DAY 95 - FITZROY CROSSING

2 June 2008

DAY 95 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

FITZROY CROSSING

Clean up day today. After all the dust we needed to have a good clean of the car. The curtains and sheets were washed. We washed windows, drawers – everything had a clean. I also did a food stock take as we head off to do the Tanami Track next.

I also have to download all the blogs for the last two weeks tonight as I will not have access to internet again till we hit Alice Springs.

In the meantime there is still dinner to cook and bread to bake.

DAY 94 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - MILLIEWILLIE ROAD near LEONARD GORGE TO FITZROY CROSSING

1 June 2008

DAY 94 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD

MILLIEWILLIE ROAD near LEONARD GORGE TO FITZROY CROSSING

It is the first official day of winter and here we are in shorts and t-shirt and still hitting 30 degrees during the day. Unbelievable!

We explored a little of Milliewillie Road, where we had camped, before returning to the Gibb for the last part of it. The Leonard River cuts across the road and we saw some locals drive across it. Their car bonnet was tied down with a rope – it was quite a sight.

The scenery again was dramatic. The Leonard Ranges and later the Napier Ranges are just spectacular.





There is a rock called Queen Victoria along the way – very aptly named.

Whilst travelling along the Gibb, just passed Leonard Bridge, we thought we hit something with the back of our vehicle but neither of us recalled seeing anything on the road. We pulled up. Hubby walked back along the track and couldn’t believe it. The weld on one of our 80 litre water tanks had gone and there was our water tank on the road. After it fell we had hit it with our diff and it was finished with. We took some photos of it. We still have one tank of water but it isn’t connected to the sink. It is all part of the journey.

Finally we turned back onto the road to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek as we made our way to Fitzroy Crossing. We stopped for lunch at Tunnel Creek and noticed that a tyre was shred. It was one of original tyres that had done well over 60,000 km. So whilst the wheel was changed I made a damper for lunch.

Finally exhausted we got into Fitzroy Crossing and the Fitzroy River Lodge Caravan Park. We decided to have dinner out as they were having a Sunday Roast special.

DAY 93 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - ELL GORGE – LEONARD GORGE

31 May 2008

DAY 93 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD

BELL GORGE – LEONARD GORGE

Bell Gorge is just a stunner.

It is a magnificent gorge.

We made our way there this morning and spent quite some time admiring the falls. Probably our favourite gorge.

Eventually we made our way back and decided to moozie on. Some huge termite mounds here. One was as tall as the Oka.

The scenery is dramatic as the King Leopold Ranges make their presence felt.

There was a lookout just after you went over the top King Leopold Range.

Someone had also left their bull bar behind here.

Then more dramatic scenery along the way.

I just loved the lines and textures on some of the rock cliffs.

We stopped for lunch at March Fly Glen Rest area and regret not stopping there for the day. A beautiful rest area with lovely pandanus.

Leonard Gorge was our next port of call. It is a very spectacular gorge and very different to the other gorges.

We are getting towards the end of Gibb River Road and feel somewhat gorged out but Leonard Gorge is a beauty as was Bell Gorge.

We didn’t feel like driving much after the 2 km return walk to Leonard Gorge.

So we pulled up on Milliewindie Road in a little area that has been used for camping by others.

Hubby did his checks as usual and woe and behold another little problem that was quickly solved. The filter that prevents dust getting into the diffs had sheared off. We are sure that is due to the corrugated roads we have travelled on. The problem was fixed with a scrap of fabric that for a change hubby had not me.

We are a bit intrigued by where we are as the road does not feature on the tourist route. But guess what – a 4WD tourist vehicle went up the road this evening. We looked at the map and there could be some interesting sights. We will see tomorrow.

DAY 92 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - MORNINGTON WILDERNESS CAMP – SILENT GROVE/BELL GORGE

30 May 2008

DAY 92 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD

MORNINGTON WILDERNESS CAMP – SILENT GROVE/BELL GORGE

In the morning my hubby did his usual morning check of steering oil and loose bolts. He found another one had managed to do the disappearing act since yesterday. This time from the power steering reservoir – nothing serious. Luckily he had a replacement on hand.

As planned we visited Cajeput water hole this morning. It is a beautiful relaxing spot. We spent some time here looking at the river flowing by, listening to the birds and doing some reading.

After a while we made our way back to the campsite to fill up our water bladders. There was a car there that couldn’t start and they had no jumper leads. Hubby gave them a hand as we had jumper leads.

We made our way back to Gibb River Road. Both of us felt that we had seen much more impressive sights elsewhere along the Gibb than at Mornington. It was not worth the 168km detour.

The road into Mornington though was worth the trip. Mount House is unusual.

The Leopold Ranges are dramatic.

We arrived quite early at Silent Grove. Bell Gorge camping site is closed due to fire damage to the toilets and water supply. So we’ve set up camp here and spent some time planning the next part of our trip.

A very relaxing day.

DAY 91 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - CHARNLEY RIVER STATION TO MORNINGTON WILDERNESS CAMP

29 May 2008

DAY 91 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD

CHARNLEY RIVER STATION TO MORNINGTON WILDERNESS CAMP

I woke up this morning knowing that something had woken me but I couldn’t work out what it was. I lay in bed looking out the window when suddenly I hear the clucking sound of a chook. I nearly flipped – there was an uninvited guest sitting on the end of the bed - a chook. I let it know in no uncertain terms that it had to get off and shooed it out of the Oka. Hubby had left the door open so the chook had invited herself in. When hubby came back I told him and you should have seen the look on his face as he tried not to laugh. The same chook then hopped into the front of the car and sat on the camera. A lost photo opportunity.

The cattle again decided to proceed us across a creek crossing as we were leaving Charnley River Station. Mustering is also underway at the station near by. The temporary enclosures were up and cattle were being moved into them.

We made our way to Mornington Wilderness Camp – we were two ways about coming here. We had not heard good reports about it. People at the campsite had just come from there and said they felt that they were squashed as sardines and the campsite was in tall grass. Anyway we decided to come as I really wanted to see Dimond Gorge. Twice it had been proposed that it be dammed up. The road in is interesting. The road follows House Mountain for some of the way and then the Leopold Ranges. It looks very weathered on top.

The landscape was typical of the Kimberley – grassy woodlands but the trees were small and sparse. There were several lovely groves of boabs along the way.

The occasional boab was still green.

We also saw one whose leaves were changing colour.

The Adcock River was still running. There were lots of water filled creek crossings on the way in (14 actually)

and 5 gates. The last 20km of the road was rocky.

Mornington Wilderness Camp is expensive trying to place itself in the same league as El Questro in some ways but has nowhere anything as near to offer as El Questro. To stay in the safari tents costs $470 per night twin share. For a night package that includes two tours and a lecture that is free to everyone costs $550 per person or $1100 per couple, yet if you booked everything individually it would cost $870 per couple. Doesn’t make sense. Camping costs $15 per person plus $20 vehicle fee per visit.

We went to see Dimond Gorge.

We got to the gorge site parking area. We went looking for the lookout but it is not signposted well. Three signs in all was what we found. Two giving a general direction and one saying this is it.
It is a difficult walk to the lookout – hubby reckons it is a level 4 walk. You are walking over boulders but in places it is more than just walking over them. Hubby found it difficult but he managed to find a way to the top of the lookout and then gave up trying to find the way down to the actual lookout spot and in frustration came back.

We were going to stop at Cajeput water hole on the way back but decided to leave it to tomorrow morning as we had had enough driving for today.

We were told at reception that they only allow 50 campers or a maximum of 25 cars. If there were 25 cars here it would be squishy as there is not a lot of camping area.

In the evening we visited the interpretive centre and went to a presentation on Mornington Wilderness Park. Whilst the talk was interesting it raised a lot of questions for me as how can a non for profit organization run this sort of business have trillions of acres worth millions or billions around Australia and call themselves a non business enterprise.

DAY 90 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - CHARNLEY RIVER STATION

28 May 2008

DAY 90 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD - CHARNLEY RIVER STATION

It was a lovely day to explore the station. I am not sure of the size of this station but both Drysdale and Mount Elizabeth were 10,000 square kilometres each. At a guess I would say it would be of similar size. The owners are away mustering on their other property near Fitzroy Crossing. The caretakers have only been here a very short time so were not familiar with the workings of the station. The property has hills, creeks, billabongs, gorges and lots of cattle.

Chooks, peacocks and geese roam the campsite as well as a small herd of poddy cows with a mischievous donkey. It is a wonderful place for kids to interact with the animals.

The chooks and peacocks came running to our campsite when the bread appeared. Was someone in their element – I think he has missed his chooks.

One chook even got itself comfortable on someone else’s open car engine. They ended up checking that no egg was laid on the engine before leaving.

We set of this morning to see Dillie Gorge. To get there we had some water crossings and had to make our way through several large herds of cattle lying on the track.

They had even managed to obliterate any sign of past car tracks. As they moved on they raised quite a bit of dust.

Dillie Gorge was a pleasant swimming gorge that was moderately easy to get to. There was a lot of water flowing in it.

Water cascaded over the rocks.

Whilst hubby had a swim I enjoyed the view and the textured basalt rocks. The rocks were gleaming in the sunlight.

From here we made our way back to a junction to continue to Grevillea Gorge. There were some very large termite mounds on the way. We hadn’t seen any of this size for quite a while.

It is a beautiful gorge but not that easy to get to. After scrambling down rocks you had to get over to an aluminium ladder to descend the rest of the way into the gorge. Well this is where I stopped - ladders are a no no for me- fear of heights its called.

The view from the top was great. There were several pools each lower than the other beneath the waterfall. What a lovely thing to have in your own backyard even though it is 40km from your homestead!

We backtracked to the junction and went to see Donkey Hole. It is a swimming hole that is absolutely beautiful. Several wallabies jumped past along the rim of the rocks whilst we were there.

Water lilies grow in the pool and it is surrounded by a lovely rock wall.

On our way back to the campsite we had a final creek crossing to get through but the cattle wouldn’t get out of our way before the creek crossing. They decided to proceed us across the crossing before we could get to cross it.

We finally made our way back to the campsite and got permission to wash our solar panels as they were very filthy and not working to capacity.

On our way back the car radio system stopped working. A couple of fuses had to be replaced and a wire required re-attaching.

We are sipping tea now as we listen to our i-pod under the bright starry Kimberley skies.