Walcott Inlet

Hi Beatit,
If there's one person who would know about the place, it's Peter Lacy from Mt Elizabeth station, who pushed a road (track, really) through that way.
Lots of interesting remnants there - the airstrip, the old leprosarium, Munja, and remains of an old barge made of drums, which was probably used as a lighter to shift stuff on/off boats which would have come into the inlet, a dicey exercise in itself. It was probably an access point to Pantajin station to the north as well.
Sounds like I'd better chase up these books.
With regard to camping there, analysing the maps before we went in made us decide not to camp at the actual inlet, but to camp on Brockman River, about 20km back up the Calder as a base. This gave us much-needed shade, and some limited fresh water. Also it looked to be well above (height) the croc-infested Calder, meaning we only had to worry about freshies. There is no fresh water at the actual inlet and only a few boabs for very limited shade.
Fantastic drive in, tho and would love to do it again.
Cheers,
Gerry

Beatit , have fun , wellworth the effort.
The only thing I suggest, take a good comunication set with you and think of what spares you may need. You never know.

Tony

Beatit
You have my interest here, but do you have an author for “River of Home” please. Unless I am doing something wrong, Google is unable to help me this time.
Many thanks

Beatit, I think I suggested "Last Horse Standing".
If you go in, try and connect up with Rick Jane. He knows so much about the area and the local art.
Rick and his wife Ann (Peter Lacey's brother) run Bush Track Safaries (which is on the market), but they want to continue to operate Bachsten Camp which is a great area too, about 70k back from Walcott.
We spent a couple of weeks in the area in 2005 and it is is one place we would like to go back to.
There are some pics in the link below in 2005.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Theo,

I would encourage you to take the time to do this trip if you can. We travelled up to Walcott Inlet in 2007. At that stage you could certainly do this an DIY independent trip, you simply had to pay the fee at Mt Elizabeth Station and register with them your expected travel times and they gave you a map and instructions. They informed Bachsten camp of your likely arrival day and thus people kept tabs on where you should be on which days which we found comforting as it is very remote - this might help your wife feel more comfortable with the trip to know that the station and the camp are in touch via radio and know where people should be, so whilst it is a remote trip at least someone knows where you are approximately. I certainly wouldn't do this as a single vehicle though.

We have travelled to many places around Australia and there is no where where we have found the true sense of remoteness we found on the track to Walcott. It was an amazing trip. Our favourite experience was camping somewhere on the side of the track, truely in the middle of nowhere and the most remote, amazing camp site with the Kimberley stars above.

In terms of helping convince your wife that its a good idea to go, I suggest you utilise the facilities of Bachsten camp on the way in and out of Walcott, they have hot showers, loos, camp sites with sinks (!!) and a nice walk to the Bachsten falls for a swim. We travelled with my parents and stopping at Bachsten camp on the way in and out helped my mother enjoy the remote experience without feeling uncomfortable.

Camping at Walcott Inlet itself is not particulary easy due to the need to keep covered in mozzi repellant but the fishing is incredible (although you get very muddy!) and the sunsets beautiful. Although I would suggest this trip is about the trip not the destination as such...

I couldn't recommend this area of Australian more highly.

Regards,
Mrs Draff