Tuesday, 28 July 2009

KRUISING THE KIMBERLEY


Broome, the in place to be on the north coast in the dry season, temperatures a barmy 32 degrees and the place is packed, people fleeing the wintery weather down south especially the grey nomads, that’s why we end up in the overflow caravan park because it’s so busy. It’s a full moon on the 8th, 9th & 10th of July and the “staircase to the moon” an effect the moons reflection has above the mud flats making it look like you could climb right up to the moon, is a big attraction. But we’re there a day early and the effect is not quite at it’s best but at least we stand a chance of seeing it, the next three nights will be packed with people trying to get a photo. Cable beach, Broome’s other big attraction, a glorious white beach that now had people swimming off it after the crocodile scare of the week before when one was seen cruising up and down the beach, nobody swam because they didn’t want to end up as a crocodiles packed lunch. Leaving Broome we drive 200 km to Derby a town and I use the term loosely which is a sprawling mass surrounded by mudflats with a tidal drop of up to 10 metres.
DERBY WHAT A WONDERFUL SIGHT !!!!!There is nothing at this place, except perhaps a jetty where you can watch the sunset, I remember my daughters spending all of a couple of hours here in 2006 before hightailing it out after a dodgy job offer at one of the hotels which is still trading today and a very salubrious establishment it looks too, good decision girls. Derby’s one saving grace is, it has the nearest airstrip to the horizontal falls, and with my wife that is always an important factor, a simple equation the shorter the flight the more enjoyable the experience and if the flight never happens well even better. ONE NERVOUS FLYERThe horizontal falls are a natural phenomenon where the sea flows through a narrow inlet into a large inland lake, because the tidal drop is so great a waterfall effect forms while the levels catch up with the tidal movement, and bearing in mind they have tides of up to 10 metres, they can be quite spectacular. We fly up in a seaplane landing on Talbot Bay, my first experience in a sea plane, this De Havilland Beaver was actually built in the sixties so it was a good 40 years old, but even if it did look a little tired it did the job “thank heavens”. The pilot let Jan sit next to him because she is a nervous flyer “but not as nervous as the rest of us when we realised she had the controls right in front of her”! "LOOK WHERE YOUR GOING" We took off and flew over the Kimberly outback, a 45 minute flight which really brings home to you the vastness of the place with nobody about for hundreds of miles. Landing on Talbot Bay we dock next to the mother ship ready to board the fast jet boat for our ride through the falls “I’m pleased to say we done this before lunch, as after would have been more expressive in more ways than one”! It was while we were disembarking the seaplane and getting on the jet boat that we noticed the Tawny nursery sharks that are constantly circling the boats and pontoons in search of food scraps or perhaps even customers that might complain too much! A nice Barramundi (fish) lunch and we board our fifty foot catamaran for our cruise around Talbot Bay and overnight stay, although we have a perfectly nice two berth cabin complete with en-suite facilities, Jan opts to sleep on the webbing slung between the two hulls under the stars,
JUST TRYING OUT THE BEDDING FOR LATER ON
well it is a full moon and up here in the middle of nowhere the sky at night is always an impressive sight, I opt for the cabin and we both sleep very well. It was during the earlier part of the evening that five tawny nursery sharks cruise close to the back of the boat and we learn from Vaughan, the boat’s owner how to scratch them on the top of their mouths, which even Jan after a little red wine manages to do. The next day it’s the flight back, this time taking in the Buccaneer Archipelago before landing back on the airstrip at Derby which Jan was very pleased to do I think that might be her first & last seaplane flight but for me at least a very enjoyable experience. Now it’s time to provision up ready for the Gibb river road a 660km overland unsealed road initially constructed as a beef road to transport cattle from surrounding cattle stations to the ports of Derby and Wyndham. This road is only passable in the dry season “May to October” as during the wet season most of the road is flooded, A DRY GIBB RIVER ROAD difficult for us to comprehend as we travel along some very dusty dry tracks over the next ten days. The Gibb River Road is a big tourist draw nowadays with some wonderful Gorges and waterfalls either on it, or off it down even more difficult 4wd tracks.
BELL GORGEThis road cuts right through the heart of the Kimberley and the variation in terrain is spectacular. We have allowed between seven and ten days to do this part of the trip with hopefully no punctures or serious mechanical difficulties to hamper us. Windjana gorge, our first stop, this gorge is full of freshwater crocodiles the supposedly friendlier one of the two, not that we have any plans of putting that to the test. From here on we stop off at several gorges that have great swimming holes including one two night stay on a cattle station called Charnley River Station, here they have three gorges on their land and we drive some 150 km’s over their land to visit them all. It’s on stations like this that they round the cattle up with helicopters because there so huge and the terrain so rough, it’s the only way it can be done. After talking to one of the workers they explained how they turn off the water supplies to the furthest water troughs forcing the cattle hopefully down to the nearer ones, and then get the helicopter out to round the rest up before driving then down with horses over the next week to the station, so they can be loaded up and transported down the Gibb River Road to market or export. They were quite surprised that in England we just open the gate and walk them down the lane before loading them on to trucks probably one to two days in all. At the halfway point on the road we reach Barnett River roadhouse and the entrance to Manning gorge. As expected fuel was always going to be more expensive here on the Gibb River and we pay our highest price so far in Australia at one dollar and 95 cents per litre. The fresh fruit and veg aren’t being flown in for another two days, but as we don’t want to drain our bank account to pay for them, we opt to stick to our canned supplies for a few days more. Manning gorge is another picturesque gorge, but the added difference with this one, is having to swim across it with your belongings in a container to get to the start of the 1 km track to walk to the falls. Fortunately for Jan they have rubber inner tubes there as well and she paddles across with nothing other than a wet backside to show for her troubles. The vehicle creek crossings have become a usual part of our day now, and what was once a quite concerning task, has now turned into the run of the mill daily chore. Unfortunately due to the rising number of campers on the Gibb River Road, land owners have closed off their land to bush camping due to the mess that some individuals have left behind, but we are lucky to find a spot on the Hann River where bush camping is still allowed “I think”, anyway we stayed for two nights with just one other camper and the birds for company this is certainly the way to travel. HANN RIVER CAMP The middle section of road seems to be quieter perhaps not everybody wishes to travel its length, only see the attractions at each end. Overall we are surprised at just how smooth this road has been, yes there are some corrugated patches and bumpy sections but 90 % of the road is certainly good for an average of 60 kph, we only came across one accident where a camper trailer became detached from the towing vehicle and ended up rolling over a couple of times luckily nobody was hurt it was just the couple of days wait for recovery that’s the problem! THE VIEW BEFORE AND AFTER A ROADTRAIN PASSES
At the end of the road is the Pentecost river crossing which we traverse with no problems although Jan is still on high croc spotting alert if we ever do get stranded in a crossing I think it might have to be me who has to get out for assistance! El Questro Station, a cattle station with gorges and hot springs on its land is our last two night stay on the Gibb River Road. This is undoubtedly the most commercial operation we have come across on the whole road, a very slick set up where dollars count for everything, the 4wd tracks we quite enjoyed and the lookouts EMMA GORGE AT EL QUESTRO
were spectacular especially when we got the camper to the top of saddleback ridge. Coming down was always going to be more entertaining just by watching Jan’s face, but low ratio first gear coped well and a dip in Zebedee thermal springs was most relaxing. But El Questro certainly provides the experience of the Gibb River Road without actually having to get out there and do it, mind you the cost in tours and camping means you end up paying more for that controlled environment bit if you don’t have a 4wd, not really for us, Jan’s just getting used to the crocs and the cows! This brings us to Mambi Island, a lovely spot just outside Wyndam, at the end of the Gibb River road.
MAMBI ISLAND The only downside being the salt water crocs that inhabit the river so camping 50 metres back from the water’s edge is encouraged, not that you have to encourage my wife to stay back, trying to get her within a mile of the river is hard enough. We arrived in the afternoon after driving pass a small bush fire 10 km back along the road, at nine o’clock that night a couple of people drove by to warn us that the bush fire was heading in our direction but not to be alarmed just aware. So here we are, bush fire one side, crocs the other, there in for a treat tonight barbequed poms as main course. But we awake safely in the morning with saltys still in the river and the camper covered in ash, from where they burnt off a fire break during the night just behind us, well at least they didn’t wake us up to do it! IVANHOE RIVER CROSSINGWe back track some 250 km’s to take in Purnulla National Park & the Bungle Bungles. This park has striking beehive shaped domes, the worlds most exceptional example of cone karst formations. They are made of sandstone deposited about 360 million years ago, erosion in the last 20 million years has carved out these domes along with spectacular chasms and gorges. After leaving a little late from Kunnurra we have to drive the last 20 km to the entrance to the park in the dark, never a good idea out here where cattle and roo’s wander freely on the roads. At night the cattle take to laying on the roads for the warmth from the tarmac & for our last 30 minutes on the road we came across several of these. This we agreed would never be allowed to happen in England Health & Safety would insist on all cattle wearing reflective jackets when grazing near or even on the highway, there probably even be a two day course on how to put them on as well! The road into the Bungle Bungles is 53 km of rough corrugated, bumpy, potholed road that takes us two hours to traverse, this had better be worth it we are both thinking as we slowly make our way in! Half of the park is quite spectacular such as Cathedral gorge and Piccaninny Creek lookout, but the other half was a bit of a disappointment perhaps we are well and truly gorged out at this point. Our firm favourite is still Karijini that will always take some beating. We are now in Katherine, heading across Australia back to the eastern side and Cairns, with Cape York being our next mission, to drive to the most northerly point on the telegraph track, should be fun “my wife is really looking forward to this next bit”. Less than three months left in Oz and only nine weeks left on the road, time is certainly flying by we wish you all well wherever you are and look forward to updating you all in another months time.

Monday, 6 July 2009

TRIPPING INTO THE TROPICS

So we arrive back safe & sound from our excursion to Steep Point, the most westerly point of Australia. For me & I think Jan too one of the highlights so far as we get to grips with what actually our vehicle can do, this was always in our plan to get to a few out of the way places and our camper certainly lives up to our demands, bring on the Gibb river road! Back into Denham for all the necessities of life, diesel, water, food, laundry and nice hot showers, oh and of course the bottle shop for the beverage top up.

EMU'S CROSSING THE STREET DENHAMAll refreshed and replenished we head off to Francoise Peron National park for three nights camped above bottle bay, as this is out of season it is very quiet, we first head off to Herald bight campsite right on the beach and very soft sand, there’s no stopping us now and our camper arrives on the beach with no problems, but the wind is blowing an absolute hooly reminds us of the front at Felixstowe in January but a lot warmer, and so we head off to bottle bay where only one other couple are camping. Fishing off the beach is the order of the day and we catch a couple of exotic specimens (blue emperor, black spotted turkfish) that are undersized and so have to be returned to the water. While walking back we help to dig out an aussie who had become stuck in the sand in his Toyota 4wd, he asks me a POM! for advice on how to get out of this situation and I suggest low ratio and low tyre pressures assuming that he would have locked in his front hubs for 4 wheel drive, but as it turns out after half an hour of digging the front hubs weren’t locked, at least if ever we get stuck and at some point no doubt it will happen I won’t feel quite so bad knowing the aussies make these errors as well. We visit Skipjack point, which is a cliff top viewing boardwalk and have a great view of the bay complete with a shark that was swimming only a few feet off of the beach and it was no small shark either see below. From there we head off to stay at Monkey Mia for the night, ready to see the dolphins that come in each morning for feeding. As this is a 7.30 am start we figure that camping here is the only way that we are going to see it, as having to drive 30 km and get up even earlier isn’t going to happen. We manage, only just, to be up and about, but what a wonderful morning, the sea is like glass and five of the dolphins arrive. Nowadays the whole thing is very well managed but it has to be, as back in the 80’s people were feeding them with whatever they had, and the young were dying off because the dolphins were relying on the humans for their food. Now that they only get a small measured amount here in the morning they will still go off and fend for their selves for the rest of the day, so hopefully they will survive for years to come, they have records of these dolphins going back 30 years. We leave Shark Bay world heritage site heading off to Carnarvon getting back into the convoy of caravans heading north for the sun. We meet up with Trish and Graham to swop stories and check out our next ports of call. We camp 30 km south of Carnarvon at Bush Bay, a free campsite that can only be described as a refugee camp, campers all camped in clusters with flags flying (Australian), these are some of the grey nomads that migrate north every winter, their little shanty towns reminded us of Custers last stand and the circling of the wagons before the Indians attacked.

THE LENGHTS SOME PEOPLE WILL GO TO FOR PHONE RECEPTION!These grey nomads aged between 55 and 90 years old, driving campers, caravans and converted buses, are a huge boost to the economy over here in western Australia, without them many tourist businesses would cease to exist and the campsites would be empty, which perhaps wouldn’t be a bad thing for us! Carnarvon another supply stop we need new tyres all round after discovering a bad split in the sidewall of one of our rear tyres and with the two front ones just being worn out we opt to change all four with some rough national park roads coming up. Oil & filter & wiper blades, another must as in the first rain for ages yesterday, one blade broke and so we have one angled back out over the bonnet so as not to scratch the windscreen that coupled with a haircut and hot shower at the local petrol station yes they cater for everything over here we even manage some phone calls home while waiting for the new tyres to be fitted. We leave Carnarvon short of alcoholic supplies, unfortunately, because of all the aboriginal people coming into town for the races, the police have closed all the bottle shops in town to prevent any trouble, well we done a month in Iran with no alcohol so what’s a few days in Oz (good job Jan’s had her birthday).

IT'S UP THERE SOMEWHERE ?We stop over night at a free rest area about 200 km’s from the nearest town, here I opt to do the oil & filter change ( not having the luxury of a garage) all goes well until I go to fit the new filter which I discover is the wrong one, even though I gave them all the details of the vehicle and engine, it’s a good job I didn’t put a screwdriver through the old one to get it off, or we would’ve of been stranded here for a few days while I try to get to Exmouth for the correct part which when we do eventually get there the chap comes up with the right part straight away (the trials of travelling). Coral bay is our next stop, from here you can easily see Ningaloo reef which is 250 km long and only sits a few hundred metres off the coast unlike the Great Barrier reef which is least 30 km from shore at it’s closest point. Coral bays lovely & sandy, sheltered by the reef only a few hundred metres off shore, the only trouble with this spot is the two packed caravan parks, so we opt to take the four wheel drive coastal track hoping to find a nice quite little camp spot, which we do in bujjuno camp an old aboriginal settlement that now caters for basic campers, we go fishing off the beach although we only catch a couple of small flatheads. The next day we make our way along the coastal track stopping off at many small bays on the way, this being great as there is no one else about. Exmouth which sits at the northern most point of the Ningaloo reef is our next stop.

IT'S NOT REALLY THAT COLD

We are here so that I can swim with the whale sharks. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world reaching up to 18 metres in length and due to the mass spawning of more than 200 species of coral in March and April each year is part of the chain of biological events that heralds the arrival of these gentle giants of the sea in search of concentrations of plankton. They cruise up & down the outside of the reef from May to July giving us the opportunity to be able to swim with them. Now this is very tightly controlled, with no more than ten swimmers being allowed to swim with a whale shark at any one time, coupled with having qualified spotters in the water with you and spotter planes to find the whale sharks in the first place, its makes it an expensive day out at between 180 and 200 pounds, but certainly well worth it. After an early 0730 start in the morning I’m thinking this day had better be good, the coach drops us off at the boat for an hour’s snorkelling on the inside of the reef. While everybody gets used to their masks and fins we are treated to the sight of a sting ray and a turtle amongst other things, then it’s time to head out to the outside of the reef and await our spotter plane to find us a whale shark. We are lucky and within five minutes we have our first whale shark about 5 metres in length, the boat drops you off in front of the whale shark and the first thing you see is his open mouth coming towards you, everybody quickly swims to either side of the whale shark and then for about the next 10 minutes you swim alongside them before stopping to allow the next group into the water, we get four swims in with him before he dives down, but today is a good day and between eleven o’clock and two o’clock we swim with three different whale sharks the largest being about seven metres in length. On the way back in we follow hump backed whales which are jumping completely out of the water and tail slapping, finally coming across a pod of dolphins who are happily playing in the entrance to the channel through the reef. Definitely a must do if any of you ever get to Ningaloo reef unless of course your name is “Jan” in which case a good book is always a good substitute!!! We have been on the coast now ever since we crossed the Nullabour back in April, NOW THATS HOW JAN LIKES HER SNAKES, VERY DEAD!!!!!everybody we’ve met on the trip has told us about Karijini National Park which is about 400 km’s inland and how wonderful it is, so we turn our back on the sea and head inland to Karijini. As we arrive in Karajini we bump into graham & Trish which also happens to be the day of our 29th wedding anniversary, and so we enjoy a dinner for four in the middle of the park that night. This national park is all about spectacular gorges and again we are not disappointed, our first day is spent at Weano gorge with a trek down to handrail pool, after walking through thigh deep water (very cold) scrambling along steep rock edges we end up at the pool another breath taking sight. In the afternoon we do Hancock gorge through the spider walk

GRAHAM DOING HIS SPIDERMAN IMPRESSIONending up at Kermit’s pool at this point we have to stop as the rest of the gorge is for qualified abseiling personal only. The following day we do the gorges at the other end of the park which are very gentle comparedto the first day but as showers are in short supply I opt for a swim in the circular pool to finish, chilly but very refreshing. Jan opts to take the pictures rather than the plunge.

WELL I HAD TO DRY MY UNDERWEAR SOME HOW!!!!

North Western Australia is full of Iron ore mines, & ever since we entered Karijini N.P, red dust has been everywhere and gets into everything, luckily the sheets on the bed are red and so it’s not as noticeable as the dust that lays on the sides and tops inside our camper. It’s only when you shower and the red water runs down the hole that you realise just how dusty this place is. The next stop, Port Hedland, is no different, a town covered in red dust from where all the iron ore is loaded on to ships for export across the globe (mainly China). We stay long enough to provision up, we were going to a laundrette but the visitor information centre told us they didn’t have one (I suppose with this amount of dust the machines would need replacing every two months so perhaps not such a good business venture after all). So we make tracks for a free camp 80 km up the road by a river, where we spend a couple of hours washing the red out of our clothes in this nice soft clean river water, well it was until we tipped out the dirty water then one half was red and the other clear!

CAMPING BY THE RIVER We are now heading along the top coast towards Broome stopping off at Barn hill station for four days rest and relaxation. Barn hill Station is a working cattle station that for five months of the year opens up its back garden which overlooks the sea to campers,

THE VIEW FROM OUR CAMPER

some of whom spend the complete five months here getting away from the Australian winter down south. Shop and amenities plus a very friendly staff make this a very enjoyable stay, we wish we could stay longer but with only 12 weeks left on the road we need to push on to ensure we see as much as we can.

BARN HILL STATION BEACH, BUSY EHIt’s here that Jan perfected her mackerel catching technique, she catches two good sized ones off the beach, compared to me who didn’t catch any, but lost one as it was leaving the water. Mind you I was allowed to bait up Jan's hooks, take off her fish and fillet them but best of all, I was allowed to eat them, so no I’m not bitter at all!!!!!!!!!! Anyway from here we’re off Derby and the Gibb River road so until next time it’s goodday from the Jellsdownunder.