Blog 11 Gibb River Rd

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Gibb River Road

Day 1

Left Derby on a beautiful morning and started the long anticipated journey along the Gibb River Road. Whether to do this journey or not was the subject of much discussion and the questioning of fellow travellers who had done it recently. As always, the information was mixed with good and bad reports of road conditions but a consistent revelation of how "it was worth it". So, with the Baileys still in Broome, the Whitfields and Stubbs headed off into the unknown. The road is unsealed for it's entire length of 665 km (with the exception of some bitumen at the start and finish) from Derby to the junction of the Great Northern Hwy between Wyndham and Kununurra. Most "normal"people (as we were in 2006) take the Gt Northen Hwy as its a fully sealed very comfy ride through Fitzroy Crossing and Hall's Creek, but some intrepid travellers can't resist a challenge and do it the hard way. Our plan is to take about 14 days for the trip, only going reasonably short distances most days and staying 2 nights mostly.

First leg, Derby to Windjana Gorge was a bit of an eye opener -after leaving the single lane bitumen the noise from driving on the corrugations is so loud you can hardly hear each other talk but the dust wasn't as bad as some places we've been. Wyndjana Gorge NP has a lovely campground, quite a bit of welcome shade as its still in the low 30's during the day even though it's almost the middle of winter (the dry season up here). They have solar powered showers and flushing toilets - a welcome surprise. Arrived at lunchtime, set up camp then walked the 3.5 km Gorge. Towering sheer cliffs, water in the Lennard River which only really flows in the wet season, and lots of sandbanks where freshwater crocodiles (due to their cold blood) sun themselves during the day. Gave up counting after 100! These crocs are usually fairly docile and much smaller than the salties but blend in with the scenery a little too well so you have to keep your eyes open. Still it was a really lovely walk and it's easy to see why the aborigines camped here for thousands of years. Lots of history, much of it based around the aboriginal freedom fighter Jandamarra. This is all his (Bunda) country.



Day 2 and it's only a short 35 km drive to Tunnel Creek NP. Tunnel Creek cuts through the Napier Range and is about 700 metres long. This is where Jandamarra was killed by a black police tracker in 1897 after a 4 year reign of terrorising the early settlers of the Kimberley and the police attempting to protect them. A great hideout, lots of caves inside the tunnel and I guess on those days you could have drunk the water. You need a good torch and expect to get wet as you wade through. The river is flowing very slowly but once again quite a bit of water and sandbanks with the odd crocodile resting peacefully. Fascinating walk and wonderfully cool. Lots of people so you feel quite safe - though I do find being underground a bit of a challenge. Of course you have to walk back the way you came and when you find that the biggest crocodile has moved from his sandbank and can't be seen anymore, it makes you even more cautious.! When we got back to the cars we had a laugh with 3 indigenous blokes who were selling carver boat nuts and a book about Jandamarra. They also take quided tours through the Tunnel. Their language and culture is still alive and reasonably well out here and one of them couldn't stop giggling as we discussed their language and how to roll your rrr's to get the correct sounds. Common ground is always football (AFL) and Buddy Franklin is a bit of a hero out here! Spent the rest of the day resting back at the camp and marvelling at our new neighbours, a couple that had to be in their 70's and they are doing the Gibb on PUSHBIKES! They are from Christchurch NZ and have done this ride before. Still can't get our heads around why you would even contemplate such a ridiculous idea but each to his own. They apparently ride about 50-60 km's per day which is what we did last year on our bikes in Europe on dedicated and paved bike tracks. Makes that trip look a bit tame in comparison and you won't find us flogging ourselves on bikes in the Australian Outback, I love my comfort too much. These two obviously spend many nights literally free camping as the dedicated campsites are much further apart than they could possibly ride in a day and sometimes two days. Apparently they were Mountain climbers in the past so find this quite easy in comparison.No sitting around watching the idiot box for these two, their travels would make a great inspirational documentary subject. We left them this morning having a rest day and happily setting out to do the 7 km Windjana Gorge walk. We are carrying 10 litres of drinking water for them as far as the turnoff where John has promised to leave it under the biggest tree on the left hand side for them to pick up tomorrow!!! I think I'm speechless.



Days 3&4

From Windjana, we packed up and headed another 125 km's to the King Leopold Conservation Park and set up camp at Silent Grove camp site. Another park well run by the WA Parks & Wildlife. $8:80 per person per night and you get flushing toilets, hot showers and plenty of potable water. The attraction here is Bell Gorge a 10 km drive and then a 30 minute walk over rocks, more rocks & a rocky creek bed to the most stunning water falls and swimming holes. Ruth (or "Outback Ruth" as she is known to her friends), not only managed this walk with her stick, but also got in and had a swim. No mean feat considering how slippery it was. Very humbling to see the effort she put in, but a great achievement. There were heaps of people here - just making us realise you have to go an awful long way to find somewhere really isolated. The campsite was packed by the time we got back, lots of kids and their 30+ parents having a great time seeing the country. Obviously the Education Dept in WA aren't as strict about taking kids out of school as in NSW.

Second day in Silent Grove was a rest day so after a lazy morning John and I went back for another swim and this time watched four 20 something European boys jumping from the top of the cliffs into the big pool at the bottom of the falls. Very exciting to watch but goodness knows how we would have got help if anything went wrong. Nowhere near the same numbers as the previous day so had a wonderful afternoon swimming and reading in the sun. Campsite much quieter too though a group of older blokes arrived about 10 am and lit a fire. It was only 30+ degrees in the shade so couldn't quite work that one out? One of the lovely things about this trip is the birdlife.

Apart from the raucous calls of the crows and cockatoos, you are woken every morning by the chorus from some beautiful sounding birds. It's lovely just lying in bed listening to them all - though they are very early risers. If you wake, it's still dark, but the birds are telling that it won't be long before you gotta get out of that bed!! I've been surprised by all the small birds we see, you can't help but notice the big ones, cockatoos, kites, crows and so on but if you look more closely there are really exquisite smaller birds everywhere, unfortunately great fodder for those feral cats.









Day 5

Left Silent Grove for 125 km trip to Mt Barnet Roadhouse, entry to Manning Gorge. Brilliantly run roadhouse, great HOT coffee and home made pies, yum! They also manage the campsite which is 7 km's off the road, good facilities but no potable water here. It's on the banks of the Manning River, beautiful swimming spot. The walk here starts at the river crossing which is achieved with the help of a small tinny attached by rope to either bank. The gorge is only 5 km's return and they quote 1.5 hours each way - we did it in an hour. It's a tough walk, rocks, boulders and more rocks, up hill and down dale so we didn't take Ruth this time. It was well worth it as the swimming hole and waterfall were terrific. The same group of young men from Bell Gorge arrived and started their demonstration of high diving again. We weren't tempted! Did the walk back and very pleased to finish with another swim at the tinny crossing. Enjoyed the challenge of the walk but boy was I exhausted! We were all in bed by 7:15 that night and sound asleep about 15 minutes later.



Day 6

We were supposed to be heading off today for Drysdale River Station. It's 110 km's to the turnoff and then another 60km's to the Station. We've had lots of different reports about this road (mainly bad) so not confident we'll be able to get the vans safely in. We've booked a flight on Tuesday morning over the Mitchell Falls from Drysdale and the option is to camp by the roadside, leave the vans there and drive up to Drysdale for the 6:30 am flight (means we would have to leave the vans about 4 am - not my best time of day). So have decided to have a rest day at Manning River campsite - swimming and reading and head off tomorrow - Monday 22nd. We enjoyed a wonderful relaxing day by the river marvelling at the serenity and beauty of this spot with so much tough country all around. So far that has been the biggest surprise to me about the Gibb, hadn't thought much past the toughness of the roads but the beauty of these pockets along the way is why you would put yourself through the exercise. Anyway, more tomorrow!







Day 7. Well we headed off carefully to Drysdale, the road was pretty awful but we coped. The 60 k's from the turnoff were relentlessly bone jarring! Once we got there, we were all a bit reluctant to open the van doors to see if any damage had been done. At first glance in ours, no damage, but as we opened cupboards, we found shelves had fallen down as well as one in our slide out pantry and the unopened bottle of vinegar liberally doused anything below it. Luckily nothing irretrievably damaged. On the other hand, the Whitfield's microwave was hanging by its cord and had been banging against the fridge so there is a nice gouge out of the fridge door. We won't know whether it still works until we get back to some power. Drysdale River station is a million acres of pastoral land, cattle now secondary to their tourism operation. If beef prices are down they don't even bother to muster, just leaving stock out for another year. The campsite provides a stop for people heading up to Mitchell Falls and Kalumburu. Other than that, there is nothing to do. We had never planned on driving to Mitchell Falls, the road is horrendous by all accounts, but instead did a 2 hour fixed wing flight there and back. Left at 6:15 for a smooth spectacular return flight to Mitchell Falls that took us north west along the Prince Regent River to the coast then east to the falls. By the way, did you know the falls are about 50Km from the coast?? I always thought they emptied into the ocean! Can't begin to describe how beautiful this isolated part of Australia is. Nature has the land's best interests at heart by not providing fresh water - except in times of flooding! Rugged landscapes that are almost impossible to get a grader through, and then in the Aqua waters, she throws in Iraganji jellyfish that can kill you with one bite, box jellyfish, saltwater crocodiles and sharks. Apart from the fact that the area is under National Parks or Conservation Parks, that just about rounds out the reasons why there is no development here. Having said that, we flew over the "True North", one of the luxury cruise ships that bring visitors to the area as well as some smaller yachts taking shelter in the creeks and tributaries all along the coast. The flight was truly worth every bit of dust and bad roads we'd experienced to get here!

Day 8. Headed out of Drysdale the next morning, braving the 60k's of corrugations back to the Gibb RR, this time with everything as tied down as you could make it. Took 2 hours to do the 60k's witnessing some amazing examples of stupidity from other drivers along the way. Makes you realise why we saw 4 camper trailers with broken axles brought into Drysdale in the 2 days we were there. The long, relentlessly corrugated and dusty ride to Home Valley station took another five hours so we were very pleased to finally see the Pentecost River with a backdrop of the Cockburn Ranges as we crested the last hill. A bonus was the sound of emails and messages downloading momentarily, didn't last long - the service dropped out again almost straight away. It's actually quite restful having no TV, radio, Internet or phone service, you can contact people via snail mail from Drysdale but the mail only gets picked up by the mail plane on Tuesday's! The good old days are still going strong out here.

Home Valley Station is owned by the Indigenous Land Corp, and combines a working cattle farm, an indigenous training facility as well as a very popular stopover for people on the Gibb RR. It has a very imposing entrance with patches of very GREEN GRASS at the front - a delightful site to grass deprived travellers like us! We stayed here for two nights, the first down on the riverfront - tidal, crocs, and a very dusty campsite but stunning views of the Cockburn Ranges and sunset. John and I decided to have the second night on a powered site, just so I could blow dry my hair and have a bit of luxury for one night. Might I say it was worth the disdainful looks from our fellow travellers not to have to worry about how much water or power I was using and I had such a restful night that we were the first ones out the gate the next morning. John also drained our water tanks here and refilled with much nicer water. We didn't do a lot at Home Valley, there are walks and horse rides and helicopter rides but there is also a swimming pool so I opted to be lazy and sun the body by the pool. There are great tours for families so there were a lot of kids around having a ball. Home Valley also has a big restaurant,with nightly music so we all spent the last night helping the entertainer to get the words right and keep in tune. By this time we are up to day 10 on the Gibb so next stop is El Questro!





Day 11 Friday June 26

El Questro was one of our very favourite places on our 2006 trip so we were really looking forward to showing everyone what a fabulous part of the world this is. We also finally crossed paths with John's sister Lib and her husband Greg who are on their maiden voyage in their new caravan. The trip from Home Valley was very ordinary, just to remind us that we are on one of the toughest roads in Australia. Had to cross the Pentecost River twice which went without a hitch and when we arrived at El Questro were delighted to find a large grassed area (unpowered) that would fit the four vans. They have all sorts of accommodation here from the main homestead (very, very expensive) to private, unpowered camp sites on the river - which does have freshwater crocs! We stayed here three nights and it really is extraordinarily beautiful. El Questro is a 1 million acre cattle farm with rugged ranges, pockets of the most beautiful rainforest, stunning gorges and plenty of wildlife to see. It was one of the first places in Australia to combine pastoral and tourism pursuits and did it very well if my memory serves me correctly. Probably because of the many travel shows on TV these days, the numbers travelling to some of these remote places has grown exponentially. El Questro has responded by squashing people in to the same area of powered sites as 9 years ago so it was very crowded and VERY dusty. We were lucky to have our grassed area but still had to queue for the ablutes. It's very popular with camping tours such as Outback Spirit so another ablution block would go down very well. After three nights here we were pretty well covered in dust and have mentioned in our comments that maybe a water truck doing the rounds would be a nice way to settle the dust. John and I had done a number of walks in the gorges last time so didn't feel the pressure to do them all again. We did go in to Zebedee (hot) springs and lolled around in the crystal clear warm water for an hour or so and also did the first part of the El Questro Gorge - stunning. We really enjoyed our stay here even if it was dusty and would still recommend anyone up this way to have a look.

Day 14

It’s now Monday 29th June and we are finally leaving the Gibb River Road and all it’s corrugations, bulldust and excitement. The 3 couples who started out plus Lib and Greg. It’s the end of a big adventure for the Whitfields and Stubbs and we’ve a great feeling of achievement. We were very pleased with ourselves that we didn’t have a single flat tyre until then but on the way out of El Questro, when we finally hit the bitumen, Greg and Lib had a fully blown out tyre. This has convinced them that the rest of their trip will be on bitumen and unsealed roads are not for them!! Really felt sorry for them but equally glad that it hadn’t happened to us. We now have to think about what our next challenge will be????? Onwards to Kununurra.....

"John's comments on the GRR." ---- Lots of people talk about "doing the Gibb". It has never been a fascination of mine and we set off with much trepidation and concern for our vehicle and van. I would have no interest in doing this just to say we did it. My lasting impression will be how difficult, corrugated and dusty it is BUT HOW BEAUTIFUL. I had no idea that this part of Australia had such spectacular scenery. The ranges, gorges and horizons have to be seen to be believed. You are in one of the remote parts of the world (although going by the numbers of camper trailers out here that becomes questionable) and help is a long way away. If you break down it is only $6000 to get your vehicle back to civilisation at Kununurra or Derby. If you ever get the chance, do a trip up here with someone else driving. You won't regret it.



Just a postscript to this blog, I can't add all the photos I want so will create a second blog with just the extra photos! Cheers.

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Photos

Derby
Low Tide

Derby
6 hours later - high tide.

Derby
The prison tree. Aboriginals were kept overnight here in the early days.

Windjana Gorge
This bird was cautiously stalking some prey, or was it the other way round?

Windjana Gorge
Some of the locals.

Tunnel Creek
The other end

Gibb River Road
Companions on the journey.

Bell Gorge
"Outback Ruth"

Bell Gorge
The trek

Bell Gorge
Yep, budgies here too!!!!!

Bell Gorge
Top of the falls

Bell Gorge
From the bottom of the falls

BEll Gorge
That's John in the pic.

Bell Gorge
The falls, you can see everyone at the top swimming.