FITZROY CROSSING TO DERBY

We arrived at Fitzroy Crossing last Friday (22nd) and booked into The Lodge for 2 nights. It is quite a nice place with lawns, restaurant (fairly expensive), motel and caravan park. In March this year the whole area was underwater – they had photos in the reception area. Where our caravan was would have been under water, at a guess at least half way up the caravan. We were hoping to wash the car which still has all the Bungle Bungle dirt on it, but no car washing was allowed in the caravan park and there was no car wash in town. In fact, there wasn’t much of anything in town – one IGA supermarket with a very limited range of choices and really lousy looking meat. There is no butcher in town so we thought we may have to go vegetarian for a few days! One of our gas bottles died at Ngumbum Cliff and we were going to fill it but at $48 we have decided to hold off and hope it is cheaper in Derby. No chemist here so still cannot get prescriptions filled.


We went out to the old Fitzroy Crossing,

then on to Gieke Gorge and saw a crocodile on the sandbar across the river.

It is a freshwater croc and apparently salt water crocs are not known to exist in Gieke Gorge. We went for a walk through the limestone rocks which is part of an ancient Devonian reef, then down to the Fitzroy River.
[I was going to put in a picture but we have such a weak internet signal it is taking ages to put photos on, so perhaps next time].  At the car park there is a gazebo where you can book tours on the Gorge. In 2002 the flood waters were estimated to be 2m over the roof of the gazebo and in March 2011 they were estimated to be about ½ metre above the roof. We had lunch at the old Crossing Inn then decided to drive out to Leopold Downs Road to see whether we would be able to get the caravan to the RAAF Boab Quarry. On the way a rock was thrown up from a passing car and it has chipped our windscreen. We saw a very large wurlie wurlie – the largest I have seen before. The road to the Quarry camp site is way too rough for the caravan so we had to rethink our plans.

On Sunday we drove to Ellendale camp site. It is a medium size camp site only about an hour from Fitzroy Crossing. We got there pretty early but it was already half full and it filled very fast from there. It has toilets and a dump point, so that may be why so many people wanted to stop there. It was very dusty and windy but we were treated to a spectacular sunset. There are a number fires in the area and the smoke creates the best sunsets! I also saw a shooting star while we are outside watching the beautiful starry night. That is the first one I have seen so far on this trip.

On Monday we moved on to the Boab Rest Area. Between Ellendale and this place there have been, and are continuing to be, large fires - off the road a way but stretching almost as far as the eye could see. The Boab Rest area is a pretty good size and slap bang in the middle is a very large, old boab tree

The whole area has had gravel put down. There are no toilets but there are plenty of flies (although nowhere near as many as some of the other places we have camped). A lot of people must use the surrounding bush as their toilet, which is understandable, but it is a pity they haven’t learned to dig a hole and bury it! It has been very smokey late in the afternoon on Monday and we have had ash landing on the car and caravan.

This photo is taken from our caravan looking toward the road. We could hear the crackling noise of the fire but couldn’t see the flames. We were keeping an eye on wind direction because there is a large amount of scrub and high, dry, grass where we are set up. The fire would have to jump the road and it didn’t appear to be roaring through – it may well be a controlled burn (what they call a cool fire) so we didn’t think there was too much risk.

Lots of cars in and out of the rest area through the day, including tour buses. A reasonable amount of people stop for the night but there is plenty of room. Royce attempted to wash the car using a bucket of water and a brush. He probably removed the worst of it but it still looks pretty dirty and will need a good wash when we get to Derby.

We are in Derby now but because of very poor signal strength I will fill you all in on Derby in our next blog (when hopefully we have a better internet connection).

Take care everyone.

HALLS CREEK & SOME OTHER SPOTS

I forgot to mention in my last blog about the Bungle Bungles that we were told Cathedral Gorge was used by Qantas to film part of the song I Still Call Australia Home (with the children singing).
We headed to halls Creek last Sunday (17th) and into the only caravan park for one night. There is no chemist in Halls Creek and I have run out of one of my presciptions. I have also run out of nicorettes so trying not to smoke too much is a challenge! We got the washing done and a bit of a clean up of the caravan and then had long hot showers.  Even though we wash while out on the road, nothing can beat a good shower! We even appeared to have washed off some of our tan. We went out to have a look at the China Wall and Old Town. It is a dirt road and pretty rough. There are a few other things to look at in and around Halls Creek and we will put them on the 'next time' list. We were entertained at the caravan park that night by an indigenous band which played for 3 hours. They were very good musicians and it was a nice night.
It was quite overcast Monday morning. We packed up the caravan, got fuel and did some shopping (very limited choices and pretty dear) before heading off.  Halls Creek has a good butcher (limited range but very good meat). He has a sign outside his shop which says "We offer Tough, Tasteless, Fatty Meat & Iffy Seafood .... at City Prices plus freight etc etc etc ...." We asked him what we should do if the meat we bought wasn't tough, tasteless and fatty and he suggested we post it back! He was very funny.  They have also recently opened a bakery so we indulged there before heading off.  It was a nice bakery and we managed to get some fresh baked bread.
We spent Monday night at Mary Pool - a free camp by the Mary River. It is a very large camp and provides toilets (flushing and reasonably clean) and a dump point. It is a 24 hour stop only (although we don't know why that would be). Lots of trees and shade.  We were told by some other travellers that Mabel Downs stopped charging the road toll to the Bungle Bungles on Saturday (the day after we went there)! We should try to get a refund.
On Tuesday we headed to Ngumban Cliff Rest Area. This is only about 84km from Mary Pool but you can stay as long as you like. As the name suggests it is up reasonably high and there are no trees. There is one toilet but it is pretty horrific! We were the only ones there when we arrived Tuesday morning but a number of people came in and left during the day, including a couple of tour buses. This is a reasonably good size camp area with plenty of room but despite that we had a couple in a Winnebago pull up right behind our caravan and completely blocked our view! There were plenty of other spots they could have used. They stayed there 2 nights and the third night we had our view back, at least for one night. There were quite a few people ended up coming in late in the afternoons and staying for one night then moving on.  The area is very windy during the day with some very strong gusts from time to time.  The wind generally eased off late in the afternoon. It was pretty cold at nights there and we even had to use the quilt! We had beautiful sunsets and starry nights and I experimented with the camera and managed to get a couple of reasonable photos but need to work on it a bit more.
We left Ngumban Cliff this morning and drove to Fitzroy Crossing - details on that to come in the next blog.

China Wall - this is a natural 'structure' and is quite fascinating.

One of the views at Ngumban Cliff

Sunset at Ngumban Cliff - have a look where the Winnebago is parked

Sunset at Ngumban Cliff

Starry night (click to enlarge photo and it will look a bit better)

SPRING CREEK & BUNGLE BUNGLES

We left Wyndham last Wednesday, headed towards Spring Creek which is a free camp about 100m from the turn off into the Bungle Bungles. We drove through Doon Doon where we stopped for a milkshake and through Warmun (Turkey Creek). We didn’t stop at Warmun but had been told that in the heavy rains pretty much the whole town was wiped out and was in the process of being rebuilt. We did see a sign identifying the town (or at least part of it) as a declared natural disaster area, and new transportables being erected. We encountered quite a few of the mining road trains for about two thirds of the trip.


We found Spring Creek (sort of sneaks up on you) which has two levels of camping – the upper level which is primarily for big rigs but is right by the road and very few trees and almost no shade, but pretty level and a good amount of space – and the lower level closer to Spring Creek, more trees but less level and more occupants. After a bit of checking around we managed to find a spot that is pretty sandy but reasonably level and a pretty good view of the creek.

The view of Spring Creek from our caravan

Spring Creek - you can just see our caravan on the right

Spring Creek

The creek is only shallow but you can wade in it and there are a few slightly deeper pools where you can sit and refresh. A number of people hop in each day for a ‘swim’ and a clean (but they don’t use soap). We had a bit of a splash around yesterday. The water was cold but it was very refreshing.


On Friday we headed out to the Bungle Bungles. Once you leave the highway you have to travel 53km of dirt road and the recommended travel time is between 2 and 3 hours, so that gives you an indication of the roughness of the road! The first approximate 30km of the road is on Mabel Downs and less than a fortnight ago the owner started charging people to use the road – allegedly to cover the costs of repairing and maintaining. The charge is $20 per vehicle and tour vehicles are $50. There are an awful lot of vehicles going to Purnululu National Park each day so they must be making an absolute fortune and we cannot see that any work has been done on the road! There are rocks, pot holes, wash outs, 29 wet creek crossings and about the same dry creek crossings. It twists, winds, climbs up and down and you are only supposed to be allowed entry if you have a 4WD. Absolutely no caravans, but you can take tents and high clearance camper trailers and camp within Purnululu. This was the widest creek crossing but wasn’t the worst.

We arrived at the Visitor Centre, got a map and some information and were told we wouldn’t have time to do everything so we should focus on the Domes and Cathedral Gorge. We took her advice and headed off for another 45 minute drive to Piccaninny Creek car park.  This car park is right in the middle of the Bungle Bungles so it is pretty amazing driving in. The camera started clicking the minute we got out of the car and didn’t stop for a few hours! We did the Domes walk (with a bit of a detour off into a chasm) then onto Cathedral Gorge then headed back to the car park. This probably took us, in all, about 2.5 to 3 hours and it was getting pretty hot so we didn’t get to the lookout further on down Piccaninny Creek. We headed back to the car park and had our lunch then worked our way back again. The woman at the Visitor Centre had said that from the Visitor Centre we would need to allow a minimum 2 hours to get out to Echidna Gorge and back so we had to give that a miss.

Cathedral Gorge (part of)

The trip in and out of the Bungle Bungles was well worth it, even though it was pretty rugged and we were really tired by the end of the day.  I think to do the Bungle Bungles properly you would need to camp in the national park for at least 2 nights, minimum.

MAGGIE CREEK AND WYNDHAM

We left Kununurra and headed towards Wyndham, deciding to stop at Maggie Creek (a free camp) on the way. It is only about 28km from Wyndham. When we arrived we decided it was a lovely spot to stay for a night or two but there was nowhere we could get the caravan properly level.  The land slopes every which way. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and digging holes for two of the caravan tires we finally were satisfied. This only took between 1 and 1.5 hours! We decided after all that effort that we would stay for 3 nights. Maggie Creek is starting to dry up so we were camped by a pool (of reasonable size). The view from our caravan was just lovely .....

We were only a few feet away from the pool and we were able to watch an egret fishing in the pool for most of the day.

As it turned out the egret was there every day, so it must have been its home turf. We had a nice cool breeze for most of the day and the only real nuisance was the truck movements. They are mining iron ore somewhere around here and the trucks are carting it to Wyndham Port for loading. The trucks have 4 trailers and they are moving through at approx 1 every 10 minutes.  On Sunday morning we got up early (still adjusting to time difference), made our cup of tea and went outside to drink it. It was a beautiful morning and while we were having our cuppa 2 brolgas landed across the creek, 4 egrets came to visit, a black kite was circling, a blue winged kookaburra landed in a tree and a few beautifully coloured parrots flew around and landed in another tree.  Simply amazing - all before breakfast!

We were visited later by some red tailed black cockatoos, a flock of corellas, some finches, a little bee eater and some other small birds. We watched a crow having a bath in the creek, which was pretty funny. He really had a fabulous time with his bath. For most of Sunday we had the place to ourselves. On Saturday night there was only one other camper and they left Sunday morning. Sunday night there was another young couple with a baby and they left Monday morning. Monday was overcast and a cool morning. We saw a wedgetail eagle and a lot more birds off and on for most of the day.

We were on our own for most of the day but others started coming in about mid afternoon and by late afternoon there were 3 other caravans and one couple tenting.  Royce threw the yabbie net in on Sunday but all we managed to catch were some very small fish which we had to rescue from the net and release.
On Monday we reluctantly packed up and headed into Wyndham. It was an easy drive and when we arrived at the caravan park we noticed a donkey wandering around. We later fed it some carrots, which it loved.

We found out that the donkey used to have a companion - a goat - which used to wander around with him but some 'kids' bashed it and, sadly, it died! That is just so awful.
When we were setting up the caravan we had another visitor .....................

We did some sightseeing around Wyndham, including the Pioneer Cemetary (where, among others, 12 men who died between 1916 and 1918 whilst building the meat works are buried); the Big Croc (20 metres long)

Aboriginal dreamtime statues (bought a carved boab nut from an Aboriginal woman)

Parry Creek

Marlgu Billabong (an amazing place with so much birdlife it is unbelievable - would have loved to put more photos on the blog but just not enough time to sort, resize and upload)

Five Rivers Lookout (where the Ord, King, Pentacost, Durack and Forrest Rivers feed into Cambridge Gulf)

then on to tea at the Wydnham Hotel to celebrate Royce's birthday!
At the back of the caravan park is a very large boab which is estimated to be 2000 years old.

Just a quick stop here at Wyndham and then heading off again tomorrow morning to the Bungle Bungles!

KUNUNARRA WA

We left Lake Argyle early Wednesday morning. The main reason it was 'early' is because WA is 1.5 hours behind SA/NT time, there is no daylight saving, the sun comes up very early and our body clocks were still on NT time! (We are still adjusting and I suspect it may take a while). As it turns out, it was probably lucky we did get to Kununurra early because the place is Full!
We went straight to the Hidden Valley Caravan Park and they weren't sure they could find a spot for us. We had to sit and wait for over an hour. During that time I rang a couple of other caravan parks (there are about 5 or 6 in Kununurra) and they were all full - so we sat and waited. Eventually a site was found for us, but for one night only because it was booked for the next day. The site was OK but pretty dusty and whilst it was shaded there were lots of leaves and flowers blowing off all the time. It was close to the toilets and laundry so that was a bit of a bonus. We headed off to do some shopping then came back and got a couple of loads of washing done, got the blog up to date, checked emails, paid bills etc. We drove out to a free camp site 12km west of Kununurra in case we couldn't get a powered site the next day.  It is OK if necessary. We received a visit from a cute little critter that night.

We were up early again on Thursday morning, and again this morning (damn time difference). We had to relocate yesterday morning. Initially they told us they didn't have another site for us and we thought we would have to go out to the free camp, but almost at the last minute they found a spot so we moved there. I am not really happy with this spot - very dusty, cannot put up awning (because it will partially block an access point) - but beggars cannot be choosers. We have used the time to get the caravan cleaned, get shopping up to date, get towels etc washed and dried and reorganise a few things.
We have been out to have a look at Ivanhoe Crossing which is currently closed.

We also went out to the Sandalwood Factory which was really nice. Treated ourselves to some home-made cake for morning tea and it was delicous. We went up to Kellys Knob Lookout ......

........... Valentine Springs

............ Black Rock Pool

........... and the Diversion Dam

The white water you can just make out between the trees is water pouring through the dam gates. Some of the gates have been opened to release excess water. Unfortunately because the water levels are so high we couldn't get close enough to get a decent photo and there is nowhere you are allowed to stop on top of the dam to take a photo. This is part of the Ord River and the river bank is normally (in the Dry) at about where the rocks are.
I haven't particularly liked Kununurra. I don't know what it is but it doesn't feel like a nice friendly, welcoming town. I am looking forward to leaving tomorrow morning. We will be heading to Wyndham and from there probably down to the Bungle Bungles.
We will keep you posted on our travels again in the not too distant future. Keep safe, healthy & happy.

WESTWARD HO!

We are back in the land of technology again so we can bring you all up to date with our shenanigans since leaving Katherine last Tuesday (28/5/11).  We had a pretty long and arduous drive that day - all of 58km! We stopped at the Vince Connoly Crossing, Limestone Creek campsite and quite liked it so stayed for 2 nights. It is a fairly large free camp and we managed to find a reasonable place. By mid afternoon it was packed out! There are toilets at this camp site but they are waterless and were pretty horrible. Most of the travellers moved on Wednesday morning with most going west. We watched a large number of caravans and motorhomes travelling west and we figured by the time we got to WA they would have their FULL sign up! We had 'happy hour' with three other couples on Wednesday night and had a lot of fun. The campground wasn't as crowded Wednesday night.
On Thursday we moved on to the Gregory National Park and set up at the Sullivan Campground. This is a small campground and it is part of the Victoria River Region. There was some beautiful scenery on the drive here. We went for a walk to Sullivan Creek. It is quite a large creek but where we walked to it narrows to a bit of a trickle then widens again. We saw a small bird which we think was a young kingfisher. Look closely and you can see it in the photo.

By 5pm the campground was so packed you would be hard pressed to fit another small car in.  Unfortunately no-one told the people who drove in about 1am.  The campground is circular and they drove all the way around with their headlights and spotlights on. They then decided to come around again and stop almost opposite our caravan. I was already awake (had trouble getting to sleep) but I am sure they would have woken almost everyone in the camp site. They left very early on the Friday morning - probably to avoid a lynching!
We left the Sullivan Campground and drove to the Katherine River Roadhouse. The escarpment in this area is nothing short of breathtaking!

The picture really doesn't do it justice at all.  Look closely about centre and you can see two wallabies. A bit further on we had to pull off the road when two large 'buckets' from mining trucks were being transported by road. They took up a good 2/3rds of the road. We were lucky they came along while we were on a spillway so the road was wider there, otherwise there might have been problems getting off the road. We noticed a lot of boabs on the drive through to our next campsite at the East Baines river. Some of them are very large!

This is a medium size one near the East Baines River.

This is one side of the East Baines River, taken from the bridge. The campsite is about 500m west of the river.
On Saturday 2/7/11 we headed off to Saddle Creek campsite. Ths is only about 70km east of the NT/WA border. It is a nice campground and we were lucky to get in early and get a reasonable spot, because it filled up pretty quickly. Early in the afternoon an aboriginal (or torres strait islander) woman drove in, with another aboriginal woman and 4 children. The car had run out of the petrol and the older aboriginal woman was very unwell. I couldn't smell alcohol and from what we could gather she had an existing heart problem. She lived in Kununarra but was visiting the East Baines Community and had left her medicine behind. The younger woman was taking her to Kununarra and had run out of petrol. The majority of the vehicles in the campground were diesel but there were one or two petrol cars. One chap had some spare petrol in a container so he poured that into the car but it wouldn't start. Several guys tried to pop the bonnet but couldn't get it open. The electric fan on the car was running non stop and eventually the battery died. There was no phone service in the area but eventually someone managed to get some help via UHF radio (via Alice Springs). An ambulance arrived about 5pm and took Joy off to Kununarra Hospital. The people who used the UHF had mentioned the other woman and the 4 kids and they were supposed to arrange some sort of transport for them but this wasn't done. We spent about 4 to 5 hours fanning Joy and trying to keep her cool and calm and just monitoring her until the ambulance arrived. Some other people got some food for the kids and the other woman (I never did find our her name). Eventually one of the women at the campsite took the woman and the kids back to the East Baines Community - about 9pm!
Sunday was a bit overcast but it cleared early. We headed off to the Keep River National Park. We knew very little about this NP but some people we had met earlier in the week strongly recommended a visit. It is about 3km from the border and to get to the Gurrandalng campground you have to travel 18km on dirt road. There were some patches of rough corrugation and 2 shallow water crossings but it was worth it, as we discovered when we got to the campground.

This is the amazing view from our caravan! Unfortunately the only available spot exposed the whole of one side of the caravan to the western sun and it was very hot! We set up then drove into Kununurra to get some tourist info and do a bit of shopping to tide us over for a couple of days. There is a quarantine checkpoint at the border and everyone must stop and have vehicles checked. They are very tough and don't allow any fresh fruit or vegetables into WA and there are quite a few other things that cannot be taken in either. Because we just had the car and were only driving in to shop we didn't have to have a full check done. The quarantine officer (Chris) pointed out that when you look back at the mountains in the National park it was like a very large crocodile head. It was remarkable but unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of it because you couldn't fit it all in one shot.
On Monday we headed off in the morning to do the Gurrandalng Walk - absolutely spectacular! It was very hot but it was worth every drop of sweat!

One of the other sites had been vacated so we relocated to that site late in the morning. It was a lot better and we didn't have as much exposure to the afternoon sun. It was a pretty hot day but we got a slightly cool breeze every so often. We have red dust everywhere from the drive in to the national park but any cleaning will have to wait until we get to our next powered camp site.
On Tuesday morning we packed up - relucantly. We would have liked to stay another day but the toilet was full and the batteries were empty so we had to move on. We drove down to the Rangers Station and saw this fabulous boab tree.

We had a look around at the Cockatoo Lagoon and spotted a couple of wallabies and a brolga but they were too far away to show up properly on the camera.
We headed through the border and almost passed the quarantine check with flying colours, except that we had forgotten we had 2 onions! We decided to detour and have a look at Lake Argyle. It is 38km off the highway to Lake Argyle but we thought we shouldn't pass this way without at least having a look.  The scenery on the drive to Lake Argyle is just spectacular. Unfortunately it is a rather narrow, winding road and there is nowhere to pull over to take photos, which is pretty disappointing. We passed over Spillway Creek and were awed by the water racing through there.

When we got to Lake Argyle we decided to stay the night, so we checked in, set up then changed into bathers and went for a swim in the infinity pool. The water was 15 degrees and was pretty cold but once you got in it was lovely. I did get a bit sunburnt though! We went on the Lake Argyle Sunset Cruise in the afternoon, leaving at 2.45pm and returning after dark. We saw freshwater crocs (there are some 25,000 in the lake) and euros on one of the islands. The crocs grow roughly double the size they would normally because it is optimum conditions for them - it is one very large billabong! The lake was created by flooding Argyle Downs - a former 1 million hectare cattle station. You simply cannot believe the enormity of this lake. it is classed as an inland sea and the cruise boats have to be rated for open water because of the size of it.

The view of part of Lake Argyle from the Tanks Lookout

That is the Ord River behind Royce. This is just a few metres downstream from the outlet pipes from the lake and the water races past really fast.

The lake goes on almost to infinity!

The line across the bottom of this island (and pretty much all other islands and the mainland) shows the water level of the lake only a couple of months ago. It was the highest it has ever been and the water going through Spillway Creek was so powerful the waves were 2-3m high and they almost had the bridge washed out. When the lake is at capacity it would fill the Sydney Harbour 80 times! The amount of water coming down the Ord River into the lake in the Wet is beyond comprehension!

On the boat right at the tail end of sunset! A beautiful day and well worth the detour.