The Gibb River Road

Thursday 22 august, this morning we are leaving Kununurra after finding out we can't vote here and we collected our mail from the Post Office and we are on the road by 8am and it is already 30C.

There is bitumen all the way to El Questro Station (ELQ), we pass the turn off to Emma Gorge and we have been told by many Emma Gorge is not worth the walk in, a couple of hours and not much to see so we turned off into ELQ and pulled up to the first gorge walk, it is a minimum 3 hr walk and we have to get a visitor's pass to be on the property at the homestead first. We know it costs $40 for an unpowered site and $10 pass pp for the day. We have been told a 2 day stay is $120. We would have to stay a few days to do all the walks and we didn’t want to commit ourselves for so long when we have only just started the Gibb River Road (and others had told us that Home Valley Station was a nice place to stay as well). We didn’t even make it to the ELQ homestead we drove to Home Valley Station (HV8) instead. The gravel road started on the Gibb River Road as soon as you drive past the ELQ turn off and there is a lot of upgrading going on …maybe more bitumen on the way.

It didn’t seem far and we reached the Pentecost River crossing and as we expected the water level is very low, the crossing is all rocks and easy to get across.

this is suppose to be a video...oh well

A few kms up the road and we get to the turn off for HV8 and it's another 2km of dirt till the gate of HV8,

 

it’s like a big park: grass, trees, horses in the yard, powered and unpowered sites, playground for the kids, pool, bar/bistro and varied accommodation. We arrived fairly early and have a choice of spots to choose from ($34/n unpowered) and we park next to a shelter shed with a picnic table.

 

 

We are here for about an hour and others start to arrive. It is hot but at least there is a breeze, it is quite pleasant if there is some breeze and of course a pool to swim in is even better. A couple, Bruce and Libby, park behind us in a big rig (truck) and we realized they were up at Cobourg Peninsula when we were there. Another Trakky (trackmaster caravan owner) pulled up next to us, Charlie and Sandra from Victoria, and they knew the other Trakkys we had met previously. We are heading in the same direction so I’m sure we will keep bumping into each other.  Any spare time we have...which is plenty...we spend cooling down in the pool.

Friday morning 7.30am and we are off on a walk to Mt Baldy.  I pack a back pack full of water and food for an up hill battle of 84m, expecting a hard climb in the hot sun...we had an easy gradual walk and we arrived at the top in half an hour..."Are we here already?"...and there was a sign to prove it that was falling over so Steve added some rocks to prop it up a bit more.

afternoon sun  on the Cockburn Ranges

 

We had a great view of the Cockburn Ranges and the mouth of the Pentecost River.  We took our mobiles  with us and got 3 bars of Telstra up there so we took advantage and rang Andrew.  On the track all the way up were snake slides in the soft dirt but we didn't see a one, not a big one anyway.  We were nearly back at the start of the track and I heard a rustling in the leaves on the ground so I stood still and there on the ground was a baby snake, about 12 inches long and as thick as my pinkie, almost cute but we left him alone, probably will be a bird's lunch later on.
Back at camp by about 9am, what do we do now...go for a swim of course.
After lunch we went for a drive down to have a look at the River Campground.

The campground is beside the Pentecost River and if you camp here you have to camp on the far side of the track away from the bank of the river and we soon found out why.  About 200m up the river we spotted a saltwater croc on the mud flats that we thought (looking through the binoculars) was a sizeable animal, then all of a sudden a head popped up on top of the water and then disappeared in the water just as quick and the head looked about 1/3 of the size of the full croc on the bank...we think he was a VERY big croc. The word is there is a salty about 5 metres long that owns this stretch of the Pentecost. This camping ground is dry and dusty and has mangroves close by...mangroves means mozzies and sandflies, no thank you; we were quite happy where we were.
The days are hot but the nights cool down, the temp only has to drop to about 20C and we are pulling up the doona.  Back to camp we put a stew in the dream pot for dinner and have a few drinks with Sandra and Charlie.
Saturday we were all packed up and ready to move on to Durack River (a spot we were told about to free camp).  The GRR is pretty good and easy to drive on and the jump ups (up hills) are bitumen.  We stopped up the road abit still on HV8 property to check out a lookout over Bindoola Falls.

There was a cyclist having a rest under a tree waiting for another cyclist who was supposed to catch up to him from Kununarra but we had seen no one.  What an effort riding a push bike along the Gibb, I take my hat off to him.
There was no water fall but still water in the lower part of the gorge and we could walk further but the lookout was enough for us this morning.
We got to Durack River about 10am it was not far from HV8 and on the left side of the road a lovely spot by the river but small and if anyone came in after us we would not be able to get out

so Steve walked over to the right side of the road and there was more room and shady trees and the other side of the river.  Steve's plan was to drive over the sand, circle back and up between the trees.  Only one problem...he didn't count on the sand being so soft and a little damp...but thankfully not too damp.

From that moment on we spent about 40 minutes digging and 3 attempts to get out of the bog, moving rocks under the wheels and finally a bit more air out of the tyres and Steve headed straight for the road and I followed out on foot carrying the shovel.  We would have gone back over to the other side but there were two cars parked there having morning tea so we pumped up the tyres back up for the gravel and off we went.
We came upon Ellenbrae Station (great scones apparently) but we stopped in and had lunch...great toasted sandwiches too and we even got a choice of bread.  The insignificant things at home are such a luxury out here sometimes.
On our way out we asked if we could stop in and look at the campground even though we weren't staying there and it was ok to look at the 'Ringers Campground'.  It was a huge flat area amongst the trees with a covered place to eat and a donkey heater for the hot shower and there was a full size bath and a flushing toilet.  We saw a sign on a path to a swimming water hole and all for $15pp/night...nice bush camp we thought.

camping area

donkey for the hot water and bathroom and toilet in the background

We kept on driving, the best place to be in the heat of the day is driving in the air con snacking on lollies and drinking plenty of water.  When we met Ron Moon back in Katherine, he told us about a nice spot just on the other side of the Gibb River.  We got to the intersection of the GRR and the Kalumburu Rd where we turn to go to the Mitchell Plateau and we crossed the Gibb River, there were tracks in along the river on the right hand side (left hand side was on the edge of the road) and no thanks...soft sand...we had dug out of enough sand in this heat today so we kept on driving; looks like it might be Drysdale River Station for the night.  But  further along the road we found a graded road to our left just before Plain Creek crossing, we think it was probably for a roadwork campsite.  We drove in nothing here and parked ourselves about 100m from the road under a nice shady tree and that was our camp for the night.  It was so cool under the shade of the tree and over yonder a dingo roams in the bush and I watch it  until I lost sight of it among the trees.  We watched a few cars flying up the Kalumburu Rd, heading for Drysdale I guess. Dark came, we cooked some chicken for dinner and had a nice fire under the stars, we are loving the bush camping.
Today, Sunday, is Scotty's 28th birthday (happy birthday Scott) and it is 7am and 10C; we slept in, it was nice and cool but unfortunately it's only a matter of 30-40 minutes between pleasantly cool and bloody hot so up and adam, brekky, pack up and we are off...should have got up half an hour earlier!!!
We drove into Drysdale River Station to have a look and we bought a BLT to share for morning tea and it was pretty good.

All the stations are very dry and dusty this time of the year but the stations water around the homestead for a bit of green.  There is a shop, licenced bar with food and fuel for a bargain price of $2.40/lt for diesel.  I found out the camping was $15pp and the amenities were very nice. 2km down the road still on their property was Miner's Pool a bush camp for $10pp, I think, which was a huuuuge flat area beside the Drysdale River with (9) thunderbox toilets (by the looks, I didn't do an inspection) spread out along the camping area.  Moving on, this road was pretty rough...88km and they say to allow yourself 2-3hrs to get to Mitchell Falls Campground.  We thought the road to Coburg Peninsula was rough but we did over 300kms in 4 and a half hours. We passed King Edward River campground, which you now have to pay for and we came to the turn off for the Mitchell Falls camp and we had 18kms of the absolute "worst" road we have travelled so far.

We did pass a patch of road after Drysdale Station where the grader had been but that was short and sweet, the road is full of rocks, lumps and bumps, corrugations, rocks and more rocks.  We arrived at Mitchell Falls NP about 2.30pm; there is self registration for camping of $11 per car and $7 pp/$4.50 concession...yes, Steve's DVA pension is starting to pay off ...hahaha.   I did not want to get out of the air con but my stomach got the better of me...I was starving.  Pulled the awning out of the car and I got lunch together while Steve set up the tvan.  The cars that drove past us while we were camped at Plain Creek were already here; there are pit toilets, water in a tank to use pumped out of the creek, ranger on site and helicopters to give you a birds eye view of the area.
Everything that one needs for a couple of days stay.