2016 Tour – Part 9, Gibb River Road, Derby to Wyndham

On Wednesday the 10^th of August we set off from Derby for the Gibb River road. Our previous two crossings of the Gibb River Road had been from East to West and included detours to the Mitchell Plateau/Mitchell Falls. The first was in 2008 and was just Chris and I (including a trip to Kalumburu, and Aboriginal settlement on the northern coast.); the second was in 2014 accompanied by our current travel companions, Harold and Di.

As a consequence of both the East/West direction of travel and the extra time visiting the Mitchell Plateau etc., on these two previous crossings, by the time we reached the western end of the Gibb River Road we were running desperately short of food and most importantly beer and wine.

So with the focus on the western end of the GRR we headed for Mount Hart. Mount Hart is a cattle station of around 500,000 acres. While the scenery is not as dramatic as other areas of the Kimberley, it has a very pleasant camp ground with good amenities and as we were now late in the season the numbers of people travelling had diminished considerably.

The host, Anton, was excellent and made you feel at home. His attitude was very relaxed. So a bit of a look around and a swim at Barkers Pool on the afternoon of our arrival and then the next day we headed for Mount Mathew Gorge where we sepnt some time enjoying the fabulous little gorge with a great swimming hole. Later that day we checked out Annie’s water hole and the shuge Boab tree intertwined by a strangler fig.

That evening we went to the bar for a drink and then proceeded to the restaurant for a 3 course meal. Very simple but excellent.

The following morning after receiving a guided tour of the original homestead from Anton, we set off for our next stop, Bell Gorge which is a national park.

Harold heading for Bell Gorge

Bell Gorge is one of the iconic gorges of the Kimberley Ranges and a must see. Unfortunately that makes the Camping Ground busy and because the Generator area is not well defined you end up with the moronic drone of Generators and all times. They are allowed in most WA parks to run until 8 pm. This is an absolutely ridiculous rule. One idiot thought that he could run it for as long as he liked until I corrected him. He did turn it off but did say in a forceful way “Get back in your hole you %##%&@ worm”. So now it was my fault! I am yet to find out from any generator users what the hell the need them for beyond a few hours during the day to charge their batteries. The fact that less than 10% of campers seem to need them surely speaks for itself. So 10% of campers annoy the hell out of the other 90% and the WA national parks people condone this. MADNESS!!! I think they (generators) must be used for microwaves, satellite TV or bloody hair dryers. That certainly puts an ironic perspective on camping and enjoying the serenity of the bush. Ugh!

Needless to say we had a wonderful day and a half at Bell Gorge which I am sure the photos almost speak for themselves.

So after a 2 night stay at Bell Gorge we then headed for Mornington Station, stopping at Imintji for diesel. The drive in Morinington is 90k off the main Gibb River Road.

Mornington Station is owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a philanthropically funded group who own a number of large properties throughout Australia and concentrate on the protection of native species, primarily with the control of feral animals such as Toads, Cats, Pigs, Foxes etc. They are continually looking for new methods to control ferals without risk to the native animals. While I am no a lover of Green Groups on the whole, this lot are worthy of a donation and are doing good work.

Not only that, they are in agreement with me in regards generators in camp grounds, so they have won me. The silence in the evenings was bliss.

We canoed Dimond Gorge and spent some time at Sir John Gorge plus some other swimming spots over 2 great days. Again the photos speak for themselves.

On Thursday the 18^th August we packed up and headed for Mount Barnett Roadhouse and Manning Gorge Camp Ground. Up until now we had only visited places that we had missed on our East/West trip across the Gibb River Road, but Mannning Gorge was a revisit for us but well worth the trouble and brought back some great memories form 2014 when we were last there; also with Harold and Di.

Gallery of Birds on the GRR

On the 21^st August we headed for Mount Elizabeth Station, another spot that Chris and I had never visited before on previous trips across the GRR. Mount Elizabeth Station is a working cattle station of about 500,000 acres and has been owned by the Lacey Family for the last 72 years but has recently been sold to Chinese interests. The Chines claim that they will continue to operate the station as it always has been including the tourism side, but inject some funds into infrastructure. The Lacey family for the moment are still managing the station however they are keen to move on, despite the Chinese company being keen for them to stay on as managers. It will be interesting to see what eventually happens.

We had a couple of nights at Mount Elizabeth and while there were tantalised by the attraction of driving the Munja Track but it would have been a matter of dropping the campers and trying to take enough food for about 4 days or more in our vehicles over a very arduous 200km track that would take at least 2 days each way. We were simply not set up for it, so sadly had to pass up the opportunity. Maybe one day.

Leaving Mount Elizabeth on the 22^nd August we headed for Home Valley Station.

On the way we came across the WA Variety Bash stopped for maintenance in a dry creek crossing. What fun those people must have.

Variety Bash – Repairs on the run

Variety Bash

Camped at Home Valley Station for 1 night then headed for El Questro to revisit. Thankfully we were able to secure a private, remote camp site where we stayed for 3 nights.

Headed for El Questro across the Pentacost

A visit to Zebedee hot springs on our arrival mid morning followed by the Moonshine Gorge Walk the following day. We rounded off our visit with a walk up the magnificent Emma Gorge. We did two evening excursions for sunset drinks to Saddleback Ridge and Brancos lookout.

After sadly leaving our wonderful camp spot at El Questro, our next plan was to head to Parry’s Creek Farm and spent some time at Parry’s Lagoon. We have fond memories of this area and were keen to do some more bird watching. We arrived at the turn off to Parry’s Creek Farm only to find a sign that suggested that they were closed. What The!!!!!

With just enough phone coverage from Wyndham we gave them a ring and to our dismay it certainly was closed. The person on the phone suggest we should got to the Wyndham Caravan Park.

Wyndham is not normally a town that I would dream of staying in. I have often unkindly referred to it as the sphincter muscle of Australia.

Well we certainly wanted to spend some time at Parry’s Lagoon, so cautiously we set off for Wyndham Caravan Park.

What a surprise. Wonderful friendly staff and a very casual and pleasant camp ground. To add to the enjoyment of the park, they had a bird bath that attracts finches each morning including the illusive Gouldian finch.

Gouldian Finch

Gouldian Finch

As we had arrived fairly early in the day we had lunch at the park and in the afternoon were able to drive out the 30km and visit Parry’s Lagoon mid afternoon and then drive up to Telegraph Hill for sunset.

The following morning we were up bright and early and spend some time enjoying the entertainment of the finches in the bird bath before heading for Kununurra. Our Gibb River Road experience now complete.

Next post – Kunnunurra to Lorella Springs.