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.

DAY 89 - GIBB RIVER ROAD - GALVANS GORGE – ADCOCK GORGE – IMINTJI - CHARNLEY RIVER STATION

27 May 2008

DAY 89 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD

GALVANS GORGE – ADCOCK GORGE – IMINTJI - CHARNLEY RIVER STATION

Woke up this morning feeling somewhat stiff but I knew there were two gorges to face today. Hubby was a bit down over the car, particularly the temporary shackle bolt fix as he was concerned it would not hold.

We left early and headed for the Barnett Roadhouse to get the puncture fixed from several days ago as the person was having a day off yesterday. When we got there they told us they were too busy restocking so the tyre could not be done. They had already told us yesterday that they were getting stock in tomorrow ie today so knew what their staff requirements were. They have the attitude take or it leave and as if they are doing you a favour – no customer focus here.

So we headed for Galvans Gorge. You can’t drive into it as parking is now just about on the Gibb River Road. It is a 1.3 km easy walk in. It is a beautiful small gorge. Waterlilies greet you at the gorge.

Hubby swam up to the falls whilst I clambered over rocks to see if I could find the aboriginal paintings that are on the rocks surrounding the water. No luck – I couldn’t see them.

We then continued on to Adcock’s gorge and I could see my hubby getting tenser as we drove the 4.5 km track that is rough and rocky. He needed to carefully considered wheel placement again as we went along. Not a happy chappie. Well the walk to the gorge is not easy - scrambling over boulders is more like it. We got to the gorge as far as we could go as you had to walk over some rocks in water before trying to find a way to scramble over a huge boulder that was nearly vertical out of the water towards the end. The falls were spectacular from where we were with three levels of falls. However, I felt the write up for the spot exaggerated it somewhat.

There was a cluster of beautiful boabs near the car parking area. Those boabs are just so full of character.

We agreed to go to Imintji next and then to backtrack the twenty or so kilometres. At Imintji hubby got the puncture fixed on the wheel. We had split our tube in quite a few places.

So a new tube was put in. He also got a shackle bolt that was not quite the Oka one but one that was the correct size. The mechanic checked what he had done and said the current bolt most likely would get us all the way back home. So someone is now very relieved. Diesel was cheaper here than at Barnett Roadhouse as were groceries. The people here were friendly.

We backtracked to the Charnley River Station turn off and drove the 43 km to the station. On the way we saw a helicopter mustering cattle. For the stations here in the Kimberley this time of the year is extremely busy as it is muster time and tourist time and both require great effort and resources.

As we were driving I thought what a paradox out here - remote but not remote. No mobile phone, no radio, no news, minimum services, no shops – how isolated. Yet cars galore travelling the road so there are lots of people around.

The road into Charnley River Station is the best road we have been on here in the Kimberley. There were several water crossings on the way. The station is just beautiful. There are only two other groups of campers – a family and a young people. Nothing like the crowd at Manning Gorge.