Broome & Kimberley One - 12 to 15 May 2011

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Our flight from Perth to Broome went smoothly and it was not long before we arrived at the airport. We caught the shuttle bus (cheaper than a taxi) to our hotel in the centre of town and although it was quite early it was already dark. We had been upgraded and had a pleasant room overlooking the swimming pool. We were not very hungry as the food on the plane had been ample, so we just wandered down to the Irish Bar which was attached to the hotel for a couple of drinks. Attached to the bar was a local betting shop which seemed quite weird but this apparently is very popular……………The bars and restaurants seem to close really early as just before 9pm they started to put chairs on the tables, so we took the hint and retired early to bed. We were being picked up at 7am for our Camping Tour of the Kimberley’s so probably not a bad thing!. The Kimberley region is in the extreme north of Western Australia, stretching from Broome in the west to Kununurra in the east. To put it into perspective it is roughly five times the size of Ireland. It’s quite weird but we saw a postcard the other day which had Europe overprinted on a map of Australia and there was still plenty of spare space!!! This area known as the Kimberley is very barren and remote with few townships and miles and miles of bushlands. You can travel for hours and sometimes days without seeing many people which is why most people come to the area to enjoy the raw beauty and peacefulness. The area has huge rainforests, savannah woodlands with unique wildlife and mysterious cave systems as well as spectacular waterfalls, mangrove fringed estuaries and rugged red ranges, decorated with sacred Aboriginal rock art. We were so looking forward to this trip as it is probably the most inaccessible region in the whole of Oz and mostly only reached by rough tracks and 4WD vehicles. Most of the regions rain falls between December and March and flooding makes roads impassable for many weeks with most parks and reserves closed during this time, as most of the roads into the parks are unsealed. We had booked our trip to correspond with the start of the dry season, so hopefully all would be open as we were now well into the month of May. We waited outside the hotel with another couple and noticed that we were just opposite the beach and we planned to visit this on our return from our 10 day tour of the region. We left our main luggage at the hotel and only took a couple of small bags (I have never packed less in my life for 10 days vacation!). Our Australian Adventure Tours (AAT) 4WD truck arrived which was quite large and could seat 16 people. We remember having a conversation with a lovely lady a few weeks ago who said never do anything with the word ‘adventure’ in it as usually this meant ‘roughing it’ – hope this would not be the case for us! Ronnie our guide introduced himself and said that there would be only us and the other couple from our hotel on the tour. We thought he was joking as this was the first tour out of the area and believed it would be full. Len and Gaye were our fellow travellers, they live in Sydney and had travelled extensively throughout Australia, but this was there first 4WD ‘camping’ tour like us. We soon realised that we were extremely lucky to have the whole truck to ourselves it would have been very crowded with 16 people!!! Paul and Len took turns to sit in the front with Ronnie where there was ‘some’ air conditioning and Gaye and I sat in the back having double seats to ourselves. Although the air conditioning did not seem to be working in the back of the truck at least we had quite a bit of space. Ronnie had been a guide for over 25 years and was also the same age as us so we all ‘jelled’ well as a group of five very quickly. He was also extremely knowledgeable on a variety of subjects and we were lucky to have such a pleasant chap to drive and guide us. Our first stop was to fill up with diesel and also to buy some ‘grog’ for our journey. As mentioned this was AAT’s first tour into the Kimberley region as it had only just started to open up after the ‘wet’ season, usually between December and April. However this being a particularly unusual bad year many roads were still underwater and others were in need of major repairs where rivers had burst their banks and swept away huge sections into the bushland. This year had seen three cyclones sweep through the area and they had poured a lot of rain over the region. Even more than the two to three metres in an average year – a lot of water! Ronnie explained that many of the roads and tracks in the region were still closed which was unusual for the end of May and as our tour was around the Gibb River Loop we would be doing the tour in reverse as most of the Gibb River Road was still closed. He was hoping that by doing the tour in reverse the road may open as we travelled. So we headed for Fitzroy Crossing, our first night stop and straight away were aware of the high water levels with fences on the sides of the road covered high up with dead weed from the receding waters. Many of the creeks were still running with high water levels which we noticed firstly at Cockatoo Creek and again at Minnie Bridge. The bushlands were peppered with hundreds of weathered old Boab trees unique to the Kimberley region in Australia and made a magnificent vista. The Boab is an immensely important tree where it also grows in Africa and Madagascar and indeed is so important that it is also called the ‘Tree of Life’. To us it looks like it comes out of a ‘fairy tale’ and very pleasing on the eye. Every Boab tree is unique and some individual trees are 1500 years old and older, which makes them the oldest living beings in Australia, and puts them amongst the oldest in the world. The tree bears a small coconut looking fruit which the aborigines found could be mashed up and Ronnie said it tasted a bit like tapioca pudding - yummy (although Paul would not agree)! The trees healthy attributes have only recently been discovered and appreciated by the western world, being ‘hailed’ as a “wonder fruit”. Other common names for the tree include Adansonia, baobab, boaboa, bottle tree, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree. The fruit has more than the antioxidants level of oranges and well as six times the vitamin C of an orange. Ronnie told us that a small holding in Kununurra were growing the fruit as a new food source and probably would be very successful with new health benefits being found daily. As well as the unique Boab trees we also noticed an abundance of Black Wattle trees in full bloom with bright yellow flowers that stood out amongst the red earth of the surrounding area. The Kimberley is a land full of mystery and beauty as well as bountiful natural resources. It is those resources that include gas and minerals as well as diamonds that are now being eyed by the world's miners and many changes are due to take place in this area during the next decade. On the roads we noticed there were even larger road trains than in the Exmouth area, with as many as four trailers travelling along the highway. We found out later that this is the maximum number of trailers they can have and also be no longer than 55 meters in length, which is just as well as when they go past they made even our heavy truck ‘bounce’!.. We noticed lots of cattle wandering freely in the bush without fences and many had been hit by traffic lying dead on the roadside. With the expected increase in traffic in this area with the mining boom, this will become even more of a problem. The bush on each side of the road was also scattered with hundreds of termite mounds, quite different to the ones we had seen before but Ronnie explained that there were many different types. Grass and spinifex-eating termite species are very important to the savannah ecology of Northern Australia. The large amount of biomass that they process makes them equivalent to large mammals that eat grasses in similar savannah or prairie habitats in other parts of the world. We continued for ages and our first stop was the Willare Bridge Roadhouse, where we had coffee whilst Ronnie filled the truck with diesel - it uses a lot………... It was good to stretch our legs for a while before we carried on heading towards Fitzroy Crossing. The roadside was now littered with lovely pink flowers but not sure what they were they looked like a pink cornflower. We finally turned off the main highway on to a rough gravel track heading towards Geikie Gorge National Park which is about 20 km from Fitzroy Crossing our overnight stop. The gorge was formed by the flood waters of the Fitzroy River which are an enormous thirty meters deep. The limestone was originally a reef formed in the Devonian period, not by corals but by algae and lime secreting organisms that are now extinct. The remains of this reef now stand as the limestone range and fossils from the Devonian period can still be found within the limestone strata. The river water sustains an abundance of life, including barramundi, sawfish and freshwater crocodiles, all of which can be found in the gorge and we were hoping to see at least some of these – maybe not up close ‘crocs’ though! The vegetation that fringed the river bank included, river gums, freshwater mangroves as well as the bountiful pandanus palms. We walked for ages along the dry flood river bed, which was strewn with dead trees and the going was quite tough, clambering over large boulders, uprooted trees and deep slippery sand. The walls of the canyon got steeper as we walked along and we finally came to an impassable section and so headed back, cutting across to the river edge where we hoped it would be easier going - it wasn’t……We spotted numerous birds though including a colourful Rainbow Bee Eater as well as our first encounter with a small freshwater crocodile basking in the sunshine on a rock in the middle of the river. Two species of crocodile occur in Western Australia; the estuarine, or saltwater and the freshwater crocodile. Both species are found extensively throughout Northern Australia with the estuarine extending in the east as far as Townsville in Queensland. In WA, known crocodile habitat extends to Exmouth, with occasional records further south to Carnarvon. Estuarine crocodiles (commonly known as ‘salties’) are most likely to be encountered in tidal rivers and estuaries, billabongs and on the flood plains of the Kimberley. They can also be found in the open sea although despite what the name suggests, estuarine crocodiles are not found exclusively in saltwater. They are also commonly found in freshwater pools and rivers many kilometres inland. Indeed when we were in Exmouth someone said that a ‘saltie’ had been found in a freshwater creek and had to be killed for safety reasons as they were unable to capture it. Sometimes problem crocodiles are caught and relocated to one of the crocodile farms but they cannot generally be relocated to another area due to their territorial nature. If released they will invariably return to the spot they were captured! The salties are the largest living reptile and have been known to grow up to seven metres and are considered to be a dangerous predator. They have a varied diet but feed mainly on fish, waterbirds and occasionally large land mammals, such as wallabies but can also be dangerous to humans! Freshwater crocodiles (commonly known as ‘freshies’) inhabit freshwater rivers, creeks, artificial lakes (such as Argyle and Kununurra) and occasionally tidal areas. They feed mainly on insects, small aquatic animals and fish. Compared with salties the freshies are relatively small and are rarely longer than three metres and are not as aggressive. We finally arrived at Fitzroy Crossing Campsite which a month ago was surrounded by water and inaccessible and still was in parts. It is located on the banks of the Fitzroy River and is situated in the centre of pastoral country with the town being the stopping off place for visitors on their way to the Kimberley. Region. We parked up on the edge of the bush and Ronnie showed us how to erect our twin tents, which was quite easy, much easier than the last time we went camping back in the 80s! We were also lucky as being the first tour of the season we had brand new tents and sleeping bags – although no pillows were supplied! We were also supplied with a sort of mattress which when you took out the stoppers it was supposed to inflate!! The campsite had a brick barbeque and wood was supplied, so we lit a campfire and Ronnie cooked a delicious chicken casserole - our first meal in the bush which was truly scrummy. We then had coffee/tea brewed in the ‘billy’ over the fires – real camping! .We went to bed early but had an unsettled night as we awoke quite a few times, it got quite cold in the bush which we had not expected and it was not very comfortable without pillows, although the sleeping bag and mattress were not too bad. The noises in the bush were weird and we heard many unidentifiable sounds during the long night but we did manage to get some sleep before we awoke very early in the morning. We wandered over to the toilet block and showers which were quite some distance but you do need to wash in the bush! ….and then had breakfast as the sun rose over the bushlands. We watched some majestic black kites soaring overhead before we dismantled the tents and the ‘boys’ helped Ronnie load them back on the truck before we set off on the road again. We were on the road by 7am as we had a long drive today to the Bungle Bungle National Park. We stopped at Ngumban Cliffs which stood out deep red in the middle of the vast plains to take some photographs. Ronnie was a keen photographer and gave us some useful hints on taking photographs of the red cliffs in the hot sunshine. The cliff faces were stunning shining brilliant red, gold, orange and yellow in the morning sunshine. Wild flowers were in abundance in bright pink, purple and red, inter dispersed with the spiky spinafex grass it was a truly beautiful landscape. A lone aborigine walker was wandering down the highway along the long straight road; goodness knows where he was heading but he seemed to be enjoying his own vast space. As we drove along more and more termite nests were now strewn across the plains and it looked like a giant graveyard with rich red tombstones, standing straight up amongst the green spiky spinafex and other grasses. We stopped for a break and set up the small camp stove for coffee and biscuits at Birangi Creek where Ronnie who was doing all the driving managed to get a short break. He was a jolly fellow and was full of information, he told us about a cattle station (large farm) near Cooper Pedy in WA that was larger than the state of Texas and how some Americans he took on tour did not believe him!! He had travelled there once with a photographer and the whole area was covered in wild flowers an amazing sight to see but it took them weeks to cover a small area. We travelled on and about 30 km out outside Halls Creek we noticed a turn off signposted to Alice Springs via the Tanami Road. This road was about 800km long on a gravel road, a long and bumpy journey with nothing in between. Apart from this turn off we did not come across many other side roads on most of our journey in the area. There are so few roads here sealed or unsealed. We continued and crossed over many rivers and creeks including Rock Hole and Mother O’Neill Creek before we finally arrived in the township of Halls Creek. Halls Creek is a small town situated in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is located between the towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Turkey Creek (Warnum) on the Great Northern Highway. It is the only sizeable town for 600 km on the Highway. The town functions as a support centre for remote cattle stations in the area and is also a major welfare hub for the local indigenous population. We had lunch parked up outside the visitors centre and wandered around the town before driving out along a gravel road to a place called China Wall, which did indeed look like a small section of the famous wall where we took some photographs. Later we set off again in the truck before we turned off on to a rough gravel road which said 52km to the Bungle Bungle range (it was going to be a long journey on this extremely rough gravel track but Ronnie said we had better get used to it as most of this trip would be ‘off road’. A giant red kangaroo greeted us (which we narrowly missed) as we bumped along, crossing over many creeks, some still full of water but the truck was well equipped and Ronnie was an excellent driver. We soon arrived at an extremely wide river and a truck was stuck right in the middle of the water right up to its axle. Ronnie set off into the torrent and when he neared the truck he wound down his window and asked if he could help but the chap said he was completely stuck and was waiting for help from a nearby cattle station (no AA here). We had to keep going as we nearly got stuck ourselves in the fast flowing river but managed to get to the other side in one piece! The gravel road continued on and we finally arrived at a small visitor centre which was the actual entrance to the National Park. Ronnie booked us in and we travelled along another few kilometres of gravel road to our campsite in the bush. The facilities at the campsite were pretty basic but what one should expect from a National park. They consisted of a small ‘dunny’ (long drop loo), a cold water tap and a round stone fireplace for a campfire. No wood was supplied for the campfire which apparently it normally is, so we collected some from the area. You are not supposed to collect wood but just as we did a ranger arrived with some logs for us!! He laughed but said he could have ‘fined’ us $500!! As we set up our tents we were joined by a beautiful blue winged Kookaburra which is a large species of kingfisher native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea. Measuring around 16 inches, it is slightly smaller than the more familiar Laughing Kookaburra. It has cream-coloured upper and underparts barred with brownish markings. It has blue wings and brown shoulders and blue rump. The male has a bright blue tail and the female a rufous tail with blackish bars. Later Ronnie cooked up some chilli con carne on the campfire and again we had an excellent meal. To be a safari guide in this area you need to have lots of skills. We all sat around the campfire and chatted looking up at the night sky where the stars were really bright and the Milky Way stood out perfectly. Ronnie informed us how to calculate which way was South by using the Southern Cross and pointer stars. He also pointed out several other star groups including the bright Scorpio which was really clear in the cloudless sky We retired to bed early and just as we settled into our sleeping bags we heard someone arrive and shuffle around outside looking for fire wood (hope the ranger does not catch them)! Again the noises of the night were strange frogs and crickets mingling together although we were soon fast asleep. We awoke early in the morning to the noise of the Kookaburra and were joined by three of them obviously hoping to be fed. We were staying at this campsite for two nights so we did not have to dismantle our tents (hoorah) and after breakfast set off for our first walk in the Bungle Bungle range. Ronnie our guide said that we had run out of coffee at breakfast and as there were no shops for miles we would have to do without until we got to the next town – goodness knows how Paul will survive that long! Spanning 45,000 hectares, the Bungle Bungle range is situated within the Purnululu National Park about 180 km south of Kununurra. For thousands of years the range was extensively used by Aboriginal people during the wet season, when plant and animal life was abundant, however very few Europeans knew of its existence until the mid 1980s. In 1982 a journalist began filming a documentary on the cattle industry in the area and captured the amazing beauty of the Bungle Bungle Ranges on film. After public viewing the Bungles received widespread media coverage and the area became popular. A track from the main road was pushed through scrub and over ridges of jagged rock some 50km long and this Spring Creek Track provides the public access to this remote and ancient wonder today. This was the track we travelled down yesterday and it must have been quite a struggle for those that forged it. In 2003 Purnululu was recognised and became World Heritage listed for its outstanding geological value and its exceptional beauty. The Bungle Bungle ranges are, by far, the most outstanding example of cone karst in sandstone anywhere in the world and owe their existence and uniqueness to several interacting geological, biological and climatic phenomena. The sandstone towers are a really amazing sight to see and very hard to describe. The beehive shaped domes have formed case hardened skins which have a striped appearance, with layers of orange and dark grey, resembling a tiger skin. The black/grey bands are a single-celled organism and the alternating orange stripe is iron oxide that also protects the fragile sandstone. We were all amazed at the colours as we started on our first walk into the park heading for Cathedral Gorge, which had spectacular steep sided walls and a cool pool within a cavern at the end where we stopped to take in the stunning scenery. We later returned to the truck and prepared lunch in the picnic area before embarking on our second walk into Piccaninny Gorge which is the longest and deepest of all the gorges in the range. We also walked to the steep Piccaninny Lookout which gave wondrous views out over the black and orange formations. After the walks we travelled out to the visitor centre which had interesting displays as well as a few tourist goods. It did not however have any food supplies so we were unable to buy any coffee! I was speaking to one of the rangers and jokingly said our guide had fallen behind in his duties as we had run out of coffee. She then went to her own supply and gave the five of us enough to keep us going until we reached civilisation again – a lovely lady. We set off back to camp but stopped at a scenic spot to walk up to a steep hill to a lookout viewing the vast ranges. The beautiful colours on the rocky outcrops all around us were quite mesmerising. It was such a lovely location that we walked back down the hill and had coffee on the camp stove before gathering a few drinks together and walking back up to watch the sun go down over the rock formations. As the sun set the colours changed quickly from bright reds to golden orange – quite a lovely day. We then drove back in the dark to our campsite crossing several creeks and watching out for wildlife as we went. We did not see any kangaroos but came across quite a few wild cattle grazing on the side of the track. Sulphur Crested parrots were also making a noise roosting in the trees as we arrived safely back at camp. Our last night in Bungle Bungle was extremely cold but we had a roaring camp fire and another superb meal cooked by Ronnie before retiring to our sleeping bags. The next morning we dismantled our tents and set off out of the park coming across a lone dingo wandering around in the bush as well as several birds including a couple of large Plains Turkeys. We then had a long hot bumpy drive back out of the park to reach the highway and although it was only about 60 km it took us over two hours and as the air conditioning was not working in the back of the truck it was quite tough. We would be glad when we get to our next destination a small town called Kununnura – see you there.
PS – Live Blog – we would like to wish our dear daughter Sharon a very happy birthday today 8th June 2011.

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Comments

[sharon Sheffield]

thank you
for the birthday wishes and the lovely surprise phone call this morning. PS the sea eagle and honey bee eater pictures are AMAZING!