DAY 86 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - MOUNT ELIZABETH STATION and MUNJA TRACK

24 May 2008

DAY 86 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD

MOUNT ELIZABETH STATION and MUNJA TRACK

Ten degrees this morning. It was a bit cool getting up but by 8.00am it was 22 degrees. After an early start this morning we did not get very far – only about 55 km before we turned off on the spur of the moment for Mount Elizabeth Station 30 km from the turn off.

There were more river and creek crossings with water on the Derby side of the Gibb than in the northern section. Every so often we came across grazing cattle.

Lovely scenery along the way and a dingo appeared on the road.

After about 10km, having just crossed a creek we got a puncture – flat tyre. It had gone down very quickly. So out come the jacks and the tyre is changed.
We continued on our way again to this remote cattle station. A well kept airstrip is parallel to the road in. There are grand looking salmon gums amongst the trees and they really do stand out.

We decided to stay the night here and got permission to drive along the Munja Track.


It is a very interesting track.

Beautiful flowers grow in the middle of the track in places. They look like the pictures of native cotton but are more likely to be native hibiscus.

The track is narrow, with river and creek crossings that have steep entries and or exits.


The track is washed out in places making travel very slow and rough – took 2 hrs to do 40km. Min enjoyed driving this part of the track. He really needed to use all his driving skills to negotiate the terrain. However, the scenery compensated for this. We saw some aboriginal art amongst the sandstones.

At 3.00pm we turned back as we needed to negotiate our way back in day light. After a river crossing he found that we had lost a right front shackle bolt. It happened to be one, that because of its obscurity my hubby had forgotten to check on the trip. Mmmmmm! We managed to get back to the homestead and hope that we may get a temporary substitute bolt here tomorrow morning. If not we have a long way ahead of us without a shackle bolt. Oh well, need to keep positive!

Saw another dingo on our return trip, as well as kangaroos, cattle and horses.



The campsite on the station provides barbeques so we decided to have a barbeque dinner tonight. After dinner Min played the accordion for a while whilst I downloaded today’s photos. It is cool again tonight and we needed a cuppa to warm up. My fingers are getting cold but it is only 16 degrees. The days do still hit 30 degrees plus.