Gibb River Road – Imintji Store, Mt Barnett, Ellenbrae

Disaster had struck! Was there any way out???

Whilst packing for the trip – all the essentials of course – I had included a dozen assorted bottles of red wine neatly stored in one of those compartmentalised cardboard boxes and stored in the back of the camper trailer. Red wine, it is often said, should be served at room temperature. However, the wise sages that say this probably didn’t envisage what is essentially a closed Aluminium box out in the Kimberley sun in air temperatures in the low 40’s as an appropriate sort of room.

At Silent Grove I had occasion to partake of some red wine. “Hmmm – feels a bit warm” I thought as I took it from its box. One taste removed all doubt. Far too hot to drink – bloody awful. I was forced to wait an hour or two to let it cool down to an acceptable temperature – although I did trade taste for immediacy somewhat. I tried cooling the bottle with water, but all the water in the area was of a similar temperature and was of limited use.

The Imintji Store is a little store located 2/3rds of the way down the Gibb River Road. It is an unassuming structure constructed from a couple of transportable 12x3m “Atco Huts” and covered by a big tarpaulin-type structure. It’s located adjacent to the Imintji Aboriginal Community. It has everything you could possibly imagine in such a small space. Dr Who’s Tardis sprung to mind. It had things ranging from the up-to-date footy scores scrawled on a blackboard out the front, to diesel, to food, hardware, spare parts, camping gear, clothing, cappuccino’s and most importantly, ice.

We had a lovely half hour at the Imintji Store, sipping cappuccinos on a little lawn in 40 degree heat whilst watching 4WD’s travel by and the friendly folk of the Imintji community going about their business.

Most importantly, as we left Imintji, we picked up a couple of bags of ice. Hot red wine no more! Nowadays I have to decide in advance what I’ll be drinking (usually decided by the ever reliable “lucky dip” method) and take it from the esky a while before I need it. We also found that icy water also makes the perfect medium in which to store apples.

We said our farewell to Silent Grove and made our way up to Mt Barnett station. We arrived in the early afternoon and set up camp. We then back-tracked along the Gibb River Road a short way to visit Galvans Gorge.

We did our pre-walk ritual of sunscreen and hats and water etc.. and walked into the Gorge. We were quite hot and were looking forward to a bit of a swim when we got there. Along the way we saw quite a few “Ta-ta Lizards”. These groovy little guys will scamper off and stop a short distance away as you approach them. Then, as they stop, for a few seconds, they will wave ta-ta to you with one of their front legs.

When we arrived at the end of the Gorge, we saw a pretty area and a place where a waterfall usually is and a body of water that was just a bit too still for swimming. Either that or we weren’t hot enough. In any case when we balanced it all up we decided not to swim and returned to the Beast.

Just not hot enough to swim in this just now

But a lovely place all the same

When we arrived back at the Mt Barnett campground – we decided to check out the the swimming hole at one end of the campground. Wow! Were we surprised! It was a beautiful place. Rock and sand and shady trees and cool water that flowed by. Our plans of spending one and a half hours (one way) trekking to Manning Gorge suddenly evaporated and we stayed and swam in the creek/river all afternoon. We got up at about 6:00 the next morning and went for another swim in the swimming hole before brekkie and packing up and leaving. Manning Gorge will have to wait for another time.

One part of this handy swimming hole at the campground

Cooling off...

At Mt Barnett campground we saw many camp fires being lit and fed during the evening.  It made us wonder.  Keyla and I don't often have a campfire when camping - except if we need to cook on one or for warmth.  The evening was very warm (read: hot) and our biggest priority was in fact finding a supply of damp cloths we could use to drape over ouselves and try and keep cool.  As we lay in bed and tried to sleep, we wondered why anyone would need to be any warmer on a evening like this.

Our plan for the day was to travel approx 180km up the Gibb River Road to Ellenbrae Station and stop there. Well. The corrugations were fairly light-on and even after our late getaway from Mt Barnett after a swim, we still managed to reach Ellenbrae by about Midday. As we approached the turn-off to Ellenbrae, we were invited by some hand-made signs to drop in and have some tea and scones. Then, as we proceeded up the turn-off (5km) we were hit with a stream of hand-made signs encouraging us to keep going and that we would be most welcome and that the scones were really nice.

It was all true.

Ellenbrae homestead is a mini-oasis in this seemingly dry part of the Kimberley. As we approached we were greeted by vistas of wide lush green lawns and shady trees. We parked and approached the homestead, we were greeted by a cheery fellow who engaged us in delightful conversation for a full 5 minutes before inviting us “in” for tea and scones. The outdoor kitchen was covered with a huge roof and verandah all around. We decided to sit in the garden next to a large 750 year old Boab tree and watch dozens of finches flit about around a bird feeder.

Not an unusual sight - Keyla hugging Boab trees

Finches around a feeder at Ellenbrae

Our scones and tea (again in 40deg heat) were fresh and delightful and made for an excellent lunch.

As it was quite hot (even the locals were complaining) and it was so early in the day, we decided to press on to Kununurra. When we arose that morning we hadn’t intended driving half of the Gibb River Road in one hit – but that’s what we were about to do.

The road conditions were surprisingly good and we made good progress (even up to 80 km/h). The scenery became very dramatic and spectacular as we started to descend off the Pentecost Ranges. At a bit of a road-side pull-over (near Home Station where a fair bit of the recent movie “Australia” was filmed) we had the opportunity to stop and take a few photos of the Cockburn ranges in the distance. Thanks to the wonderful lady at Ellenbrae she also said that spot is the only place for miles around that gets a mobile phone signal (probably from Whyndam approx 80km away) so while I spent some time taking pics of the spectacular vista, Keyla was doing a quick check-in with Tari and Elodie and sending photos from her phone to as many people as she could.

A small part of the Cockburn Ranges

Keyla doing a quick "catch up" in this speck of mobile reception.

The last 30km of the Gibb River Road was the roughest in terms of corrugations. For those family members on the Simpson Desert Trek last year – if we rated the worst corrugations on that trip (say the Knolls Track or the Western end of the Rig Road) as a 10 then these were a 7 or 8. Pretty harsh but not mind-blowing/soul-destroying. Luckily there was only 30 odd km of the worst of them.

We arrived in Kununurra just before dusk and settled into the relative luxury of a shady caravan park.

Gibb River Road – Lennard Gorge

Following a marvellous day at Bells Gorge, we set out for Lennard Gorge the following day. The temperatures were kind to us as they were in the low 40’s.


We back-tracked a short way along the Gibb River Road to reach the Gorge walk.

We were surprised to find that we were the only people attempting the walk at that time. Then, a moment later as we stepped out of the Beast (4WD), we realised why. It was damn hot. Nonetheless we donned our sunscreen, hats, gathered our water and headed off. The walk itself was pretty easy – not much in the way of rough ground or clambering over rocks and it was fairly short too say 30-40 mins until we reached the Gorge. We were rewarded with a view into the narrow and steep sided gorge from above. A small a mount of water was trickling over a VERY small waterfall. We did suspect that during the wet season, it’d be a spectacular sight indeed.

A pool in Lennard Gorge

A fool in Lennard Gorge

We walked along the top of the gorge for about half an hour before eventually finding the trail back to the Beast.

We eventually found the trail out..

Keyla taking a breather on the trail

As we walked back to the Beast, we met a couple from Sydney who introduced themselves by asking about our HF Oz set-up (they had the same). The lady was from Mexico – and within a minute or two she and Keyla were chatting away in Spanish while the fellow and myself stood around looking bemused. We both noted that there weren’t many people around given the amount of traffic on the Gibb River Road.

Back at our campsite at Silent Grove, I noticed we had an unexpected guest in the form of a 2ish metre Olive Python cruising around our clothesline. It’s a beautiful creature.

Olive Python under the clothes line

A magnificent creature - a juvenile at approx 2m long

It caused a bit of a stir with some people who were setting up camp nearby. I was worried that someone may take to it with a shovel or something, so when I was asked by a worried Mum if I knew anything about snakes I repeatedly told them not to panic and to leave it alone and it’ll cruise on by of its own accord (which it of course it did). When we informed the Ranger later that evening, he told us that at 2m it was a juvenile and that Olive Pythons grow to approx 4m in length. He also said it was probably the “King Brown” that had been reported to him by our campsite neighbours the “know-it-all’s”.

We met our neighbours on the previous days walk to Bell’s Gorge. If you’ve ever played tennis – these couple were like the person who turns up with all the colour co-ordinated and brand identical matching shirts, socks, shoes, racquet, racquet bag, visor, towel, etc.. Really looks the part. Can hardly play tennis. This is the sort of person that made up the couple that we christened the “know-it-alls”. They knew everything and were wrong about nothing and had all the “right” gear to match. As we travelled up the Gibb River Road and around Kununurra, whenever we saw their sort of camper-trailer, we’d do a second look to see if it was our mates the “know-it-all’s”.

Late in the afternoon we headed back out to the Gibb River Road and drove along to a “jump up” (where the road rises up the side of a range) to take some photos of the countryside from vantage point where hopefully the late afternoon light would be awesome.  We also hoped we could sit for a while, take it all in, and knock back a beer or two.

Creek-crossing fun on way to photo point

Vista from jump-up

Vista from jump-up

A small tree

Now I’ve had this car fridge of mine for about 2 years and it can be a bit tricky to use. It’s one of these fridges that you can “store up the cold” for a while and you can turn the fridge off for a day without any drama. However I haven’t quite got the hang of just letting it run and keep things cool. We use it as a drinks fridge at home and I constantly freeze and explode soft-drink cans with it.  I refuse to read the instructions btw. Instructions are for pussies and are not at all manly. Especially with boy-gadgets like auto-fridges. The downside to this bravado (on this occasion) is that the home brew ginger beer froze solid and I had to resort to sitting the cans on the (very hot) exhaust manifold of the Beast’s donk to warm them up enough to drink. At least it was cold beer and only took a short while longer before we could enjoy the sunset.

Very cold beer on a very hot exhaust manifold

The Gibb River Road - Bell's Gorge.

We set out from Broome along the Gibb River Road on Sun 13 Sep.

We bypassed Winjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek (may do them as we head back) as we visited those places in July.  I also recall that the campground at Windjana Gorge isn't well sheltered and with the temperature hovering around the 40 deg C mark, we didn't feel like setting up in full sun.

With a quick stop to photograph Queen Victoria's Head, we headed on to set up at Silent Grove near Bell's Gorge.

Queen Victoria's Head in the Devonian Reefs

Our campsite under a Quinine Tree at Silent Grove

The Gate Bitch at work

Bells Gorge is a short 45 min walk in a creek bed and a clamber over some rocks before you are presented with an idyllic swimming hole.  We stayed there for hours and hours and didn't really want to leave.  Mind you - the hike back to the 4WD pretty much cancelled out any cooling effect gained from swimming for hours in cool waters.

Walk along Creek Bed to Bell's Gorge

Waterfall at Bell's Gorge

Superb Swimming - We spent hours here...

Getting ready to hike back to 4WD..

Whilst camped at Silent Grove we also visited Lennard Gorge and made friends with a 2m Olive Python and took some nice pics and froze some Ginger Beer - but that's in the next post.....

Stephen.

Keyla (aka the Gate Bitch) arrives in Broome

Keyla arrived early on Saturday morning at Broome airport.  I was forced to get up at the crack of 8:30 to meet the plane at 9:30am.  Keyla of course had to get up much earlier (5:00am) - that'll teach her to get me to book her 'plane tickets.

Keyla (along with the other passengers) alighted from the 'plane in full winter battle dress, as the weather in Perth was miserable and cold.  At 9:30 in the morning in Broome it was not cold and miserable.  Far from it.  After a quick change of clothes before she melted - we headed out to stock up on consumables for the trip.

Things being what they are - and beer being beer - we of course ended up at Matso's Brewery for lunch and a (ginger) beer or three.  Some supplies of beer were obtained and stored for the trip.  With there being a very real chance that the afternoon could quickly and easily slip away from us on the verandah of the brewery - we decided to make a tactical withdrawl before things got too messy/comfortable.

A trip to the most marvellous and seriously excellent bookshop in Broome yielded a copy of "Kimberley Sun" by Di Morrisey which is a sequel to "Tears of the Moon" that Keyla picked up in Broome in July this year.  For myself, I showed much restraint and limited myself to only a single book, "Geology of Australia" by David Johnston.  My last visit to that particular bookshop in July had been an expensive exercise indeed.

We rounded out the day's preparations with a meal in a restaurant overlooking Cable Beach.

A lazy day in Broome

As I arrived in Broome a day early - I had a bit of time to go over the gear and check that things were ship-shape (a task I started first thing in the morning).

So after brekkie I headed into town for a much needed Long Mac.

I went for a bit of a 4WD along Cable Beach and had a quick dip in the ocean in the "clothing optional" area of the beach to cool off as it was mid 30's and a bit humid.

Afterwards I went for a walk along the beach near the resort and found a fellow paragliding in the updraft off the sand-dunes.  He was entertaining the crowd quite nicely and only crashed once a little bit.  It looked like a whole heap of fun.

The pub ended up as a good place to watch the Doggies whip the Lions and the Storm to do the same.

The first sprint to Broome

I'm writing this from our camper-trailer in a Broome caravan park.  These wireless internet thingy's are handy sometimes.

I've just completed a 2,240km trip from Perth to Broome.  It took almost 3 days via the Great Northern Highway (inland route) rather than the costal route.

I hadn't even left Upper Swan before I picked up a hitch-hiker who wanted a lift to Dalwallinu.  Over the couse of the next couple of hours I learned heaps about the truck-towing game from Gerry.  He got a call to get to Dalwallinu as soon as he could and bring a truck back to Perth.

The wildflowers were out in force in the wheatbelt and Murchison - although by the time I got to Meekatharra I realised I hadn't seen any for a while.  I hope I manage to get a few good pics on the way back...

I had a few pleasant "old memories" resurface as I headed north of Meekatharra.  The country changed and looked the same as when I worked at the Fortnum Gold Mine which is in the vicinity.  I went whizzing past some old dirt roads I had driven TO the highway on, but never actually travelled down the highway.  The mine is some distance (90km??) from the highway and I didn't take the time to do a "drive-by".

Just south of Newman the country changes again into the spectacular iron ore and gorge country.  I passed within a few km of Karajini.  Had I planned my stops better, I would have stayed there for a night rather than in Meekatharra.   The spectacular countryside (and altitude 700 to 750m) suddenly gave way to vast plains at Auski.  The only other countryside of note was some spectacular outcrops (Tors?) about 150km south of Port Headland.

The drive between Port Headland and Broome, in my mind competes, with the wonderment and awe and sheer beauty you experience when you drive between Adelaide and Pt Augusta - or from Mildura to the SA Border.  There isn't any.  To be fair - if I'd gone off the highway and had a poke around - I would've found some good stuff.  I believe the 80 mile beach is spectacular (maybe on the way back eh?).

I arrived in Broome mid-afternoon and after setting up the trailer in the c/van park - I headed off to Cable Beach and took a couple of pics of the setting sun (not to mention sms'ing Keyla with a couple of pics of me on the beach with beer in hand - whilst knowing full well the weather in Perth was miserable).

I just downloaded the pics below and found that in a short time on the beach I managed to squeeze off 100 frames.  Sunsets can chew a lot of pics.  Lucky the film is cheap in these digital cameras...

Now the next stage of the trip can commence - Keyla is flying to Broome on Saturday morning.  After a bit of a stock-up on consumables - we'll be off to the Gibb River Road on Sunday (13th).

Contacting us while we are away......

Hi everyone,

We can be reached while we are away (and out of mobile range) through the Radtel Network.  If you need to get a message to us:

Dial (02) 4943 1745 between 9am and 5pm EST Mon-Fri (for general messages) or 24 hrs for Emergencies/Urgent Messages.

Inform the operator or message machine of my
Name: Stephen Jeffers
Selcall Number: 2735
Approx Geographic Location: The Kimberley
and leave your message....

Prophetic?, Omnipotent? or Coincidence?

I'll let you decide.....  No sooner do I write something (last night about a sausage sizzle at Anaconda), then it happens!!  Amazing.

This pic was taken this morning at my second home Anaconda..

Looks like Bunnings is jiggered now.....

A bit more prep and another boy toy....

Thanks for the replies to the e-mails.  I have this website set up so that each time I do an update, it'll automatically send out an e-mail of the update to each of you.  To view the whole blog (including a few previous posts), just visit my blog site at http://www.stephenjeffers.blogspot.com/  Feel free to distribute this addy to whomever you think may be interested.

Thanks especially to the Jones' for their winching tips and to Mum for sending me her very first e-mail from HER new laptop that "my darling husband bought for me".  Good one Dad.

I made an unexpected improvement to the Beast today.  I was at the comms place getting a couple of new VKS737 channels programmed into our HF radio (the radio to God as Keyla refers to it).  The fella (quite easily) talked me into joining a new service called HFoZ.  Talk about twisting a rubber arm.  It involved GPS's, remote communications, HF radio, Mapping software and the Internet.  Talk about a mish mash of really cool boy things.  We hooked up a GPS to the HF radio so that it can report our position every now and then to a website (more on that soon).  It allows people to look at our last reported position.  It also plots the position on a map that you can zoom in on.  It looks really cool.  It also allows us to send short SMS style messages to the website that you can read and (hopefully) enjoy.

To view our position and updates at any time, go to the HFoZ website at http://www.hfoz.com.au/ and click the "Members Login" button.  In the Client Login box enter our selcall number, 2735, and our password jefferss2 - (note the extra "s2" at the end of "jeffers" - it caught me out once)  I'd make apologies for the password, but it's pre-assigned and I had no control over it.  Feel free to log in any time to see where we are.
Once you have logged in you can view our string of reported positions (latest on top I think) by hitting the GPS Log link.  There you can select the points you'd like to plot and display them on a map by hitting the appropriate button. When I tried it I had to stuff around with "cookies" and things in internet explorer to get it to work - but you may be lucky.  The map is the 1:250k Auslig Maps and you can zoom in or out as much as you want.

Also when you have logged in you can view the SMS messages that we will be sending from time to time by hitting the SMS - Pagecalls link.

At the moment there is one GPS position in there as well as one SMS message - both generated from the relative safety of our driveway at home....

We also have the ability to send SMS messages as e-mail - but I haven't figured that one out fully yet...  But if you see future blogs that are VERY short - you'll know that I've conquered it.

Feel free to log in any time to see what we're up to.  This is a bit of an experiment as well (along with this blog).  While sitting here in my dining room in Perth I have every intention of putting regular updates up on the HFoZ site, when we're out and about I can't guarantee how often I'll manage to do the updates and report marvellous things etc...

I've had some queries about the camper trailer (for people who know this stuff you can skip this).  It's a Kimberley Kamper Limited Edition (which is where the name "Ellie" comes from).  Ours is a few years old now - we purchased it in 2005 I think.  Over the years we've added bits of fruit to it, so that now we've got it "just right".  It's basically a fold-out tent with a built in queen sized bed sitting on a rugged trailer with a kitchen and pantry built in as well.  As today (friday) was the only sunny day here in Perth for quite a while now (and for quite a while to come - I can hear the rain falling outside as I type), I opened it up for an inspection and (by keeping out of Keyla's way) packing it with the clothes and bedding stuff for the trip.

Here's a few pics of Ellie in our driveway. First pic is in "travelling trim".

The second pic is partly opened.

The third and fourth pics are fully opened but without the awnings and stuff put up (we rarely use them).

The last 2 pics are interior views of the bed (with the plastic mat on it).

Tomorrow (Sat) is supposed to be a rainy day in Perth (it has started already) - so I'm not going to be doing much in terms of setting stuff up - although it's largely done now.  Nope. Tomorrow entails heading back to my second home at Anaconda. I foolishly, (wink wink), left my voucher at home when I went there a few days ago.  Oh no.  That means I have to go again because it expires this weekend.  A wise friend once said to me that Bunnings would be stuffed if Anaconda had a sausage sizzle every weekend.

With all the really cool HF things I have going at the moment, I have to decide the best way to contact us in case of emergency.  At the moment I could use VKS737 or Radtel.  I'll have a think about that and get back to you on that in due course with all the details.

Until next time...

Stephen...

Kimberley Pre-Trip Preparation (so far)

Keyla and I have decided to take a bit of time and head back up to the Kimberley region for another look.

We visited Broome in July and loved the area so much that we were determined to go back.  On that trip we spent a rushed day on the Gibb River Road visiting Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek before returning to Broome.  That gave us our first taste of the region and we vowed we would be back.

As I left my job in mid-August (after having far too much fun in NZ and Broome), we've decided to head back up to the Kimberley for the majority of September (before it gets far too hot up there).  Keyla is taking a couple of weeks off work prior to the school holidays and flying to Broome and meeting me there to give us enough time to have a good look around, have some good walks and hopefully take some awesome photos.

This blog is a bit of an experiment.  I went and purchased one of those wireless internet sticks and will hopefully be able to give an update or two as we make our way around the place.  I did check out the NextG coverage maps of the Kimberley and the coverage is pretty damn sparse so don't expect updates to come flooding through day after day.  Maybe it'll work or mabe it won't - gotta have a go...  Feel free to forward the blog addy along to whoever you think may be interested.

The preparation so far has involved a bit of research on the area and buying heaps of books and maps (yes - a weakness of mine) along with a few mechanicals and a bit of fruit for the beast.

The first bit of fruit was putting a quick-erect awning to the roof rack bars of the beast  This'll give us a bit of quick shelter especially for the middle of the day when it's hot.

I had a go at putting it up myself yesterday - and have concluded that whilst it will be quick and easy to put up and knock down - it's a 2 person job.  It took me almost 5 minutes doing it by myself and just needed the "third hand" to do it easily.

The second bit of fruit was getting a wench (in-joke with Keyla) fitted to the beast.  I'm sure we'll have no need whatsoever for it on this trip, but I've been procrastinating for years about putting one on so I finally went ahead and did it.

I ended up fitting a Premier 9,000lb winch.  It has always mystified me why winch strengths are measured in pounds and all the associated gear (shackles, straps, pulleys etc) are in kg or tonnes.  I keep having to convert (by halving the pounds and taking off 10%) to make sure the associated gear is up to the job.  I just got all the snatch straps, winch extension straps, tree protector/load equalising straps together in one pile and decided that there simply isn't enough room to carry them all.  Anyone wanna buy a snatch strap??

The rest of the preparation has been about giving the Beast and Ellie (the camper-trailer) the "once-over".  About the only things left to do on that front is replace the oil in both diffs and the gearbox and tansfer case oils (an easy job once it stops raining here).  Ellie has a new poly water tank to replace the ever-leaking stainless steel one and a new gas regulator as the previous one was stuffed and wouldn't let any gas through.

Today I started planning the overall direction of the trip - given that a major aim is to find a couple of nice spots and pull up for a few days and walk and read a book or two. However, apart from meeting Keyla in Broome on the 12th Sep, the only other fixed date(s) is the 22nd and 23rd Sept where we'll be at El Questro celebrating Keyla's 45th Birthday.  We have to be back in Perth for a wedding on the 3rd October.  The trip will consist of (Plan A only) me driving from Perth to Broome alone and picking Keyla up from the 'plane on Sat 12th.  The general idea is then to slowly make our way up the Gibb River Road (visiting the Mitchell Falls along the way), stopping wherever it takes our fancy. As mentioned before we'll celebrate Keyla's 45th at El Questro which sits at the northern end of the Gibb River Road.  Following that we plan to spend a day two at Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) and visit the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater (time and weather permitting).

Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to give another update either just before heading off or on the road to Broome.

Stephen.