Kimberley Trip

[Cuppa]

Wyndham was a place I enjoyed staying at 93. I have referred to the lookout as 7 Rivers on occasions, but we should split the difference & get it right ...... it’s 5 Rivers lookout.

[93patrol]

sounds good Cuppa

its been 15 years since I was last up that way so forgive me if the memory is a bit fuzzy

[TPC]

make sure you head up to Wyndham and see the 3 rivers lookout, there are also some really good swimming holes up that way

Wyndham was a place I enjoyed staying at 93. I have referred to the lookout as 7 Rivers on occasions, but we should split the difference & get it right ...... it’s 5 Rivers lookout.

Have been up to the 5 rivers lookout, was disappointing because of all the burn off they are doing all you can see is smoke.

[TPC]

Time to update my trip report.
Day 12 we left Kununurra to move to El Questro, had a close call on the bitumen with somebody overtaking a slow vehicle in the opposite direction, I had to slow right down and take to the dirt to avoid a head on collision, the wife was screaming and my heart was pumping hard but we survived, it does not matter how careful you drive there is always some other d-head trying to kill you.
On the way we visited Wyndham and had a look at the wharf, the Pioneer cemetery and the 5 rivers lookout, I was annoyed with myself when I found diesel was 20c/l cheaper at Wyndham than Kununurra where I filled up.
Drove out to the boab prison tree on King River Rd and tried to take a short cut to El Questro but the road was marked no access.
Got to El Questro and set up in a private camp by the river, needed to drive to get to the toilets and showers but was worth it to have a great secluded campsite.

Day 13 El Questro
We went for a walk at Emma Gorge, its an interesting but sometimes challenging walk with lots of pools filled with clear water with small fish swimming in them.
At the end of the walk there is a large cavern with a pool fed by a waterfall, lots of people were brave enough to swim in the icy water and get under the waterfall but getting my legs wet was enough for me.

Day 14 El Questro
Went to Zebedee Thermal Springs, these are a series of warm ponds with little waterfalls between each, the higher up you go the warmer the water is, they were very crowded but was worth it to enjoy a swim in the warm water.
Went to Jacksons Waterhole for lunch, very nice spot but no swimming because of the crocs.
Followed this up with a cruise in Chamberlain Gorge, spectacular views along the Gorge and we got to feed some fish while enjoying champagne and fresh fruit.
The river was teaming with fish, there were Barramundi, Groper, Catfish and 7 Spotted Archer Fish, the Archer Fish were amazing as they spit water at their prey to force them into the water so if you held out a fish pellet they would spit at it we then dropped the pellet to reward them.

Will continue later and load some photos as I am going out to have more fun now. (feel sorry for those that have to work)

[TPC]

A few photos from El Questro,

Emma Gorge.
Emma Gorge.jpg

Chamberlain Gorge
Chamberlain Gorge 2.jpgChamberlain Gorge.jpg

Zebedee Springs
Zebedee Springs.jpg

[TPC]

Days 15-18, Drysdale River & Mitchel Falls.
After El Questro we headed up the Kalumburu Rd to visit Mitchell Falls, we thought the Tanami was bad for corrugations but this road was much worse, it was too rough to make it in one day so we stopped off at Drysdale River over night on the way.
Drysdale had a large dusty campground and you had to watch out for snakes, the camper next to us had a whip snake under their tent, while I was setting up camp I had another camper come over and point out that my Harris Hardnose was hanging down, I looked under and it was hanging on by one bolt, lucky I did not loose it, a rummage through my box of odd bolts produced the bolts and washers required to fix it
The road from Kalumburu Rd to Mitchell Falls was also very corrugated, along the way we were waved over by a family in their Prado who were after some wire to wire up their fuel tank bash plate as two of the brackets had broken away, I gave him some wire then he realized he could not attach the wire to the plate as the bracket was completely gone so offered him a battery drill and bits and he soon had it sorted.
They were a nice family from Alice Springs with a 13 y/o son and 11 y/o daughter that they were home schooling on their travels, turned out they had a simular trip planned to us.
The Mitchel Falls has a nice campground with long-drop toilets and fire rings, need to bring in firewood from designated collection areas about 5km before the campground, we had John the ranger stop off at our fire for a red wine and a chat, he had been there 12 years and had to build his own residence.
The following morning we set off for the walk to the falls, there are varied reports on how long to allow for the walk but we took our time looking at all the sights and got there in about 2.5 hrs.
Along the way there is a steep rocky detour to Little Mertrens Falls that is well worth it, you can walk behind the falls and it quite a sight, close by to these there is a cave with aboriginal art.
The first sight of Mitchel falls is from the top if feel confident enough to stand close to the edge, the path then takes you too some great swimming holes that are very welcome after the hot walk.
After a swim we continued to the front of the falls to see the spectacular sight, after watching the falls and taking lots of photos we walked back to the side of the falls and had a helicopter ride back to the camp ground, the falls are even more amazing from the air.
The following morning I packed up early as I knew I had to look at the trailer brakes as the drivers side was making a noise, pulled the wheel off and found the calliper had jammed on the bolts causing one pad to just touch the disk, the other pad had lost a clip and rattled so much that it elongated the mountings so I had to disable the brakes.
We then headed off back to the Gibb with another night at Drysdale along the way.

Little Merten Falls
little Mertens Falls.jpgBehind little Mertens Falls.jpg

Aboriginal Art
Aboriginal Art.jpg

Whip Snake
Whip Snake.jpg

Swimming Hole
Mitchell Falls Swimming Hole.jpg

Mitchell Falls
Mitchell Falls.jpgMitchell Falls From Helicopter.jpg

[TPC]

Day 19, Galvin Gorge and Bell Gorge.

Back on the Gibb River Rd and we headed off to Galvin Gorge in the morning, this is not far off the road and an easy walk.
The Gorge had another pool fed by waterfalls, went for a swim and found the water very cold but people had told us the water coming down the falls was warm, did not believe them at first but swam over and found they were right, we could get onto a rock ledge under the falls and have warm water cascading over us.
We then headed of to Bell Gorge and Silent Grove Campground, on the way we came across 50 Postie bikes being ridden along the road to raise money for charity, shortly after that I glanced in the side mirror to see the tread of one of my trailer tyres flapping around, bugger as only brought one trailer spare so would have to by another.
The walk to Bell Gorge was not long but very rocky and a bit of a steep climb over rocks to get to the bottom, not overly difficult.
This gorge has a very large pool good for swimming (cold water again) and fed by a large waterfall, there was a lot of people but plenty of space, would be great to see without 100 people in and around it.

Galvin Gorge
Galvin Gorge.jpg

Postie Bikes
Postie Bikes on Gibb River Road.jpg

Trailer Tyre
Trailer Tyre.jpg

Bell Gorge
Bell Gorge.jpgBell Gorge from top.jpg

[Cuppa]

Bad luck about the tyre.
We missed Galvan Gorge & a few others but loved Bell Gorge, but not sure we’d have felt the same with all those others there. How inconsiderate of them! There was one other couple there when we arrived & they left shortly after taking our photo for us. Next trip we will spend time at every gorge.
Looking forward to getting up to Mitchell Falls, Kalumbaru etc some day too.

Apart from falling in love with the corrugations are you enjoying it all. How’s the balance between moving & stopping?

[TPC]

Bad luck about the tyre.
We missed Galvan Gorge & a few others but loved Bell Gorge, but not sure we’d have felt the same with all those others there. How inconsiderate of them! There was one other couple there when we arrived & they left shortly after taking our photo for us. Next trip we will spend time at every gorge.
Looking forward to getting up to Mitchell Falls, Kalumbaru etc some day too.

Apart from falling in love with the corrugations are you enjoying it all. How’s the balance between moving & stopping?

Mitchell falls is a big effort to get there (4 nights to see it) but well worth it, we did not get to Kalumbaru as we did not have enough time, driving all that way we would have wanted to spend a few nights there.

We are having an absolutely great time, it has been heavy on the moving time, if I did it again I would plan to take at least 3 more weeks but we are into a relaxing stage at the moment with 4 nights at Broome and will spend a week up the Peninsula.

[TPC]

Day 20 & 21, Windjana Gorge & Tunnel Creek.

We had an easy drive from Silent Grove to Windjana NP campground, when we arrived it was very crowded and we had set up in the noisy generator area, cannot understand why people need generators for camping. Like Silent Grove they had solar showers and flushing toilets, if you like showers in the morning like I do they are going to be cold as the solar heaters don't work at night.
The next morning we headed out to Tunnel Creek, this is a 750 meter long tunnel with a creek running through it, we had to wade through the creek up to about knee height to get through it, the tunnel is wide with large pools and has some stalactites in it, I did not take my SLR camera in there but wish I did as the waterproof camera is hopeless in poor light.

In the afternoon we took a short walk from the campground into Windjana Gorge, the path took us through a narrow tunnel to a shady path with cliff overhang along side the creek, further along it opens up to a wider area where we walked down to the waters edge and were amazed by how many freshwater crocodiles there were, standing in one place I counted 17 crocks then walked further and there were more, it was so interesting looking at the crocks I was not even paying any attention to the great sight of the gorge itself.
That night it clouded over and was looking like it was going to rain, we had not seen a forecast in over a week so had no idea what the weather was going to do, fortunately it held out for us to pack up and leave the next morning, we spoke to some people in Broome a couple of days later that got caught in the rain at Windjana and they had slept in their car because all the camping gear got saturated.

Tunnel Creek
Tunnel Creek.jpgTunnel Creek2.jpg
Tunnel Creek3.jpgWater Monitor.jpg

Windjana Gorge
Entrance to Gorge.jpgPath to Gorge.jpg
Windjana Gorge.jpgWindjana Gorge2.jpg
Croc at Windjana.jpg