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Second entry -On the road again, Alice to Halls Creek, via The Tanami and The Great Sandy deserts.
Great feeling, when E, me, the cruiser, Cyt, the trailer and Kimbo our good luck mascot from Tim and Charlotte,(see picture) and a few bottles of good red, turned left off the Stuart onto the Tanami heading West for 6 days crossing the desert into Western Australia and The Kimberleys.
Two last calls, to brother Was and sister Jill, then we were out of communication till who knows when?
The first of our 100 kms of the 1,100kms up the Tanami were sealed road, so we managed 2 more of our French lessons, c’est si bon!?
From then on till the end for 1,100 kms plus some corrugations and beautiful red bull dust played havoc on our limbs and skins. Thank goodness my E is such a safe and great driver !! There’s a lot to think about out here, very different to driving around the Northern beaches.
The 300 kms to our first nights camp, at a rocky outcrop, just off the road, in the middle of not a lot, (see picture) had us pass
by a couple of groups of massive eagles devouring their way through last night’s mangled road kills, rows and rows of termite mounds, some taller than Ian, spinifex covered flat plains with bloodwood trees dotted here and there but all backed by the spectacular West Mac Donnell ranges, great to be out in the middle of nowhere again.
We pulled in and set up camp mid afternoon, with good time to collect our wood,set up the camp fire and prepare the V & T’s for happy hour and the sunset.
A car would go past about once an hour until 6pm then nothing except a shell refueler heading up to Rabbit Flat, sometime later and he would give us a friendly toot (I found that quite reassuring, in a funny way.)
We stayed here for 2 nights which allowed us time to really experience the desert, perfect our beer damper recipe,and make a Cordon B. chicken cacciatore in the camp oven and for me to be so enthralled by the stars and the milky way, that I decided to bring out all our bedding and warm clothes to literally experience “sleeping under the stars” and then proceeded to drop my
Katmandu Eco fleece (made out of recycled pet bottles) into the camp fire, a quick retrieval followed, but I do now have an exclusively styled “Tanami aerated Eco fleece” that Katmandu would kill for, after a few hours of laughing and then getting freezing b cold we retreated to our King bed in the canvas chateau.
We both enjoyed a good read on this stop, and we even managed to read through all the many 30 plus year old letters, that I had sent Mum over the years and she had saved. We found them amongst her papers when she passed, it was like a diary for me of all my travels back then,lots of great memories.
Two days later we packed up and travelled further west, another 300kms, calling in on the famous Rabbit Flat roadhouse, an experience not to be missed, full of colourful characters, including the owner a Bruce(of course) Farrand and some of our fellow travellers, who all have a tale to tell, as well as the local Aboriginal community who were on there way to a Royalty meeting, to discuss funds owing. Topped up our petrol here at $2.05, so much for the Coles
and WW vouchers???
Much of the trek passes through Aboriginal land so wherever we could we went and visited the communities, along the way to try and gain a (little) greater understanding of their culture and life out here, which is very different from in the big cities, however some issues are the same but it is important we all try to gain a greater understanding and respect that it is their land and they do not think like us. Somedays we feel inspired and encouraged, others we feel quite sad and hopeless about their lives and the future for them as a culture and race.
But everyday out here in amongst all this isolation, the captivating depth of the Australian (only) colors, the heat ,the rugged landscape, the great stories of Aussie folklore and the fascinating Aboriginal dreamtime beliefs and yes, the flies too, you truly realise what an amazingly rich and unique country we live in. We feel very blessed everyday to be travelling through it.
Our next 2 nights were spent just 50kms up from Rabbit flat, on the plains in amongst scrub, spinnifex and bloodwood trees, just a little off the road, just making
a little more damper, reading, star gazing and generally enjoying the Tanami with storms all around us.
By now we both had stained red hands and feet, but we were in heaven.
Next day we pulled out, a little wet, but not too bad and headed on up the rd passing a few of the open cut gold mines and heading for the Aboriginal community of Balgo, which has a very well known Arts centre, we then spent about an hour or more watching the artists at work, the 75yr old plus woman I sat near and watched was doing a painting that will sell for close to $20,000, quite incredible !!It was a fascinating visit, they really are such an interesting culture, how they think is just so different to the white man.
Anthony, the young man working at the centre, gave us a great insight into the community and the industry and then told us of the beautiful lake Gregory some 30 kms down a 4wd track that providing we went to the next little community, Mulan and got a permit we could then camp there.
So off we went Bald and Blonde, got the permit, and
there on the edge of one of Australia’s best kept secrets we camped beside the salt lake, discovered by Augustus Gregory in 1855 when he was looking for land to settle on. In recent years it has become a migratory wetlands for thousands of birds and a playground for dingo’s and herds of wild horses, we thought we had arrived in Africa on safari, it was unbelievable, we couldn’t believe how lucky we were!
We spotted 100’s of wild turkey’s ,Brolga’s and Magpie Geese, plus 100’s of other beautiful species, great to have the time and the binoculars.
The camping spot was the actual handover site where the High court handed the Native title back to the traditional owners and then they declared it The Paruka Indigenous protected area, how wonderful for the coming generations.
After 2 birdwatching ,stargazing, camp cooking wonderful days here, we headed off around the lake for another legendary experience as we traversed onto the Great sandy desert and onto the famous Canning stock route, for 110kms, from, Well 51 to Bililuna and then back onto the Tanami and through to Halls Creek.
The total Canning Stock route takes you 1800kms through the Great sandy
desert from Bililuna to Wiluna and was discovered by the explorer Alfred Canning,in 1906 for the use as a stock route and he was then responsible for the 54 watering points along the way, which are either in the form of wells springs or natural soaks, we did stop at well 51, but it was not in working order.
The job took him over 6 years to complete!
The roads from Alice to Halls Creek and The Tanami experience was a great one for us , despite the rain and road conditions that had effected so many of our fellow travellers.
But I must say that after our 6 amazing nights in the desert when we pulled into The Old Halls creek caravan park and were very happy to have electricity and hot showers,YAHOO!!!!
We spent 3 days in the Old Halls creek caravan park, it was another great Aussie experience, surrounded by the permanent and visiting fossickers, all trying to strike it rich and then there were 2 birds Dale and Robyn from Broome who were out there “having a go” in a camper trailer, good on them.
We did the local shops over for groceries,
spare parts and had a meal out, that was a BIG TREAT and of course visited the local hot spots.
Halls Creek is another trip back in time, just great, back in 1885 15,000 people flocked to HC to prospect for the mighty “G”, but now it’s just a little town on the Great Northern Rd in the Kimberleys with a population of about 1,000, but is a friendly and welcoming spot full of lot’s of interesting characters and a local grocery store which has a fridge full of kangaroo tails.
It’s times like this I’m happy to say we’re vego’s.
Monday 20th May Halls Creek to The Bungle Bungles
We had rung the ranger the day before as the roads had been closed into The Bungles for the last 5, due to rain. He told us, providing it doesn’t rain tonight, tomorrow should be ok,we prayed, it did rain, but only a little, so off we went, very excited but a little concerned about how we would go crossing the rivers ???
But my E, he just drove with care and slowly and at 10am we were setting up camp, including our beaut new outdoor shower,
at Walardi, down by the creek in the Bungles(Australian for heaven)
.
Our message of love to you all, is JUST DO IT !!!!!
Once in your lifetime I hope you all get to visit the Bungle Bungles and have the experience of the no doors helicopter ride, this has been our highlight so far !!!!!!
We then spent 4 glorious days soaking in the Bungles, did all the touristy walks, Cathedral, The Domes, Echidna Chasm, Mini Palms and one big full day, a 15km trek up the Piccaninny Creek, this was a fantastic day. We headed off at 7.30am with all our bits and pieces and got back to the car about 4.30pm, after our big trek, climbing over the boulders and up into the gorges, a few swims/dips in the creek beds, spotting some amazing birdlife, dingo’s and a very large, long BROWN SNAKE, spotted just in time by my E, thank goodness!!!
The striped black and orange/red beehive domed massif is captivating, hence the collection of shots on the blog, which are only 4 or 5 of the 200 odd that we took.
This was a very special 4 days for us, a very spiritual
experience.
We hope you all get to have a Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) experience.
On the 25th May we sadly departed from our Bungles and headed up to Turkey creek and The Warmun Aboriginal arts Centre, all the art here is done with natural ochres, different from anything else we had seen, rustic and just so truly representative of the desert colors of Australia, we didn’t buy but I was quite tempted, especially after our Bungles experience, as they had some great representation of the area .Fortunately or unfortunately we don’t have any/many walls at home(so we just think of our Van Gogh out the front window)
FYI - For an Aboriginal artist to paint a particular location, he or she must have either been born or married to someone who was born there.
From Turkey Creek to our destination Kunnanurra we passed 1,000’s of Boab Trees, this has to be the most interesting tree in Australia, so much personality!!!
First stop was the post office and Post Restante for our mail which Barb had so kindly forwarded to us, felt quite good to get a bit of mail after 5 weeks.
We then headed to the Big 4 and our camp site for the next 9 nights.
Set up camp ,in amongst all the caravans, with all their mod cons.
Showered, shaved and shampooed, then out for a Barramundi nosh at Gullivers and home to crash. But before hitting the hay we rang Barb and caught up on all the news and had a good old yack, felt soooooo good, to hear her voice and have a good laugh and not to be using the sat phone, so no interruptions.
Saturday, woke up about 5.30am, so light and soooooo HUMID, 37deg that day !!!!
After 3 loads of washing we took off into the town to have breaky at The Boab Café (best eggs benedict, Jill) then the grocery stock up, book the car for a service, do our chores and book the couple of tours that we planned to do before heading off down The Gibb River Rd.
That evening we packed a picnic and went to The Barramundi Concert, only a walk from our place at the town oval, it was a free (no Alcohol) concert put on by the Argyle Diamond mines as part of the 2week Ord muster celebrations, the music/ entertainment wasn’t too exciting but we both really enjoyed being amongst the locals and their families for the 5hours, it was a great insight.
Sunday we just had a day at home, doing our blog, mail followup, chores and starting to get the car and trailer resorted for Barb to fit in. Was great to to able to have a few dips in the pool in between, humidity and heat was stifling!!
Monday we headed off about 8.30am for a day at the Kimberley port town of Wyndham (on the other side of Australia)
Stopped off at The Grotto pool and Parry’s lagoon(a bird sanctuary) on the way, spotted some monitors and a BIG salty(ie Australian for CROCODILE!!),then a quick look at the Afghan Cemetry, a visit to the local bakery, which is famous for Ian’s favourites - Vanilla slices, where the custard oozes out when you take each bite, too die for!!
And then a drive around the once historical Port, which was once, when the meatworks existed, a hive of industry and is now looking as though it is only just surviving. Current export are sugar, molasses, nickel and live cattle and importing ammonium nitrate for the mines. We then spent about an hour at the museum, which was fantastic, such a great collection of the Kimberley history.
Then it was over to the pub for the famous Barra burger (best in Australia, they say and we agree).Then up to the Five rivers lookout for sunset 4.45 up here. A great day out , but we did leave wondering what ever might the future be of this town, up here so far away from anything.
Then a relaxing drive home, listening to our murder mystery audio book until we near missed a Brahma bull who made a sudden decision to come for a wander out in front of us, with no B warning, apparently it’s common on this rd at night.
Tuesday 29th May a treat for us, we went on our first (not self guided) tour, picked up by Triple J at 8am by Coach to go touring up to, and for 2 hours by boat on Lake Argyle (20 times the size of Sydney harbour and by the way with 30,000 fresh water crocs in it and enough water to last the Kimberleys for 3years,if there was no wet season at all). The Hydro power generated goes 80% to Argyle Diamond mines and 20% to Kunanurra and Wyndham. The whole scheme cost 75million dollars when built and the electricity replaced 6,000,000 litres of diesel usage per year - not a bad deal for the environment.
The water from lake Argyle which is the biggest man made lake in Australia, then flows by gravity down to Lake Kununurra behind a diversion Dam which sends water to 14,000 hectares of Pastoral land by gravity irrigation channels - growing sugar cane, mangoes, sandalwood, vegetables etc. We travelled back to Kunnunarra by going over and below the Argyle dam and taking the fastest boat ride in Australia for 55 km on Lake Kununurra the old Ord river. The boat was powered by 600 HP of outboard motors and at times reached speeds of 60 kph as we travelled down the gravity outflow from the Dam and dropped 10metres in 10 km. It was a super day, gained a greater understanding of the water supply, from the locals view, the eco system and the fact that they only use 10% of the water and the rest goes via the lower Ord River to the Timor/Arafura Sea near Wyndham.
Thursday 20th saw us on our second ‘non self guided’ tour by coach to the Argyle Diamond mine - and bugger Ian forgot his wallet - we figure we would be one of the few couples in the world where the husband enjoyed the tour more than the wife! - it had us laughing all day. The mine produces a third of the world’s diamonds. Had a tour of the Open cut - Big Big hole - and then to view some of the various types of diamond including the famous Pinks which are held by Argyle for their own polishing and sale to market.
Most of the diamonds now go to India since Argyle and Rio Tinto stepped away from the De Beers marketing arrangement 10+ years ago. This has seen a great development of a joint venture to market the brown diamonds now called Champagne or Cognac diamonds, and take on the American market - 250,000 people employed in India polishing the diamonds. The mine employs 750 people who fly in fly out from Perth on a 2 week roster and as they are now going underground the mine life will be extended to 2022 and will employ 400 people with 80% from Kunanurra and 50% of those local indigenous people.
The mine puts $48 million dollars a year into the local Kunanurra economy. Another great tour with a local Coach driver who is on the local council and gave us lots of tips and local insight.
We depart Kunanurra in the next two days for El Questro Wilderness Park and will speak to you all somewhere a little further down The Gibb River Rd or next time we have reception.
Meantime a big hi to you all. Hope this finds you in good spirit.
And our sincere thanks for all your comments, it was really great to hear from you all.
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John & Sophie, Cambridge
non-member comment
Mouth agape!
Dear Corrie and Ian, I sat here transfixed by your latest blog! It is simply amazing to read, and makes me want to up-sticks and do it myself. Sounds like you aren't doing anything by halves and are in no rush, which must make for an inspirational experience. Take care and best of luck. Looking forward to the next entry ;) John xx