June 4
Arrived at Windjana Gorge about beer o'clock. Experienced our first heavy corregation for about 10 of the 23km in from the Gibb River Road. Slide-on handled it no worries but the boat trailer had a few minor issues with one of the ratchet straps breaking and the timber supporting the tilt coming adrift.
Drinks from our camp overlooking the gorge were pretty special before tea and an early night.
June 5
Special day today, not just because it's my birthday but because we woke up at Windjana Gorge which surely must be one of the most unique gorges in the world. Millions of years ago the towering cliffs were a reef under the sea and even today you can imagine the place jutting out from the sea bed. Even though it is about 150km from the coast. The creek that flows through the gorge is home to dozens of freshwater crocs that seem to be completely oblivious to the tourists who wander past their rock pools.
Our walk up the gorge took us about 3 hours and varied from the spectacular cliff faces to huge Boabs, pristine water holes and think scrub.
After a few running repairs to the trailer (a few bits fell off on the corrugation yesterday ) we headed out to towards the Gibb River Road about 11:30am.
The Gibb had been quite good all the way to the Windjana turn off. It was the Windjana road and its heavy corrugation that caused the problems yesterday, so once we reached the Gibb and only had about 120km before turning off to our destination at Silent Grove Campground, we expected to be there by about 1:30pm. Wrong!
We arrived at our destination at 4:00pm after some of the most serious corrugation we have ever encountered. A truck driver who stopped for a chat told us the road was in as bad a condition as he could recall. Not good when you are on your maiden voyage with slide-on and boat in tow. Anyway, slow but steady proved successful and after a short lunch stop at March Fly Creek we arrived at Silent Grove and set up camp. Given it's my birthday Carol decided to cook up a storm. King prawns for entre and a lamb roast for main.
She spoils me as did Amanda and Brett who spent some of their hard earned and gave me a call on the Satellite Phone this arvo. It was so good of them to give me a call and completely unexpected given the remoteness of our location. Driving through the Napier and King Leopold Ranges was a pretty good way to spend your 59th birthday.
June 6
Decided to spend the day here at Silent Grove. It's another National Park so amenities are basic but clean and functional. Showers run on solar so it's no good heading over for a wash first thing but if you wait for the sun to be up for a few hours we have found them quite good. The spring water on tap is first class.
We unhooked the boat to do the 10km from camp to Bell Gorge. The 10km took us about 40 minutes so that should give some indication of the road conditions. Heavy corrugation, a couple of creek crossings and some quite stoney sections.
The walk to the gorge only took about 10 or 15 minutes but was pretty rocky most of the way. When you first reach the gorge there are a couple of spots where you can swim but it's only after crossing the water and making your way over some pretty steep terrain that you reach the cascading waterfalls of Bell Gorge. It really is a spectacular gorge with a large swimming hole at the base of the falls surrounded by towering cliffs. Carol and I both enjoyed a swim here and Carol even made it over to the base of the falls.
On our return walk we detoured around the top of the cliffs to reach a great vantage point for taking in most of the gorge.
After a slow trip back to camp it was nice to have a few hours to plan our next few days on the Gibb River Road.
Our planning was briefly interrupted when one of our fellow campers almost stepped on a snake about 20m from our camp. Carol was a little concerned when he headed in our direction, but at the time of writing neither of us has been bitten. Volunteers who live here and collect the money and maintain the amenities told us later in the night that it was a Stimson Python, which are quite harmless. Nice to know.
June 7
Up pretty early and left silent grove before 8:00am. Travelled the 20km back to the Gibb River Road and headed east. The road started off pretty good so we were pretty relaxed as we pulled into Imintji for a coffee. Small roadhouse come general store that also services the adjacent Aboriginal community. Prices of most things were quite reasonable so when Carol heard the coffees were $6 she spent the extra $2 and got the scones and jam thrown in ( not quite the bacon & eggs I was expecting for breakfast!! )The store had a couple of interesting signs. One read cheapest fuel on the Gibb River Road. A check of the bowser and we decided they must have been joking as the $2.36 per litre didn't seem particularly cheap. Not believing them was a mistake because we had to get fuel at Barnet Station later in the day and we paid $2.50.
The second sign we really liked. It said "no school, no shop"
We enjoyed a chat with David and Irene who decided to join us for coffee and scones. We have seen them at several camps since the Cape Karaudren. They are retired farmers and are doing a remarkably similar trip to us.
Our first gorge for the day was Adcock Gorge in the Philips Range. Despite missing the turn off and then having to walk the last kilometre or so because of washouts etc across the road we were still pleased we called in. It is a small and picturesque gorge with a water hole filled with water lillies and small fish and a nice waterfall at the top end.
Next stop was at Galvins Gorge where you park right on the road and take an easy walk down to a magnificent waterfall. This one is really quite special and we spent a really enjoyable hour or so swimming under the cascading water fall. Another point of interest at Galvin is some really nice Aboriginal art work on one of the rock ledges overlooking the waterhole. This place is a must see and quite easily accessible so we were pleasantly surprised to be the only ones there when we arrived.
From Galvin it was only about 20km to Barnett Roadhouse where we bought the $2.50 diesel and headed down the 7km track behind the roadhouse to the Manning Gorge Campground.
After finding a nice shady campsite we took the short walk to the sandy waterhole that abuts the campground and marks the beginning of the trail into Manning Gorge. We vaguely remember this one from 20 years ago and are looking forward to rekindling nothing but good memories.
June 8
Walked down to the waterhole next to the Manning Gorge Campground about 8:00am.
The waterhole at the campground is about 50m wide and varies in depth from half a metre to 3 metres. It has a few resident fresh water crocs. The walk to the gorge starts on the other side of the waterhole so someone came up with the brilliant idea of setting up a a flat bottom tinny with a rope attached to pulleys on each side of the waterhole. Those wishing to visit the falls simply climb into the boat and pull themselves to the other side.
Once on the other side it took us about an hour to walk to the falls. The walk is through rocky hills and gorges and has a few stretches of sandy spinifex country.
The Manning Gorge Waterfall and surrounding waterhole are probably the most spectacular along the the Gibb River Road. We spent the morning there swimming under the waterfall, sun baking on the rocky surrounds and generally enjoying the peace, quiet and beauty of this amazing spot.
After a relaxing couple of hours back at camp on return we made our way back to the campground waterhole for a swim and happy hour chatting to fellow travellers and watching the "freshies" make the most of the late afternoon sun. It never ceases to amaze us how often we meet up with the same people at each camping spot. We have established some strong connections with several couples and one couple, Nick, Jodie and their 3 sons from Claire in particular have been good company at each stop since Windjana.
Tea of crumbed prawns and Spanish Mackeral topped off a fantastic day.
June 9
We left Manning Gorge Campground before 8:00am with the 176km to Ellinbrae Station along the corrugated Gibb River Road looking like a good days drive away. The lunch stop at the turn off to Kalumbaru about 1:00pm was only 100km into the trip. The corrugation was as severe as we have encountered anywhere, any time and unfortunately one of the shockers on the boat trailer didn't do the distance. Other casualties included the leg of the table and window locks in the slide on. Considering the sustained vibrations of the highest order, the slide-on stood up pretty damn well.
The road improved quite significantly about 20km east of the turn off and we finished up making Ellinbrae by about 4:00pm.
Ellinbrae is a really nice stop over and after a shower in water heated by a traditional "donkey" we had a fantastic night around the campfire with wood collected within about 50 metres of our camp.
A nice red from Derby and a weber roast topped off a tiring day on the road.
June 10
Woke after a seriously cold night at Ellenbrae Station and enjoyed a light breakfast as bigger things awaited. I pottered around this morning seeing if I could remove the busted shock absorber from the boat trailer, but a lack of tools made the job impossible. After a short walk down to the Ringers Waterhole and another shower heated by the "donkey", we were ready to go when a fellow camper who we had been talking to last night came over looking a little distressed. A loose chopping board had managed to lodge itself behind a large drawer in the back of their ute, meaning the drawer wouldn't slide back into its travelling position. Seeking my help demonstrated how little she knew about my "handyman skills". Anyway I ventured over to their camp and threw in my two bobs worth. End result was that the entire rear drawer set up needed to be dismantled, so after offering my very limited advice we headed back to the homestead for their famous scones with jam and cream. Who ever is doing their PR work is doing a great job as apparently last season they made $6400 scones. At $8 for a coffee that you make yourself and one scone, they are making a small fortune. Of course the setting amongst the lush green gardens and spacious shaded dining area constructed from local stone, on the grounds of the historic homestead adds to the atmosphere and I don't think too many customers would complain about the outlay for the scones.
A French couple we met while enjoying our scones added to the experience.
We left Ellenbrae about 11:00am and after crossing a pretty tricky creek crossing that required 4 wheel drive and tested Carol's nerves, we were back on the Gibb River Road heading for Home Valley Station some 100 km further down the track. Based on all of our discussions with fellow travellers we expected to be at Home Valley in a couple of hours. Wrong!
Heavy corrugation was encountered throughout the next 100km or so. Throw in a couple of challenging river crossings and it was about 3:30pm when the Pentecost River came into view. The Pentecost flows through Home Valley so we knew we were pretty close when we stopped at a road side stop identified on Wiki Camps as a place where we could get phone reception. A quick stop to call family and friends turned into an overnight stay. The view over the Pentacost and surrounding ranges way quite spectacular and the readily available firewood enticed us to stay rather than set up camp at Home Valley.
After pulling up and setting up camp, a couple of cars pulled up and after a brief chat one of the guys leapt into gear and had removed the dangling shock absorber from our boat trailer in a couple of minutes. He wouldn't even take beer from me insisting he didn't drink.
Soon after we left the French couple we met at morning tea, they pulled in behind us looking a bit stressed. The Pajero they were travelling in was having radiator and shock absorber problems. They had been filling the radiator every 10km from Ellenbrae.
I had just been in contact with a mechanic in Kununnara and had organised for a broken shock absorber on the trailer to be fixed on Thursday, so I lent them my phone and they rang the same mechanic who organised to have a new radiator delivered from Darwin.
The night was spent in an idealic location, around a great fire ringing friends and family. Nice way to finish another action packed day in the Kimberley.