14 July – 15 July 2013 – Mt Barnett Station, Manning Gorge

It was so good to be sleeping back in the van last night rather than on our deflating air mattresses.  We were in bed just after 8.30pm and didn’t get up until around 7am.  There wasn’t much to do this morning except wait for the Harris’s to arrive.  It was around mid-morning when we heard them radio through to us and they were on their way in – phew!  They set up the caravan while Josh went for a quick run back 7kms to the roadhouse to pick up a few groceries.  Unfortunately, he didn’t get there.  Instead, he’d heard a knock from under the car and so turned back towards the caravan to see what it was.  It turns out that both rear lower shock bushes (which he’d only replaced whilst in Cairns) had worn completely through.  We didn’t have any spares so he had to work out a way to replace these.  Josh came up with a solution – we had a couple of pairs of spare thongs and a neighbour had some rubber matting so he went to work and made some new suspension bushes.  He cut and rolled the rubber to make the bush and cut the thongs for the ends.  Whilst doing that, Shaun went over his rig and noticed that the van had cracked the leaf spring mount off the chassis, also due to corrugations.  After asking around, Shaun found a fellow, Hank, that had a welder on board and so he too went about fixing his problems.  In the meantime, I went about a bit of cooking (not my finest work) to pass the time.  Josh ended up making the 7km trek to the Mt Barnett Roadhouse later this afternoon, taking Zoe, Sami and Olivia with him.  There was even a Dutch guy working in the roadhouse so, to Olivia’s surprise, Josh got talking to the young guy in their own little language.  He had picked up some delicious fruit as well as a few other supplies just to get us through a few more days.  Upon his return, it had become quite hot so we all went for the short 100 metre walk to the river for the cool refreshing swim and got chatting to other travellers to find out what we had to look forward to at the other end of the Gibb River Road.  Tonight, the adults sat up chatting while the kids played a music game, I think it was even after 10pm that we went to bed.

Another week began, and this lovely Monday morning we were still at Manning Gorge intending to do the walk into the gorge early in the morning, then pack and leave by around lunch time to continue on the journey.  We were up early and so I decided that seeing as though I hadn’t seen a laundry for a while, that I would use our little washing machine to get a few things de-dusted.  I got through most of it and the water was every time I refilled the water, it was absolutely filthy!  It was good to get that out of the way.  It was getting on and we didn’t end up leaving until about 9am, but off we went and the weather was heating up.  In order to start this walk, you have to cross the river, and as it was hot we opted to swim across.  However, we were carrying a bag of water, the camera bag, a towel, etc. so we put these things into the boat with Shaun and Liz to avoid them getting wet.  On the other side, we dried off a little, got dressed, loaded ourselves up with bags again and set off.  It was quite hot by now and we had about a 2.5km walk into the waterfall.  It wasn’t a hard walk although there was a bit of a downhill towards the end.  Josh and the kids jumped straight into the water before they even saw the waterfall and it was a quite a way around the bend to the actual waterfall so Shaun, Liz and myself picked up all the bags and bits and pieces to walk around the rock ledge to the other side.  In doing so, Liz had a bit of a fall and damaged a few fingers but we patched her up and she was up quickly and soldiered on.  Around the other side was magnificent.  There was a big splash pool area, lots of sunshine and a huge rock wall to jump from.  The rock was quite dark and smooth and there were only a few families already here to share this fantastic spot with.  There were a lot of ledges to jump from all at different heights and Sami was a bit unsure and scared about how long she would be under the water so her and I gradually advanced up a few small ledges to her comfort zone.  However, Josh was straight in from one of the highest ledges that even some little kids were jumping off.  Walk straight up and just jump, sounds like the best strategy however if it was me, I would have stood on the edge for a very long time considering my options… funny how you change as you get older.  Zoe jumped off the second highest ledge just before leaving but just the once as we had to get back, pack the van and move on to the next stop.  We began heading back through the bush bound for the river crossing and into the camp where our van was.  We’d cooked up some sausages, had lunch and started to pack up the van when the Harris’s returned.  There was a change of plans when they had returned as they felt it was getting too late to move on so we unpacked again but ready enough to leave early the next morning.  Late this afternoon, we sat and watched the movie Red Dog… we are getting closer to Dampier now.  After having dinner, the girls had an early night to bed and Josh and I sat up to watch another movie – Josh didn’t make the end of it.

12 July –13 July 2013 – King Edward River, Kalumburu and Honeymoon Beach

After packing all our camping gear back into the car this morning, we made the decision to continue north into the very remote area of Kalumburu, an aboriginal community on the very north coast of Western Australia.  We’d heard there was a little shop here where we could get some supplies and weren’t too sure how long it would be before there would be somewhere else to pick up a few items.  Instead of heading straight out towards Kalumburu Road, we travelled about 25kms in the opposite direction to a lookout from the Mitchell River ranger had told us about, it was only 10kms from Surveyors Pool (which unfortunately we didn’t go to).  From the lookout you could see a number of islands off the mainland and it didn’t look like we had to travel too far to get to the coast.  We turned back and headed for Kalumburu Road but again it was a long bumpy road.  Just before hitting this point we crossed paths with the Harris family who had stopped at some Aboriginal rock art, whereas we continued onto Munurru (Kind Edward River) for another cool swim before the further 103km long drive north.  We pulled into Kalumburu and picked up our $50 visitor entry pass and a couple of items like fruit that we’d been craving and then went to find somewhere to camp for the night.  We called into McGowans Bay to see if we could buy some fuel but they would only sell it to us in 200 litre drums, too big for us.  We went on around to the next bay called Honeymoon Bay, a beautiful little spot on the north coast of Australia.  There were islands in the distance and crystal clear water right in front of us but once again, no swimming due to the crocodile infested waters.  We set up our tents on the sand far enough back that the crocs wouldn’t find us overnight and found some firewood for the campfire.  Soon after there were another two couples that joined us under the same boab tree and after dinner we all met around the campfire.  Our kids and the new five children all bonded as did the adults, learning stories about each other.  We had another lovely sunset (although they just happen too quickly) and a great night with more new friends.

Saturday morning we woke not long after the sun, and began to pack up.  We would have liked to have gone to the Kalumburu Mission Museum today but being the weekend it was shut along with almost everything else here.  We ended up leaving the camp area just after 8pm and going back 20kms and into Kalumburu in search of fuel so that we could head back “home” to the comforts of our caravan and continue along the Gibb River Road.  Upon arriving in Kalumburu, the mission had already closed their sale of petrol for the day but the man leaving the store was accommodating and let us grab one hundred dollars of fuel.  At $3.02 per litre that wasn’t a lot but we did manage to make it back to our van at Drysdale Station without any hassles.  It was many hours of bumpy driving and thankfully the kids were tired enough from our tent sleeping that they fell asleep for quite a while in the back of the car.  We drove on for 4 hours and got back to Drysdale by 1pm, the only downfall was that we snapped a fishing rod on our journey back.  About 15 minutes later Shaun and Liz arrived back too.  We decided to have a quick bite for lunch, hook up the vans and continue driving for the day, aiming to reach Mt Barnett Station.  It was nearly 2.30pm by the time we left and we couldn’t wait any longer.  It was around 180kms of driving which on these roads meant quite a few hours to get in before sunset.  We had hoped that the Harris’s were packed up and on the road not far behind us so off we took.  Along this leg of our drive we passed many water small water crossings as well as horses, cattle and wild dogs on the road.  Just after 5pm the sun was setting and we still had about 40kms to drive.  As there are a lot of unfenced cattle stations along this road our eyes were fixed keeping an eye out for any dangers.  Thankfully we pulled in safely to Mt Barnett Station (Manning Gorge) at 6pm.  The roadhouse was shut but we worked out to drive the additional 7kms further in to where the camping area was and found a site to put the van.  Again, no power or water was available at this station so we just had to make do with what we had.  Shaun and Liz still hadn’t arrived and by 8pm we’d given up on trying to radio them.  We had hoped that they’d pulled over somewhere safe for the night due to the dark and fingers crossed they would turn up in the morning to meet back up.

9 July – 11 July 2013 – Ellenbrae Station, Drysdale Station and Mitchell Falls

After filling water bottles, we were packed up and ready for our next stop which was around 110kms along the rocky and bumpy dirt track.  It was just after lunch when we stopped at Ellenbrae Station where we were able to grab something to eat – it was a toss-up between all on their menu:  scones with cream and jam OR a toasted ham , cheese and tomato sandwich.  We tried both, not cheap but it was fresh and tasted good.  Their toilets on the other hand left a lot to be desired so we used our own.  70kms further along we found what we were looking for, the turn-off to head north along Kalumburu Road, in the direction of the Mitchell River National Park.  Just near the turn-off there was an information board to read on the area so we pulled over.  There was also a troop carrier broken down here with about a dozen aboriginal people trying to get back to their home town of Kalumburu.  Josh went over to see if he could help out and in doing so found out that they were actually returning from a basketball competition.  They had a radiator leak so Josh passed them something from his box of goodies to try and fix it and then left them to their own devices as we had to get to our own destination which was still another slow 60kms away.  If that was to fail, I did manage to find out that the ranger was sending another troop carrier to pick them up which wasn’t too far away – they weren’t going to have to spend another night here.  We continued on until we reached Drysdale Station, another cattle station that had plenty of room for camping.  Unfortunately no power or water to hook up to but they did have a cleaner shower block than many I’d seen and plenty of pressurised hot water.  I cooked up some spaghetti for dinner and tonight we spent some time reclined in our chairs and staring at the thousands of stars above us in the dark of the night.

Up early the following morning as we needed to pack our camping gear.  We were leaving our vans at Drysdale Station to do the next leg of our trip.  We sorted our sleeping and cooking gear and what food we would take – not that we had much to choose from as the fresh food is just about all gone.  Our last shop was back in Kununurra before doing the Bungle Bungles.  Shaun and Liz sorted their stuff out too (fortunately they bought a tent in Kununurra to get them by these few days).  We took off just before 10am and hit that bloody rocky road once more.  Josh is building his muscles by driving these roads.  From Drysdale Station we had about 100kms to the north and then about another 85kms west along a very rough track.  Normally this would only take a couple of hours but thanks to the rough drive, it took double the normal time – I’m glad the caravan was left behind!  After having a short stop at the Mitchell Falls turn-off, we stopped a bit further up the road to look at some Aboriginal artwork before resuming the trip.  Down the road was a tow truck with an Apollo hire vehicle on its tray.  It had the front passenger tyre hanging off due to snapped ball joints off the control arms due to the massive corrugations so for the rest of our short trip I was secretly praying that we wouldn’t end up in the same predicament along this torturous road.  It was fairly late in the afternoon when we pulled into Mitchell River National Park, stopped to pay our fees and then go in to find a campsite for the next few nights.  Fortunately we found a spot big enough for both families to camp and a bonus fireplace between us.  Matt and the girls hunted about for some firewood while we were setting up.  We even got the hammocks out and set all four up but fortunately it wasn’t that hot at night where we felt the need to sleep in the hammock overnight, particularly seeing as though we saw plenty of wild dogs on our way in.  We cooked up dinner of packet curry pasta and some marinated chicken (as well as some masala sausages for lunch the next day) and sat by our campfire playing games.  It actually got quite cold so we headed for bed very early just like everyone else around us. We kind of felt guilty if we made any noise seeing as though everyone in this part of WA appears to go to bed well before 8pm, not long after the sunsets (which is quite early, around 5.30pm).

Our first night in the tent on this little camping trip was bearable (I don’t think Shaun and Liz would say the same) but we were up early and it was a crisp morning.  After breakfast, cleaning up, and packing our bags for our 8.6km trek along the Punamii – Unpuu (Mitchell Falls) Walking Trail.  It was probably close to 9am by the time we left camp and the sun was shining bright as it always does up here.  We crossed past the heliport reading the entry signs along the way stating that there were “cliff and water risks”.  The first part of our walk was about 800m through woodland and spinifex to Little Mertens Falls.  It would have been great to stop here for a swim but we had a long way to go in the heat of the day so instead saved the swim for on the way back.  The next leg was 3.5kms over more of the same of the rocky path we’d come from and past Big Mertens Falls which is a water crossing along the top of a long deep gorge and the views were spectacular.  I was keeping a close eye on the kids to ensure that they didn’t get too close to the edge or they would have fallen to their deaths.  We continued on our very hot hike until reaching the Mitchell River.  We just dropped our bags and dived on in, clothes, shoes and all and the water was beautiful and a great relief to walking in the sunshine with only small spurts of shade.  After wading our way across the river we kept to the final part of the track until we came to a small rock surrounded clearing where there were a number of people who had walked in as part of a tour.  They had stopped here to have lunch and enjoy the view.  However, we’d been told by previous campers that if we kept walking around we’d get the full view of the falls which included the bottom pool so we continued a little further around to a small cave-like area.  Upon clambering up onto some big boulders that appeared to overhang the water, we got a sensational view of Mitchell Falls, an 80m four-tiered section of sandstone which creates a series of impressive falls and pools.  The only thing that ruined the view was that in the second pool from the top was a small white blob, which if you looked closely was actually a dead kangaroo floating around which we’ve been told had been there for a couple of weeks.  Yes – gross!  We took some pictures trying to capture the beauty and had our lunch in our own little habitat.  We headed back a little to the now vacant rocky area and found Shaun, Liz, Matt & Olivia here eating their lunch, so took a few more pictures before returning to the Mitchell River for another well-earned swim.  Just near this river crossing is also where many people catch the taxi helicopter service back to the campsite but we decided to save our $115 per person, 8 minute flight and head back to camp by foot.  Unfortunately, it was even hotter now being after lunch time and hard to keep the kids on their toes.  We stopped for the occasional sip of water before continuing to push them along all the way back to Little Mertens Falls for that swim.  It was fantastic (that is actually an understatement)!  Shaun and Liz met up with us here not too much later and joined in the swim before we all packed up and hiked that last 800m back to the tents.  It was good to get out of our wet shoes and socks and stretch our toes and laze about in the hammocks before having to get dinner underway.  It wasn’t anywhere near as cold as last night tonight but we still had another campfire and went to bed pretty exhausted from our long walk today.