Back down the road to
Drysdale River Station and a
Kimberley Special Burger as celebration for having made it to the
Mitchell Falls and
Kalumburu. We continued back to the GRR and to
Ellenbrae Station for the night. They only charge $12 and at the
camp there is a large stone building, tin roof but only half walls with a huge donkey hot
water boiler so you have hot showers. While we were there we met a
young family who had blown a tyre on their camper trailer on a bend. The trailer rolled and pulled their vehicle over too. The trailer was completely wrecked but luckily no one was hurt. They'd been there a week waiting for their new camper to get sent to
Kununurra and were preparing to head off again. This is just an example of how a split second can bring disaster and how alert we have to be on these roads. From the
Kalumburu road to just after
Ellenbrae the road was good but began to deteriorate the further east we went. Lunch was at
Emma Gorge after which we walked and had a swim.
Emma Gorge is a beautiful place with the towering
cliff walls, the ferns growing in the crevices of the rocks and the showers of
water cascading from above.
Our aim was to head out on the
King River road and
camp then go on around to
Wyndham but we had been told it wasn't suitable for camper trailers. By now the corrugations were taking their toll on us and we decided to get to the highway and go to
Wyndham the easy way. This is what we did and we arrived just in time to set up
camp and go to the Bastion Look Out for sunset. Next day we headed for
Kununurra where we stayed at the Ivanhoe Caravan
Park with another ensuite site. This is the newest
park in
Kununurra and a Big 4. Although nothing could fault the amenities, the grassy sites and the helpfulness of the staff, I felt that they packed people in a little too closely. We enjoyed our stay and really liked
Kununurra. During our three days there we went on an
Ord River Cruise with Triple J which was great. It was very interesting to learn the logistics of the
Lake Argyle, Lake
Kununurra and the irrigation scheme. One day was spent going over
Ivanhoe Crossing and out to Parry's
Lagoon then back to the highway on the
Old Halls Creek Road. Along the this road you can still see the stones laid out by the people who made the road so long ago. We kept imagining the footsteps of the men heading for the gold rush in
Halls Creek with their hopes and dreams.
From
Kununurra we went to the Bungle Bungles. We had lunch at the first
water crossing going into the
park and while sitting there enjoying our sandwiches we saw the worst case of ignorant driving I've seen. We could hear a car coming towards the crossing from the opposite side....very fast. To get into the crossing the road makes a turn, runs parallel to the
creek, another turn down a steepish incline through large holes with rocks in them and then crosses and exits out a steep climb on the other side. This car came at breakneck speed around the first two corners, headlong down the slope, lurched, bounced and rocked through the holes then launched itself into the
water making ripples spread far and wide, then burst out the other side and disappeared. If there had been a vehicle coming in the opposite direction at any stage of this episode there was no way a collision could have been avoided. It was unbelievable.
We camped at
Kurrajong campground and spent most of the next day walking around in to
Cathedral Gorge, the Domes Walk, the look out and
Echidna Gorge. It was hot but the beauty of the gorges and the domes made up for that. At about three o'clock we packed up and headed for
Spring Creek campground just off the highway.
Next day began overcast and a bit cold as we passed through
Halls Creek and out on to the Tanami. We'd been down the Tanami a few years before and felt that it was rougher this time than then. Having said that, there were some good stretches in between the rough ones. There was such a difference between the Tanami and the Gibson crossing we did. There wasn't the same trees, bushes and flowers. It felt a lonelier place. Still fascinating though. We camped just past
the Granites Mine, off to the opposite side of the road near some rocky outcrops. It was here the next morning that we found that the tyre holder on the trailer had cracked the weld. Next morning Ray did the welding job and we were on our way after talking to one of the workers from the
mine. He told us that he always checks our campspot for traces of
dingo's. They are apparently having a lot of trouble with them around the area.
We got going and found that the air conditioning wasn't working and when we stopped we discovered that a pipe had ruptured letting all the gas go. So, with natural air condition, we headed for
Alice Springs. We found out the next day that the part to fix it couldn't be there before Monday. As this was Saturday morning and we had to be home by Friday with Kings Canyon and Uluru still to visit we decided to go au naturale.
While in Alice we spent a day travelling out into the East McDonnell's to Corroborree Rock,
Trephina Gorge,
Ross River and N'dhala Gorge then following the 4x4 route back through
Todd River Station. An enjoyable day, especially the part winding our way to N'dhala and back through the station country.
Finally the last part is next -
Alice Springs to home