Gibb River Road - Broome to Darwin

8th July to 19th July 2012
Gibb River Road here we come. Wet season each year (Nov -Apr) the road is closed, and opens in about May for the dry. We were early enough in the season for the Gibb to not have become too chopped up, but travelling was still slow and dusty... very dusty! After a quick look around Derby and a refuel we hit the Gibb for a bone shaking trip across gravel roads to Darwin.

Boab Prison Tree Derby

Our first nights camp at Windjana gorge, provided several close up sightings of the freshwater crocodile. They spend their days sunning themselves along the banks or lurking underwater in the gorges.
Luckily when we explored the 800m Tunnel Creek, wading through knee deep water with only the illumination of a headlamp... we didn't see any beady eyes staring back at us. According to the local aboriginal children red eyes are OK as they are freshie's. Yellow eye's are bad news as they belong to salt water crocks.... There are reportedly 4 freshwater croc's living in Tunnel Creek.

Tunnel Creek

In this part of the Kimberly there are plenty of gorges, each with it's own unique features. Windjana was open cliffs with large billabongs of permanent water, grass and sandy banks. When we drove onto Silent Grove and Bell gorge, it was rock pools and waterfalls. No crocks here so we could swim which was a welcome relief after 30C days. The Gibb is a remote road to drive, where only 4WD's and the well prepared venture. Most of the camping areas are either in remote national parks or Station stays. 

Johnston freshwater crocodile

From the Kalumburu road turnoff to Drysdale Station the road was an absolute disaster. It was closed all of last season, and although open this season, the grader hadn't been through. We took over 2 hours to travel  the 60km of shuddering corrugations. We were fortunate as we made it in one piece, however in our 2 day stay at Drysdale we saw a number of 4WD's and a camper trailer being shipped out on the back of tilt trays. With Derby 470km in one direction and Kununurra 360km in the other direction I can only imaging the towing bill! 



Back on the Gibb, Ellenbrea station was a lovely surprise, with a swimming hole, and plenty of bird life including some very pretty double bar, masked and long tail finches. The amenities consisted of a shower and toilet constructed in stone and iron, very rustic but not very private.

Ellenbrea shower

Home Valley

At Home Valley Jane was able to see the Pentecost river on horseback, a great morning ride. Kevin's dislike of horses saw him stay at the campsite and patch up the camper trailer suspension which had taken a beating on the Kalumburu road. He managed the job with a kitchen knife, hacksaw and 3/4inch open end spanner.

Lake Argyle wetlands

We refueled and resupplied in Kununurra, and went to Zebra Rock mine on the eastern side of Lake Argyle in NT for a couple of nights. Lake Argyle is more a man made freshwater inland sea than lake, as it covers 980square km's and contains over 18 times the water of Sydney harbour. It was built for the Ord river irrigation scheme, which never really took off and only uses 1-2% of the lakes capacity.
The zebra rocks are a stripy formation, thus the name, and are mined for jewelry and ornaments. The area is also the home of the Argyle diamond mine, though we were too busy on the fabulous wetland tour to do any serious shopping.


Heading to Darwin now to get the Land Rover Serviced.

Broome

17 June to 5 July 2012

Marble Bar to Broome is about 600km, and we took a leisurely 4 days to drive the distance travelling via Cape Keraudren nature reserve and Barn Hill Cattle Station. Both places were headland camping upon long white beaches, where the main pastime was fishing and swimming. Once again the fish alluded us, but the water was just the right temperature for swimming. At Barn Hill we watched a huge scrub fire with about a 10km front burn slowly towards us over about a 2 day period, but we were onto Broome before it caught up with us.

Broome was originally established as a pearling town, with the original divers being Japanese, Chinese and Malay. Chinatown is the original part of Broome with Cable Beach a newer addition. The pearl divers were mainly harvesting the mother of pearl for buttons up until the early 1940's when plastics took over. The pearling industry wained until cultured pearl technique were perfected by Mikimoto. Pearls are now big business here!

Japanese pearl divers cemetery

So how was Broome you ask?.... after a horrifically noisy first three nights at Broome Vacation Village .. if you'd like to read more on that have a look at the review we posted on TripAdvisor... we moved to the delightful, friendly, tropical Cable Beach Caravan Park for the remainder of our stay.

Cable Beach

Cable beach is one long stretch of white sand, where the sun sets over the water of an evening, and as a result is a mecca for tourists and locals alike.

Being only a few minutes walk from where we were staying we spent many an evening having a drink as the sun disappeared over Cable Beach.

Cable Beach bar

sunset cable beach

There were three different companies offering camel rides along the beach at sunset... red, blue and black... and we happily sat in the bar and watched them pass by.

camel ride

Our original plan was for 4-5 days in Broome before heading out along the Gibb River Road, but unfortunately, or luckily, the Land Rover early warning light started flashing 'suspension fault' while we were driving around town, and a trip to the Land Rover Dealership proved necessary. If you have to be 'stuck' somewhere Broome's not a bad place.

Staircase to the Moon

For our first few days in Broome our friends Gary and Jane from Sydney were here, so we enjoyed their company with dinners, market shopping trips and drinks most nights, it was good to see someone from home.


After that we patiently waited for the Land Rover and became tourists. We now know all about pearls, and are experts on the tourist bus route around town. We are also tanned and relaxed spending our time between the pool and beach. Luckily the days are 26C-30C.

Staircase to the Moon (king low tide & full moon) over Roebuck Bay happens only 2 nights in July and we were lucky enough to be here to see that occur.

The Land Rover is now back on the road, the camper trailer is packed, and we head out tomorrow for Windjana Gorge National Park.

The Pilbera

6th June to 18th June.

This leg of our journey took us to Karatha, Millstream Chitchester national park, the mining town of Tom Price, Karijini national park, Marble Bar and Carawine Gorge. The Pilbera landscape is dominated by spinafix, rocky outcrops on red plateaus and gorges with the occasional pool. Average day time winter temp is about 26c.

the Pilbera

The East Pilbera shire, where we have spent most of our time, is the biggest shire (municipality) in the world covering just over 376,000 square kilometers.

Karatha is all about mining, the infrastructure Rio Tinto has established is on a mammoth scale, with rail lines linking the various mine sites to the port. We applied for and recieved a permit to drive the Rio owned road from Karatha to Millstream national park, passing several trains which were 2.5km long and carrying $4,000,000AUD worth of iron ore.

Millstream NP Oasis

At Millstream we camped at the crossing pool site and had a swim in the stream, the area is a surprising oasis in the surrounding dry hills. Originally the area was a working cattle station with tennis courts, race track, swimming pool and a chinese gardener growing vegetables... that was in the early 1900's and droughts and cyclones have seen most of the buildings demolished.

Leaving the national park we headed back to Tom Price to stock up on supplies. Until the 1980's Tom Price was a closed town, owned by Rio, and if it wasn't for the demand driven by the mines it would be a ghost town. We took the mine tour to see some of the big machinery up close.  Everything at the mine site is on a huge scale, the tyres on the mine dump truck are over 4M in height and cost $44,000 each with the truck itself work several million dollars.

Mine dump trucks

Tom Price Mine

Leaving Tom Price we headed for Karijini national park. Karijini has several gorges and we explored most of them, the walks were mostly easy to traverse either along the ridge line, or along the gorge floor. However on each circuit there was always a very steep up or down to traverse. We took our time and enjoyed the scenery.... Making sure of our footings of course!

There were dingo's in the park, and signs everywhere telling you not to feed them or leave small children unattended, but we only saw one dingo. However we saw several out near Carawine gorge and heard then howling at night. 

Dales Gorge

Spinafix pigeons

Next stop Marble Bar, the hottest town in Australia. It holds the record thanks to 161 consecutive days where the temperature NEVER dipped below 37.8c(100f). The biggest surprise in Marble Bar was the chef at the pub. He was thai/Vietnamese and cooked the best Asian style meals we've had in a very long time, and as good a quality as in any capital city restaurant. Hope the pub manage to hang on to him. The second surprise about Marble bar is that the fellow who discovered the place mistook Jasper for Marble. So the town should really be named Jasper Bar.

Marble (Jasper) Bar

 The plan now is to head to Broome for a few days R&R before we tackle the Gibbs river road.

Ningaloo Reef WA

16th May to 4th June
The Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is world heritage listed, and stretches 260 kms along the coastline from Coral Bay to Exmouth. Apart form the majestic coastline, the reason we are here is to swim with the Whale sharks, which are in the area each year from April to July.

Our swim with whale sharks, was an amazing experience. We managed 5 swims in one day on the boat tour departing from Coral Bay. It's quite hectic as the dive boat drops you in the water in front of the 6m whale shark, then you have to wait till it swims past, then speed after it with fins, mask and snorkel and try to keep up.... once you loose the shark it's back to the boat to try and catch up with it again!

snorkeling day with the whale sharks 

The water is crystal clear, a pleasant 24C, and we had a chance to snorkel the reef before heading out into the deep water. I'm sure the crew do this to work out the various swimming abilities of everyone on board before the whale shark swim.... no point loosing a tourist.

whale shark

Each tour boat uses a spotter plane to locate the whale sharks, and luckily we found our whale shark before 11am. We felt very small in the water beside such a large fish, and whilst they only feed on coral spawn, krill and plankton, it's a little unnerving having a fish that big swim towards you.

Having left Coral Bay we booked into a few different camp sites in the Cape Range National National Park out of Exmouth. There's limited camping here, and the travel season is starting to get going, so we were lucky to get in. Although each of the camp sites is small (holding between 5 - 17 sites only) they are all lagoon/beach-side and provide fantastic snorkeling and fishing.

snorkeling lagoon

These few weeks have been about wearing our swimmers most of the time, and spending time in and by the water. We've seen turtles, beautifully coloured fish, coral, rays and even a few sand sharks. 

Thank goodness the camper-trailer has a fresh water shower as the ocean seems to be extra salty??  

There are several gorge walks in the park, which have small populations of the endangered black footed rock wallaby. We were lucky enough to stumble across a group on one of our afternoon walks. They are tiny little creatures.

The country side is arid to semi desert, with very little running fresh water. We've hardy seen a tree with gnarled acacia and spinifex being about all that grows. Yardie Creek is the only permanent fresh water in the National Park, so it's a popular spot for the wild life. There are dingo's in the park but I haven't seen any yet, just tracks in the sand.......

black footed rock wallaby

Yardie Creek

We've had a couple of trips into town to restock supplies,... and search out a latte and flat white.  Kevin's also met some new golf buddies, and played golf in the Saturday Exmouth Comp. 

When we've had enough of the beach life, we'll be heading to Karatha to check out some of the mining boom, then turn inland to Tom Price.

Mt Augustus to Red Bluff

1st May to 15th May

I always thought Uluru was Australia's largest rock, but it's actually Mt Augustus which rises 715M out of the desert landscape, and 1,105M above sea level. Its now a national park, and we set up camp on the cattle station adjacent. In 2010 the station was flooded in for several weeks, can't imagine it now.

Mt Augustus

Land Rover Maintenance

There is no fresh drinking water available, so we needed to bring our own, although there was bore water for showering... quite salty 

There are several walks at Mt Augustus and we chose the 8km Peak walk and 12km Summit walk, setting off each morning before 7am to beat the heat. Another National Park in the Gascoyne region is Kennedy Range and we spent a few days there bush camping in one of the water-less gorges. 

Kennedy Range NP

The region is red dust, red rocks and spinifex. There are very few trees in the area, with the exception of a few white barked river gums growing in the gully line, water holes or dry creek beds. Despite the sparseness, it's quite an impressive landscape,  

white barked river gums

 

After 6 weeks on the road, we fare-welled the arid centre and hit the West Australian coast at Carnarvon. The 'West' is such a contrast to the east coast of Australia, which has a fertile coastal strip. In WA the desert runs straight to the coast... desert beside white sand and blue ocean.

The Gascoyne river rarely flows, but provides abundant underground water to the township of 8,500 and they have a thriving fruit and vegetable industry. We spent a few days in Carnarvon dusting the red dirt out of the car and trailer, enjoying fresh water showers, and stocking up on wonderfully fresh 'lunch box banana's', tomatoes, rocket and plenty of other fresh foods. 

champagne red bluff

surf break red bluff

Leaving town, we headed to Quobba Station about 120k up the coast where we found the surfing retreat of Red Bluff to spend a few days. It's a well known surfing spot and whilst we don't surf, we've been enjoying watching the wipe outs and rides on the 2M waves.

From here on we have a few weeks on the coast.

The gunbarrel highway - Giles to Carnegie

25 April 30 April

Our journey towards the start of the gunbarrel highway took us to Giles WA, 750km west southwest of Alice Springs where we camped overnight and went to Giles weather station the next morning. It was built to provide weather data for the UK atomic weapons tests at Maralinga and rocket testing at Woomera. Managed by a staff of 4 we saw the 8.45am weather balloon released, and had a look around the very remote site.

start of the gunbarrel

From Giles we headed through Warburton, only stopping to buy fuel, before hitting the heather highway and onto the gunbarrel. The first 126km on the heather highway took us 7 1/2hours..... so it was 'no highway'.... and the gunbarrel was in worse condition.

Both nights on the gunbarrel we camped near a bore, so we had water to wash with. The first night there were spinifex fires in the area, and we had a visit from some local aboriginals on the way out hunting Kangaroos. 

The second night was quieter... no scrub fires and no people..... In fact we didn't pass another car for 5 days. These two video's will give you a taste of how travelling on the gunbarrel felt. Slow and steady was the only way.

In total length the trip from Warburton to Wiluna was 845km, with only 1 fuel stop at Carnegie station 439km's away, the most remote cattle station in Australia where we paid $2.50ltr for diesel.

It took us 3 days to get to Carnegie and at times we were averaging 20km an hour over tracks which looked like they hadn't been graded since Len Beadell and the team put the road through in the 1950's.

Plenty of feral camels were to be seen along the way, they are in plaque proportion in the west, even with recent aerial culls where they shot 7,000 out of Giles in 3 weeks and 47,000 out of Carnegie over the last few months. We also saw a few dingo's so we were sure to lock up the camper trailer kitchen each night.

Coober Pedy to Uluru

18 April to 24 April

All the crazy people seem to move to Coober Pedy, well at least it seems you need to be a little 'eccentric' to live there. The area produces 70% of the world's opals, and the mining is hot hard work, with no guarantee of finding opal. Many of the original shafts are hand dug, with the miner often having to descend over 30 feet before reaching the opal layer. 

Days can get up to 45C, so the majority of the homes are underground. They are refreshingly cool and stay around the 22C mark throughout the year. Coober Pedy also has a number of underground churches, with the Serbian one being ornately carved and decorated. 

Underground Opal mine

Underground Church

Leaving Cooper Pedy without an opal, we took the Stuart highway via Marla to Yulara. As an update to our geography knowledge, I now know that Uluru is the traditional name for Ayers rock and Kata Tjuta are the Olga's. We had the best of both world's at Uluru, we saw a brilliant sunrise, and the next day the rain came causing water to cascade down the usually dry rock. Quite a contrast.

Uluru Sunrise

Kata Tjuta in the mist

We walked the 10km around Uluru, which the traditional owners prefer you to do rather than climb. Sensibly we started very early one morning before the heat set in. By 11am it was already 30C+. By contrast our walk into Walpa Gorge at Kata Tjuta was done in a mist of rain, and there was a water course running. The weather can certainly change quickly out here.

Walpa Gorge

We also did a tag along walk with the local Ranger, to learn a little about which plants are eatable... just in case... and the wildlife in the area, mainly small birds, emu, kangaroo and goanna. All a good food source for the locals in days gone by.

The roads from Yulara onward are a mix of gravel and dirt, so we're hoping that the rain stays away to make our travelling possible. With the fine red dust out in the centre of Australia, only a few ml's of rainfall cause roads to be closed. We've had to arrange for two permits to travel through aboriginal lands for the next leg of our trip, so as soon as they arrive we'll be off!

Broken Hill to Woomera

10 April to 17 April
The countryside is getting flatter, and the vegetation more sparse and arid looking, however there is still plenty of water about in the rivers. We'd originally planned to do the Darling River run from Wilcannia to Menindee lakes, but both sides of the Darling River were flooded, so instead we headed to Broken Hill and Silverton.

Plains Driving

Both towns owe their existence to mining, Broken Hill is still thriving and is the regional hub, whilst Silverton's mines have been worked out and they rely on their heritage of old building, galleries and pub to gain the tourist dollar.

We had a drink in the pub, which has featured in many beer tvc's over the years, and Silverton is well known as the place they made the movie 'Mad Max'. Still plenty of photo's of Mel about! The days are now hitting 30C, but the nights are a pleasant 17C.

Main weir 

Menindee lakes were dry for about 7 years and only started filling with the QLD floods in 2011. The Lake system is full, and was being reduced to 80% when we were there, as they were expecting the flood peak in 2 weeks.

We wandered around the historic Kinchega Woolshed which was part of a pastoral lease Station from 1850 to 1967, before becoming a national park. The Darling is usually over a km from the old woolshed but was lapping at the edge of the old holding paddocks on our visit.


We camped at the Broken Hill speed boat club caravan park at Copi Hollow ...  lakes edge!  It was the last of the waterfront camping with our next stops a road side pull off outside Orroroo in SA, a dusty site in Port Augusta and another bush camp outside Woomera.

camping at Menindee

Until the early 1980's you couldn't enter the Woomera township without security clearance, and it continues to be managed by the Department of Defence. It's a very interesting but military looking town still... very orderly. A lot of the surrounding lands are still a Prohibited area. If you like military history, rockets, weapons development or are a War War 2 buff it's defiantly worth a look.

Woomera Park

Next stop Coober Pedy to find an opal, then crossing into the NT for a few days at Uluru.

Sydney to Wilcannia

2 April to 9 April
We departed Sydney on the 2nd April, starting a 5 month journey across Australia. Whilst this is a camping adventure we eased ourselves into the trip by having our first stop with friends in Molong. When in Molong a 'must visit' is the Gelato Factory, they export internationally but luckily they also run a cafe for locals to consume Gelato.

Nangar National Park

Next stop was Canowindra, camping over the Easter break with 18 friends. Gorgeous little town with old world sandstone buildings and home of the Age of Fishes museum. A chance finding by a road worker in the 1950's found Devonian fish fossils dating back  350million years.

We did manage a bush walk, all uphill, in the Nangar national park. It was a roughly marked track following the old boundary  fence along the ridge line. After a challenging walk it was a must to stop at the Eugowra Hotel on the way back to town.

Two mornings we had hot air balloons either taking off, or flying over our campsite. The sound of the gas igniting is extremely loud, especially at 6am and the balloons themselves are huge. I have no idea how they navigate or land where they are supposed to!

Canowindra main street

Canowindra was host to a vintage and antique car rally on Easter Sunday, so after speeding into Cowra Saturday night to see Cronulla win a football  game, we saw motoring at a slower pace.

When talking to the exhibitors, many had the same story of locating a rusted out shell of a car and spending the next 20 years slowly resorting it to grandeur. A real labour of love and a very patient wife required.




The days are starting to turn cooler and the nights are 10C, so many layers of clothing are required. After leaving Canowindra for Broken Hill we spent a night free camping about 60km outside Cobar, stopping next day in Wilcannia for Lunch.

Darling River Wilcannia

We found Wilcannia a friendly town with wonderful examples of old sandstone buildings from the days when paddle-steamers serviced those living on the river as far up as Bourke. Matron even gave us a tour of the old hospital built 1876.

The Darling River was in flood at 10.6M when we stopped for lunch, and was expected to peak at 11M later in the day. I expect the last step of the little park were we had lunch was under water by the end of the day.


Next stop Broken Hill and hopefully, flood dependent, Menindee lakes.

Inverell to Sydney

The last of the outback camping is behind us, and we spend a week easing ourselves back into society, bitumen roads, showers and inside toilets.
November is harvest time in north western NSW, and this year it was Wheat and Barley being stripped from the Johnson's farm at Gragin. The John Deer header, with a 10m comb, was working flat chat and the grain harvested was either trucked to the silo's in town or stored on the property for future sale.

grain transfer

Kevin helped out by driving the trucks, loading and unloading grain. Jane was making sure everyone was fed and trying to stay out of the dust generated when the machines are moving around the property.

Header in the creek

Sometimes things don't go to plan, and the 10m wide creek separating one of the barley paddocks proved muddier than first appearances.

A five minute short cut turned into a two hour delay and a tow with the bulldozer.

Luckily several men were on hand to give advice to the unfortunate header operator.




Timing was perfect as the harvest was finished on Tuesday and the rain started on Thursday. Sorgum looking good and enjoying the drink. We celebrated with a night in town and a meal at a Thai restaurant.

Home in Sydney now for a couple of months preparing for Christmas, birthdays and our trip next year to Western Australia. Hope you've enjoyed following us on our travels. Jane & Kevin.