After the bliss of King Edward River and
the exhilaration of Mitchell Falls we
braced ourselves for the 101kms back to Drysdale Station and the Kimberley
Burger that awaited us for lunch. Now
this burger was good. It stood about 6
inches high, had the lot on it but best of all was a bit of local Kimberley cow
vs a Woolies or Coles cow from who knows where.
Bellies full we decided to free camp on the
banks of the Hann River. When we got
there we saw some people up a tiny bush track so wandered up to check if there
were other spots up there. It turned out
these people were our neighbours from our last night at Uluru some 5 weeks earlier. Of the thousands of square kilometers having
gone off in completely different directions this was bizarre running in to
someone we had met before.
Anyways, a quick overnight stop where the
cows sounded loud and near in the middle of the night and we headed to Manning
Gorge for the day. 9kms from the Mt
Barnett Roadhouse, Manning Gorge after the most frustrating of starts turned
out to be perhaps the best swimming spot of the whole Kimberley experience.
The start of the walk crosses the
river. You can either swim and float
your gear across in a foam esky…or you can walk a hundred metres down and
rockhop across the river. Given we had
our shoes on and had the back packs on we (read me!) decided to rockhop over
and swim back. Seems like we are the only
people who have ever tried this. About
an hour and a bit later we found our way back to the track on the other side of
the river…not quite sure we took the right path but we ended up rock hopping,
taking shoes off and wading, Alex falling in… but with nerves slightly
stretched we reached the point on the walk that was a mere 50 metres or so from
where we started…albeit on the other side of the river! Senses of humour needless to say came in very
very handy!
An hour later walking through the grasslands
and climbing down the side of Manning Gorge we finally reached Manning
Falls. A big crystal clear pool below
the falls that then flowed down stream into a bigger pool. We swam (all 4 of us) up to the falls and in
behind the falls where there was a tiny rock ledge we could sit on and look
back out through the curtain of water coming down in front of us. There was only one other group of people
there, and they left shortly after we arrived meaning that as we had lunch we
were the only ones in this most pristine and beautiful of places…simply
amazing. On our return walk, we did
actually go across the river and float our bags and stuff back….much
easier! Lachie however did decide to use
the foam esky as a boat and nearly sunk it…..luckily for us we thought about
this and only trusted him with his water bottle!
After Manning we drove to Charnley River
Station, arriving just after dark for a number of reasons…firstly there was a
lot of cattle on the roads and whilst most of them moved, one crazy calf decided
it would run along the road in front of us for about a kilometer, secondly as
the sun set the finest of red dust was very difficult to see the holes and bumps
and thirdly and perhaps most importantly, Lachie celebrated our ten thousandth
kilometer travelled with a vomit! I
guess in hindsight it was optimistic to bring a kid who is allergic to dust on
2 weeks on dirt roads and finally it caught up with us. The car is full of dust and the red dust on
the road to Charnley was so fine that as you stepped out to open and close
gates your feet all but disappeared under the dust. Anyway, we cleaned him up and set up camp by
the headlights of the car.
Charnley was full of more gorges and
waterfalls. We went to Grevilea Gorge
and after again climbing down the gorge wall, this time down a ladder and then
down the face of the waterfall itself (or just beside it given the water levels
were not as high as the wet season) we this time found ourselves alone in a
gorge where the walls soared from the water to the sky above us. If ever there was a “you’ll never never know
if you never never go” gorge this was it.
Floating on your back with a water fall above you, the walls of the
gorge beside you and further down over some rocks another cascading waterfall
to a river below was again something special.
Next stop Silent Grove Campsite and Bell
Gorge and my 40th Birthday.
It was a pretty special day and
Bronnie and the boys went all out to make it so. Cupcakes in the Weber, a birthday dinner
complete with a raucous version of Happy Birthday all but ensured everyone in
the campground wished me happy birthday as well. And perhaps the highlight of birthday
presents…a half eaten pack of peanut M&Ms…because I had found the packet
several days earlier and had started eating them…ah well!
Whilst Bell Gorge was visually spectacular,
the swimming here was disappointing as much of the moss off the rocks above the
gorge floated through the pool below the falls. The walk however was great as you hopped and
waded your way across the top of the falls and stood on the top of the walls of
the gorge looking down upon the bell shaped tiers of the water fall.
Last and certainly not least on the Gibb
River Road was Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek.
No swimming at Windjana. On our 2.5km
walk up the gorge we spotted no less than 35 fresh water crocs…walking within
about 10 feet of many of them. The gorge
was spectacular in its colour and contrasting sand, water, trees and rock and
whilst we saw 35 crocs on the day we walked it all, the next day when we went
back in we saw 3…so me thinks we were quite lucky.
Tunnel Creek was a 1km long creek that went
through a pitch black tunnel. We waded
through it and walked the sandy banks within by torch light….following a tour
group who clearly knew there way we were going great until we lagged
behind. Next thing we were wading
through the water and it was getting deeper and deeper…up over my waist by now
which when you consider Lachie comes to my waist was getting quite deep for
him. Anyway we navigated over some rocks
found the shallower water and got back on track. It was weird, even though you couldn’t see
anything other than what your torch showed you, this was still another amazing
thing we did.
And so we travelled off the Gibb River Road
and after some 1200 kilometres of gravel, corrugations and dust we were back on
the bitumen…it was so smooth! A quick
look at Derby, including mango smoothies from the CWA markets and we were on
our way to Broome, our Kimberley adventure all but over.
If I reflect on the Kimberleys, they were
not what I expected. I thought we would
see soaring gorges and cascading waterfalls.
We did and they were incredible.
But there was more than this.
There was such diversity. Rows
and rows of gum trees for over a hundred kilometres. Palm trees in some parts, grass lands in
others. Ranges and escarpments that rose
out of nowhere. Cattle stations
throughout and cattle just roaming everywhere.
An abundance of birdlife. Several
snakes…werent’t that keen on these ones.
Rivers you could swim in, but the ever present threat of crocodiles in
others. A friendliness of locals but
more than ever a sense of understanding and camaraderie amongst fellow
travellers. You felt isolated but not
alone. It was the most incredible couple
of weeks and better than I could ever have hoped for.
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