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