Karijini

The falls at Fern Pool

Two big drives from Broome and we made it to (at the risk of sounding like the visitors guide) one of the most stunning, and the second largest National Park in Australia – Karijini NP.  On the way we overnighted at a place called Cape Keraudren, on the coast, just below 80 mile beach.  If you ever get a chance to visit this small, secluded nature reserve, my advice is; don’t.  Right from the start I had my doubts.  The scenery was reminiscent of the Yorkshire dales or a windswept Scottish lowland; barren rolling hillocks and not much to see.  When we arrived there was a strong onshore wind blowing and we steeled ourselves for a potentially sleepless night keeping the trailer upright.  As it happened, we did have a sleepless night, but it was the lack of wind that was, indirectly at least, the cause.

Cape Keraudren or the Yorkshire Dales?

It’s well known of course that when a bit of a gust is blowing it helps to keep the flying insects away, and so that evening as we barbequed over an open fire, we did not have a problem with any bitey things. I was starting to warm to the place.  

At around midnight, after  we were happily tucked up in bed, the wind dropped and the bitey things came out.  Of course, as we were in our tent asleep, all should have been well, but it turns out (and hear the comparison with Scotland is reinforced)  that Cape Keraudren has a bit of an issue with midges.  Midges which it transpired are small enough to move through the mesh on our tent windows as easily as a movie ghost through a closed door...  So, as our tent began to slowly fill with a cloud of these horrible creatures, we all began to stir and scratch.  Eventually the kids came and joined us in our bed complaining of the itchy, bitey things and pretty soon we were all cowering under sheets and uncomfortably waiting out what was left of the night.  The next morning it was clear that the kids had suffered the worst, with each of them covered from head to toe in something like two hundred bites each. Five days on and these are still making us scratch ...  Needless to say we packed up pretty quickly and completed the journey to Karijini. 

Handrail Pool, Weanu Gorge

We arrived in Karijini at midafternoon. The temperature was close to forty degrees and having just escaped one flying torment, we were greeting by another, more classically Australian flying torment – the flies!  This wasn’t helping us form a very positive opinion of this part of our trip...  The next morning the flies were no better and the temperature was climbing quickly.  We’d planned three or four nights here, but I was already starting to plan for a move that afternoon.  As far as I was concerned, it was a long way to come to be plagued by flies in roasting temperatures, just to see some more bloody gorges! I couldn’t se that anything was going to change my mind.  That is, until we actually saw the gorges. Then it quickly became obvious why this National Park has become such a treasured experience to those who visit. 

Getting our feet wet on this one...

Each of the gorge walks had something special to offer; great walks through dramatic, towering walls, permanent spring fed waterfalls and cool clear swimming holes. The various walks were graded on level of difficulty and skill / fitness required with anything more than a Class 5 requiring climbing and abseiling accreditation as well as ropes and safety equipment.   As we didn’t have these (knew that we would forget to pack something!), we contented ourselves with these fabulous Class 5 walks especially around Hancock and Weanu Gorge.  These treks involve precarious climbs along and up steep cliffs (with help from the occasional ladder), wading and swimming through long narrow passageways filled with icy cold water and steep and slippery slides down even narrower cracks in the ground.  The kids were transformed from children who could be seen to physically crumble at the mere mention of a gorge walk to ones who were asking to go back and do some of these walks for a second time! 

Karijini Sky

To top it off, each evening, when the flies went to bed at 6.30 sharp, we were treated to magnificent sunsets and a giant orange full moon rising behind our camp as we relaxed over a drink or two.  

So, my advice in this case is, if you ever get the chance to visit this increasingly well known national park, do it!  And do it soon because this nation park is stuck slap bang in the centre of the Pilbara with enormous mining operations on all sides.  I’m not sure how long it will be able to hold out.

Jules navigates 'The Ladder' in Hancock Gorge

Broome and Cape Leveque

The obligatory sunset on Cable Beach shot - Thanks Jules!

Broome is one of those places that it is easy to get stuck in.  After a couple of weeks on the Gibb River Road, Broome’s cafes, restaurants, shops, and beaches are a very welcome distraction.  I’ve heard that people either love or hate Broome.  We loved it. 

It was Daniel’s eighth birthday whilst we were in town and we celebrated with, amongst other things, a trip to the late Malcolm Douglas’s Crocodile Park.  Malcolm played a defining role in our childrens’ upbringing (not as defining as Bear Grylls, obviously, but defining none the less) - How else would they have learnt how to cook a recently caught Mangrove Jack over coals on the beach, or how to whip up a quick Pavlova in a camp oven, or any number of other essential bush survival skills? –  so we were all keen to visit the park. We weren’t disappointed.  The guided tour is a must-do, and rates higher than many similar experiences for us.  The whole thing is well run and full of laid back WA charm, albeit, as one guide put it; “very quite now that Malcolm is gone”. 

The road to Kooljamam

I’m not quite sure what else we did to fill our time in Broome but it seemed to pass very pleasantly.  Eventually (on day 6) we summoned up the motivation to pack up the trailer and head off on the 200km journey north up the Dampier Peninsula to Cape Leveque.  About half of the road is nice flat bitumen, but the other is a sandy and roughly corrugated track which, due to its convex nature, easily fills with water and is often closed after rain.  It was in fact closed for part of our time in Broome, but after a few days of glorious sunshine it opened again. The road is known to be a tough one, but the earlier rain had taken the edge off the corrugations and so with the exception of one or two heart stopping dives into deep pits of bulldust, it was great fun to drive up there. 

Snorkelling at Cape Leveque

We stayed at Kooljaman at Cape Leveque (one of several locally owned and run campsites and wilderness retreats along the road to the tip). There is no free camping on the Dampier peninsula and bookings (and in some cases permits) are required to visit. Whilst at first this sounded a bit too constrained for our liking, it has been done really well and I can imagine that if the land was opened up further, it may well ruin this amazing spot. As it turned out, this place was quite possibly the nicest place we have been to on the trip so far!  Certainly a big call to make, but picture this (and you will need to picture it as, unbelievably, we were so busy relaxing and soaking up this beautiful place that we hardly took any photos at all!)....so, picture this; we camped on the top of the cliffs at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula with perfect white sandy beaches at either side – on the East side; secluded swimming and snorkelling beaches, particularly good if you dropped your tyre pressures (here I go again; 18psi for those who are interested) and drove for a K or so up the beach. Then on the western side; great fishing (Elliot managed to pull out a Queen fish and a Long Tom within five minutes of each other), and stunning landscapes as the deep red cliffs meet the white sands - the perfect spot for a sun-downer or two. 

Not a bad spot for a sun-downer...

One afternoon we visited the barramundi hatchery at the aboriginal community of One Arm Point where the kids got to hand feed the big fish (not for the faint hearted) and pat turtles. To top it all off, there was an onsite restaurant at the campsite that served more than passable coffee!  In the end we only stayed a couple of nights but regretted not staying longer almost as soon as we pulled away.

I’m not sure when we will make it back to such a far flung corner of the country, but we’re already making plans to try.

The Gibb River Road

The Gibb River Road

It’s been a fair while between posts due to the lack of internet access on the Gibb River Road (who’d have thought it?).

We’ve been travelling for ten days between Kununurra and Broome and have covered about 1700 km’s.  The road itself was much easier than we were expecting; long sections of good gravel and relatively easy corrugations. It is however, notoriously hard on tyres and although we did not have a problem (we were running at a fairly low 26 psi), we heard of plenty of people who did and in fact had to stop and help out an elderly French couple in a hired Troopy who had done 3 tyres in as many days (but when we checked they were running at 45 psi).  However, before I thrill you further with more talk of tyre pressures and the like, here is the story of our journey along the Gibb River Road...

First stop was El Questro Station – according to some, the largest station in Australia and also a ‘Wilderness Resort’ complete with shop, bar, and accommodation priced between $17 for a ‘bush’ camp-site and several thousand for a room in the ‘homestead’.  I’ll let you decide which one we opted for.  Just the same, a nice place to stop over and we stayed for a couple of nights before moving on to some more genuine bush camping (no bar!) down the road at Russ Creek.

Moody Weather Over The Kimberley

About half way along the road we had the option to turn left and detour a few hundred km’s north to the beautiful Mitchell Falls.  The road up to there is rougher than the Gibb and we had been experiencing a few short thunder storms over the last few days, but we reasoned that as long as it didn’t rain anymore whilst we were up there, then we should be OK.   

We camped at Drysdale River Station the night before and were treated to an impressive lightening show.  It was clear the next morning that a fair bit of rain had fallen on the road to Mitchell falls but as we had decided to leave the camper- trailer (now affectionately known as the “anchor-trailer”) at Drysdale and sleep in a high quality, 3-man, $50 tent that we had bought a few days earlier in Kununarra, we weren’t overly worried. The drive up was still a bit of fun as much of the road had several inches of standing water on it.  Not an issue in itself of course, but still a bit tense as you just never know when you are going to hit a deep pot -hole or a patch of mud.  Still, at least it wasn’t actually raining...  Until we drove into the campsite at Mitchell falls, that is, whereupon the heavens opened and we ended up sitting in the car for an hour waiting for a break in the weather so that we could rig up a make-shift shelter to take refuge under.  At one point we went for a bit of a drive a few km’s back down the road, but the going was tough – like driving on grease – so we made our way back and waited patiently for sunshine.

The weather did clear and after a bit of food and an adrenaline rush when our camp was visited by a couple of funnel-web spiders (quickly dispatched with a six foot tent pole, but that night we did put on long trousers and shoes...and tucked our trousers into our socks J), we all squeezed into our 3-man tent for an uneasy night’s sleep.  It was all worth it though when we awoke to beautiful sunshine and made the very enjoyable 8km round trip trek to the falls. We had no more rain that day and in fact the road back to Drysdale was easier than the trip up. 

Next up was Manning Gorge where the main excitement was a striped brown snake about a metre and a half long, that slithered over a neighbouring campers foot one evening.  No sooner had the screaming finished. than Elliot was over in their camp, reptile book in hand, confidently pronouncing it to be the venomous, but not dangerous (how does that work?!?), Brown Tree Snake.  True to its nature, it proceeded to climb a nearby tree so we are assuming Elliot was on the mark again and could rest easy.

The journey along the Gibb River road is really all about walks to gorges, springs and falls.  By this point in addition to the above mentioned Manning Gorge, we had visited a number such as Zebedee Springs (busy thermal springs), Emma Gorge (long hot walk, very cold water at the end... beautiful!), Little Merton Falls and Big Merton Falls and of course Mitchell Falls.  It is possible to get a bit ‘gorged-out’ along the way, but if this happens; be sure to make the journey to Bell Gorge and Windjana Gorge and your appreciation for gorges will be rekindled!

Don't look now Elliot, but...

We stayed at the National Parks campsite at Windjana which is a well run and neat spot with the beautiful and towering gorge walls as a backdrop and a large population of freshwater crocs.  (It also has flushing toilets and solar showers – what luxury!)  It’s close enough to Derby and Broome for a weekend visit and so probably gets busy in the middle of the season, but at the end of the season it was pretty quiet. As it was such a nice spot, we decided on a two night stay.  This gave us the chance to make the short drive down to Tunnel Creek, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the Gibb;  you get to wade through underground pools of up to waist deep water, through a kilometre and a half of pitch black limestone tunnels, whilst five different species of bat fly overhead and, very occasionally, you spot a pair of shining amber discs as your  torch light is reflected in the eyes of one of the freshwater crocodiles that you are sharing the cold dark pool with.   OK, so thinking about it; this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we had a ball!

Tunnel Creek

Just to prove it was nearing the end of the season, on our second night at Windjana, and last night on the Gibb River Road, a sizable thunder storm passed overhead at around midnight, causing the whole site to flood to a depth of six inches or more in places (a bit of an issue if the waterproof sides of the floor of your camper trailer only extend to about three inches high).  As the lower area of the trailer rapidly developed into our own indoor paddling pool, we quickly relocated everyone and everything onto the top bed for a cramped and soggy night’s sleep.  Whilst we were mid clean-up the following morning, the park ranger came around to let us know that, though they were not forcing us to leave, they had closed the campsite and the road in, and that the Gibb River Road could well be closed anytime soon, so unless we wanted to become semi-permanent guests, we might want to consider beating a hasty retreat...  We did just that and a few hours later we were cooling off in the pool as the sun set over Broome’s beautiful Cable Beach...

So, that’s the story of the Gibb River Road for us. Undoubtedly the best way to experience the stunning Kimberley region and well worth another visit!

The Bungle Bungles

Just a quick update his morning before head off to the Kimberley (which may mean no new posts for a couple of weeks).

We decided to make the 500km detour down to Purnululu National Park and the Bungle Bungles.  Really glad we did as the scenery was stunning enough to make our children who, when presented with any kind of beautiful view usually respond with; “Yeah. What? I’m hungry, did you bring any food? My feet hurt. (etc...)”, to say things like; “Wow” and; “Cool”.  Must be good.  They were especially impressed with the trek through Echidna Chasm which involves a walk of a few km’s through a narrow and ever tightening chasm.  With sheer walls in some places only an arms width to each side and reaching over 100 metres high, it’s not for the claustrophobic.  As we made our way deeper into the rock, and with my Akubra firmly planted on my head, I fancied that I could hear the Indiana Jones theme tune playing faintly in the background...

In the last few days we have also camped in the shade of Boab trees whilst cooking dinner over an open fire and had a few days rest and relaxation on the banks of Lake Kununurra; fishing whilst watching and being watched by the freshwater crocs that bask in the water only a few feet from our camp.  What a tough life.