We woke early and had breakfast with the Jabirus and I think
they enjoyed our omelet even more than we did, especially the tasty cheese
:-) They are the weirdest looking things
but quite gentle with a funny little gurgling call.
We left Kununurra around 9 fully loaded, carrying 215 litres
of fuel, 150 litres of water, and food containers and fridge chocka block. We would be away from so-called civilisation
for anywhere from 10 to 14 days. It is
recommended you take enough drinking water for 3 litres each per day, and
provision for an extra 3 to 4 days in case of breakdown. It would be interesting to know what the
total weight is.
It was quite hot early but nowhere near as windy as it had
been up until then.
It was 53km to the turn off for the Gibb River Road and the
first 34km of that was sealed up until the El Questro turn Off.
 |
| There's some big suckers out here!!! |
We stopped for a cuppa at Emma Gorge. Didn't do the hike as we hadn't come
prepared, GM wouldn't have made it and it was stinking hot by this time.
We pulled up for a cuppa at the 137km mark and GM had to
re-fit a tail light and front indicator which had managed to rattle themselves
out over the corrugations. There was
another couple pulled up coming the other way, and they had lost a driving
light which we spotted in the middle of the road another 100km or so on. The road isn't quite as good as the Tanami,
but not too bad in spots. There was a
fair bit of traffic, as this is the road you take to get to Kulumburu and the Mitchell
Falls. We noticed the traffic thinned
out quite a bit once we got past the turnoff.
There were quite a number of vehicles pulled over as we made
our way to Mt. Barnett Roadhouse, 341km down the Gibb River Road, which was to
be our fill up point for fuel and our first stop for the night. We pulled up to check on a couple of vehicles
pulled over, they had wild horses on the grass next to them and a
donkey!!!! Had a bit of a chuckle with
them over this and all agreed it was a very nice looking donkey. Met another couple who had a pop top caravan
with straps holding it together, as the rough roads had sheered the rivets
holding all the cross arms. Even we knew
you would be a fool to take anything other
than heavy duty gear onto this road, so the silly bugger has no one to
blame but himself.
We saw some lovely sights along the way and stopped to take
pics through river crossings.
 |
| The Pentecost Crossing |
Stopped for some firewood and finally made our way to Mt.
Barnett Roadhouse. Fuel was $2.40 per
litre here :-/ and we didn't have time to go the 70km back to Mt. Elizabeth
Station before dark so we stayed the night.
They have a caravan park for $20 per head per night, but the generator
only runs between 6.30am and 10.30am, 5.30pm to 7.30pm so that was the only
time there was hot (barely luke warm) water and lights.
We met Alan & Bronwyn from the Gold Coast, but
originally St. Albans in Victoria. They
seemed like a nice couple, but didn't have their own firewood, and shared
ours......could be a scam going on here ;-)
It wasn't until the next morning after we had packed up that
we realised just where we were camped.
Damn it, we could have stayed an extra day!!! We were at Manning Gorge &
Waterfalls. The hike was a bit too far
for GM but the pool was just beautiful.
You could either swim across or use a little flat bottomed boat with
rope to drag yourself across.
We had a quick check of the pool and then took off for Mt.
Elizabeth Station and our venture into Walcott Inlet........The centre point of
our trip.
The Mt. Elizabeth Station turnoff was 40km back up the way
we had come, and then another 30km inland.
We met Kim and paid our fees that cover the Station and
Bachsten Bush Camp. She gave us a sheet
and went through the finer details of our trip.
The homestead was a great set up and such a simple idea to keep the
place cool. The heat out here is fairly
serious.
We headed out at 10.30
and now we were in the fair dinkum 4WD
stuff :-) We drove 67km of fairly easy
going and met a young couple called Cass & Amy from Perth who weren't sure
they were going the right way. We drove
around the "cattle yards" for about 50 of those kms. It's a pretty big joint out here :-) Then we hit the "Magpie Jump-up" Hooley Dooley!!!! GM was in his element driving down massive
boulders and slowly bumping our way along...the scary part is the thought of
driving back up and out!!!! This went on
for 2km which took about 1/2 an hour.
Really, you would think after all these rough roads and rocks that I
would no longer have any cellulite left on my body.....it didn't work though so
I'm feeling a bit ripped off!!!
We stopped at Turkey Creek for lunch where there is just
open field and a drop toilet. It was
rather funny sitting on the loo, as there was no door and the cows were
checking me out. It was certainly a room
with a view :-)
We met a young fella from Broome on the road who'd been at
Walcott Inlet fishing for the week. What
a great personality. He was full of life
and good advice. This is his 3rd year
according to Peter & Janet. Everyone
stops for a yarn when you meet up as you have to pull off the road to let
people pass. We're towing Barbara, so
the 4WD's without a trailer are really courteous and aware how much more
difficult it is for us.
We passed some fantastic Aboriginal Rock art, drove through
lots and lots of Creeks, the Fig Tree Jump-up (which was a piece of cake after the
Magpie Jump-up) and worked our way to Filter Creek. We pulled up there at around 4.30 through
utter exhaustion...I had even started nodding off through all the rocky
parts.....We had travelled 122km's from Mt. Elizabeth Station in 6 hours and
still had another 100kms to go.....goody...............
 |
| These have been re-painted with dulux by some of the younger men and unfortunately without supervision from the elders. |
We were up and out early the next morning
 |
| A Sand Monitor |
and reached Bachsten Bush Camp about 25km down the
road.
We met the caretakers Peter & Janet who used to do tours
in the area, and a woman called Yo who just happened to be there when they got
there for the season. She's stayed to
help by the look of it and is now a part of the landscape. What a lovely bunch of people :-) Janet has even worked in Moe, and I'll ask
her more about that when we head out again.
Young Cass & Amy had parked up here for the night so we had a quick
chat with them as well.....everyone is so friendly. Janet made us a cuppa and showed us the pics
of the track being cleared into Walcott Inlet, which they have to do every year
as the growth is so enormous here. We
will be staying at the camp for a day on our way out as there are falls, rock
pools and caves there as well as real showers and toilets ;-)
We headed off there around 10.25
and 15km down the
road we stopped at Wrens Gorge for a look.......pure paradise. This place just takes your breath away with
its waterfalls and swimming holes and rocks.
It wasn't even 1/2km off the road, and if they hadn't tied a pink ribbon
around a tree, you would never know it was there and you'd drive straight passed it!!
We took off again and made our way through a heap more
creeks and different landscapes, sacred Aboriginal Sites and Jump-ups and
people broken down in the middle of the track.
We crossed into Salt water Croc country :-/ and pulled up at "Black Water Tank"
and filled up our dwindling water containers.
We passed the "Boab Tree Fishing Spot" and then we were
finally at Walcott Inlet at around 3.30pm, not quite as exhausted as the
previous day. We were the only people
there and very isolated.
 |
| Walcott Inlet |
The instruction list we were given at Mt. Elizabeth Station
on how to get here is almost like playing a board game with lots of clues for
you to discover your way through. I left
the hooning 4WDing to GM and I was the navigator.....a pretty damn good one at
that ;-)
Walcott Inlet...................mmmmmmmmmmm
We had just driven for 2 days over the roughest possible
terrain to get here..............not really what we were expecting and not
really our cup of tea!!! It could only
be possible for someone totally enamoured with fishing that would want to come
here. The camp site was bleak and dirty,
there was nowhere for you to swim, no fresh water, just dirt and mud. You daren't go near the inlet as it is fairly
thick with crocodiles. There was very
little bird life but we had the only remotely good piece of land available that
wasn't burnt spinifex. And we had the
only bare bit of cliff top where you could see the inlet without having to
battle mud and mangroves. I must admit
it was pretty spectacular watching the time come in.......9 to 11m tides in 2
hours.
 |
| It can still look pretty amazing here :-) |
Definitely not a place to bring the missus and kids though.
Oh, and flies......billions and billions of them that get in
your eyes and up your nose. GM wasn't
very tolerant of them..............My ears are still pink from his swearing ;-)
Cass & Amy turned up and left the next day, but came
back again and camped on a little bit of grass near us for the night and sat
and talked with us while watching the tide come in. A truly
lovely young couple and a very pleasant night. They left pretty early the next morning with
the same impression of the place as us.
We stayed 2 nights and decided to head back down the road
where the world was better and the water was fresh.
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