Chapter 6 - Western Australia - East Kimberley

From 29 June 2011 

To     12 July 2011 

This report is from the Kimberley.  Never ending flat plains are behind us.  The rugged rocky beauty of the Kimberley is before us.  We had a great drive form Timber Creek (NT) to Kununurra with a stopover in a few places to review the magnificent scenes.  When viewing the majestic Victoria river from a bridge, crocodile footprints in the river mud bank could be seen around 100 metres away.

On Thursday we had a lazy day and planned the rest of our time in Kununurra.  The notable points are related to Shirley’s retail therapy, plus finding a banana farm/plantation who sold bananas for $6 per kilo.  We also checked out an amazing phenomenon called zebra rock.  Let your imagination run wild and you may be close.

Ord River

On Friday we had the trip that had to be seen, experienced and heard to be believed.  It was a 70 km bus drive to the Argyle Dam and then a boat trip down the Ord river for the 55 km back to Kununurra.  

When you consider the amount of water that is held by the dam, continually flows down the Ord, is used for irrigation, is left over and flows out to sea, increases in the “wet” season, etc etc.  It is huge.  

They measure water volume in “Sydney Harbours”.  That is, the amount of water that is held in Sydney Harbour.  At the moment the volume of water in the Argyle Dam is 32 Sydney Harbours (I think).  At the moment the daily amount that goes out to sea is enough to supply Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne for a year.  

If you couple those statistics with an amazing ride through breathtaking scenery, at speeds up to 60 km/h, and you include sights of rock wallabies, fresh water crocs, many birds big and small, a huge range of foliage – you get an idea of how good it was.  But wait, there is more.  Add to that the idea of returning to Kununurra in the dark after having seen the sun set over the hills and down the Ord – the experience was truly amazing.  And what was more amazing – Shirley enjoyed the entire boat ride (I think).

One of the more famous components of the Kimberley is the Gibb River Road that runs roughly from Kununurra to Derby.  Its length of 590 km is mainly dirt road with many water crossing.  

We ventured down about 40 km of that road to visit the first station from this end – El Questro.  El Questro is not rectangular but if you imagine  a property that is around 100 km wide and 135 km long you get an idea of its size.  

We left the caravan (and our friends) in Kununurra and took a two man tent to El Questro (see phot below).  It has plenty of 4WD drives and plenty of rocky walks – most ending in a swim of some kind.  One was even a warm 27 degrees.  

We set up camp and enjoyed an open air BBQ which consisted of tomato soup, main of barra/scotch filet/chops/chicken/pork/sausages/hot spuds/salad, plus a great range of desserts.  All this was eaten to the accompaniment of local music.  On the way back to Kununurra we called in to check out Wyndham and see the Boab Prison Tree (photo below) plus the sight of five rivers joining the ocean at roughly the same spot (viewed from a high lookout hill).  In a different way the two days were as good as the Ord river cruise (above).

About half the places we stay at have some form of entertainment, either bush poets or singers.  Although the singers are not substitutes for Clapton or McCartney they are great entertainers. They ALL LOVE their guitar, and love playing it whenever the opportunity arises.  In fact they remind me of a good mate who loves playing the guitar.  At El Questro the singer appeared at the tent next morning in a “ranger” uniform.  He is a stonemason by trade and, in the wet, he is also the brick layer, the stone layer and general construction worker.  He is also called on to muster cattle.  What a life.  And I bet he could tell a few yarns as well.

Boab Prison Tree

Monday 4^th was my birthday. The highlights stared when we had home made (by Fay) iced cupcakes and sang happy birthday (one candle) at morning tea.  We then took a flight over the Argyle Dam, the Argyle Diamond Mine and the Bungle Bungles.  It was excellent.  Six passengers and a gorgeous blond (female) pilot crammed into a flying tin can for the two hour trip.  

Lake Argyle stretches for 76 km and we flew down the middle of it at 2000 feet (maybe about 600 metres).  The Bungle Bungles are breath taking – we can’t wait to get out there and go through some if it on land.  The drive in to the National Park is 55 km and takes two hours with about 25 water crossings.  More on that later.  To finish the day the six of us went out to dinner at a flash restaurant called the “Kununurra Grand” – and it was.

On our last day in Kununurra we went to the Hoochery (http://www.hoochery.com.au/) where they make Aussie rum.  Hmmmmmmmm.  Three nips for $5.

Shirley in Echidna Chasm

On the 6^th we drove the 250 km to the edge of the Bungle Bungles and set up camp in a new caravan park (opened in May 2011) which is in a true bush setting.  They even have new ready grown turf that was put down a week ago.  Then on the next day we did IT.  How more Aussie can it get when you are driving down a corrugated red dirt road (good name for a song) in a 4WD at break neck speed (40 km/h), listening to Slim Dusty sing “The Ringer from the Top End”, while cattle graze beside the road and the Bungle Bungles loom out of the flat plain in majestic multi coloured rock.  Shirley and I had left the caravan behind and had migrated to the Bungle Bungles for two days and one night. 

Our camp site

It took us 2 hours to travel the 55 km into the Bungle Bungles National Park – with 25 water crossings. The tent came to the fore again – this time with a new air bed.  

We visited a place called “Cathedral Gorge” which was a huge open air cavern/amphitheatre with such good acoustics that a lot of people sing in there or take pre-recorded music to experience the sound effects. We heard a guy sing a few bars of the “Alleluia”. After another couple of walks we set up camp and had a relaxing couple of hours of relaxation before total darkness set in.  

Dinner was early, then bed was early, then the dingoes started howling.  However it was a good night for sleeping and an early start was on the go – particularly as Shirley’s air bed went flat this time (not the new one).  We spent four of the next five hours walking – mostly along dry rocky river beds.  

Again, the sights were majestic – it is too hard to explain the rugged beauty of the sights.  I took 175 photos in the two days.  So we tackled the 55 km again with the water crossings and arrived back at base camp looking forward to a long shower – after the car was washed of course.  It went from red to its natural gray.  Our four friends did an organised tour into the Bungle Bungles instead of the tent caper.  The Bungle Bungles are probably the highlight of the tour so far.

A magic view of the Bungle Bungles

I have a new item on my “Bucket List” – to write a fictional children’s book.  It has already started with the setting and the characters being established.  Publishing contracts prevent me from releasing any details.  I have already dictated half of the book to my secretary.  Stay tuned for updates.

Shirley in Tunnel Creek Cave

Our next stop was Fitzroy Crossing after a brief pause in Hall's Creek which is nothing to write home about - with due respects to the people who called that neck of the woods home.  Our first day in Fitzroy Crossing was fairly lazy with just a 60 minute cruise along Geikie Gorge - a magnificent limestone gorge with lots of great views.  It was very pleasant cruising along the river – the only thing missing was a glass of wine. On Monday we had a sweet and sour day. The “sweet” was the stroll though the magnificent Windjana gorge (many crocs were present), followed by a stroll/wade through “Tunnel Creek”.  Tunnel Creek is a 700 metre tunnel mostly big enough to drive a couple of buses through.  

About 300 m of the stroll was wading though water, some of it waist deep – so we were wearing bathers.  About 50% of it was pitch black requiring all walkers to have a talk.  This is not for the faint hearted – a stroll in the dark in a tunnel through water – where crocs are NOT guaranteed to be absent.  However it was a great experience. The exit of the tunnel flowed into a free flowing very pretty large creek. 

The “sour” was the 300 km round trip, 220 km of which was probably the worst 220 km of dirt road that I have ever driven in one day.  Again there were plenty of water crossings, albeit small.  If James Bond was with us his martini would have been well shaken – not stirred.

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