Heading South to the Pilbara

We had spent a few days in El Questro and thought we could spend a fair while longer - but we had about 3,200km to drive to get back to Perth and a week to do it in as we had a firm committment in Perth (wedding of Keyla's friend).  So rather than stay at El Questro, we decided to head off and break the trip up at either Purnululu or Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater (been wanting to go there for a while) and Karajini Nat Pk in the Pilbara.
We set off from El Questro and within a few hours found ourselves at the turn-off to Purnululu.  The weather was warm (but not really hot) and we ended up pulling over to the side of the road and agonising for about 10 minutes as to whether it was a good idea to go in or not.  We finally decided we'd pass on going into Purnululu this time since we planned to be in the area next July (for a crack at the Canning Stock Route) and it was fairly warm now and we could use an extra day at Karajini to really break the trip up. The same was said about Wolfe Creek as we plan to be driving right past it next year.

Fast forwarding about 3 or 4  hours later and I was still (internally) churning over the decision to bypass Purnululu.  I was having difficulty with it as I really wanted to see the place.  I guess it's a common thing with a head-over-heart decision.  Then out of the blue Keyla said "oh f@&* (gosh) the band-aid on my blister is sticking to my shoe again".  She then said that she needed a couple of days rest from walking as her feet needed to heal.  All of a sudden, and in that instant, my internal churning about bypassing Purnululu stopped.

We stopped for lunch in Hall's Creek and sat on the grass in the shade of a tree and watched the world go by - not unlike what must have been a fair proportion of Hall's Creek's residents were doing at the same time.

We pushed on for Fitzroy crossing - realising that we hadn't seen a Boab tree for about half an hour.  It was then that the game (affliction?) of Boab spotting was borne.  A $100 bounty was placed on the spotting of the first "genuine" (not transplanted) Boab.  It proved to be fairly unproductive afternoon as we didn't see a single Boab tree all the way to Fitzroy Crossing. 

We pulled into a farily swish caravan park (replete with swish resaurant) in Fitzroy Crossing to spend the night.

The next morning we decided to go and see Geike Gorge as a side-trip on our way to Broome.  On the way to the gorge Keyla suddenly and vociferously claimed the $100 prize for spotting the first Boab tree.  Then, in an instant (and quite sportingly) withdrew the claim as "there were a few of them all evenly spaced in a line".  To her they were transplanted trees and not the real McCoy.

We arrived at the Geike Gorge Nat Pk to be presented with a Rotunda.  Yep.  That's right.  A Rotunda.  It had lots of informative posters about the Devonian coral reefs etc - but there was no gorge to be seen.  We saw that it was some hours before the next tour to the gorge was scheduled , so we decided to leave.  This is where the education started.

Keyla had asked about the Devonian Reefs before (weeks earlier) and had seen them standing majestically out of the countryside.  I think in that moment she made a connection that the rocks of the reefs were made up of ancient fossils and corals and that they were once under the sea.  After we talked a bit, she realised that we may be able to find old fossils in the rock.  Within a couple of minutes we passed a spot where the devonian reef came down to the road side.  We stopped, hopped out and went fossil hunting.  Within 5 or 10 minutes we found a strata of rock in the reefs that was chock-full of fossils.  Above and below they were indistingushable in the rock.  Once I explained about the tilting beds of rock and relative ages, we started finding fossils in a narrow band all over the place.

The Fossil Hunter zeros in on a prospective bed

Yep - Here they are!!

Can you see them? Click on pic for a closer look..

Click on pic for a closer look.

We had no hope (or franlkly the inclination) of identifying the fossils in the rock, but we decided to leave that to our nephew who was going to be a softcock softrock guessologist (geologist) at one stage before he saw the true and righteous path.

We continued on our way to Broome.  It wasn't too far out of Fitzroy Crossing that Keyla (not as vociferously this time) re-claimed the $100 prize for spotting the first Boab tree. We kept driving and stopped and had lunch at a very large and beautiful Boab tree.  Keyla was instantly upset to see that people had carved their names and other dross deep into the bark of this magnificent tree.  The carvings and other mutilations have only occurred in the last decade or two, whereas this tree has been standing there for a very long time.  Boab trees are very difficult to date - there are no "growth rings" to go by.  Radiocarbon dating is about it.  From other trees that we had seen on this trip - with ages published next to them - we estimated the age of this tree to be at least 4 or 5 thousand years old.  We also admitted to ourselves that we could be out by a factor of 2 or so in that estimate.  It is a seriously big tree that isn't in "prime" boab country.  It was certainly quite old when Jesus Christ was playing full-forward for Jerusalem.

Seriously big tree - check the size of our Beast in background for scale

Keyla hugging a Boab tree - again

Keyla comforting the tree and apologising for the many carvings (not shown)

After leaving the Boab, we pushed onto Broome in time to check into a carvan park and go and drink white wine at sunset on Cable Beach out of plastic cups that have been rolling around in the back of the Beast for 3 years.  Yes there was a spectacular sunset and camels....

Drinking wine out of old plastic cups on Cable Beach..

...at sunset with camels (one of many many photos).

One of Keyla's birthday presents was "a trip to a pearl shop".  So early next morning we knocked down and packed up camp and went pearl shopping.  We only had one place in mind really - the same place Keyla bought a pearl pendant in July.  She decided on a set of pearl earrings.  As she didn't have the July pendant  with her, she had to recall its size/colour/lustre etc to fnd a matching set of earrings.  In the end she did pretty well and we set off off for Port Hedland with the newly acquired bounty.

Now Kelya doubted the wisdom for purchasing the HF radio.  It's "the Radio to God" as she calls it.  "If it cost so much - it'd better have a direct line to god in it" - is a common jibe.  Well today all of that was forgiven/forgotten.  We were travelling between Broome and Port Hedland in an area that is less than flushed with radio signal (AM or FM).  We were travelling between Broome and Port Hedland on Grand Final Day.  After losing the radio station in Broome in a sea of static an hour before the game started - and no other radio stations could be picked up - the god radio was called into service.  It was a bit scratchy at first.  For the first quarter we could tell when there had been a goal - but not which team had scored it.  But from then on we could make out most of the words - and by half time we were listening with ease and without straining, to the neck and neck tussle between the Cats and the Saints.

Port Hedland was a flying stopover for us.  We did however, as luck would have it, set up next to the couple we met at Lennard Gorge a couple of weeks earlier.  They were on their way to Karajini as well.  We resolved to find each other there and have a drink of wine.

Early next morning we were up and away (after fuelling up and stocking up on consumables).  We made good time and we marvelled at the spectacular countryside between Port Hedland and Karajini.  We arrived mid afternoon and set up camp on the red red red Pilbara ground.

Next post - Groovy Gorges in Karajini

Gibb River Road - El Questro

After spending a couple of days in Kununurra we were looking over our maps and stuff and saw that there was a fair bit of stuff in El Questro to do.  Before the trip, I had booked 3 nights in some bungalows for a bit of mid-trip luxury.  It just so happened (actually no coincidence at all) that Keyla's birthday would be while were staying in the bungalows.

We decided to head out to El Questro a day early and camp there and have a bit of a relax and get a feel for the place.  After booking in and having a couple of beers at the reception, we went and set up camp under a shady tree.  I started writing some blogs on the lappie and Keyla was reading her "Coaching for Performance" book (she had already knocked off her Di Morrisey novel she got in Broome).

In the past I've had troubles with UHF antennas snapping off due to the vibrations from the corrugations.  No problem I thought - I'll just go and get an antenna that'll survive the trip.  I went to the local UHF store and got the good oil - an antenna that was encased in rubber from the base to up past the phasing coils.  It worked.  I had no problems with the antenna.  The ground indpendent mount however was a different story.  It didn't survive.  After a repair with Tarzan's Grip and later Araldite (both failed quickly), I decided to give it more than 3 minutes attention.  So while Keyla read her book, I drank beer and set to work on the antenna mount with Araldite, cloth tape and cable ties from my "useful box".  The repairs are still holding and will probably outlast the vehicle.....

Shady Campsite at El Questro

The only victim of the corrugations

The following day we got up early (consistent with our "up early and do stuff while it's cool" strategy) to visit Zebedee Springs. We had also been told by others to get there early to avoid the "crowds" later on.
The Zebedee Springs were a short and very easy walk from the carpark and the sensation was like being teleported from a hot dry rocky area to an idyllic spring in a rainforest. Pictures don't do justice to the beauty and ambience of the place. We arrived there at about 7:00am and ended up having the place to ourselves for almost an hour. The water was absolutely crystal clear and pleasantly warm. We soaked and relaxed in those pools for a couple of hours. It is an amazingly peaceful place.  One of the highlights of the whole trip.

One area of Zebedee Springs - deeper than it looks

Area where we spent a couple of hours

Stephen chillaxing in the springs

In the afternoon we decided to do a bit of 4WD.  We had some maps in our hands with lots of warnings on them "Caution - Experienced 4WD Drivers Only" etc..  This raised my interest a bit.  The tracks (roads?) generally led to lookouts that provided groovy vistas of the surrounding countryside.  Either I'm an amazing 4WD driver, or the signs are there to scare off the "unsure" - the roads were a bit of a doddle from a 4WD point of view.  However the scenery was good and we saw a fair bit of wildlife as we crept along.

View from a lookout (Pentecost River?)

Chamberlain River? from lookout

Chamberlain Gorge? from lookout

The next day we got up early again to go and walk Emma Gorge (which is about half an hour's drive away).  We hatted, watered and suncreened up and set off for the Gorge.  The first half of the walk was fairly exposed but reasonably easy.  The second half of the walk in involved a bit more "rock hopping" but was still fairly easy - and shady.

Emma Gorge was another one of those places that you just say "WOW" repeatedly in a catatonic state as you stand there and try and take it all in.  Again, the photos don't do the place justice at all.  The swimming hole at the end of the gorge is very large and full of deep crystal clear water both from warm groundwater seeping in, and cold water from the waterfall that cascades down from on high.  It isn't a quiet place (given the tall waterfall) but a peacful one at that.  It was a marvellous sensation to float on our backs under the waterfall and watch the water cascade down towards us in slow-motion.  Again, we stayed for a couple of hours.  However these waters were fairly cool in comparison to Zebedee and it'd be difficult to stay in the water all day (previous statement applies to everyone except Warrnamboolites).

Easy walk into Emma Gorge

Waterfall and Pool at Emma Gorge - it's very big

Waterfall and Pool at Emma Gorge - it's very big

Stephen swimming under waterfall

Looking back out along Emma Gorge

We found a rock to sit on at the back of the pool

After relaxing at Emma Gorge - we went on a small 4WD circuit near the northern end of the Gibb River Road.  We stopped by Tier Gorge where a previous owner of El Questro had set up a "perfect Human society" in 2000.  The maps now invite you in to view the ruins of the exercise (very funny when you read between the lines).  We saw some modern ruins but enjoyed the cute little gorge and the finest stand of Pandanus Spiralus that we had seen on our travels.

Tier Gorge - site of the "perfect human society"

Impressive stand of Pandanus Spiralus at Tier Gorge

23rd September - a significant date - it's the equinox where the sun crosses the equator from the nothern hemisphere to the south; it's when sidreal time matches up with local solar time; I'm not sure but druids probably do wierd stuff with goats at stonehenge, and, it's also Keyla's birthday.  An "in" family joke has over recent years has involved Elodie's birthday in early July.  Over the last few years Elodie has celebrated her birthday in remote places (Karajini, Innamincka, Shark Bay, the Coral Coast.. the list goes on); this year Elodie taunted Keyla with the line "Ha - now you'll have your birthday in the middle of nowhere".

We had an easy day planned for Keyla's birthday.  First up was a breakfast cruise along Chamberlain Gorge.  We arrived there a bit before the departure time of 7:15 am.  We were welcomed on the boat by a local ranger, a tour guide and a lass from the catering dept.  We sat and talked for a while and drank cups of tea whilst waiting for the bus-load of tourists to arrive.  Time passed and a couple of radio calls to the base confirmed that the bus wasn't coming.  The 3 staff were delighted to give Keyla and I a private tour of Chamberlain Gorge.  They told us to get busy, as we had 40 egg and bacon rolls to eat along with a dozen bottles of champagne and platters of fruit.  Co-incidentally it was the last breakfast cruise for the year.  We enjoyed a lovely 3ish hour gentle cruise down the gorge looking at the rock wallabies and searching for saltwater crocodiles (none spotted).  We stopped in the shade of a cliff in the "no fishing" zone for about an hour and fed catfish and archer fish crumbs of bread and horse pellets.  We delighted in getting the archer fish to squirt the crumbs from our fingers.  Good thing it was warm, as they squirted anthing that was shiny.  Cameras and sunglasses were a favourite of theirs.  It was difficullt to stay dry.  They also were eternal optimists in that they'd occasionally just squirt us while we were sitting in the boat.  I don't know what they thought or were hoping to do - maybe squirt one of us out of the boat??.  It'd be like a dog chasing a car and actually catching it - now what do I do? The archer fish were really cool.  We also watched the really big barramundi hang around and eat the occasional juvenile archer fish or catfish (swallow them whole in a single gulp).  It was darwinisim in action, all unfolding in front of my eyes - I was agog.  The 3 staff wished Keyla a happy birthday as we left to return to prepare for our walk for the day.

The Birthday Girl

Looking North from boat ramp at Chamberlain Gorge

The "fish nursery" (southern) end of the Gorge - lots of Archer Fish and Barramundi

As we arrived back at the station village to water/hat/suncsreen up for our walk for the day - the guys from the cruise caught up with us and gave Keyla one of the 11 remaining bottles of Champagne to help her celebrate her birthday.  Keyla was becoming a minor celebrity in the place - just about everyone was wishing her a happy birthday.

El Questro Gorge is 2 walks in one.  The first walk of about an hour gets you to halfway pool.  Beyond that you need to swim and climb over some bog rocks to continue.  After that it's and hour and a half to the end of the gorge.  Given the heat and our late start (due to the cruise), we let discretion be the better part of valour and decided to go only as far as Halfway Pool.  The walk was pretty easy and reasonably shady as the gorge was quite narrow.  We were rewarded with beautiful scenery along the way and a beautiful swimming hole at Halfway Pool.  It was crystal clear, deep and had lovely fish just schmoozing around doing fish stuff.

We met some really conservative german tourists there at halfway pool.  They were great fun to talk with (although rather than laughing - they tried to analyse why german tourists make up 84% of all croc attack victims when we told them this "fact").  We spent an hour or so swimming and chatting with them on all range of topics such as destinations to visit, tyre pressures and 4WD techniques for novices.

Typical scene walking into El Questro Gorge

Keyla standing in typical scene in El Questro Gorge

Rotten and horrible crystal clear pools along the way

Halfway Pool - simply gorgeous

Permanent residents of halfway pool

Stephen doing fish impersonations

A lovely spot for a swim

After walking back to the Beast we headed back to the El Questro station township where we were staying.  Given that it had been a big birthday so far, with much acheived, and it was only about 3 in the afternoon, Keyla did what any person would do in that situation.  She had a Nanna Nap.  I was content with taking a few photos around the place and doing some maintenance on the Beast.

Later in the evening, we took Keyla's birthday Champagne (from the cruise dudes) to the restaurant at the station township.  The staff at the restaurant had set up a special table in the corner of the verandah with beautiful views all around.  We were treated like royalty all night.  We were just chillaxing after we finished our meal, when we heard "happy birthday" being sung in a far corner of the restaurant.  Keyla turned around to see who else was having a birthday, when she saw a birthday cake being carried across the room towards her.  By the time the cake was halfway across the room, everyone in the restaurant was giving it their all singing "happy birthday".  She was grinning so much her ears nearly fell off.

I think she had a marvellous 45th birthday.

Keyla with her birthday cake

Photo by a happy diner who insisted on taking a pic

Next post - the trip home begins...

Gibb River Road - Kununurra

We ended up travelling the northern/eastern end of the Gibb River Road in one day - a lot faster than we had expected.  We looked at the time we had, and the heat that was around, and decided not to go to Mitchell Falls.  We sort of reckoned that'd be a 3 or 4 day affair all by itself.  We'll visit them next time (and that won't be too far away either given the marvellous time we're having).

So we found ourselves in Kununurra with a few days up our sleeves.

Our largest "comfort issue" on the trip so far had been the heat at night-time.  Heat during the day was managable and not really an issue.  But the heat and calm conditions at night meant it was difficult to get a decent night's rest.  We had resorted to wafting damp cloths above us and then laying them on us for a bit of evaporative cooling.  We had also discovered if we took the mattress out of Ellie (camper trailer) for an hour or two before bedtime, it would cool down a bit in the night air and not be as uncomfortable.  But what we really needed was a bit of air movement.  Thoughts of employing a punkawallah quickly reduced to a more conventional solution (I mean carting him around would reduce the amount of wine storage space - and we can't have that).

With a bit of hunting around the hardware shops in Kununurra, we found a small 240 volt fan that could be used in the camper trailer - either off the mains supply in caravan parks, or (by a bit of makeshift wiring and the small inverter we have), from the batteries in Ellie.  We found that this bit of air movement made all the difference for a good nights sleep.  Whew! Problem solved.

As we poked around Kununurra, we started feeling very "at home".  I'm not sure what it was about the place, but I know that I really liked it.  The atmosphere was quite laid-back and relaxed and yet still with a sense of excitement and progress and opportunity.

We took the opportunity to book a "sunset cruise" on Lake Argyle.  Given that there are only 28,000 crocodiles in the lake (freshies - not salties) and the lake was to freaking huge - I took the opportunity during the cruise to have a swim in its cool fresh waters. I also reckon I'm scarier than freshwater crocodiles anyway.  Keyla could not be convinced.

Taking a quick dip in the huuuuge Lake Argyle

One of the islands in Lake Argyle

The lake is reeeeeealy big.  Seriously.

Just one of the 27 billion sunset photos I took.

A pic of Kelya NOT swimming in the lake.

The photos I took do not do the lake justice.  I suspect that if I spent any more time there I would be buying a boat quicker than you could say "rowlocks" or "gunwhales" (in the trad. accent).  I reckon I'd also get treatment for my seafood allergy and spend a serious amount of time fishing and camping at the lake.

Whilst at Lake Argyle we met up with some old acquaintances from Roxby Downs - Kym and Jane.  The pair of them have become local identities since they both "starred" in a superannuation commercial that was filmed locally and has been receiving a lot of airplay here in WA.  We spent a good hour or so at the back of their caravan catching up on old times.

Keyla has seriously fallen in love with Boab trees.  Wherever we go - if they are nearby - she hugs them.  I think she is impressed with the immense time that they live for.  We've seen quite a few that are 750 years old, some that have been dated to approx 2,000 years old (and going by that) a couple that would be 4 or 5,000 years old.  They are a hardy plant that appear to be spreading out from the Kimberley (not as fast as the Cane Toad though).

Given that we were both developing a connection with the Boab, we decided that we'd bring a specimen or two back to Perth with us.  It wasn't as easy as you might think.  It took half a day of hunting to find a nursery near Kununurra to sell us some boabs.  Keyla was keen on bringing back young trees of approx 1.5m high.  When I pointed out that they wouldn't fit in the Beast we settled on a few bare-rooted seedlings.  The seedlings were sold to us by the cheeriest nursery worker you ever did meet.  Just as well - as her boss (the owner) was probably the grumpiest person you ever did meet.  So like matter and anti-matter, the two pretty much cancelled out and they managed to run a nursery and keep people visiting it.

We bought 3 bare-rooted seedlings (from the cheery one).  We were assured that they would last 6 months with no water and in the dark and forgotten about (this was from the grumpy one).  So, shortly after leaving the nursery armed with this information, the babies (as they were named) were individually wrapped in paper towel, placed in a water bottle, kept damp with a periodical watering and were strapped safely behind Keyla's headrest.

The Babies - safely secured in the Beast

Scarcely 2 hours in the vehicle elapsed before "the babies" were tended to, rotated, and positive things were said to them to keep them cheery.  It must have worked, as over the next week or so the seedlings grew by about 50mm each.

Whilst in Kununurra we also managed to find the Zebra Rock Gallery.  We ended up having a delighful chat and an iced coffee with the owner (well he was having a mango smoothie as he had been picking mangos since 5am).  He'd only just come from Melbourne in Nov last year and looked to be having the time of his life.  He had the Zebra Rock thing happening as well as growing Mangos and other fruits.  We perused the beautiful objects carved from the Zebra Rock and then went and fed the Catfish and were squirted by the Archer Fish as we fed them crumbs of bread.  We picked up some "rough" carvings from the gallery workshop that we'll "finish off" at home.

Whilst we had been in Kununurra, we had been clocking up only a few engine-hours on the Beast.  As the fridge was running reasonably constantly due to the heat and my macho determination to not read the instructions (and pretty much freezing everything in the lower 2/3rds of the coolbox), the aux battery was getting a bit low.  We decided to get a bit of "run time" in and head out and travel the full 39km to the Northern Territory.  The last time we were in the NT was in July 2008 when we just "snuck in" at Poeppel Corner. Well, we were about to do the same thing on the diagonally opposite side of the NT this year. We armed ourselves with nothing in particular and headed out to the NT border.

Keyla having a foot in each camp (WA/NT)

Me and the Beast doing likewise

As our pre-planning for this minor jaunt was less than spectacular, we were gripped with a bit of concern that we may have to surrender all the fruit and veg that we had stored in the Beast as we crossed back through into WA at the fruit-fly inspection station at the border.  It could be a costly 150m foray into the NT.  Fortunately, the guy at the inspection station (I think) saw my WA licence plates and was less than vigorous in attempting to inspect the vehicle.  When I said that we'd just travelled out from Kununurra to visit the border, he waved us through (after chatting with us for about 5-10 mins on life in Kununarra and how good it is).  I suspect however we probably weren't the first people he's ever come across to do what we did.

After a few days in Kununurra we decided to head out back along the Gibb River Road to El Questro a day earlier than planned - as we thought (quite correctly as it turned out) there would be plenty to do there and maybe the 3 days we had set aside wouldn't be enough.

We were spot on with that one...

Next post - gorgeous gorges and the birthday girl at El Questro....