Hi All,
Well after 8 wonderful weeks tripping around the
Pilbara & Kimberely, we are now back
home safe and
well. Our route took us from
Perth to
Newman via the Great Northern Hwy, then to the lovely Kalgan
Pool just north of
Newman on a horrible access track that saw the roof console come adrift - our fault - seems we hadn't refastened it properly after having it out to fit the
HF radio just prior to leaving. From there we headed north via
Nullagine,
Marble Bar, Dooleena
Gorge,
Shay Gap and the Borderline Rd to pick up the NW Coastal Hwy just south of 80 Mile Beach. All these unsealed roads we found in very good condition although the section north of
Shay Gap was a bit variable with some soft, narrow sections. The scenery was lovely.
We spent the next 5 days in
Broome which was unseasonably hot. One day was 39 degrees which in the sun with no shade as we had was more like 49 degrees. Luckily
Cable Beach provided plenty of relief in the late afternoon and sunset time. From
Broome we took the hwy down to
Fitzroy Crossing and did the Geike
Gorge cruise which was lovely. Moving on we spent the next day camped a Mary
Pool where freshwater crocs lazed on the riverbed only 60m away and down the Tanami to Wolfe Creek Crater. This top section of the Tanami was quite rough on account of the hills. The next couple of nights we spent at Sawpit
Gorge south of -
Halls Creek, a delightful spot. It was here that EO members - Bigkidz (Andrew, Jenelle and kids) joined us and since we all got on
well we spent most of the rest of the trip in their company. After checking out a few of the attractions around
Halls Creek we headed into the Bungle Bungles. The road in was rough and winding but okay driven with care. The Bungles did not disappoint. All of us including 4 yr olds Caitlyn and Matthew, hiked into Froghole walk, Echina Chasm &
Cathedral Gorge. Dr Andrew swung into action and impressed us all with his "bedside manner" (not!) at the latter place when an elderly woman fell and broke her ankle.
Anyway, on to
Kununurra for the next 5 nights. During our time there we all took a boat cruise down the 55km length of the
Ord River from just below the
dam wall at
Lake Argyle finishing up at
Lake Kununurra at sunset. In a word - awesome! We also took a day trip up to
Wyndham via the Parrys Ck Road exploring some of the rockholes and the lower Ordc along the way. Saw enough big salties to make us plenty nervous around the river.
We spent a couple of days camping and fishing at
Skull Rock on the Lower Ord, joined by another family (Geoff, Kerri and kids) whom we'd met at the CVP in
Kununurra. The fishing wasn't great but Jenelle surprised us all by wandering down the riverbank with a 77cm barra - turned out to be a gift from a local for our group to enjoy. We cooked it in the coals for lunch. Now would be a good time to mention Andrew's catch - a 2cm guppy LOL. It was also here on the Ord that Andrew impressed us again (not!) with his boating prowess. Lets just say that Jenelle refused to go in the tinny again for the whole trip and Andrew did a hammy. But the entire incident provided the rest of us with plenty of laughs over the weeks to come.
Now it was time to hit the
Gibb River Road with
El Questro the first stop. Zebedee thermal springs was glorious,
El Questro Gorge and
Chamberlain Gorge (which we chose to explore ourselves using one of the hire boats) both beautiful. Next night at
Home Valley Station where we saw what has to be one of the best
views in the Kimberely (the
Pentecost River with the
Cockburn Ranges in the background) and where we watched the barra herding mullet but couldn't catch one! From here we spent a couple of nights at Miner's
Pool (another lovely spot) on Drysdale Stn and indulged in an amazing Kimberely Burger- yum! Next stop was
Mitchell Falls which for me was the highlight of the trip. Once again the kids handled the hike in admirably, we spent several hours picnicking and cooling off in the shallow pools at the top of the falls before taking a half hour helicopter scenic flight back to
camp via the river mouth, lower
Mitchell Falls and Surveyors
Pool. A truly awesome experience!
Next stop was
Kalumburu where we begrudgingly paid for our $35 access permit and headed out to
Honeymoon Bay. Both here and
McGowans Island had been virtually wiped out by a cylcone 2 months prior so the amentities were rough and basic to say the least and trees uprooted and stripped bare so no shade at all but plenty of firewood! We all drove out to the old Pago Mission
ruins and whilst the other male members of the party decided on a fishing charter, we elected instead to do a scenic flight over the coast in a microlight hauled all the way from
Canberra by fellow travellers. Another awesome experience! We went on ahead of the group from here spending the next night at Bennett
Gorge which had great swimming and turned out to be one of our favourites. The others caught us up at
Manning Gorge where we undertook the long and difficult hike (with kids) to the
upper Manning Gorge but was
well worth the effort.
Again we left the others and went on ahead to
Mornington Wilderness Camp via Galvins
Gorge (delightful) and the recently reopened
Adcock Gorge. Mornington was nice but IMHO not worth the effort or cost. We caught up with the others again at Bells
Gorge and for our final GRR stop at
Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. Both of these attractions were fantastic and a fitting end to the GRR. As the others headed for
Fitzroy Crossing it was also our last
camp together.
The next day saw us back in
Broome via
Derby just in time to cop 50mm of rain overnight. It continued to rain for several days so that by the time we left they'd had 100mm of rain and we enjoyed only one relatively clear day. On our last night the entire party reunited for one last time for a
well deserved celebration at the Sand Bar & Grill at
Cable Beach.
Our route
home was via the hwy south to Cape Keraudren, then to
Marble Bar via the Pardoo-
Shay Gap Rd. We took a big loop out to the east via Rippon Hills Rd (bitumen), returning to
Nullagine on the Skull Springs Rd. Attractions along the route included the lovely Carrawine
Gorge,
Oakover River, the delightful Eel
Pool thermal springs, Skull Springs and the 20 Mile/Sandy Ck
mine ruins. We also noticed two sculptures place atop some low peaks at the eastern extremity of this route. Don't know their origins but suspect they haven't been there long. Anyway, they also provided a bit of interest.
We had planned to go out to
Rudall River via the Talawana Track next but after hearing member - Willems report about it being very dry and most
waterholes polluted with camel dung we made a last minute decision to put it off until a better season. So instead we headed west after checking out some more attractions in the
Newman area (but not Karajini), Wittenoom and
Hamersley Gorge (truly delightful). We headed for
Karratha via the HI railway line and drove up the Mt Sheila
lookout (very steep and not for the fainthearted) and
Millstream NP for a night. After a few days around
Karratha it was straight
home down the highway.
We had a great time and saw some great scenery. Because I know some of you will want to know - here's some more info. After traversing 11,500 km's we had no major mechanical issues with either car or trailer. Our aux. battery in the car failed within a few days of leaving
home and had to be replaced in
Broome. Also the 12V lead for the Engel fridge failed and had to be replaced in
Newman. As we travelled the GRR our main battery started failing and several times required assistance from our 12V jumpstarter pack to get the car started. This we also ended up replacing in
Broome (this is the OEM battery making it nearly 7 years old and having done 125,000km's so we can't complain!). We had no tyre issues at all except for a slow flat at Sawpit
Gorge which turned out to be a teck-screw which we believe we brought from
home with us as we had just had some roofing and guttering work carried out on the house. This was plugged and gave no further problems. BTW, we are running Cooper AT Discoverers all round - these had only 40-50% tread remaining when we embarked and we had ummed and aahed about fitting newies before leaving. On all unsealed roads and tracks we ran them at 28-30psi.
Road conditions varied greatly. The unsealed roads through the
Pilbara were generally very good and
well maintained. The Skull Springs Rd was narrow and winding making it fairly slow going but still okay. The eastern end of the GRR was rocky and rough and it is here that most tyre problems seem to occur. On the contrary the western end is much better with fewer rocks (still the occasional buundy) but heaps of bulldust. The
Kalumburu Rd as far as Drysdale station was excellent, then alternately good or badly corrugated in parts as far as King Edward River/
Mitchell Falls turn off. From there to
Kalumburu the road was generally bad, quite degraded and or corrugated in
places. The
Mitchell Falls road was okay except for the last 18km's which was very narrow, rocky in
places and was very slow going. In summary the roads were not too bad and if driven with care most people seemed to get by okay. The family we met in
Kununurra and who subsequently continued to travel with us had 3 tyre failures (17 inch Bridgestone AT's), one on the northern end of the Tanami, one on the last 18km section of the
Mitchell Falls road (plain bad luck after picking up a 6 inch metal stake when he pulled off the track to let oncoming car pass) and finally a sidewall gash on the western end of the GRR. He also blew out a shockie and mount on his trailer although we are convinced that speed was a factor here.
Bigkidz arrive
home in a week so know doubt we'll be hearing some more from Andrew before long.
:o) Melissa