Mt Elizabeth Station

Mt Elizabeth Station

Mt Elizabeth Station is another cattle property open to tourists for camping along the Gibb River Road. When we read about it on the internet it said it had no gorges or waterholes, but was worth a visit as an authentic cattle station. That is completely untrue, Mt Elizabeth has one of the best gorges & great access to the Hann river & some pretty epic 4WD tracks to reach them. 

Mt Elizabeth is about 30km off the Gibb on a decent station track, with some creek crossings to negotiate on the way in.  Any mad keen 4WDers out there will no Mt Elizabeth is the starting point of the infamous Munja Track, while we would of loved to have gone, we decided not to this time with the trailer, but are considering coming back out from Broome minus the trailer if we go have time at the end of our Kimberley adventure. 

Mt Elizabeth has a great campground at the homestead, that allows you to spread out, but has hot showers, flushing toilets & allows fires & pets. The cost was again $20 per person per night, but this drops to $10 if you stay more than 2 nights. As we had only come from Manning Gorge we were pretty early, so we set up camp & got straight into exploring the station tracks, well after meeting Darcy the poddy donkey.

 We decided to head out to the Hann river that afternoon. It was about 20km from the homestead, but the tracks were okay. Slow with lots of rocks, but not to bad. We parked at the car park & a 100m walk over the sand & we found the Hann River, again an amazing stretch of Kimberley river, a set of rapids & a huge deep pool perfect for a swim or fish. This time Mat chose fishing & every cast he was getting a bite. He got a great sized Sooty Grunter for dinner, it was a lovely relaxing afternoon. Back to camp, collecting a bit of fire wood on the way home & we set up the Drifta fire pit, relaxed over a few beers & had our fresh fish for dinner. The camp ground was pretty quiet & we were a long way from any other campers, heaven. 

The next morning, we cooked up some bread in the camp oven & had a chat to the owner. They have been having a lot of dingo problems, as they are almost the only station that culls them in the area anymore, the are a lot of wallabies that come into the campground at night & a dingo had killed 4 of them between the house & shed in the last week or so & had got the owners hen & chickens that night. We had heard the howling during the night, but that was all, it shows how sneaky & cunning they can be. Once the bread was cooked, we headed off to the gorge. The owner had told us it would take us an hour to drive the 10km & she was completely right, it was extremely rocky, with a couple of decent jump ups to negotiate. We finally made it to the car park, for a quick bit of lunch & then set off on the walk which was long, but pretty easy. We came to another beautiful river line & then found the gorge & waterfall, wow again!!

Just beautiful. To reach the swimming hole you had to climb down the side of the waterfall, there were 2 ladders to help, but these weren't tied down like other places we have been so it was a bit scary! We made it down safely & from the bottom was a big hole of water that you could access from a sandy beach, no slippery rocks yeah! About another 500m down the gorge there is an  amazing aboriginal rock art site, that is very well preserved & definitely worth the walk. Back at the pool under the waterfall we had a swim, it was very chilly, but so nice.  There was only 1 other couple there, if it had of been at one of the other gorges on the Gibb there would of been 100 people there, so we felt very lucky. 

We finally pulled our selves away because we knew we had the walk back out & the rough road to negotiate. Back at camp we decided we should do camp oven pizzas for dinner. They turned out really well & were a nice change. The camp ground was busy again, it seems lots of people, come into camp but don't stay to check out the gorge or river, crazy!!

The weather has changed as well, it's finally starting to just feel like winter, well a Kimberley winter. The days are still hot, but quiet windy. The nights are getting nice cool & great sleeping weather. What a great way to do winter!! Still swimming in gorges during the day. 

The next day it was time to say good by the Mt Elizabeth, again it was a great stay, so much quieter than a lot of the other Gibb places & campsites. We would definitely recommend it. We stayed for 2 nights on the 6-7th of June. Time to head further north for us, up to Drysdale River, Mitchell Falls & Kulumburu.  

Galvans Gorge & Manning Gorge

Manning Gorge

We left Charnley River Station on the 4th of June just after 8am, we drove the 50km back to the Gibb River road. The Gibb seemed a bit quieter that morning & we only passed a couple of cars. We planned to stop at Galvans gorge on the way across.  Galvans gorge is right on the side of the Gibb & only a short easy walk in. We grabbed the camera & a bottle of water and set off, it was an easy walk along a gorgeous little creek & when we got to the gorge itself it was just beautiful. It had an amazing waterfall & a beautiful pool of water to swim in. We were straight in! It was chilly but so refreshing. There were a few other tourists at the gorge as well, mainly backpackers, with a memorable German tourist that climbed to the top of the waterfall & jumped off, making us cringe, it was at least 15-20 meters high, although he did check its depth with a stick & by dropping a rock off the edge, safety first..... He was blessed with the stupid lucky gene & as he tried to find crazier bits to jump off we decided it was time for us to go. 

Back on the road it was only 14km further up to Mt Barnett Roadhouse which is also the entrance to Manning Gorge. We stopped to top up fuel $2.50/L, buy frozen white bread $6 & splurge on a hamburger at $15 each (they were awesome) & pay our camping fees for Manning, again $20 per person per night (our camping budget is definitely going to be blown this month!). 

The campground was a further 7km up the road on a pretty average dirt road that was speed limited to 40km an hour. It looked busy as we pulled in, but we drove a bit further along & found a pretty good site away from the crowds & we set up camp. The camp ground has flushing toilets & hot showers although the women's hot water system blew up. It is a large campsite with find your own site amongst the trees, don't be afraid to drive a bit further down the track, everyone seems to congregate around the toilets & camp all over each other, our end of the camp ground, was much less chaotic & also away from the tour group area. As I type this at 3pm in the afternoon I can see 1 tent about 300m away from us, near the toilet block there are about 50 camps....They do allow fires & we even got lucky enough to have a big log of wood at the camp that Mat cut to size with the chainsaw. 

All the jobs done, we walked down to the big creek in front of the camp ground for a swim.  Wow, we had heard it was the best swimming hole on the Gibb River Road & it is definitely up there. A large expanse of sand & pandanus lined water, it was just beautiful. There are fresh water crocs in it, but they keep away, everyone was swimming, we figured the kids would be more appetising then us, so we jumped in for a swim. It also let us check out the boat that goes across the creek. To get to the walk into Manning gorge you first have to cross the creek, you can swim, but there is also a little tinny on a rope pulley system that allows you to pull yourself across, meaning you don't get wet & can take cameras etc safely. It was a bit of novelty & we watched few people coming across back from their walk. We would tackle it in the morning. It was then back to camp for a couple of beers, dinner & then bed, it had been another great day. 

We got up reasonably early & had a quick breakfast of tea & eggs on toast & hit the track. The walk into Manning gorge is supposedly 2.5km each way so 5km return, but we think it's a bit longer.  We safely got across the creek in the boat & started the walk at about 8am, we had our lunch with us & planned to stay half a day or so down there. The walk was pretty easy for about 2km, but the last 500m or so, was a bit tougher, still nothing compared to some of the Karijini walks! It was all worth it, as you get down into the gorge you come across a huge water hole, but as you go around a bit further you come to a spectacular waterfall, they just keep getting better! Again it was straight in for a swim as we were hot from our walk. As I swam around in this amazing place, I honestly wondered how you go back to a normal job/life after this? We have been swimming in an amazing gorge by smoko time everyday for days, this was the life, we are very very lucky. 

The rest of the day was morning tea, laying around, lunch (we even had Devon/fritz/polony sandwiches for lunch, Mats family have a great story about how they walked into a gorge with their lunch but forgot to take the knife to cut the Devon, I still haven't found out what they actually did to cut it) more swimming, relaxing & then the walk back to camp, with the return boat ride!

It was as a great day. Over a few beers & some corned beef on the campfire for dinner, we reflected on just how beautiful the Kimberley is. We are so glad we started on the Gibb River road out of Broome/Derby, it has just been amazing & there is so much more to come. So the plan now is across to Mt Elizabeth Station for a few days, up to Drysdale river, onto Mitchell Falls & then onto Kulumburu if we can get across the Carson River. So excited. 

A couple of facts/info that might be useful for any of our readers that are about to do the Gibb themselves

we have had no phone reception since leaving Derby. 

Imjinti has WiFi that you an purchase, Mt Barnett doesn't. 

There are pay phones at the roadhouses & also Charnley River

Diesel was $2.36 at Imjinti & $2.50 at Mt Barnett

There are rubbish disposal points at the Windjana turn off, just before Imjinti & at Mt Barnett. 

There is water for drinking at Windjana, Silent Grove & Charnley River, none at Manning Gorge campsite. 

All paid campsites have had toilets & showers. 

It does look like there are a couple of spots for free camping including March Fly creek & Dog Chain creek, but we didn't use these ourselves so can't confirm what they are like. All the information we read said camping was highly regulated on the Gibb now, but the 2 mentioned looked good, there were lots of people camped at March Fly creek. 

The road condition is pretty good, rough in spots, but we are travelling at around 60-80km an hour, although there are plenty of places you need to slow right down for. Tyre pressure is important, lots of people are doing tyres because they are still running their tyres at bitumen pressures. 

There are way more caravans on the road & at the campgrounds than we expected. 

A lot of the information on the Gibb River Road website itself is very out of date, if you have a specific question about any of the places you want to visit, I would give them a ring to check. 

Overall it is great & an amazing place, get out there & check it out for yourselves, you won't be disappointed!!

Charnley River Station

Charnley River Station

Today's post will be short & sweet with just the basics, as we are submitting an article on this to a 4WD magazine, we will keep you updated if it gets published. 

After a couple of crazy busy camps, we were keen for some thing quieter. It was almost 50km into Charnley River from the Gibb River Road on a decent bush track, it took about an hour, but there were a number of creek crossings & gates to slow down for. We arrived at the homestead with a warm welcome from Lorrie & Chicko and they told us a bit about the place. It is now owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservation with only a limited amount of grazing managed by the next door neighbours Mt House Station. We paid our $20 a person per night camp fees for 3 nights. It was expensive but we hoped it turned out to be what we expected. 

The camp area was large & grassy with flushing toilets & showers. We found a site all by ourselves a long way from any other campers, there were only about 6 other occupied campsites during our whole stay, which was awesome. We set up camp & headed out to our first water hole Donkey Hole. It has at least 3 pools & in the first one we saw a freshwater croc, so went up further to find a less crocy looking hole for a swim.  Just beautiful. Back at camp for a few afternoon beers & I started to feel a bit crook in the guts with cramps all night, by morning it was not pretty so most of the morning we stayed in camp, until the gastro stop tablets kicked in & I felt safe to go for a drive! We went up to Dillie gorge in the afternoon & again it was spectacular & we had it all to ourselves. The next day we went to the biggest of the gorges Grevillea which was one of the best gorges we have seen on our trip, we also did Lilly Pool as well & the lookout at Mt Glemont. We felt like we had seen a large piece of Charnley River station, but in reality it was only a tiny part. 

Spectacular secluded gorges & waterholes, amazing wildlife, scenery, great camping & great hospitality made Charnley River station a highlight of our trip so far. As it is now a conservation property there are no fires, pets, shooting or fishing allowed.

 

May Round Up

Hi guys, yes we are still alive & travelling, we just haven't had internet or phone reception since leaving Broome. We have been half way along the Gibb River Road & have done Mitchell Falls & are now at Kulumburu. We have managed to get some internet reception here at McGowans Island were we are staying, but it is limited, so I have only got a couple of posts up, we will get the rest to you as soon as we can. We are having an amazing time & it's all going well at this stage. Below is the May round up for you, a bit late sorry !!

May Round Up

On the 1st of May we were at Dales Campground at Karijini National Park , on the 31st of May 2014 we were at Silent Grove National Park Bells Gorge. 

Total kilometres travelled 3041.1km. 

Total diesel bought 547.92L, total cost $975.37, dearest diesel $1.899 at Derby, cheapest diesel $1.709 at Newman & Port Hedland.  

Average fuel economy 18L/100km.

Camping. Camped 31 days in May. 4 free camp nights, 27 paid.  Total cost $809, average of $29.96 per night for paid camping, average cost over the month per night $26.09. Dearest camp fees $41 at 80 Mile Beach. 

Best campsite - Pardoo station & Silent Grove

Worst campsite - Indee Station & Karijini campsite

Best experiences - Karijini, fishing the WA coast, gorges, Malcolm Douglas Croc Farm

Worst experiences - Craziness at De Grey River, Indee station in general, backpackers in Broome. 

Best camp cooked meal - Chilli mud crabs, roast beef & veggies in the Furphy camp oven, 

Best bought meal - lunches at Roebuck Bay Hotel & Divers Tavern in Broome

Quotes of the month

We have had heard some cracker comments from our fellow travellers, so we have decided to bring you "Quotes of the month" to share the craziness

In a British accent "a f@cking dingo nearly bit me hand"

An Aussie football team on a group bonding session walking into Kermits Pool at Karijini "I am going to have three kids, two boys & a girl, I am gunna call one boy Kokoda & the girl Karijini, it will be like get here Kokoda & Karijini you too Harry"

An Australian grey nomad who should no better "I punched the bull in the face" referring to the cattle coming into camp at De Grey river, I very much doubt it was a bull as we didn't see any bulls, but it would of been a Brahman cow, stupid bastard.

We overheard a conversation between an Australian grey nomad and a British female backpacker in regards to snakes. The Aussie lady was telling her snakes are protected and you can't kill them, the backpacker replied with "we went to a cattle farm station stay & they kill the snakes, I think the snakes get the cattle or something". 

Things we are missing

Our dogs Milly & Robbo (they would of loved it), our gorgeous niece Isabelle (Happy 1st Brithday!), family, friends, our ensuite, lounge, fresh salads, an oven, unlimited fast WiFi,

Things we are not missing 

Work, TV (May be the sport for Mat!), real coffee, stubbies (we have even embraced WA can beer), steel cap boots, jeans, cities

Silent Grove Camp Ground & Bells Gorge

Silent Grove Camp Ground & Bells Gorge

It was an early start from our Windjana gorge camp & we were packed & ready to go by 8am.  We set off to explore more of the Gibb River Road. After a quick stop at the rubbish collection station at the Windjana turn off, we were back on the Gibb & the first famous landmark we came to was Queen Victoria Head, a cutting through the Napier Ranges that has one side shaped like a head, that they reckon looks like Queen Victoria, I could see some resemblance. We travelled through some beautiful country & the road was pretty good. Next up we approached the edge of the King Leopold Ranges, they were just spectacular & we stopped at a couple of lookouts to take it all in & get some photos.  

Silent Grove is located in the King Leopold Conservation Park & is about 20kms north of the Gibb.  The campground is at Silent Grove, but the main attraction is Bells Gorge & Bells falls, another 10km or so in. The track is was ok with a couple of small creek crossings.  We arrived after lunch & it wasn't to busy, so we set up camp. We decided we would do the gorge the next day so had a quiet afternoon around camp watching the campground fill up very quickly. The campground was very similar to Windjana with flushing toilets, hot showers & areas for generators, tour groups & a quiet area.  The cost was again $12 per person per night. We were lucky enough to get free camping the nights we stayed. The ranger at Windjana asked us if we could do him a favour by dropping off a sign to the ranger at Silent Grove, no worries we said, he then offered us free camping, so we were definitely happy to oblige! The ranger at Silent Grove "Henry" turned out to be the best ranger we have met in a long time & he told us some great stories about his park & job. 

There are fire rings at the campground so we made use of that & got out the Furphy camp oven & cooked up some delicious roast chicken & veggies, it was then early to bed as we had been told to get an early start if we wanted the gorge to ourselves in the morning.

We did get up early & left the campground at about 6.30am for the drive to the gorge. The walk in to the top of the falls was pretty easy & meandered its way along a lovely creek.  When we got to the stop of the falls, there was another creek that you could explore & you could also view Bells Falls, it was one of the best waterfalls we had seen, with lots of water going over.  We crossed the creek & made our way down towards the falls, this was rivalling some of the Karrijini walks, but was much shorter. We when got to the bottom, we got some photos before any other tourists arrived & then jumped in for a swim, we had the place to ourselves for a good half an hour.  The swimming was great, but the current was really strong & took heaps of effort to get to the waterfall, Mat managed it, but my swimming ability wasn't that good!

After an hour or so we walked back up the hard piece & then walked along the smaller creek for a while to a secluded spot for morning tea.  After that it was a pretty easy walk back to the car park.

Back at camp for the afternoon, the campground filled up very quickly again, it was crazy how busy it was. We ended up camped next to a backpacker couple from Switzerland & Austria, who were fascinated by us making a cake in the camp oven.  We soon invited them over for coffee & cake after dinner & we had a great night chatting to them about their adventures & lives. It turned out to be one of the best days we have had on the road so far. Despite it being a busy camp ground it was ok, it seemed to be the camp of stories though, as we chatted to people about their experiences on the Gibb. The best one was a lovely couple towing a camper trailer who's trailer wheel came flying off, ripping out most of the underside of his trailer & it also catching on fire about 65km north of Drysdale River station on the Kulumburu Road.  He did manage to fix it with some help & was still travelling, but wow it was a great story, hopefully we don't end up with any that will compete with it (touch wood).

      

Windjana Gorge & Tunnel Creek

Windjana Gorge & Tunnel Creek

We travelled from Broome to the Windjana Gorge campsite via Derby for some fuel (we filled up the jerry can for the first time, diesel was $1.899 already) & bread on the 28/05/2014. We finally got to start the Gibb River Road, we were very excited! A lot of the road out towards Windjana is actually bitumen, so that was a little bit of a downer, but we are sure we will be sick of corrugations by the time we are done! Once the bitumen finished the start of the Gibb River Road was pretty good, after the the turn off to Windjana the road deteriorated as seems to be the norm when you are going towards a national park, but it wasn't to bad for Ruby & the trailer. We arrived at the campground at about 2pm, WOW it was right on the edge of the gorge & had spectacular scenery, it was busy but there was still plenty of room & we found a spot with some shade & near a fire ring, we could finally have a fire again. The campsite is split into 2 areas, 1 for generators & tourist groups & the other what they call the quiet camping area (it wasn't quiet!). We ended up in the quiet area. There are flushing toilets & even warm showers & it is $12 a night for adults. It is a find your own space/site campground in a large flat area with lots of room to spread out, by nightfall it was probably half full, so not to bad. There are fire rings spread out over the campground, we had to share with 2 other caravans. 

After we set up we drove the short distance back out of the park & cut some firewood for dinner. The rest of the afternoon/night was chatting to our neighbours & cooking some dinner & then early to bed because we wanted to get an early start on the gorge walk in the morning. We were up early the next morning along with most of the campsite (everyone wanted to get the walk done before it got to hot) & after a quick cup of tea & cereal, we set off to Windjana Gorge. The gorge is only about 400-500 meters from the campsite, it is then a 7km return walk through the gorge. This walk is easily the easiest we have completed.  There are no rocks to scramble down like a lot of the other gorges, there are a few steep bits and a bit of sand to walk through, but mostly the track just meanders along the side of the gorge.  It was really lovely especially early in the morning.  We spotted our first freshwater crocodile about 300 meters in and we continued to spot them in the water as we walked along.  We saw double bar finches, lots of little fish & lots of boab trees as we wandered along.  We reached the end of the path and as we made our way back, some freshies had started to edge towards the banks and some had started basking in the sun. We saw probably a dozen crocs for the day, but we have heard you can see lots more, we were there very early though.  

We had made it back to the campsite by 9.30am. We then decided we should also do Tunnel Creek as well that day, so had a quick smoko break & jumped in the car for the 35km trip up to Tunnel Creek.

Tunnel Creek is creek that runs through a cave & you need to take a torch to explore it & you also have to walk through a fair bit of water.  We were super excited to check it out. We set off from the car park with just the basics, our camera in a dry bag, our torches and a bottle of water. A quick walk and we were at the entrance or what we thought was the entrance, it was blocked by huge rocks. Yep this was it and we had to scramble over the rocks to get into the cave, the water started straight away and we had our feet wet 5 meters in. Once you get over the rocks the walking is really easy. The light from the entrance soon fades away and you need to use your torch to find the path, it gets incredibly dark!! You make your way through pools of water, over little rocky outcrops & over sandy beaches, all in the pitch black, while bats fly around you! It was awesome! Half way along you come to an area were the roof has collapsed letting in some light, but you are soon back in the darkness until you get to the end of the tunnel. At the end is a beautiful little creek, we decided to have a break for 10 minutes and sat on the rocks soaking it all up, it was so quiet, a small Goanna then meandered over the rocks near us, looking for some food.

It was then time to head back, as we made our way back into the tunnel I shone my torch on the first pool of water we had to wade back through, 3 sets of orange eyes blinked back at me, sh!t what were they! I tried to point them out to Mat but his torch was fading, eventually he saw them too, they were fresh water crocs, only little, but still scared the crap out of me, cause we hadn't crossed the water yet, bravely we walked across (we didn't have any choice it was the only way back) & of course it was fine! I can definitely guarantee there are crocs in Tunnel Creek!!

We continued back along, only spotting a few fish as we walked back and tried to get a few photos, but being so dark made it pretty hard to get a good one. The climb back out at the entrance was actually easier than it looked and we were soon back at the car park.  Tunnel Creek was amazing & we would definitely recommend it.  There is a huge amount of history in the Tunnel Creek & Windjana Gorge area, including the stories of the famous aboriginal Jandamara.  On our way back to the campground we called into the remains/ruins of the Lillimooloora homestead, which was also a police outstation & played a significant role in the Jandamara story. 

The whole area has a magical vibe about the place with the beautiful gorges, hidden creeks, freshwater crocs, amazing birdlife (we saw a family of Brolgas and there is a greater Bowerbird nest at the campsite) & amazing boab trees that are all different shapes & sizes. We ended up being back at the campsite by 1pm, so exploring Windjana & Tunnel Creek is definitely possible in one day. A lazy afternoon of blog posts, reading and planning our next stop was had. We had planned to stay 3 nights, but 2 was enough to see it all.  One of the best scenic campsites we have had so far, with good amenities. 

A great start to the Gibb River Road, bring on some more!!!