A long time – almost a fortnight – since our last blog but here in the outback there has been no mobile coverage, so no Net. Finally arriving at Home Valley we were able to drive up a nearby hill to receive Telstra, so made phone calls, read e-mails and did a bit of banking perched on a huge flat boulder. Several people turned up to do likewise – a good business op. for an Internet café if ever I saw one. It was great to get our e-mails (many thanks, afraid there wasn’t enough battery to reply to them) but strangely up until then we hadn’t missed the Net, living in the parallel universe of camping, so totally removed from our everyday world.
After the spectacular Cape Levique we finally hit the Gibb River Road, and much of it hit us as in places the road can only be described as ‘pretty average’ (local speak for rough as a goat track). The dust was well and truly with us once more, finer and slightly less staining than the Karijini dust, but as pervasive as ever. The inside of the car has a continual coating, as does everything in it including us. As Nick said if ever one of the punters renting our house complains of dust we’ll say “Dust? DUST?? You don’t know what dust is until you’ve camped in the Karijini or crossed paths with a road train on the Gibb River Road.”
This was the start of our meandering through the Kimberley, taking in more truly amazing gorges. Windjana Gorge was our first stop – not a particularly interesting one but we did see our first crocs – Freshwater, the shyer less dangerous cousin of the Salty. Freshies are also much smaller (clutch-bag rather than Mulberry tote) and in one place alone Nick counted over a hundred, sunning themselves on the far bank.
Next day we moved on to Bell Gorge, which has been our favourite so far. A steep clamber up and then down over huge boulders took us to beautiful deep pools with small cascades (and no crocs). The water was icy to get into, but wonderfully refreshing after the first gasp and we spent several hours there swimming and watching the birds and wildlife, including a 2-ft long monitor lizard sunning on a rock. Several people made the steep walk down, only to turn round and walk back up as they hadn’t got bathers with them, so for most of the time we had the place to ourselves. On the way back I managed to fall in while crossing the river and I’m sad to report that all Nick did was laugh till he cried and take pics of me flailing around trying to get back out. This was to the complete bewilderment of a Scandinavian couple who stood looking embarrassed at the lack of English chivalry.
Then it was on to Mornington, where they’d thoughtfully provided a radio at the turn-off so you could check ahead to see if there was room at the campsite, before embarking on the 80+ km drive in. Mornington is 312,000 hectares of wilderness owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, so a haven for animals and birds, including some on the endangered list. We had a wonderful campsite amongst tall trees, and even more wonderful hot showers. We spent 3 days here exploring gorges, canoeing on the mighty Fitzgerald River and had the feeling that we had the place almost to ourselves with so much space and so few people in it. Walking down to the gorges we stepped down over huge slabs of rock, that changed colour with each layer. As we descended Nick wondered how many millions of years we were walking through with each step.
In the afternoons we’d pootle slowly back to camp along the backtracks, me driving and Nick yelling ‘Stop!’ every few minutes. This wasn’t a comment on my driving but because we were looking for the multicoloured endangered Gouldian finches. No luck there, but plenty of other birds to see – one of my favourite was the tiny Spinifex dove, tiny pigeons with important chests strutting along the road, crests like Centurions’ helmets.
In the Kimberley we are also in Boab tree territory, with their enormous bulbous trunks tapering into spindly branches which are bare at the moment, save for a few large yellow flowers and fruit like small green mangoes. We feel they’re definitely the Ents out of Lord of the Rings. Leaving Mornington was not such a good day for me. I began by spilling both our coffees, and my premonition that this was to be the day of our first puncture while I was driving proved to be correct on both counts. I was pretty fed up that it happened on my watch as the road was comparatively smooth and rock free (certainly compared to the rocky stream bed I’d driven through in full 4WD mode the previous afternoon). However, in mitigation m’lud the grader had just been through, which always turns over sharp bits of stone. Apart from being extremely hot and dusty work, partic. of course for poor Nick, there was no problem changing the tyre for one of our two spares, although the damaged trye was split down the side and had to be replaced at Drysdale Station, our evening stop. The replacement wasn’t as exorbitant as we’d feared, given that petrol is $2.50 a litre out here, and with the hot showers at Drysdale the day ended much better than it had begun.
After the spectacular Cape Levique we finally hit the Gibb River Road, and much of it hit us as in places the road can only be described as ‘pretty average’ (local speak for rough as a goat track). The dust was well and truly with us once more, finer and slightly less staining than the Karijini dust, but as pervasive as ever. The inside of the car has a continual coating, as does everything in it including us. As Nick said if ever one of the punters renting our house complains of dust we’ll say “Dust? DUST?? You don’t know what dust is until you’ve camped in the Karijini or crossed paths with a road train on the Gibb River Road.”
This was the start of our meandering through the Kimberley, taking in more truly amazing gorges. Windjana Gorge was our first stop – not a particularly interesting one but we did see our first crocs – Freshwater, the shyer less dangerous cousin of the Salty. Freshies are also much smaller (clutch-bag rather than Mulberry tote) and in one place alone Nick counted over a hundred, sunning themselves on the far bank.
Next day we moved on to Bell Gorge, which has been our favourite so far. A steep clamber up and then down over huge boulders took us to beautiful deep pools with small cascades (and no crocs). The water was icy to get into, but wonderfully refreshing after the first gasp and we spent several hours there swimming and watching the birds and wildlife, including a 2-ft long monitor lizard sunning on a rock. Several people made the steep walk down, only to turn round and walk back up as they hadn’t got bathers with them, so for most of the time we had the place to ourselves. On the way back I managed to fall in while crossing the river and I’m sad to report that all Nick did was laugh till he cried and take pics of me flailing around trying to get back out. This was to the complete bewilderment of a Scandinavian couple who stood looking embarrassed at the lack of English chivalry.
Then it was on to Mornington, where they’d thoughtfully provided a radio at the turn-off so you could check ahead to see if there was room at the campsite, before embarking on the 80+ km drive in. Mornington is 312,000 hectares of wilderness owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, so a haven for animals and birds, including some on the endangered list. We had a wonderful campsite amongst tall trees, and even more wonderful hot showers. We spent 3 days here exploring gorges, canoeing on the mighty Fitzgerald River and had the feeling that we had the place almost to ourselves with so much space and so few people in it. Walking down to the gorges we stepped down over huge slabs of rock, that changed colour with each layer. As we descended Nick wondered how many millions of years we were walking through with each step.
In the afternoons we’d pootle slowly back to camp along the backtracks, me driving and Nick yelling ‘Stop!’ every few minutes. This wasn’t a comment on my driving but because we were looking for the multicoloured endangered Gouldian finches. No luck there, but plenty of other birds to see – one of my favourite was the tiny Spinifex dove, tiny pigeons with important chests strutting along the road, crests like Centurions’ helmets.
In the Kimberley we are also in Boab tree territory, with their enormous bulbous trunks tapering into spindly branches which are bare at the moment, save for a few large yellow flowers and fruit like small green mangoes. We feel they’re definitely the Ents out of Lord of the Rings. Leaving Mornington was not such a good day for me. I began by spilling both our coffees, and my premonition that this was to be the day of our first puncture while I was driving proved to be correct on both counts. I was pretty fed up that it happened on my watch as the road was comparatively smooth and rock free (certainly compared to the rocky stream bed I’d driven through in full 4WD mode the previous afternoon). However, in mitigation m’lud the grader had just been through, which always turns over sharp bits of stone. Apart from being extremely hot and dusty work, partic. of course for poor Nick, there was no problem changing the tyre for one of our two spares, although the damaged trye was split down the side and had to be replaced at Drysdale Station, our evening stop. The replacement wasn’t as exorbitant as we’d feared, given that petrol is $2.50 a litre out here, and with the hot showers at Drysdale the day ended much better than it had begun.
Pics: Pool, Bell Gorge
Airport lounge at Mornington airstrip
Internet cafe
1 comment:
Great stuff Nick & Gill - sounds a bit overpopulated if people are worrying about the bathers?
Hope to see you on return.
We've just returned from a month in NZ including some time with Nick & Sarah in Auckland. Could do with it all over again so are taking tips from your blog,
Enjoy the rest of your trip
Cheers,
Mike & Sal
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