North to West

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For the clever ones among you -although I have yet to discover one as no one mentioned anything- my last blog should of course have been entitled 'From East to North' instead of 'From West to North'.

We made it to the west coast of Australia. We arrived in Broome on Sunday, about a week ahead of schedule which was not because we hated the trip but more due to the fact that we’re so late in the season that a lot of things are already closed. At the end of the dry season, the rivers in the many gorges run pretty dry. Because of this, the rangers close down a good number of parks and certain others just aren’t really worth visiting anymore. We decided not to go up to the far north Kimberley since the waterfalls at Mitchell Plateau have stopped running and thus we arrived earlier in Broome.

That being said, the trip was amazing. The Kimberley is a beautiful, rough and wild place where million acre cattle stations are the norm. It’s a dry, tough place, which reflects in its inhabitants. Technology has certainly made a huge difference to life here, but it’s still pretty hard and that shows.

We left Darwin on the 5th of November, heading for Litchfield National Park. On the way there, we stopped at the Territory Wildlife Park which is basically a zoo, hosting all the native species of the area in various large enclosures (or open areas) which imitate the different habitats. We saw a lot of animals we’d already seen before ‘in the wild’ but also some more elusive ones. The nocturnal house was especially interesting. They run the lights in a reverse cycle there, so it’s dark during the day and light at night. This means you get to see nocturnal animals which are normally very difficult to spot. Echidna, small types of wallaby, marsupial rodents, sugar gliders and bats were among the inhabitants. Also very interesting was a large aquarium housing massive barramundi, rays and sawfish. The most interesting however, was the bird show. At 3pm they did a show with various raptors and other birds, including a Jabiru and a black cockatoo, sending them flying around the open arena. During the show, a buzzard that had taken a little leave of absence, taking off during a show on a previous day, returned to snatch the spotlight from a wedge-tailed eagle. This particular buzzard is a unique bird in that it uses rocks to smash open eggs of large birds, such as emu. Very cool to see.

Litchfield was amazing. There’s waterholes everywhere with waterfalls and beautiful cool water, which was a blessing considering the heat and humidity. We stayed for two nights, seeing most of the sights and swimming in the different waterholes. On the second night we went in search of the Lost City (yet again) which we found at the end of a 10km dirt road. When we got there it was still sunny but dark clouds on the horizon threatened a big storm and sure enough, after fifteen minutes the first thunder roared through the park and rain started pouring down, swept violently across the area by strong winds. It was beautiful because the sun was still on part of the rock formations when the storm moved in. It also cooled us down in short order and we were soon running for the shelter of the car because we were freezing. The trip back was interesting since the road had become a river with deep pockets of muddy water sending massive fountains of water shooting left and right from the tires. It was made a lot easier by the 100-series landcruiser driving in front of us. Quite a sight to see the amount of water that it displaced. Luckily there was still enough left for us to have some fun without running into any trouble. In Litchfield I saw short-eared rock-wallaby for the first time and we had a family of boo-book (small owls) hunting around our tent one night.

In my last blog I talked about the Burketown Pub and its owner, Greg. He had previously run a pub in Daly Rivers which is a small town/community south-west of Litchfield and after leaving the park on a 4wd track, we drove there. The pub was a very humble building, more of a shack really, and as soon as we arrived we were engaged by the locals who were obviously interested in meeting us, talking to us and introducing us to their family members. Since they’re pretty much all related in some way, we met most of the 20-odd people in short order. There was no shortage of characters again, from the Parry family who proudly and quickly pointed out that they were part British - which is interesting because white Australians usually despise ‘Poms’- to Rich, a more educated local who would take us out the next day to make a bamboo spear. I even went to the community with James, one of the Parry brothers, to get something for Manu which was an interesting experience in itself. We were also introduced to another interesting aspect of Aboriginal culture, being that male and female members of the same family (cousins, nephews, etc.) aren’t allowed to socialize. I guess tribes and communities differ in how strictly they enforce this, but in this case one of the guys was not allowed to sit next to his cousin or address her directly by name.

After dark, and more than a few drinks, we went in search of a campground. Not wanting to camp next to the road by the river as many of the locals had suggested, we drove down the road to a campground, which was closed. The next one, Perry’s on the Inlet, was further still and at the end of a rough track, which was difficult to follow in the dark. When we finally arrived there the owners, Carol and Dick, were already in bed after what I take was a pretty good drinking session. When Carol was roused to meet us, she turned out to be a very talkative and funny woman in her fifties. She admonished us repeatedly for waking her up, promising to see us in the morning and cane us death. The campground itself was great with wildlife everywhere, owls, fruitbats, wallaby and the ever present cane toads of which I killed a number at her request. Her husband informed me the next day that you can actually eat the legs as they are similar to say frog’s legs. I thought the whole animal was poisonous but it carries its poison in glands just behind the head. I would’ve liked to try it but after this we didn’t really see any more cane toads of reasonable size since they haven’t penetrated into WA yet. Not that it will take long, they spread a couple hundred kilometers a year and nothing seems to be able to stop them. They’re poisonous to almost every animal and have quickly wiped out a lot of the lizards and snakes in NT, as well as wreaking havoc on the fresh water crocodiles. A cane toad of ten centimeters long already has enough poison to kill a freshie.

Next we went back to Katherine, from where we would start heading west again. We chilled out for a day or two, one of which was blessedly cool with around 25 degrees (the average temperate had risen to 36-37 by now). On the second day there, while the others were in town with the car, I spotted a small kingfisher sitting next to me as I was reading. I caught it easily as it was wounded and saw that it was a sacred kingfisher. Something had attacked it and one of its wings was pretty beaten up. It was dead tired and I kept it in my hand for a while to recover. After an hour or two of dozing and some drops of water from a water pistol, it started to be more lively again, biting my hand and chirping indignantly at being held. By now it was fully dark so I reckoned it would be safe from predators and put it back in a tree near the campground. I wished it all the best and left it to its own devices, hoping it would make it but unfortunately when I came to check on it the next morning it was dead underneath the tree where I set it down. Nature doesn’t waste however, and ants were already busy taking the little corpse apart. Our campsite featured a pair of blue-winged kookaburras and a big, hollow tree next to our tent turned out to house a great number of small bats which all took flight at dusk, at about the same time as big clouds of fruit bats passed overhead, as they do pretty much everywhere in Oz.

From Katherine we took a small detour to see Cutta Cutta caves which had some nice stalagmites and -tites but nothing compared to the big caves in France and Belgium. What was interesting however, is that the calcium here grows at as much as 4mm a year which is really very fast. This was evident as some of the railings and human fixtures were actually sprouting growth on them. Also really cool were two black-tailed rock wallaby, a species I hadn’t seen before, who lived in a cave just by the entrance of the big cave.

By way of Victoria River Roadhouse we headed to Timber Creek, bypassing most of Gregory National Park since this is very hardcore 4WD stuff and although probably cool, a bit too risky to take on at this time of year without recovery gear (i.e. a winch). In Timber Creek we cleaned the car, preparing for the crossing of the WA border which is guarded by a quarantine. We stayed a night in Keep River NP, where we hoped to visit a rock art site housing over 2500 paintings, but due to a conflict between the rangers and the natives this site was closed. The park was still impressive though, with spectacular rock formations and big fires on the hills surrounding us. The next day we crossed the border without incident and went to Lake Argyle for a much needed swim. It’s a huge lake and set inside a range that features very nice rock formations. The change from NT to WA is very marked. As soon as you cross the border, hills rise up and everything becomes a lot more interesting to look at. Much of the hills are covered in round patches of spinifex, a nasty desert grass that is very common in the outback and it makes them look mossy and soft, like the hills in Scotland but nothing is further from the truth. Spinifex will poke through your pants and scratch your skin, causing an irritating itch. It’s a horrible plant.

We stopped in Kununurra, a surprisingly big town (5000 people, I know my perspective is changing) and pretty much the gateway to the East Kimberleys, together with Wyndham which lies just a bit to the north-west of it. We restocked at Woolworths and headed 300km down the highway to Purnululu NP, home of the Bungle Bungle ranges. These are very strange and relatively young rock formations (300-400 million years old while the surrounding ranges are 1,5 to 1,8 billion years old) made up of lime stone and gravel (basically quartz) and mechanical and chemical weathering has left them looking like beehives, striped and rounded. Although this phenomenon is best seen from the air, it’s still spectacular up close. The park was expensive ($10 entry per vehicle and $10 per person per night for bush camping) and the road into it was very rough but also very cool. This first day was the hottest day and night on record for us: 42 degrees during the day and the temperature never dropping below 30 at night. Although the clouds obscured part of the light from the setting sun, it was still beautiful and we watched the sunset on top of the boat, on the car, with a bottle of wine.

We got up at six to watch the sun rise over the ranges and have breakfast there, but when I got out of the tent the car was leaning to one side and sure enough, the other rear tire had deflated. Probably a small hole, but we would have to change the tire anyway. We forgot about the sunrise, had some coffee and changed the tire, quite quickly this time. Then we went to the ranges and did a few of the walks under blessed cloud cover so it was relatively cool, maybe 33-34 degrees. We walked to Cathedral Gorge, a natural amphitheatre with amazing acoustics, and to a beautiful lookout. By now the sun was out again and it soon became inhumanely hot so we opted to go back to the camp, build a shelter out of tarps and watch a movie, waiting for the afternoon to bring relief from the heat and make it more suited to walking. After watching Life of Brian and playing cards for a bit, the sky turned black and threatening so we prepared for rain. When it came, it was a blessing. The air cooled down to high twenties immediately and we all stood in the rain in our underwear or bathing suits, taking a shower. The tap water was so warm and nice that we decided to do a bush shower, filling our washing-up tub with the hot water and dipping it over each other. The rain stopped and it looked to be a perfect evening. But soon enough, it started up again with a vengeance, this time with strong winds to boot. We improved our shelter, from the rain this time, to sit under and cook dinner but the winds were just too strong. I made bigger tent pegs out of wood but the ground was too soft and the shelter was blown over three times. By the time we had rebuilt our camp and tied the tarp to a couple of trees, the rain had finally stopped.

Up early again the next morning, we used the shelter against the sun instead before packing up the camp and heading to the north part of the park. Echidna Chasm is a long, narrow chasm cut into the rock by a crack which has gradually been weathered by wind and water. It’s up to 200 meters high and in some places only a meter or two wide. Very impressive and with a decided Indiana Jones feeling.

In the afternoon we took the same road back north, going to Wyndham this time to prepare for our trip across the Kimberly. Wyndham wasn’t very interesting. At one point it was the centre of the region with a port shipping the cattle from the stations in the area and home to the government but recently all this has moved to Kununurra, which lies more centrally on the highway. We went to get the tire fixed, but it turned out to be too damaged (again!) and so another new tire was fitted. Probably just as well since the old one took quite a beating on the rough roads and the thread looked very beat up. $160 fitted and balanced this time, so not as bad as last time.
We decided to travel to the Gibb River Road (connecting the east and west by a more direct, northerly route than the highway and the traditional route for the road-trains transporting cattle) on the King River Road, the original road to Wyndham before the Gibb was finished. This turned out to be quite a challenge. The first part of the road is easy enough, although very corrugated, but after a while there are no clear signs and we ended up taking a shortcut road unintentionally, it was simply the only signposted one. The road goes through the marshland which, due to the recent rain, had become a big mud pool. We got about halfway before we started getting stuck. We tried to find a way around the wet patches of mud, easily identified by the color difference, but finally we had to admit defeat and turn back. Instead of going to El Questro, we headed to Digger’s Rest, a smaller station on our route. Once again fate intervened in a good way since we found out El Questro was closed anyway and Digger’s Rest was quite the gem.

On arrival we were met by Big Al, a friendly older fellow who looked like he enjoyed life. He was right in the middle of feeding his young goats. I made friends with Archie, Bess and Sally, the three dogs at the station and we all enjoyed the horses, goats, chickens and even emus on the property, although one of the emus was a bit of a cheeky bastard and tried to raid our car. We spent a pleasant evening talking to Al while playing cards. He told us that the new Baz Luhrman movie, “Australia”, had been partially shot on and around the property. The crew and most of the cast had lived right where we were for two months last year. How cool is that!? He even took us to a giant boab tree where, he told us, a scene had been shot. He didn’t know what exactly, could be a love scene maybe, but there’s a good chance the tree is in the movie. “Australia” is premiering here in Broome tonight so I’ll let you know. Life in the Kimberley is not too bad if you live in a place like Digger’s Rest and it has further enforced my wish to work on a station for a while.

However, we were on the way somewhere and had to head to the Gibb River Road. We went the right way this time, turning into a road without signs with directions from Big Al and drove a beautiful 35km 4wd track to the Gibb. Travelling west again, we hit the Pentecost Crossing, a big river crossing where two road workers had just finished laying a new patch of concrete on the bank. I bet they were really happy that we had to drive across it and they had to level the patch again in the heat of day. Bloody tourists! We stayed the night at Elenbrae, a campground that’s part of a million acre station, where I saw another azure kingfisher. The facilities had been made out of local rock which gave it a really nice outback feel. There was no hot water but usually the cold water is already so hot that you don’t need it anyway. In fact I can’t really remember what cold water from a tap or shower feels like.
Next day we drove another 200km or so west, stopping at beautiful Barnett Gorge where we had to find our way to the river by clambering over rocks for what seemed like a long time, the heat probably contributing to this, after an already hardcore 4wd track. It was gorgeous however, and certainly worth the walk. We stayed the night at Mt Barnett Roadhouse, beside Manning Gorge, another nice swimming hole, before heading on to King Leopold Ranges NP where we were hoping to stay the night at Bell’s Gorge. However, like many places in the outback this time of year, it was closed because a storm had toppled a number of trees across the road. A local guide gave us a nice alternative, just a rest stop by the road and after walking to Lennard Gorge, Janine’s first taste of real off road driving, we did just that.

Deciding we’d seen enough gorges for now and eager to see the sea again, we drove straight to Derby the next day and checked into the caravan park. Derby is just 220km from Broome, a little to the north-east and lies in a beautiful spot along the bay and close to many rivers. As we hadn’t really fished yet, we decided to do that the next day. I got some intel from the park owner and the local fishing store and they both agreed that a spot on one of the stations, about 30km to the north-east, would be the best spot for the current tide and time of year. Good chance for Barramundi so I got some mullet and we went there. Well, not really. We tried to go there, finding the turnoff from the Gibb after a bit of searching and then travelled an increasingly difficult road through Mare Station until we had to admit we couldn’t find out how to get to the bloody river. Manu had a brilliant idea then. Get out the GPS and use that map to find our way. Even though the roads aren’t actually known to TomTom, you can see where you are and in which direction you’re travelling. We did exactly that but after another hour or so, we arrived back at a spot where we’d been earlier. I decided to drive on a bit more and we finally found a road that was going in the right direction, until 25km on, that too turned the wrong way. Just about to give up all hope it turned back towards the river and we were suddenly there. Hallelujah!

We saw a car and I asked the owners, an aboriginal couple, for the way back to the Gibb so we wouldn’t have to wind our way across the station again. While I was talking to them, a big barra hooked onto one of the handlines they were fishing with. It made a few nice jumps and then it was in, a good 90cm+ barramundi. Beautifully silver with a bright yellow tail, a prize catch for any angler but they didn’t seem overly impressed, apparently that size is pretty normal here. I helped them land the fish, hauling it up the steep bank with the heavy line they were using. Amazing that the barra are so easy to catch here, on basically rope with a big hook and a piece of mullet. He showed me a good spot to go fishing and promised me that if he caught another barra, he would give it to us. We drove to the spot and had barely started fishing ourselves when he came driving up in his ute. In the back was a smaller barra, but still very nice, which he just gave to us. So generous and incredible. I’m sure they didn’t have much money and they could’ve given the fish to friends or family but instead just handed it over to us.
We fished for a few hours in this beautiful spot but I was unable to hook into anything big due to the little catfish and puffer fish destroying the bait on the hook in short order. I did catch a crab (too small) and some of the catfish and Manu managed to land a small shovel nosed shark on 4lb line, not a bad job. I filleted the barra, not an easy task with my small filleting knife as the scales, skin and bones are very tough and we enjoyed a beautiful dinner of fresh estuarine barramundi cooked a couple different ways with still about a quarter left over after we finished which we donated to the owner of the caravan park.

Then it was time to leave the outback behind for now and go to Broome. The town itself hasn’t really managed to impress me, it’s too spread out to have much character, but its location is undeniably beautiful, as are the beaches and sunsets. We’ve been staying in a hostel here and it’s nice to not sweat for a while, sleep in air conditioned rooms and have access to a fridge and proper kitchen. Having said that, I look forward to leaving as there are altogether too many people and cars here.

Leaving here will mark the end of the Brotherhood of Byron Bay, which started some seven months ago as Manu will be travelling back to France next week. I guess I should be happy that I’ve been lucky enough to meet people that I could travel with for so long, but I’m also very sad that it has to end now as I was kind of hoping Manu would stay with us on the trip to Perth and work there with us. Natalie will also leave us, she flies to Adelaide on Saturday, so it’ll just be Janine and I for now. However, one of my best friends from home is joining us for a month on Saturday.
Well, you’ve worked your way through another long blog by me, congratulations! There will be one more in about a month when we make our way to Perth along the West Coast. After that we’ll have to buckle down and work again for a bit. It will be a very different trip with beautiful reefs, beaches and hopefully a lot of marine wildlife. Plenty of opportunities for off road adventure though and as this side of Australia was along the trade routes of the VOC, there’s a lot of Dutch history as well.

The Kimberly has been beautiful and it’s very unique in both vegetation and the pace of life. It’s probably because of modern technology that it doesn’t feel quite as remote and threatening as it really is, or maybe I’ve just grown accustomed to having to be self reliant and being hundreds of kilometers from the nearest bit of civilization which hardly deserves that name half the time. It’s a geologists dream and also very interesting to people studying the effects of animal husbandry on nature as the effects of cattle farming are obvious everywhere. Australia is a fragile continent and although big, it can’t sustain very much life, especially out here. The marshes where we had to turn back for instance, used to be relatively fertile plains but the many cow hooves have trampled and damaged the soil, leaving a big wasteland behind in which not much life is possible and which just turns to a big, boggy marsh with rain. Luckily, Australians are starting to see this and are being more careful with their natural resources. Most surprising to me was how much water was still available in what seems such a barren land. Sure, the quality isn’t very high but it’s enough for irrigation and as a result homesteads are often quite lush, with grass, gardens and prolific birdlife. I know this is different in the central Kimberley and more south in WA, but the Kimberley we travelled through is definitely a less dry place than I thought it would be, even this late in the dry season.
That’s all for now, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

If I don't catch up with you before then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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Comments

[Jack]

Good Fishing
Can't believe it. You bought all this nice fishing gear and can not land a barra!!! The guy next to you was catching them with rope Sounds like you are having a blast. Nice report Jack