DAY 85 - GIBB RIVER ROAD

23 May 2008

DAY 85 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

GIBB RIVER ROAD
EL QUESTRO to NORTH CREEK REST AREA

Well we are finally on our way to do the Gibb. Before leaving El Questro we went for a final dip in Zebedee Springs. We do love this spot.

Driving out of El Questo there were corrugations on corrugations and what vibrations. The El Questro road is bad. Once we turned onto the Gibb the road improved incredibly. All steep sections are bitumen.

The Wyndham side of the road was in great condition all the way to Kalumburu turn off. After Kalumburu turn off the road deteriorated, as there were corrugations, but nothing close to what we had experienced at El Questro.

Initially it was up and down – crest then dip, crest then dip whilst the escarpment on the side had two distinct parallel lines running along it as if someone had cut rectangular blocks of stone and built a wall for as far as the eye could see.

Yellow kapoc flowers

added to the colours surrounding one as we travelled - pale grasses, the greens from the tree canopies of a range of trees including a splattering of ironwood, bloodwood and boabs, pale mauve road surface then changing to a dark reddish brown and back again and the blue sky with distant white clouds. The boabs here have nearly all lost their leaves and the nuts in all their glory decorate the tree branches. As we travelled on the Kapok bush was no longer to be seen but there were many flowering woollybutt trees.

Soon we reached the mighty Pentecost River crossing.

The water crossing was a bit of anticlimax having done the Chamberlain River crossing yesterday. There was a lovely wake from the vehicle as we crossed it.

The breaks squeaked on steep slopes from the dust. The dust was bad. Luckily for us we met no road trains. From my perspective there was very little traffic but from hubby’s perspective there was an incredible amount of traffic for a road that is considered one of the great 4WD outback tracks that require lots of preparation and is considered to be in a remote area. We felt more remote around Mt Augustus and the Kennedy Ranges earlier on our trip.

The views from Lookout Cockburn Range were spectacular. You could see the twin rivers – Durack and Pentecost.

We went over Rollies Jump Up and the crossed the Durack River that was also flowing.

The scenery changes as the countryside became much more rocky and the distant ranges had disappeared. Termite mounds blended win with the rocks.

On one side of the road the ground has been burnt whilst the other side is lush and green. Then at the sign 300m to Kalumburu turn off the corrugations were back. We sat in the rest area at this turn off for about half an hour debating whether to go to Drysdale and risk going to Mitchell Falls even though that part of the road is still closed. The Kalumburu Road is still only open to Drysdale Station according to the notice at the junction. Since leaving Kununurra the steering block has been loosing oil. We’ve experienced this problem before when we first got the Oka and it had been fixed. Anyway, it can be managed. We had decided to replace the steering block when we get back in order to get a smaller turning circle. In the meantime Hubby has been topping it up daily with oil and has rigged up a container to catch the oil he is loosing in order to monitor it. Then he remembered that we had Stop Leak and he has put that in. It will take a bit of time to see whether it will do the trick. In the meantime a decision was made not to risk it over a road that is technically still closed. Something left to do for when we return here some time in years to come.

Once that decision was made we had to decide where to spend the night. We travelled on and there were cattle grazing in areas rejuvenating from recent burn offs. The scenery on the other side of Kalumburu Road was also subtly different. We’ve stopped at a lovely rest area called North Creek. The creek has a natural stone wall on one side. Soon after we arrived another young couple arrived. They have just been up to Cape York. We soon found we had acquaintances in common through skiing as he had worked at Guthega Pub and we knew many of the same people. What a small world.

As we were having dinner tonight a car came through. Couldn’t believe it as it was so late.

DAYS 83-84 EL QUESTRO

21-22 May 2008

DAYS 83-84 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

EL QUESTRO

Wednesday 21 May

It was lovely waking up to the sound of birds and water cascading over rocks.

After crossing the Pentecost River and other water crossing our first port of call today was Zebedee Springs. It is a short 750 metre track to the springs – 1.5km return. It is a beautiful spot.

You walk through savannah woodlands with lots of ironwoods, kurrajong, bloodwoods and woollybutt to suddenly enter a totally different area - beautiful palm forest.
Very tall Livistona Palms form a thick canopy overhead and provide shade for the thick undergrowth. Finally you get to the springs. They are a permanent thermal springs at the base of sheer cliff faces and surrounded by the tall Livistona Palms. The water is very warm – they say between 28 and 32 degrees. We soon joined every one else in the water. Just beautiful.

After sitting in the springs for a quiet a while we made our way out and drove back to Emma Gorge to tackle the walk there.

Emma Gorge is part of the Cockburn Ranges – part of the extensive rugged tablelands and mesas that rise up all over the Kimberley Plateau. The gorge has massive scree slopes and cliff face escarpments reaching up to 120m on both sides of the trail.

It is a 3.2 km trail (1.6 in each direction) that is very well marked. It is classified as moderately difficult and most of the walk is along loose, rocky and very, very irregular terrain. You need to really negotiate your way through the rocks so thank goodness the track is marked. See the blue diamond shape on the rocks.

You start with a small uphill section through what they referred to as grasslands with some bloodwood trees. This is definitely the easiest part of the trail. Then very quickly it becomes rocky and then rockier.

As the scree slopes of the gorge close in the boulders become bigger, the rocks larger and looser. The trip notes suggest you take extra care from here on – you have no other choice but to take care or you will have an accident.

We continued on past the very interesting rocks with ripple patterns. These ripples are the effect of sediment being deposited in the flowing waters millions of years ago.

Finally we enter a refreshing rain forest section and before we knew it we were at Fern Pool. I tried to cross the next creek and decided this will do.

Hubby continued on to Turquoise Pool, a 100 metres on and this proved to be a hard section as there were some very large boulders to negotiate.

He went to the end of the gorge and said it was steep and slippery but the gorge was beautiful.

Slowly we made our way back over the same boulders and rocks but they felt different going from the other direction. They say the walk takes about 2 hours – it took us, I was the one slowing down by hubby, 3 hours and 15 minutes.

When we got back we headed for the bar at Emma Gorge Resort for a cold beer before returning to our campsite. There is a beautiful ironwood tree in front of the building.

As we sit here sipping our beer, the water flows, the birds call each other, dinner is cooking and I have just finished writing up today. Our two corellas are back on their branch.

Thursday 22 May

It is Min’s birthday today - a day to celebrate. So after wishing him a happy birthday I made him bacon, pineapple and banana mini pancakes for breakfast.

We went back to Zebedee Springs and for a while we were the only ones there. The orange cliff background for the tall lush livistona palms was just magic. It was just beautiful and relaxing.

We then drove over to El Questro Gorge after making our way over a 40 metre wide, 50-60 cm deep El Questro Creek crossing, followed by a second crossing somewhat shorter and not as deep.

It is a totally different gorge to walk through as the vegetation is so totally different but not the rocky, boulder filled track. You walk through a Kimberley rainforest but it is totally different to the rainforests on the east of the country.

The ground was quite moist and there were planks to walk across in places.

Then the track starts to ascend, became much more rockier, and the vegetation was getting to be quite thick. At one stage a little brown snake darted out from under a small rock about half a meter in front of me and then slithered quickly across the path under another rock. Did I watch where I put my feet after that.

After crossing the creek it got even rockier so at this stage I made the decision not to continue as I was having trouble managing the clambering over rocks as my feet were very unstable. So I turned back and slowly returned along the track. Hubby continued on over a steep slope, still rocky, then through a very, very narrow section with an escarpment on one side and drop off on the other to get to the Halfway Pool. When he caught up with me just before the car park he told me that I seem to have a knack of knowing when to stop in that I would not have been capable of doing the remainder of the walk but made a decision just at that point to pull out. He enjoyed the walk and had a swim in Halfway Pool. The water was very clear and refreshing to swim in.

We drove back to the township to have lunch at the Steakhouse. The view over the Pentecost River, manicured lawns, lovely verandah table made for a delightful setting.

After a lovely lunch we went for a drive to Chamberlain Gorge. We had seen it from the air at 500 feet and were not too impressed with it then. It did not look much from here either except for the lovely water views. There were boats moored at the jetty and the gorge cruise had just left.

We saw the famous Homestead from a distance but this was only the back of the homestead. From the air we had seen it from the front and it is a stunner. We then went along Explosion Gorge Track. Another beautiful huge boab known as the Durack Boab because of the ‘D’ carved into it.

Then a steep descent to cross the Chamberlain River. There were 3 sections of water. The first one was about 15 metres, then after rocking and rolling over rocks and boulders for a few metres we went through about 100 metres of water and then after a bit more rocking an rolling over rocks and boulders a further 40-50 metres of water crossing.

We then went on to Bronco’s Lookout overlooking Pentecost River. Wow what a view! Just spectacular.

We slowly made our way back over the river crossings to our campsite. Min’s been whittling away on some ironwood whilst I have cooked him a birthday dinner of roast pork and cranberry sauce with sweet potato, carrot and salad with raspberry vinaigrette, mango cheeks with custard for desert followed by boab and pineapple cake with a shot of Krupnikas – a lithuanian liquor. In the meantime we are sipping champagne under the lovely bright starry Kimberley sky.

The day was hot - we are still wearing shorts and singlets. However, the nights are cooling down and today is the first evening that we have put on long pants and long sleeved tops as the evenings are getting a bit too cool to sit outside in T-shirts.