Week 23, Tuesday 17th - Sunday 22 August 2010

After a sad farewell to the beautiful river at Manning and a temporary farewell to our travel companions Marg and Chris we headed back out on the Gibb River Road on Tuesday morning.

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

Week 22, Monday 9 - Sunday 15 August 2010

Week 22, and Kermit has finally succumbed to his basic instincts.



On Monday we decided to purchase one new tyre, and rotate the new spare with that one to the front, leaving the best of the two older tyres on the rear. We kept the extra spare tyre and have attached it to the roof rack, leaving only a third of the space for the roof-rack bag where we store the things we don't use regularly. So a bit of a major re-pack, but heh, at least Priscilla looks the part now for the Gibb!

We set off that afternoon for Fitzroy Crossing, some 400kms away, knowing we wouldn't make it that far. We stopped at Willare Roadhouse, which was average at best. On route we came across a Canadian cyclist heading in the opposite direction. We stopped because he seemed to be having some difficulty. The tyres on his trailer were completely ragged, and he had no spares. He had about another 50kms to go to the rest area where he planned to spend the night. Ingenious and incredibly cheerful about the whole event, he was stuffing small rocks into the tyres, and taping them up with gaffer tape! He figured he wouldn't run out of rocks! Unable to do much to help, we took his card and moved on. Crazy fool is cycling around Australia, but all for a good cause, raising awareness of Hodgkinson's disease.

http://cycleozforhd.blogspot.com/

On Tuesday we made it to Fitzroy Crossing mid-morning and found a nice campground where Jen spent some time on the net, and I spent some time on the roof finding a way to make the roof-rack bag fit with the spare tyre! Then we drove up to Geike Gorge to join the Department of Environment and Conservation run Geike Gorge boat cruise. We crossed the old Fitzroy River crossing on route – the Geike Gorge rises by around 17 metres, and the Fitzroy River (which flows from the gorge) by up to 7 metres – this crossing is pretty much at the riverbed, so its hard to see how much use it would be outside the dry season. Its really hard to imagine what this part of Australia looks like in the wet.

We had a pleasant little boat trip down Geike Gorge. The gorge was formed from coral reef from the Devonian period some 450 million years ago, don't you know.



Lovely rock formations dropping into the water, and importantly, our first crocodiles. Nothing too scary, only freshwater crocodiles who, unlike their salt-water (more properly known as estuarine) brethen are largely harmless to humans (unless provoked). They still look pretty unpleasant though, and can grow up to 3 metres. On the basis I'm not really sure what “provocation” means to a crocodile, I'm going to just stay out of their waters and stick to swimming pools and showers....



The next day, we set off up the dirt track that links the Great Northern Highway to the Gibb River Road (otherwise known as the Fairfield Leopold Downs Road). We stopped in at Tunnel Creek National Park on route, and I scrambled through the 750 metre rock tunnel with my head torch (those head torches have had a lot of use, thanks Katie and Kathryn!) Somehow Jen failed to see the attraction of walking through water of variable depths in a tunnel through the Devonian reef in the dark. She's a strange one some times. Anyway, I left saying I'd just be 5 minutes, and came back 30 minutes later, having run a great deal of the tunnel just to make it all the way to the end and back. It was actually very pretty in there in places, and I managed to only get wet up to my knees (thanks more to the daring of others than my own internal compass). And I only saw one crocodile..... Well, someone pointed out the eyes of what they thought was a small freshie avoiding us all on the other side of the cave. All very entertaining.



Then we pushed on up to Windjana Gorge. This is another section of the Devonian reef (yes, some 450 million years ago this area was under ocean). It was a very pretty walk into the gorge, with plenty more freshwater crocs to see on route.





and a very cute little banded dotterel (yup, we're becoming twitchers!)



and a great shot by me (if I do say so myself!) of a Corella in flight



and a children's storybook picture with the sun setting on the walk back out.



Here we first started chatting to Jo and Ben, a couple of medics who've taken their three kids out of school for a semester and are travelling around the Kimberleys for 3 months. On the Gibb River, everyone's on a similar route, so the tendency is to keep bumping into the same people as you go.

On Thursday, after a nice stay at Windjana (which had hot showers and flushing toilets, this is the kind of National Park we like!), we finally hit the Gibb River Road and turned right to head towards Kununurra. We only travelled along it around 90kms before turning left to head to Bell Gorge, but were pleasantly surprised with its condition. The Gibb is often heavily corrugated and unpleasant to travel on, but we found it much better than the link road from the Great Northern Highway for the majority of its stretch to Kununurra, so no complaints from us.

We headed up to camp at Silent Grove, near Bell Gorge. The 4wd campground at the gorge itself has unfortunately been closed, so we found ourselves a spot at the main campground, 10km shy of the gorge. Jen was not convinced at first by my site selection, next to a lovely boab tree, but all proved well in the end. Here we took our favourite photo yet of the whole trip. One Jen's been planning to take for some time (about 4 years she says) – it involves leaving the shutter open for up to 4 hours at night so it catches the movement of the stars (well, really the movement of the earth). And it was genuinely a team effort, so if it becomes famous, we'll both have to get a fair share of the royalties (I mean, the fact I pushed the button to take the shot is nothing really.....)

Anyway, without further ado, please sit back and enjoy the star trails in our Boab Dreaming shot.



On Friday morning we drove up to Bell Gorge where we saw our second tyre-on-rocks-death (not, thankfully, one of ours) – a couple discovered a puncture when they returned from the gorge walk. Then we did the 45 minute walk down into the gorge itself. Jen just loves to go a-hiking.... Well, she does if I promise its short and there's something worthwhile at the end of it! Bell Gorge was a bit of a challenge in places, only short, but a few rock clambering moments. But the swim at the end made it more than worthwhile – a really beautiful gorge.



And Jen had some fun with the macro lens photographing some of our neighbours.





The walk back was a bit hot, but we got back into the car proud of our activity and ready to get to the next campground for happy hour and a beer! So we headed back down to the Gibb, and managed a whole 33kms on it before turning off for Mornington Wilderness Camp, some 90kms off the Gibb itself, but rumoured to be a fantastic spot.

We stopped at Imintji Roadhouse on route for a quick look around (diesel $1.94, like English prices!) - we'd been promised internet access here by the Gibb River Road book, but it wasn't to be, so Jen's team for the first week of Fantasy Premier League remained unchanged, despite a whole week of pre-season strains, injuries and rumours to take into account! Not Happy Jen!

The drive out to Mornington was fine (we were overtaken by Ben and Jo in their Landrover Discovery on route), although the last 20kms were a bit rocky in places. Lovely big boab on route as well.



The campground at Mornington was nice, but expensive – its a private nature reserve, which means they charge an entry fee as well as camp fees. We found ourselves camped next to Ben and Jo and the kids on one side and Chris and Marg on the other. We'd met Chris and Marg just that morning in Silent Grove, in their troopie with the rooftop tent (we always notice people with rooftop tents!) and they came over to say hi properly that night with a beer.

On Saturday we visited the gorges at Mornington, Sir John Gorge (nice, but not as lovely as Bell Gorge) and Dimond Gorge (really not all that nice at all!) and did a little interpretative termite walk (the termites are fascinating and intriguing... no really!) We also spent a long time watching a rainbow bee-eater catching butterflies and the like, bashing them against a branch to kill them before eating them. Sounds gruesome, but it is a beautiful bird in flight.



Which made us hungry, so we headed back to camp for tea! In the evening, we went to the bar for the planned talk about Mornington and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. We thought the girl giving the talk was rather unimpressive, until she ran off half way through to be sick in the toilets, then insisted on continuing, only to cancel rather abruptly and be sick in the bush in front of us all. Now that's entertainment!

On Sunday, we set off back to the Gibb River. We said our farewells to Ben and Jo who were heading back towards Broome. After leaving the Mornington road (after 90kms), we travelled a mere 60kms along the Gibb River Road before getting to Mount Barnett Roadhouse, and our stop for the night. We stopped on route at Adcock Gorge (dodgier than expected 4wd track!) and Galvans Gorge, the latter of which we had to ourselves for a good 20 minutes which was very picturesque.

Galvans Gorge



At Mount Barnett, we paid for our camping at Manning Gorge, bought some frozen bread and got some cash back from the nice, ACDC loving, lady at the shop. Then we found a nice little camp spot 7kms up the track from the Roadhouse at Manning Gorge. We set up camp, then jumped in the river. This is one of our highlights of the Gibb, a really lovely spot, the only place where you can swim without a serious walk from where you camp. Chris and Marg turned up in their Troopie a little later in the afternoon and we had a few beers with them that night.

On Sunday, we decided to stay another night at Manning. I did the walk with Marg and Chris to the Manning Gorge itself (about an hour each way), but Jen (despite her new love for walking) opted to stay home with Priscilla and write a blog (for all the good that did us, we're still 3 weeks behind!!)

The walk was great, and Manning Gorge is one of my highlights of the Gibb, really lovely. Anyway, that's all for now. The rest of the Gibb and Kununurra in the the next instalment.

Love to all,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame

Week 21, Monday 2 - Sunday 8 August 2010

Ok, we've been back 6 weeks, and we seem to be 4 weeks behind on the blog! Clearly, we're having too much fun....

Back in Broome on Monday 2 August, we had a bit of a sorting and cleaning day, before heading into Broome for a drink at Matso's Brewery (very nice) and some food at Arli (great spare ribs, not so sure about the pizza). The next day we even gave Priscilla a wash at the caravan park before leaving!



Then we set off on red sandy tracks to Cape Leveque, one of the key attractions for me of the whole trip. Its publicised to be a beautiful beach, with fantastic sunsets, all in a remote location at the tip of the peninsula above Broome. Unfortunately, the publicity has worked, and its no longer that remote, and feels fairly touristy. We couldn't even get a camp-site at Cape Leveque itself, so we spent two nights at Middle Lagoon, half way up the Cape Leveque peninsula instead, with a third night at Gambanan closer to the tip of the peninsula.

The drive into Middle Lagoon was lovely, Priscilla just loves that red sand



and our camp site was lovely too, overlooking the sea.



There's a lovely swimming beach at the campground and a very relaxed atmosphere. Jen terrorised blue sand crabs on the beach



until she found some hermit crabs, then she terrorised them instead...



We also had a lovely sunset at Middle Lagoon. We hoped we'd see whales here, but it wasn't to be. Lovely sunset though.



Anyway, after gentle swimming and relaxing at Middle Lagoon, we headed up to Cape Leveque and paid their $10 fee to enter the resort and take a look at their beaches. I helped a couple drag their tender ashore at the northern most beach, admittedly in the hope they'd offer us a little trip on their yacht. Of course my ploy didn't work. Cape Leveque beach really needs to be seen at sunset to be appreciated, and Jen frankly wasn't amused with the walk down there in the scorching heat of midday. I got my photos, but none of them look too great. Expectations can be too high... On the other hand, life can't be all bad when you think this isn't all that impressive.



After visiting Cape Leveque, we headed to Gambanan to camp the night. We found ourselves a nice enough little spot on the side of the headland then headed to the “swimming” beach (as described by the nice lady on reception). I waded out in the shallow waters next to mangroves and had a quick dip, but feeling uncomfortable with the environment quickly came back in. A couple asked me how the water was, and I replied it was lovely, but it felt like croc country. They said the owners had shot a salt-water croc only days ago on the headland! No more swimming near mangroves for me!

We headed back to the camp-site for dinner and managed to get full mobile signal so Jen could call home. And we had another lovely sunset.



The next day we bumped and rattled our way back down the corrugated red road to Broome. Of great excitement this day was the fact we'd had a new toy delivered to the Post Office for us to collect, the Flip Video camera we should have bought in the UK! Videos to follow on the blog at some point soon... We decided to spend a night at the expensive Cable Beach end of town so we could go and watch other people ride camels on the beach... I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but we wanted the photo!



You see, more lovely sunsets! Priscilla was very pleased with it all as well.









On Saturday we went to the Broome markets, and I actually bought Jen a little memento of the trip (you guessed it, a frog on a log!). Then we did a big food shop, stocking up for our off-road trip across the Gibb River Road. We decided to stay at the Broome Bird Observatory, just on the outskirts of town, partly on the basis they had a camp kitchen with a freezer so we could vacuum pack our meat and freeze it for the trip.

The bird observatory was lovely, and would have been much more enjoyable had I not split the valve on one of Priscilla's rear tyres while using the compressor to pump the tyres back up. A neighbour at the campground helped us change the tyre, and our plans for setting off on the Gibb River Road the next day were delayed as, it being late Saturday afternoon, no-one was open for tyre repairs and nor would they be until Monday. So we headed back into Broome on Sunday, staying again at Roebuck Bay (nice campground, but they didn't seem to be great fans of ours by all accounts!) We had another look around Broome, visiting the gallery at Matso's, and falling a little in love with some of Helen Norton's work on display there. If only we were in the market for art...

http://www.helennorton.com.au/

So, all poised and ready for the Gibb River Road, we had to hold on for another night in Broome. Lets face it, worse things could happen. Broome's a pretty good place to get held up.

More soon,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame