DAY 87 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip
GIBB RIVER ROAD
MOUNT ELIZABETH STATION – BARNETT GORGE
Even cooler this morning – 9 degrees when we got up. However, it did reach 30 degrees after noon today.
This morning hubby spent considerable time doing an interim fix it job on the springs till we can get the correct shackle bolt. The station did not have any suitable bolt but a passing traveller had something that would tide us over till we could get the right one. Whilst he was working a beautiful male peacock kept circling us and kept showing an interest in his toolbox. The feathers looked wonderful.
So the front of the car had to be jacked up and slowly but surely the job got done.
As a result he is feeling very stiff and sore. Thank goodness he is a bush mechanic of sorts. Travelling in these areas you need to be or be prepared to spend big bucks being fixed. In the meantime I made some bread.
I spoke to some other campers and they said they had spent the last several days camped at King Edward River Crossing waiting to get to Mitchell Falls. The river was still very high and the grader was working on the east side of the road. So we are glad that we didn’t go in that direction. Many cars were voiding their car insurance by going on the closed road and many of these were getting into some sort of strife.
Finally we were ready to go. So we returned 30 km to the Gibb River Road and then travelled a further 10 before turning off to Barnett Gorge. The track into Barnett Gorge is 4WD and very, very rough. We took it very slowly as hubby manoeuvred very smoothly between potholes, washouts through rocky terrain.
The track to the gorge and along the gorge is not signposted and is hard to find. The first track took us down to the Barnett River and very soon the only choice one had was to swim quite a distance through very cold water to the falls or stand and admire them from a distance.
There was a lot of water flowing here. The flying foxes/fruit bats had a colony across the river and were making quite a racket. Were they noisy!
I told hubby that Pat at the station had told me there was another track and that one had to follow the boab tree line to it and that it took you across the top of the escarpment. I don’t think he quite believed me. But near the point where we entered the river bed walk there was a boab and we followed it to the next boab and then saw a cairn, and then another. We started to follow the cairns as they were clearly marking out an easy walking track over the rocks and boulders.
We had some beautiful views from here. On our way back we saw another snake, not a big one, but not a baby one either – King Brown snake it was. It slithered quickly across the path in front of us. I am glad I was the one following.
As it was late afternoon we decided to spend the night here at the gorge. The reflections in the creek were fabulous.
We saw a most stunning sunset. We lit a campfire for the first time on the trip.
And now a quick word to our young readers and especially our grandchildren. Sometimes signs are put up in nature areas to help people find their way. At Barnett Gorge some person or group of people have made cairns like the one below to mark the trail as otherwise it would be very difficult to find one’s way through all the terrain here.
How many cairns can you see in the following photos marking the trail?
Why do you think there are so many?
Why do you think they are placed the way they are?
What sort of things do you think you could use to mark a trail using natural objects found in your area? How about sending us your answers.
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