MANNING RIVER
We had quite a big day's drive ahead as we hoped to make it to Home Valley (some 300 kms away) by the evening. Marg and Chris had tried to persuade us to join them on the 500 km round trip up to Mitchell Falls, but not having planned for it, we were a bit short on food and feeling the need to push on somewhat anyway.
We stopped at a rest stop just before the right turn to continue onto the Gibb River Road for morno's and chatted to some fellow travellers. Most of them had been up the dirt track towards Mitchell Falls and were suffering from mechanical or physical problems having been shaken to death by the heavy corrugations. One family had wrecked the shocks of the camper trailer, not good. We thought it was a nice idea to leave a good luck message for Marg and Chris in the hope that they stopped at the same rest stop before heading up onto the dirt track. Our little note, that we selotaped to the information board read “Marg and Chris, Good luck on the Kalumburu Road, take it easy! We wish you no more flat tyres and more high lift jacks! Jen and Claire” (they had found a high lift jack the day before in the river – that's a result) Only after we left the note did I realise that we were littering, well, if they didn't get the message that is...
70Km's after the turn off came a most welcome relief in the most random of places, Fresh Scones. Ellenbrae Homestead was strongly recommended by Ceri and Dave so it would have been rude not to oblige. Not only were the scones absolutely scrummy, we were joined by lots of pretty little birds too. The Double Barred Finches were most photogenic.
DOUBLE BARRED FINCHES
After 110km's of some of the worst corrugations that the Gibb threw at us we arrived at Home Valley station. An almost welcoming reception to civilised life (they have a restaurant, bar and swimming pool). Only almost due to the rudeness of the reception staff. After a brief swim with screaming kids we got dressed and wandered over to listen to some live music in the bar.
Wednesday morning we were rudely awakened by a child, playing on the kiddies playground, at 5.30am!!! Claire and I had bets on, Claire registered her bet for 7am, I said 6.30, how wrong.
'Daddy, can you help me get down...Daddy, can you help me get up...Daddy, can you put a noose around my neck so I stop annoying the lovely people camped next to the playground'. The last one was obviously me dreaming.. Sorry, I do love kids, but as the saying goes, I just couldn't eat a whole one.
A short 40km drive on Wednesday took us through the Pentecost River and into El Questro, a privately run wilderness camp/station. We were feeling lazy so only managed to do the short but steep drive up Saddleback Ridge on the Wednesday, before heading back to camp for a shower and a few drinks in the bar at a real happy hour, yey! A very cute frog jumped out from one of the shower blocks and begged me to take it's photo. We settled down for an early night cos we planned a full day of walking and exploring the next day, if only the boy with guitar opposite knew. Grrrr... (I am officially a grumpy old woman now a days).
PENTECOST RIVER CROSSING
EL QUESTRO VISITOR
FROG
Before heading out on Thursday we went to reception to ask for a private campsite, they have about 20 of these dotted along the riverbank. We were lucky to get one near a toilet at least. Then we started the day at El Questro gorge, a short walk through the rainforest through the gorge itself. This was and still is one of the highlight's of the trip. It was absolutely beautiful. Lush green ferns growing on the gorge walls and lots of pandanas and wildlife to keep our eyes busy. Halfway up the gorge track is a small pool that we decided was far enough in for us as the walk only continues after you've waded up to your waist in water and clambered up a large boulder. It was fun watching the oldies from a tour group do it though :-)
EL QUESTRO GORGE
We had lunch by the Chamberlain gorge, no swimming though, CROCS! Then we did another steep drive up to Brancos lookout, before heading back to the bar for happy hour again.
BRANCOS LOOKOUT
We didn't stay too long because tonight was a special night.... tonight we were cooking a roast in our camp oven. We opted for lamb, as we thought if it's a bit rare then it won't kill us. After much time preparing and getting the coals right our first camp oven roast was an absolute success. it was bloody lovely... the only down side was the fact that we didn't have any veggies to go with it, ah well, roast lamb, roast spuds and gravy, delightful.
On the way out of El Questro we stopped off at Zebedee hot springs for a quick dip and a rather unpleasant surprise. After stripping off and dropping into our own private pool Claire noticed something on my back. Turns out I had a tick (about the size of a lentil) attached to my shoulder. After a very quick dip we went back to the car to find the tweezers and Claire had the task of removing the tick, the pressure was on not to pull off the head as this can lead to infection. She did it no probs of course, and I thought I'd get the macro lens out to double check the head was still attached.
ZEBEDEE HOT SPRINGS
TICK
We continued on to Emma Gorge for a longer and much hotter walk than expected. The pool at the end was beautiful though so it was worth it in the end. Also, when we returned to the carpark we decided to reward ourselves with a shower and lunch at Emma's Cafe at Emma's Resort, owned by the El Questro people. It was a lovely lunch and I didn't even mind the cheeky Bower Bird nicking one of my chips. After another 23m's of pretty crappy road we finally hit the tarmac, after 10 days of dirt road the bitumen was a welcomed sight. Bye Bye the Gibb, we enjoyed every second (except the tick!)
EMMA GORGE
On the way into Kununurra we tried to help out at an accident on the highway, inadvertently helping the getaway car instead of those that actually needed help, a rather unfortunate event. Let's just say that if something seems wrong then it usually is. Stick with you instincts.
We made it into Kununurra by sundown and let me tell you, it was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen, a huge bright red sun setting over the horizon, shame we didn't get a picture, but we were just signing into the campground and didn't have my camera handy. We had another day and night in Kununurra to catch up with all our washing and do some food and alcohol shopping, only changing campsites in the meantime. Oh, and I might have spent a bit of time on the internet sorting out my fantasy football team... Yeah, game-week one, 77 points, can only go downhill from here!
Sunday morning we headed south to Purnululu National Park or as it is better known, the Bungle Bungles. It was a long drive but we made it in time to watch the sunset at Walanginjdji and we had an early night for the walks we planned to do the next day.
SUNSET AT BUNGLES
More soon,
Jen, of Jen and Claire Fame
The comment re: children made me laugh a lot.... just a reminder to what we've geot ourselves into :-) Can't wait to terrorise fellow cammpers when Tinkerbelle is old enough! M xx
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