Camped in Derby,we prepared ourselves for a trip up the Gibb River Road and then the Kalumburu Road, calling in on the Mitchell Falls and Honeymoon Beach (at Kalumburu) along the way.
Things didn't go quite as expected, but that's the joy of exploring.
So, what were the preparations? Well we were planning on tenting it so we took all the non-essential stuff out of the 'jero and fitted in (and on) the essential camping gear. It is amazing how much stuff you need to take and how much gear "one member" of the group deem necessary - things like a doona or a sleeping bag in case it gets cold - in the north of Australia!
Then again, it certainly DID get cold at night and we were glad of that extra insulation so that was me put back into my box!
We parked the van in the storage section and locked it up for the ten or eleven days we were to be away and with tyre pressures (and air bag suspension pressures) reduced for the lighter load we drove off to a rough roads adventure.
Except that the Gibb River Road (GRR) is no longer the rough track it used to be. It is a dirt road alright, after the first few klms, but it is smooth and well maintained and travelling at 100kph+ was no problem. You just need to keep an eye out for the errant wildlife and the damned cattle that wander across the road all the time.
This is what the road looks like - wide and smooth although any passing traffic kicks up a lot of dust.
As we drove through the first of the ranges (the Napier Range, just a bit before the King Leopold Ranges) we came across a rock formation called "Queen Victoria's Head" and you'd have to say that you can see the resemblance!
As we drove through the ranges we came across this young dingo just walking along the road looking very unconcerned.
The Kimberley is, or course, the home of the Boab trees and once you get close to the area you start seeing more and more of them.
Bell Gorge
We tried to get into the Lennard River Gorge, but the road was closed but we pulled into the campground at Silent Grove and set up camp before wandering out to see Bell Gorge and what a great way to start our gorges tour. A cracker of a pool dropping water over a waterfaĺl and into a gorge. Peaceful too. The only other people there were a friendly couple who were taking lots of photos-Mal and Larraine Leyland.
This is a water monitor just sunning itself on a rock.
The campground was large and well laid out with hot showers flushing toilets and drinking water.
Met up with the people we saw in Derby and had a lovely happy hour with them.
We stayed here a couple of nights to refine our camping setup and to try to beat the world record for gorgeous campfires. Not sure we beat it, but we got close!
Adcock Gorge
We took a drive down a track that said it was going to Adcock Gorge, but all we found was a rough and narrow track leading to gorgeous campsite but no gorge. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.
We did see a huge flock of corellas flying along the creek making their usual squawking noises. Pretty to see and they always make you smile.
This pic is of the small campsite itself, with the boab trees in the centre.
Galvans Gorge
Walk along a pretty creek in shady coolness and arrived at a stunningly beautiful waterfall and its plunge pool. Wish we'd brought our togs.
This is a gentle part of the creek with the water lilies just starting to show - the flowers here will be wonderful in a month.
This is the actual waterfall and plunge pool. There were numbers of small fish, they looked like juvenile sooty grunter, cruising about the place and when we cooled our feet in the water they gathered around. We really should have brought our togs and gone for a swim.
Mt Barnett Roadhouse and Manning Gorge
The campground was some 7 klms behind the roadhouse and was huge with lots of shady spots to pitch a tent or park a caravan. We were told that they had 250 people booked in and there was still a lot of space left. This was a surprise for us - we just didn't think that there would be THAT many people in this sort of remote area.
The downside was the fact that the ablutions block had only 3 showers and 3 flushing toilets for each gender. I don't like queuing for the toilet and this will only get worse as the season progresses and they get a thousand people in a night.
The campsite was right on the river and at one point there was a large swimming hole with beaches and easy access. On a hot day this was a popular place to be.
This swimming hole had a small boat tethered to a rope and pulley and you used this to ferry yourself and your walking kit (boots, socks, river sandals, hiking pole, water, camera, swimming togs, sat phone, first aid kit etc) across the water and you can then start the walk to the gorge.
The walk was around 90 minutes of mostly rock country. Climbing and descending some steep valley sides until you reach the gorge and make your way along the gorge wall until you reach the waterfall.
Then you can strip off and swim in the cool, clear water. A dunking under the waterfall itself is mandatory, but you need to be careful of the kids throwing themselves off the top of the waterfall to bomb the plunge pool.
This pic shows the waterfall and some few of the people who had made the trek there - yes, it was crowded!
The walk back was harder as the temperature was up around 35 degrees but when we did get back we just flopped into the swimming hole (ferrying clothes etc back on the small boat) and lazed around cooling down for a while.
Definitely worth it.
What was not so good were the bloody corellas acting as an alarm clock every morning at 5.45
On top of that after our gorge walk we returned to find that the crows had wrecked our camp. We had them destroy things like a roll of kitchen towel and a box of sandwich bags - each one of these had a hole pecked into it rendering it useless. They even destroyed a box of matches and crapped all over everything. Grrrrr.
Barnett River Gorge
When we left Manning Gorge we drove north east and came to a track to the Barnett River gorge which we followed for a few klms.
It got pretty rough in places but eventually we reached the parking spot and we headed off on foot.
It was a relatively short walk, maybe a kilometer or so, but as it was almost all over rocky country it was hot and difficult. The track was marked out by small rock cairns and these were sometimes hard to pick out in the rocky country too!
This was the view down to the river from the top of the gorge.
Mt Elizabeth Homestead
We had heard about this place from other travellers and decided that it would be worth a look. When we got there we found a gorgeous campsite with great toilets, showers etc.and this compensated for the drive in which was rather corrugated.
The people there were very friendly and welcoming and we set up camp happily, collecting wood for the evening camp fire.
Before it got dark we took a drive to the Hann River. This is one of two pretty gorges on the station and they both have challenging enough tracks to drive to get into them. The other gorge has a 10km section that takes a skilled driver well over an hour to get through and as we were getting a little short of daylight we decided to take the easier option.
On our way in, we came across an aboriginal family who were taking a roo they had speared back to camp to eat. There must have been a dozen kids in the tray of the old Cruiser ute with another one sitting on the roof of the cabin. Road safety rules anyone?
I puled my small rod out and tried to tempt a fish, but nothing doing - I only really had time for half a dozen casts before we needed to head back to try to get back to camp before we lost the light.
This was the view we received when we got to the river.
Drysdale River Station
We left Mt Elizabeth with some regret. It is a beaut place and (due to the road in) not too crowded at all, and we headed up the road to the junction with the Kalumburu Road which we took and stopped at the Drysdale Roadhouse. This is a well set up place and it even has a bar and restaurant which we availed ourselves of the second evening. The food was not exactly cordon bleu, but it was adequate and we joined a tour group that we had met earlier in the day after we had driven out to Miners Pool on the Drysdale River.
This is the water at Miners Pool where we went for a swim and were joined by the tour group. We even managed to blag a hat from the guide!
We had a visit from a very friendly little heron while we were camped there. He hoovered up the bugs and tiny lizards and at one point even stopped and propped on Karen's foot!
Mitchell Falls
The following day we packed the tent up and drove off to the Mitchell Falls campground near the falls themselves which are now named Punamii-unpuu. A rather crap name to my ears, but it isn't my ears that are to be pleased by this piece of bureaucracy designed to appease the official guilt of some public service nabob.
Not only is the name a disgrace, but also the road in which is corrugated appallingly except for those places where the rocky bones of the plateau stick through. 88 klms of vehicular torture.
There are a few places to explore on the track in though, and many of them have examples of indigenous art work painted under overhangs etc.
These are examples of the "Wandjina" style and are found nowhere else.
The campsite is nice though with toilets that meet with Karen's stamp of cleanliness approval.
The first afternoon there we walked to Little Mertons Falls and washed away the stresses of the journey in the waters there. A gorgeous place.
This is the view when standing at the top of the falls themselves.
And this is the view just upstream of the cascades where we took a dip and cooled off. You can also get down to the plunge pool at the bottom of the falls and walk behind the curtain of water that forms the falls.
Next day we walked to Mitchell Falls themselves passing Big Mertens Falls as well. Big Mertens Falls are much more impressive and have carved a very deep gorge.
We kept on walking, and occasionally getting a little lost until we reached the Mitchell River. We crossed the river (this involved wading through water a couple of feet deep, but with slipper stones underneath) and walked around until we got the chocolate box view of the falls themselves. Wow!
Can you beat that for beauty? It is undoubtedly one of the wonderful sights in Australia and we loved it.
Equally as much fun was the fact that we had booked a helicopter flight back to the campground and as the pilot took us on a tour around the falls from the air and back over the savannah lands we were just thanking our lucky stars for being so privileged.
So, after a couple of days up there we decided to set our sights on returning to Derby and reclaiming the van. We have had a magic time up here, but the tent is getting a little old now and we'd be happy to get some comfort back in our lives.
The road back didn't seem as hard as the trip in and we decided to stop at the Mt Barnett Roadhouse for the night. When we got there we found that they had dongas (complete with air con, a fridge and a TV) for rent so we grabbed one and cooked dinner in the camp kitchen. That night we watched Geelong thrash Essendon by 69 points and relaxed into a real bed for a change.
The next morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we headed west and passed a few highlights here and there before we called into Windjana Gorge for a walk.
This is the other profile of the Queens Victoria's Head rock in he Napier Range. It still looks just like her.
Windjana Gorge walls.
Crocodile Island in the Windjana Gorge itself.
We left Windjana and drove into Derby where we retrieved the van and set up again. There was a lot of packing rationalisation to do, but we worked through it and at the end of the second day we were happy to head off to eat at the restaurant at the Derby Jetty.
Tomorrow we fly out to the Horizontal Falls - we can't wait!
