is mined in Lake Argyle and is thousands of years old. It get it's name from the different colour strips that are on the clay base rock. The colour strips range from a light tan to a almost black stripe on a white base. This is the only place in the world that it is found.

Because it is a clay it can be machined and polished and made into a lot of different shapes.

Well worth the stop, we spend at least a hour there.

Wayne