WA - Derby - Kununurra July/August 2024
- Ken Fredric
- Jul 21, 2024
- 43 min read
Updated: Aug 17, 2024
Day 176 - Waterbank - Lennard River Free Camp, WA 22 July, 2024
Leaving our free campsite this morning, our mission was to drive about 100 km into Derby to check out the town, and stock up on supplies, fuel and water, before heading out for our first night on the Gibb River Road.
On the drive we started to pass hundreds of Boab Trees (AKA Bottle Trees/Baobab Trees), and later learnt that they are native to Madagascar, where they are called Baobab Trees, and likely came across the Indian Ocean thousands of years ago to establish a presence in this part of the world.
On the way into Derby, we stopped off at the Prison Boab Tree, a culturally important site for the local indigenous people. The giant tree was used as a staging point, during the time that indigenous people from as far away as Fitzroy Crossing were enslaved to work in the pearling industry, before continuing on to Derby and being put to work.
This is also the site of the longest cattle water trough in Australia, built in 1916/7 at a cost of £550.
In Derby our first stop was the visitor centre, where we picked some information on the sights around town, and also information on the Gibb River Road.
We’d read that there was a fresh water tap out near the jetty, so we drove out there to find that the tap didn’t have a screw fitting anymore, and the area around there was estuary-like, and not very appealing, so we didn’t stop long.
On the way back into town we started doing some of the Mudflats Sculpture Trail, which is a number of large metal sculptures created by local indigenous artists, and located in several sites around the mudflats that border the town on the western end. The sculptures included depictions of local people, people involved in the droving of cattle that used to take place across the mudflats, and sea creatures and birds such as a crab, a stingray and a flock of Brolgas.
After filling up with diesel, fresh water and supplies, we had lunch in a nearby park while waiting for the bottle shop to open. That was a waste of time as new restrictions meant that bottle shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays, and it happened to be a Monday!
Beginning to suffer from Novinaphobia, we drove out of town and turned off at the western end of the start of the Gibb River Road (GRR).
It was only about 100 km to our free camp for the night, close to the Lennard River, and we only made one quick stop to photograph a huge Boab Tree on the roadside. Once again bemoaning the lack of native wildlife, we were pleased to spot a flock of Brolgas making use of a small body of water next to the road.
Settling into the camp, we confirmed what we’d read earlier, that there is no mobile coverage on the GRR, so we had to make the most of communing with nature in a dry and dusty campsite, not far from the road.
To kill some time, we decided to lower the tyre pressures today, rather than do it the next day.
The next week and 600 km we would be travelling on rough unsealed roads.
Day 177 - Lennard River Free Camp - Windjana Gorge NP, WA 23 July, 2024
Leaving the free camp, we drove a short distance back along the GRR to the Windjana Gorge turnoff, headed for Tunnel Creek caves, and immediately hit unsealed road in very poor condition.
We had 56 km to drive on these roads, just to get to Tunnel Creek and, leaving at 8:00 A.M., that took two hours of mostly hard slog, which left us wondering why we set out on such crazy adventures.
At Tunnel Creek, there is a cave system that you can walk through for about a kilometre, but which also involves walking, and in one case swimming, in very cold water to get through to the other end of the cave. The recommendation was to wear shoes, so we put on our reef shoes, and our newly purchased headlamps, and walked the 400 metres to the cave entrance.
It was a bit of a scramble to get into the cave, requiring climbing over large, slippery rocks and straight into knee-high and cold water. The first part of the walk wasn’t too bad, and we were able to appreciate some of the wonderful colourings in the rocks and the stalactites protruding down from the cave roof.
There were a few sections where we had to walk through shallow water, below our knees, until we got to the part that required a swim to continue. After doing some surveillance Meg decided she didn’t want to face the cold water, and I continued on by myself.
The cold water took my breath away and immediately gave me a headache, but thankfully it was only a short 20 metre swim to get through that section. I carried on through to the other end of the cave, pleased that I did after discovering that there was some Aboriginal rock art just outside the other entrance to the cave.
Walking back to where I’d left Meg, I wasn’t looking forward to facing that cold water again, but it didn’t seem so bad on the return journey. We managed to make it back to the carpark without incident, and started the drive back towards the Windjana Gorge NP turnoff, about 36 km back along the bad road.
To break up the hard drive we pulled off the road and had lunch partway back, continuing after that to the Windjana Gorge NP campground where we setup for one night.
There was a nearby walk to the gorge itself, so we set out on that once we were organised. There was a shorter walk, that just took in some savannah and views of the gorge walls, but not the gorge, so we chose the longer walk.
It would have been quite a pleasant walk if a tour bus of around twenty people hadn’t arrived at the same time as us, but we mostly managed to avoid them. The rock walls of the gorge were very impressive, being a black colour with patches of bright orange scattered throughout the rock here and there.
Once we’d seen enough and were heading back, we passed the tour bus guide who pointed a large freshwater crocodile sunning itself on the rocks below the path.
All tuckered out by then, we headed back to camp for showers and to relax after our big day touristing, knowing that for another day we wouldn’t have any internet to amuse us.
Day 178 - Windjana Gorge NP - Mount Hart Wilderness Lodge Camp, WA 24 July, 2024
Mindful that we had 150 km of rough road to drive today, we were on the road not long after 8:00 A.M.
We’d done the first 20 km already, in the opposite direction going to Tunnel Creek, so we knew what to expect of that section of road. That 20 km took us back out to the Gibb River Road, where we headed east, aiming for Mount Hart Lodge campground for two nights.
The GRR itself was very rough in places, but there were parts of it where we decided to go for it and increase our speed to counteract the effect of the milder corrugations, rather than trying to navigate them by driving really slowly and not shake us all to bits. That mostly worked on the better sections of road, but there was always the possibility of hitting deep corrugations at speed and not being able to slow quickly enough to avoid violent, bone-shaking bumps that threatened to break everything in Mata, including us.
Although the GRR was reasonable until the Mount Hart turnoff, the road into Mount Hart was shocking for almost the whole 50 km. It took us two hours to drive that distance, much of the time at walking pace over the deep corrugations.
Arriving at the lodge at 1:00 P.M. – it had taken us 4 hours to drive about 150 km – we checked in for a couple of nights, then had a pizza and drinks for lunch at their outdoor restaurant. We squeezed as much social media time as we could while there, using their Wi-Fi, as we knew there wouldn’t be any mobile coverage at our riverside camp.
We found a shady site close to the creek, got setup and sat outside to make the most of the open, airy, tree-lined campground for the rest of the day.
Day 179 - Mount Hart Wilderness Lodge Camp, WA 25 July, 2024
To amuse ourselves today we decided to explore the gorges and creeks within easy reach of our campground.
About 6 km away was Matthew Gorge, which we chose as our first stop when we came to a fork in the road, or to Annie's Creek.
Into the gorge road, when we were traversing the rocky, hilly road that required moving at a snail's pace to avoid tipping the vehicle, we were starting to doubt our decision to visit the gorge. It wasn't a long way to travel, but it was a very challenging drive.
Leaving the gorge car park, we set out on the 2 km, grade-4 walk, soon clambering over large rocks beside the creek. It was nice to be doing something for a change where there weren't hordes of people, and we were the only ones there. After about 500 metres, we decided to not go any further as the rocks were becoming even more challenging to navigate.
Making it safely back to the carpark, we retraced the challenging conditions back to the fork in the road, and took the Annie's Creek road, which was in much better condition.
There was a short, easy 1 km return walk at Annie's Creek, that took us across the creek, which thankfully was quite low, to a large Boab tree that was being choked by a Strangler Fig. The area was a significant place for the local Aborigines, who used it as a holiday camp to get away from their slave-like work for the local white farmers.
Driving back past the campground, we carried on out to Barker's Pool, a pretty site with gently running water, covered with Lily Pads in places, and surrounded by trees. I considered a swim, but the water was quite cold and didn't look very inviting.
Back at camp we had lunch, then I went up to the lodge to borrow their Wi-Fi and catch up with blogging and socials for a couple of hours.
Day 180 - Mount Hart Wilderness Lodge Camp - Silent Grove, WA 26 July, 2024
Knowing that at least the first 50 km of our day’s journey, out of Mount Hart to the GRR, would be a hard slog, we were up and on the road by 8:00 A.M., after filling up with fresh water, which is a bit of a luxury on the Gibb.
The road out to the GRR didn’t seem quite as bad as when we drove in, but still took about an hour and a half to negotiate. We did have one stop partway into that stretch to sneakily empty the toilet cassette, that hadn’t been emptied for days, and wouldn’t be emptied for a while after either, as the nearest dump point was still quite a few days away. This was the first time we’d had to resort to doing this in 3 years and 60,000 km of travel in Mata.
The drive was fairly unremarkable, apart from when Meg noticed that the UHF aerial on the bull bar was coming unscrewed, despite our efforts to Loctite the grub screw in after losing one on an earlier trip. We had to keep stopping to screw it back up a few times, before stopping just before turning off onto the GRR to take a better look. We’d assumed the grub screw was gone, but it was still there, so we tightened it up as much as possible and it seemed to be ok after that.
Thirty kilometres further along the Gibb, we turned off onto the Silent Grove Road, which ran for about 20 km to Silent Grove, our camping site for the night, and then on for another 10 km to Bells Gorge. This was by far the worst stretch of road we’d encountered in this area so far. It was so badly corrugated that we were restricted to 20 km/h or less for most of the drive into Bells Gorge.
It was lunchtime when we arrived at Bells Gorge, so we had a bite to eat, before getting the shoes on and heading out on one of the walks into the gorge, a 1.5 km return walk to the top of the Bells Gorge upper waterfalls. Although we were going to the top of the waterfall, the rough, rocky track went downhill most of the way, requiring us to watch every step for fear of twisting an ankle.
The walk was well worth it though, with a beautiful large pool flowing over the waterfall into another pool below, where dozens of people were swimming. We hadn’t come prepared for swimming in the upper pool, but several people we passed recommended it, and being hot from walking in 33 degrees, we stripped off and jumped in. The water was fresh for a few seconds, but then was very relaxing and cooling. We timed our visit perfectly, and were the only ones there when we had our swim.
The price we had to pay for that little taste of paradise, was the hard slog back up to the carpark, which took considerably longer than on the way down.
Driving 10 km back along the road, we arrived at the Silent Grove campground, a NP site that included toilets and showers. We quickly setup and had showers before the solar hot water ran out, then just enjoyed our surrounding for the remainder of the day.
We’d been seeing glimpses of colourful little birds over the last few days, but couldn’t identify them. While sitting outside during the afternoon, we were treated to some beautifully-coloured small birds, that looked like Kingfishers, that had bright colouring including green, red and yellow. Later on Meg identified the really colourful birds as Rainbow Bee Eaters, and another birds as the Peaceful Dove.
Day 181 - Silent Grove - Mt Elizabeth Station, WA 27 July, 2024
Today was another day when we were mindful that at least the first 20 km of road we’d be travelling over, back out to the GRR, would be really bad, so we left camp early.
It took the best part of an hour to reach GRR, then we were mostly flying along at 70 km/h, until our first stop, a rubbish dump of sorts where we took the opportunity to offload the mountain of rubbish that had accumulated since we last had access to a rubbish bin.
Just along from there we stopped at the Imintji Store to buy a couple of things we’d run out of, before continuing on to our next stop at Adcock Gorge.
Turning of the GRR onto the Adcock Gorge Road, the road seemed like just another badly corrugated track that we’d have to negotiate for about 4 km to get to the gorge. That soon changed though when, as well as the corrugations, we had to navigate around huge potholes and washouts for most of the journey in. We had to go really slow, walking Mata around some sections that would’ve tipped us over if we’d attempted to cross them at any speed.
Arriving at the carpark, there were three of four other vehicles there, with most of them having already done the walk into the gorge, and they gave us a tip on going around the first creek crossing so we didn’t get wet feet.
The last part of the walk was past beautiful ponds covered in Lily Pads, some in flower.
The gorge wasn’t spectacular, but was very picturesque, so we sat for a while to take it in. The only other person there, a lady sitting under a tree, pointed out a small Freshwater Crocodile sunning itself on a nearby rock.
Back at the carpark, as we were preparing to leave, a bunch of young four-wheel driver rolled into the carpark, so we were thankful that we’d seen the gorge in relative peace.
After negotiation the dodgy road back out to the GRR, we continued belting along at 70 km/h, over a mountain range until we got to the Galvan’s Gorge carpark. It was too early for lunch so we set out on another gorge walk, this one a little bit longer and more challenging than the previous one. The walk took us over large slanting rocks that were slippery when combined with the sand we were walking through.
The reward at the end of the walk was another beautiful gorge, this one with a large deep pool beneath a running waterfall, where a few people were swimming. We hadn’t taken any swimming gear, so we just sat for a while admiring the wonderful scenery.
Back out at the carpark, we had lunch before continuing on to Mount Barnett Roadhouse, where we stopped to fill up with diesel. We expected the price of the diesel to be expensive, but at $2.93 per litre, we thought they may have been taking advantage or their situation somewhat.
All that was left to do for the day was to drive to our final destination, Mt Elizabeth Station, where we were booked in for two nights. The drive on the GRR to the station turnoff was great, once again travelling an unprecedented 70 km/h, but we were expecting that the road into Mt Elizabeth would be similar to the previous couple of roads we’d been on into Mt Hart and Silent Grove really bad.
We needn’t have been concerned though as, although the road was a bit rough in places, it didn’t take us long to cover the 30 km to the campground.
We got setup, organised to do some laundry, had showers and relaxed until it was time for our dinner at the campground reception area restaurant.
We went up to the restaurant area a little early and sat at one of the large tables that sat around 20 people each, and chatted with our fellow guests until dinner was ready.
The dinner was a two-course serve-yourself meal, that consisted of the station's own beef cooked as steak, a potato/vegetable dish and a coleslaw-like dish, with gravy. The meal was excellent, and everybody's' plates were empty at the end of the meal. The second course was an excellent mud cake with cream, which also disappeared quicky.
Day 182 - Mt Elizabeth Station, WA 28 July, 2024
Today was planned as a well-earned rest day, after the hard driving days we'd been doing for most of the past week.
We did some cleaning, patching and light repairs in the morning, wandered up to reception to check out the walks around the campground, then set out on a short walk, which was curtailed by the creek crossing we would have to undertake to go any further.
After lunch we went back up to reception to make use of their Wi-Fi, to catch up on blogging and socials, for a couple of hours.
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and getting mentally prepared for the next stage of our journey.
Day 183 - Mt Elizabeth Station - Kalumburu Road Free Camp, WA 29 July, 2024
Today was planned as an easy driving day, about 100 km to a free camp on the Kalumburu Road, not far from the Wyndham turnoff, and on the Gibb River. But that all depended on the condition of the roads. We’d read that the free camp was very busy so we wanted to get there as early as possible.
We set out around 8:00 A.M., knowing the condition of the first 30 km of road back out to the GRR, which took about 45 minutes to cover.
Once out on the Gibb we needn’t have been concerned about the road condition, and we covered the next 70 km in no time, on cruise control at 70 km/h for the most part. It was only our lowered tyre pressures that kept our speed down, and we could easily have travelled at 100 km/h from the Mt Elizabeth road to the Kalumburu Road. The only other limiting factor was oncoming traffic kicking up so much dust that we had to slow right down until we could see clearly again.
Arriving at the free camp just after 10:00 A.M., it was already very busy, with RVs lining both sides of the river, on both sides of the road. We found a reasonable spot not too far from the river, and not too close to anyone else at that point. It wasn’t long though before two families came in and parked up not too far from us with their noisy kids and an even noisier dog. Oh well, it was only for one night.
After morning tea, I took a short walk to check out potential fishing spots, but the river was quite low and there weren’t any good spots to swing a fishing rod.
That left nothing more to do for the rest of the day than to relax some more, whilst trying to identify the abundant birdlife along the river.
Day 184 - Kalumburu Road Free Camp - Ellenbrae Station, WA 30 July, 2024
We took our time with the morning routine as we only had about 80 km to drive for the day, to Ellenbrae Station.
Once we had driven the short distance back to the GRR, the road was in great condition, as it was the day before.
We motored along happily, not driving too fast, to waste some time and not get to Ellenbrae too early. That all came to a crashing halt after 30 km when we caught up with the three graders, going in the same direction as us, that were working on improving the road surface.
For the next 50 km, it was a bone-shaking 20 km/h ride, with only a very small number of places where we could speed up slightly. The whole journey ended up taking about three hours.
At Ellenbrae, after checking in for two nights and confirming our sunset baths for the following night, we were disappointed to learn that they aren’t licensed, which meant our very small supply of wine was about to disappear.
We also didn’t realise that the actual campground was about a kilometre drive back along the road, and we would have to drive back to reception the next day if we wanted to try their well-known scones, and also for the sunset baths.
We found a nice shady campsite, got setup and had lunch.
After lunch we had a short walk to a nearby waterhole, thinking we might like a swim, but the water didn’t look very inviting so we gave that a miss.
With nothing else to do for the day, we spent the remainder of the day relaxing.
Later in the day, because there was no other form of entertainment, we cranked up a fire in the firepit beside our campsite. We burned most of the wood we’d brought all the way from home, and tried to burn one of the last two large slabs we had, but not with much success.
Day 185 - Ellenbrae Station, WA 31 July, 2024
Today was going to be mostly a rest day, with the only thing planned being a sunset bush bath later in the afternoon.
We’d been reading about the famous scones, jam and cream that Ellenbrae do, so we drove up to the reception area mid-morning to try them. We took the opportunity to fill up with fresh water while there, and also borrowed a ladder to clean our solar panels, whose performance had degraded after driving on so many dusty roads lately.
The scones were great, washed down with a DIY coffee, and we tapped into their Wi-Fi to catch up with socials while scoffing them.
Apart from the waterhole near the camp that we’d visited after arriving at the campground, the only other attraction nearby was Sandy Gorge, which was a 2.5 km drive back past the campground turnoff, then another2 km drive offroad to the gorge itself. It was supposed to have a great waterhole for swimming. With nothing else to do for the day we thought we might as well go and check out the gorge before returning to camp to wait until it was time for the sunset bush bath.
We turned off the station road onto a narrow, rough sandy track, where we had to watch carefully for trees encroaching on the track that might tear parts of the top of Mata. Thankfully we didn’t meet anyone travelling in the opposite direction and, when we got to the gorge carpark, we were the only ones there.
Getting to the gorge entailed an 800 metre walk through deep, soft sand, that tested our endurance in the hot sun. We stopped often though, to admire the brightly-coloured flowering trees and the myriads of birdlife.
The gorge was small, but very picturesque, and the water was clear, although a little cool. It was too good a chance to miss, so I disrobed and went in for a nudie swim. Initially a bit fresh, once in the water was beautiful.
Suitably cooled down, we returned to the carpark, where another couple were just arriving. On drive back out to the station road we encountered one other vehicle going into the gorge, that managed to pull off the narrow track to let us pass.
Back at camp, we did a little bit of cleaning, had lunch, then chilled while waiting to go for the sunset bath.
We went up to the reception area an hour earlier than the appointed time for the bath, to catch up with some online stuff using their Wi-Fi, but unfortunately it had stopped working during the day. So, with nothing else we could do, it was just a matter of sitting in Mata for that time.
When it was time for the bath experience, we went into the reception area and waited while they got prepared. After a little while we were escorted a few hundred metres along a dusty path to a spot where the baths were setup facing west, overlooking the creek. A couple of wood-fired burners were busy heating our bath water, and the baths were surrounded on most sides with corrugated iron walls, but open to the west. There was also an open-air shower beside the bath enclosure.
Included in the bath experience was a cheese platter and a mini bottle of wine each. We filled up the baths with hot water and bubble bath, and sat back relaxing, enjoying the cheese platter, wine and the setting sun.
Once the sun was down behind the trees, not fully set yet, we had had enough soaking, and took a quick shower before heading back up to the carpark, then back to our campsite for the night.
The plan was to get up early the next morning, as we’d been told the road conditions between Ellenbrae and Home Valley, our next stop, were very bad.
Day 186 - Ellenbrae Station - Home Valley Station, WA 01 August, 2024
After a poor night's sleep, we were up early and on the road before 7:00 A.M.
Out on the GRR, conditions were as bad as expected, but we were mentally prepared to be driving for up to six hours to cover the 120 km to Home Valley Station.
Much of the drive was restricted to 20 km/h, with the occasional short bursts up to 40 km/h. We shared the driving, which helped to maintain positivity and not get too depressed at travelling so slowly while other vehicles were flying by at up to 100 km/h.
In many places the corrugations were more like waves, or furrows, they were so deep, which required moving over them at a slow walking pace.
I think because or our positive attitude the whole drive didn't seem as bad as we'd feared, and we arrived at Home Valley Station after four and a half hours of hard slog behind the wheel.
Although we were able to check in upon arrival, there was an issue with water around the campground, which meant we couldn't go to our site until 1:00 P.M. To pass the time we grabbed a drink from the bar and sat outside catching up blogging and socials, having internet for the first time in a couple of days. We couldn't be bothered doing our own lunch so we ordered some toasties from the bar, and also booked in for dinner at 6:00 P.M.
Once we were setup for the night we went for a swim in the camp swimming pool, which was a bit cool, but welcome in the 30+ degree heat.
We spent a while doing more catching up on socials in the afternoon and had showers, before heading up to the bar to make the most of the alcohol availability, which unfortunately didn't allow us to take any away from the bar.
Suitably stocked up on booze, we had dinner then called it a night.
Day 187 - Home Valley Station - Kununurra, WA 02 August, 2024
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men"......
That's how today started.
Our plan was to drive to Wyndham today and stay a night after stocking up on whatever supplies they had to offer, before carrying on to Kununurra the following day.
That plan changed when we had toast for breakfast and noticed the spread wasn't as hard as it normally would be. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the contents of the freezer weren't frozen anymore, and that the fridge wasn't running, despite the lights indicating that the compressor was running.
As in all such situations, the first response is to panic! After that, we did whatever research we could into attempting to rectify whatever fault it had, including consulting the user manual, Googling possible fixes and trying to talk to someone at the Explorer factory. When all those options came up blank we started looking for caravan repair places and refrigeration repair technicians. Nothing was available in Wyndham, so we started looking in Kununurra, eventually finding a refrigeration guy who couldn't help us today, but could possibly look at it the next day, a Saturday.
So, we packed up, got on the road, and headed for Kununurra, which still meant driving the last section of the Gibb River Road, and which we knew was in really bad condition for at least part of the way.
It was slow going again, driving at 20 km/h maximum, and not knowing how long that was going to last. It was that bad we even had a caravan following along behind us, when they would normally fly past despite the corrugations.
About nine kilometres into the journey we came to the iconic Pentecost River crossing, where we stopped to take some photos of the river and the impressive Cockburn Ranges behind the river.
The river crossing was by far the longest and deepest we'd done for this trip, and very bumpy so we had to drive really slowly all the way across.
Once across the river safely, and up a steep hill, we were confronted with the wonderful sight of a sealed road, but we didn't know how long it would be sealed for. The information we had to hand suggested there was still another 20 km or so of unsealed road, but after a few kilometres it looked like that information may be incorrect. With that in mind we pulled off to the side of the road and reinflated the tyres back to their normal pressures.
It was an easy drive then into Kununurra, where our first stop was the local Mitre 10 to buy an esky for our fridge contents, and to fill up our empty gas bottle.
Next stop was a nearby servo to fill up with diesel and to buy a bag of ice for the esky.
After driving up to Kelly's Knob Lookout, we emptied the fridge into the esky, then walked up to the lookout for a 270-degree view of Kununurra and surrounds.
At the bottom of the lookout we stopped off at the Kununurra Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre to check out their collection of paintings.
With some time still to spare until the bottle shops opened at noon, we drove to the Mirima National Park, where we had lunch in the carpark, then went on one of the walks around the impressive rock formations, learning about various native trees and plants along the way, and how they are used by the local indigenous people.
Next up we visited Coles for a basketful of groceries, then across the road to the bottle shop to stock up on wet supplies, taking as much as the restrictions would allow.
Our last chore for the day was to visit the post office and post the broken water pump back to the Explorer factory.
After checking in to the Town Caravan Park, we had a brief swim in the cold swimming pool, before putting our feet up after a busy day.
We made several attempts to contact the local refrigeration technician, who seemed to be the only person in Kununurra who could help us with the fridge, after phoning other possible businesses. I sent several texts and made several phone calls, but there was no response.
Day 188 - Kununurra, WA 03 August, 2024
We didn't sleep that well, trying to figure out how we were going to deal with the fridge issue, if the local guy (Darcy) wasn't going to get back to us.
Partway through morning we decided that we'd carry with our two-night stay at Lake Argyle, then if the local guy couldn't help us, that we would have to drive over 800 km to Darwin to have it repaired.
We tried multiple times to contact Darcy, but phoning, texting and leaving messages on his answerphone yielded exactly nothing, which was frustrating because we were prepared by then to try to book in with him the following week for the repair. That would mean cancelling our trip to Purnululu later in the week, but that was preferable to driving 1600 km out of our way to have it fixed.
Meg did some cleaning inside and outside Mata to keep her occupied while waiting for the call from Darcy that was never going to come. I wandered over to the small shopping centre to pick up some meds to keep myself occupied.
Needing to go out to pick up some more ice, we combined that with a trip to Coles to get some more bits and pieces to keep us going food-wise, that didn't need to be refrigerated, and another visit to the bottle shop to stock up with as much as the restrictions allowed again, hopefully preventing the dreadful situation of running out of booze again, as had happened on the Gibb.
There was nothing else we could do about the fridge, as it was Saturday afternoon and most businesses were closed, so we made the most of the sunshine and heat, 33 degrees, for the afternoon and cooled off with a refreshing swim in the camp pool.
Day 189 - Kununurra - Lake Argyle, WA 04 August, 2024
We decided to carry on with our established travel plans and go to Lake Argyle for two nights, seeing it was Sunday and we couldn't further the fridge issue at all.
After a leisurely start to the day we went to the servo on our way out of town, to top up with ice for keeping our fridge stuff cool.
As it was only a 70 km drive to Lake Argyle, we took our time, pottering along at 80 km/h on the 110 km/h road.
It was still early by the time we got to Lake Argyle so, on the outskirts, we pulled into the Lake Argyle Homestead Museum to kill some time.
The homestead was moved to its present location, brick-by-brick, when the Ord River Dam project starting pouring water into the house's original location. The Durack family, who established the Argyle Station, have a long and varied history, which is documented throughout the house. One of the crazier things they did in the 1880s was to drive over 7,000 head of cattle from NSW and Queensland to Kununurra, nearly 5,000 km away, losing half the cattle and several people along the way.
It was still too early to check in to the campground, so we drove out to the Ord River Dam, the project that created Lake Argyle. A lookout gave us a good overview of the dam and lake and, driving a little further along to the end of the road, there was a nice shady park where we stopped for lunch, eating the last of our meals we'd rescued from the defrosted freezer.
At the campground we got checked in and setup for the next two nights, delighted that our campsite came complete with a Bowerbird who was building an elaborate bower.
A bit hot and bothered after setting up, we went for a swim in the infinity pool that had views out to the lake.
We relaxed during the afternoon, sitting outside in the 30 degree temps, amused by the antics of the Bowerbird building his bachelor pad and trying to attract a female to it.
Having to rely solely on our new Esky to keep things cool, we didn't have much in the way of food that we could cook, so we decided to eat out as much as possible until the fridge was fixed. Thankfully the campground had a nice bar and restaurant to cater for our needs.
Day 190 - Lake Argyle, WA 05 August, 2024
Apart from trying to find someone to repair our broken fridge, and relaxing, the only thing we had planned for the day was a sunset boat cruise on Lake Argyle, which didn't start until 2:00 P.M. when we had to meet the bus at reception.
During the day we went to reception to check out helicopter flights around the Bungle Bungles, and to get some more ice to top up the Esky.
Apart from a short walk to get a a view of the lake, morning tea and lunch, we just chilled until it was time to go on the sunset cruise.
At 2:00 P.M. we were picked up at reception by a large bus that was almost full. The bus took us back to the bottom of the dam first, where we'd had lunch a couple of days earlier, then drove to the only boat ramp on the lake, back across the dam wall.
After boarding the boat and going through formalities, we headed out onto the lake, going first to an area where there were quite a few Freshwater Crocodiles. They weren't particularly big so were weren't that interested in them.
As we moved between areas of interest Jack, the skipper, gave us a lot of information about the geology of the area, some local history of the Durack family that we already knew about, and about the construction of the dam and the creation of Lake Argyle.
Our next stop was an area where there were large numbers of fish, including Catfish and Sevenspot Archerfish, that we fed the bread to that we were given by the crew.
We next went to one of the Lake's islands that had populations of more Crocodiles, Wallaroos and Kangaroos, the latter of which came to meet the boat and be fed.
Next up was the highlight of the day when, after motoring around the lake some more, we came to the area where we could have a swim, complete with drinks, in the water! We all grabbed pool noodles for buoyancy (so as not to spill the drinks) and dived into the 26 degree water - beautiful.
The bar service operated by shouting out your preferred tipple and, in the case of canned drinks, the can being thrown to you in the water. When finished you just had to add a little water to the can and throw it back to the crew. Glasses of wine required going up to the back of the boat and being passed your drink. We stayed in the water for ages, enjoying the drinks and the sun starting to set behind the islands behind us.
Once out of the water we dried off and got stuck into the provided food, washed down with more drinks, before the boat steamed back to the boat ramp.
Altogether, a brilliant experience!
Back at camp we changed out of wet gear, then went up to the bar for some more drinks and a light meal, before retiring for the night.
Day 191 - Lake Argyle - Edith Falls, NT 06 August, 2024
After resigning ourselves to the fact that the Kununurra fridge technician wasn't going to help us, we made the decision to go over 800 km out of our way to Darwin to get it fixed, where there was at least one repair agent for our type of fridge.
Hitting the road, we drove for a couple of hours before pulling into a roadside stop for morning tea and to start making phone calls to fridge repair businesses in Darwin.
That didn't go well! Our first choice place, who were Dometic agents, only looked after 3-way fridges, not 12V compressor fridges. The place they recommended could look at our fridge, around the end of the month, over three weeks away! We put our names down with them just in case it came to that, then phoned around several other places, all with no joy. There was no point going back to where we'd come from, so we thought we might as well carry on to Darwin and cross fingers something would turn up.
Just as we were preparing to get back on the road, Meg found another Dometic repair agent in Darwin, so I called them and was pleasantly surprised when they said they could help us as soon as we could get there, the following day. The only catch was that we might have to remove the fridge ourselves, but with no other good options, we thought that was a small price to pay.
A little further along the road we realised that when we'd crossed the border into NT earlier in the morning, we were in a new time zone, which put our clocks forward by 1.5 hours, meaning it was already half past lunchtime. With that in mind we stopped in Timber Creek to grab some servo sandwiches, and scoffed them while reading information boards on the town and area.
Our only other stop was in Katherine, at the bottle shop, where we still had to deal with the crazy nanny-state alcohol restrictions, although we were in a different state, which were a bit different from WA. In the NT, we could only buy one cask of wine each, our preferred wine container being lighter and less likely to break than bottles, but weirdly we could have bought as many bottles as we could carry.
We carried on out of Katherine for another 40 km to an off-road free camp area at Edith Falls and got setup for the night.
Day 192 - Edith Falls - Darwin (Humpty Doo), NT 07 August, 2024
We had good intentions to be up and on the road early this morning, to get to Darwin for the fridge repair, but with the time zone change the sun didn't rise until 7:00 A.M., and neither did we.
Just wanting to get to Darwin, we didn't want to do anything touristy along the way, so the drive was quite boring, on National Highway 1 all the way. Our only stop was at Adelaide River for diesel and to empty the toilet cassette, and from there it was only another hour to get to the fridge repair place in Winnellie south of the city, NT Appliance Spares and Repairs.
They got straight into checking out the issue with the fridge, with their plan being to remove it from the motorhome, take it onto their workshop, repair it and then monitor it overnight. That plan failed at the first hurdle, because as it turns out the fridge is wider than the doorway and couldn't be removed.
Having to work in situ, the compressor control unit was suspected of being faulty, so that was replaced and we had a working fridge again, all in about an hour, despite the challenges.
After coughing up $560 for the repair, we were starving and went to a nearby lunch place for very filling hot roast meat rolls.
At that point we were still undecided on where to stay the night, and made the decision to start heading south, to get away from the Darwin traffic and give us a better start the next morning, after doing a big grocery shop.
We had some chores to do along the way, and made stops at the bottle shop (where there were no restrictions at all on how much you could buy), BCF to replace the collapsible bucket I'd run over at Lake Argyle, and to Vinnies to offload the kayak we'd only used once in over six months.
We carried on south to Humpty Doo where we stayed the night in what was basically someone's lifestyle block, with a few powered sites and a toilet and shower building. That was all we needed for a one-night stay.
Day 193 - Humpty Doo - Edith Falls Free Camp, NT 08 August, 2024
Our first job this morning was to hit the supermarket and restock all of our fridge items we either used or had to throw away when the fridge died.
About $250 later that job was accomplished, and it was just a matter of waiting half an hour for the bottle shop to open before we could start the day’s journey. We filled in that time by grabbing a bite to eat and a drink from the nearby bakery.
Back out on National Highway, we headed south, aiming for the free camp near Edith Falls we’d stayed at on the way to Darwin.
Some way along the highway we were finding the going very boring, so turned off onto a scenic drive through the hills, that still took us south, in the direction we were heading anyway.
Apart from stopping for lunch in a roadside truck stop, we carried on down the highway to the Edith Falls free camp and got setup for the night.
We’d decided to stay on the other side of the road, and the other side of the bridge this time, as it looked a bit nicer on the riverbank. We were starting to regret that decision though when we realised there was no internet, whereas there had been on the other side a couple of days earlier. Also, water tankers working on nearby roadworks were pulling in beside us to refill their trucks with water from the river, leaving their engines running the whole time they were there.
After a little while we pulled up stumps, drove across the bridge and over to the same place we’d stayed a couple of nights before, and setup again for the night. It was a much nicer campsite, but unfortunately there was no internet there either, which curtailed our usual activities.
After a while the internet magically reappeared, allowing us to catch up with our daily socials, while sitting outside enjoying the breeze that tempered the 30+ degree temperatures.
Day 194 - Edith Falls Free Camp - Edith Falls, NT 09 August, 2024
With only 19 km to drive today, to Edith Falls in the Nitmiluk NP, we were in no hurry to get away from our free camp.
We were a little concerned when we noticed that the house battery level had dropped below 50%, but thought that even the short drive to Edith Falls should help that. However, once driving, running the engine didn’t seem to be adding much to the percentage, as it normally would. It was a beautiful sunny day though, so we let the sunshine do it’s work on the solar panels.
At Edith Falls we parked in the day use area, as it was still too early to get into our campsite, got suited up for a walk, and found an information board that detailed the walks in the area.
We chose to do the shorter 2.6 km to the falls upper pool, a class 4 walk that was uphill for some of the way, and over rocks and boulders in places. We had luckily chosen a good time to set out on the walk, as there were no other people on the track until we reached the first lookout, which looked down on the falls.
Continuing on, we left the people we’d run into behind, and had the upper pool to ourselves for the short time we stayed there to admire the falls flowing into a large pool that was swimmable, but it was still quite early and the water too cold for swimming.
Just after the upper pool we stopped at another lookout before continuing on and returning back to the carpark.
The house battery power level had only risen to 55% while we were on our walk, so we thought we’d better go for a drive back towards the highway to supplement the solar panel power with input from the engine. Unfortunately, that didn’t work as it usually would, only adding a very small amount of power while driving. At the highway we pulled off the side of the road, and I checked under the bonnet to see if I could see anything unusual, which I didn’t. Meg did some research on possible causes, but we didn’t really come up with anything, so I called Explorer and spoke to Ben for ideas.
After checking some more things we were no further ahead and decided we might as well go back to our campsite at Edith Falls, and manage the power situation as best we could.
Once setup for the night we had lunch then found a shady spot outside with some breeze to try and keep cool, until we were ready for a swim in the nearby fall plunge pool.
Mid-afternoon we wandered the short distance down to the plunge pool at the bottom of the falls. As with most water we’d encountered recently, it was quite refreshing getting in, but once in it was very nice for a short time, until we’d cooled down sufficiently to return to our campsite.
Day 195 - Edith Falls - Timber Creek Free Camp, NT 10 August, 2024
Leaving Edith Falls this morning we drove back out to the highway, then on to Katherine, where we had a few chores to do.
First up was a visit to the Katherine RV maintenance park to use the dump point and to fill up with fresh water. Driving towards the supermarket, we called into a servo to fill up with diesel, then carried on to Woolies for a small grocery shop. Just across the road there was a Repco store, where we went to buy a multi-meter to have in case we needed to troubleshoot electrical issues.
From there it was a boring drive back towards Kununurra, stopping only for lunch and to take some photos of points of interest we were driving past. We did pull into the Old Victoria River crossing, which was a rough 4WD track, but didn’t bother going right down to the river because the track was getting worse the closer we got to the river.
We stopped for the day, just short of Timber Creek, in a roadside free camp, that was adequate, but very sandy and with a large resident population of flies.
We sat outside to catch some breeze on a hot afternoon, and just had to deal with the very annoying flies.
Today, we ticked over 20,000 km and 195 days on the road on this trip.
Day 196 - Timber Creek Free Camp - Keep River NP, NT 11 August, 2024
Today was another day of retracing our steps, back towards Kununurra, but with a detour off to the Keep River NP for a night.
There was about 200 km of boring driving on National Highway 1 before we got to the NP turnoff. We stopped briefly at a roadside memorial to the early graziers of the area, which focused on the Durack family, who we’d already read much about. Across the road from there, on Binns Track, there were a couple of large Boab trees we took photos of before moving on.
Along the highway we were starting to see signs about WA’s food quarantine regulations, that we’d had to deal with when first entering WA in February. We’d forgotten about this when doing our recent shopping, and consequently we had loads of fruit and veg that we would either have to consume or lose when crossing back into WA in a couple of days.
With that in mind, we had a brief morning tea stop, which consisted of fruit only.
At our lunch stop, inside the Keep River NP at the Gurrandalng Campground, we had a large salad, trying to use up as much vegetables as it was possible to eat for a light lunch.
After lunch we put our shoes and hats on, filled up with water, and set out on the 2 km Gurrandalng Loop walk, a class 3 walk that took us over mostly rocky ground, into and around some amazing sandstone rock formations. It was over thirty degrees by that time, so we took our time, completing the walk in just under an hour.
All that was left to do for the day was drive about 20 km to our campsite for the night, further into the NP, at the Jarnem campground. The only issue with that was the badly corrugated unsealed road that forced us to mostly drive at 20 km/h, a concept we were very familiar with.
Finally arriving at the campground, we found our pre-booked site occupied by a car and camper-trailer. A lady sitting near the site said that they were booked into another adjacent site that was too small for their setup, so they nabbed our site. Meg knew from the booking process that you have to choose the correct size for your setup, something which they obviously hadn’t done. They showed no signs of moving and indicated that we could go in their pre-booked site. That site had no shade at all, so we went into the next one, that had some shade, hoping that nobody would come later in the day to claim it.
Day 197 - Keep River NP - Kununurra, WA 12 August, 2024
To start our last day in the NT we decided to do a longer 7 km, class 4 walk around some impressive rock formations near the campground.
As the days had been quite hot, we set out about 8:00 A.M., to try and do the walk before the heat of the day kicked in.
The first part of the walk was quite boring, until we got closer to where we went through a pass between two hills, then started climbing up to where we had a view back down to the river plains where we'd come from, and of the distant escarpments where the walk would take us next.
A lookout at the highest point of the walk provided 360 degrees views of an amazing landscape, with the rock escarpments forming the walls of the river plains valley. This area has been touted as the mini Bungle Bungles.
From the lookout we followed the track back down to the bottom of escarpments, with the track meandering slowly towards the escarpments where there was some Aboriginal rock art, but it was too faded to make out much.
Along the walk we were kept busy trying to identify many forms of birdlife, trees and flowers.
The walk was very rewarding, but our legs were starting to feel the effects before we made it back to the campground, as much of the walk was on soft sand, which made the going quite tough for our out of condition bodies.
We set out on the road as soon as we got back to camp, knowing that the first 30 km of unsealed road out to the highway was badly corrugated.
It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the highway, then the next 40 km into Kununurra was a breeze.
The first campground we tried was full, so it was onto plan B, which was the Hidden Valley campground, just outside town next to Mirima NP, where we'd walked around the previous week.
After lunch and doing a load of washing, we made the most of the internet access to catch up on all things social.
Day 198 - Kununurra, WA 13 August, 2024
We'd planned today as mostly a down day, with a couple of chores and an outing to fill in the day.
One of the things we'd wanted to do our previous visit was to visit The Hoochery, a local gin distillery that we'd read about and was recommended by fellow travellers.
The other experience we wanted to do was a camp oven cooking evening, but the earliest we could get in to do that was the end of the week, so we booked it in and decided to go to Wyndham while waiting for that to come around.
I badly needed a haircut, so we went to the closest barbershop, only to find a queue of people waiting in line. The only other hairdresser in town was also busy, so I gave up on that idea for the moment and we did some grocery shopping to fill in some time, waiting until nearer lunchtime to go to The Hoochery.
Back at the barbershop the line hadn't dwindled at all, but I put my name on the waiting list anyway, hoping to get a cut before lunch. To fill in some more time we had a drink and bite to eat at the the cafe next door, then walked along the road to take a look at an Aboriginal art studio.
Checking the barbershop for the last time, I was still about fifth in line, so I forgot about that plan and we drove out towards the distillery, filling up with diesel on the way.
At The Hoochery, we each ordered a tasting paddle of gins, rums and liqueurs and took them outside to the large garden dining area. As it was lunchtime by then we both ordered lamb skewers, but didn't enjoy them that much because the meat was a bit tough, and the draught maize beer we ordered wasn't that nice either.
Back at camp I let Meg loose on my out-of-control hair, as there didn't seem to be any other option for getting it cut. She did a great job.
After a brief swim, brief because the water was so cold, we showered and relaxed for the afternoon.
Day 199 - Kununurra - Parry Creek Farm, WA 14 August, 2024
We set aside today and the next day for exploring Wyndham and surrounds, to fill in time while waiting to do the camp oven cooking experience on the coming Friday night.
It was only a 100 km drive to Wyndham, so we were aiming for a sleep in and lazy start to the day, however, with the time zone change, sunrise was around 5:45 A.M., and that was when our neighbouring campers started moving about and waking us up.
Leaving camp at 8:00 A.M. we took our time with the drive to Wyndham, pottering along at 80-90 km/h.
Our first point of interest was the enormous Crocodile sculpture on the outskirts of the small town, where we stopped for a couple of pictures.
Next up was the Five Rivers Lookout, which was a very steep winding drive for about 5 km uphill to the top. Once at the top the view was magnificent, of the confluence of the Pentecost, Forrest, Ord, King and Durack Rivers. There was no water on large areas of what we could see as the tide must’ve low, and due to the 8+ metre difference between low and high tides. A lady up at the lookout, seeing our QLD rego, asked where we were from and, when I said Scarborough told me that she worked at Ballycara Retirement Village, and was the contact for Kayleigh (daughter-in-law) when she was working weekends.
Back down at sea level it was morning tea time, and there just happened to be nice bakery in the main street of town. We enjoyed a coffee and sticky bun before continuing on our discovery of Wyndham.
As it was still quite early, we couldn’t check into the campground, so we drove a short distance out of town to the port area, where we had a walk out the jetty, read all the information boards on the history of the port area, and spent some time wandering around outside the small historical museum.
Back in town we stopped off to look at some impressively large sculptures depicting the lives of Aboriginal people, before heading to the Oasis Café for a Barramundi, chips and salad lunch.
Because we’d exhausted all that Wyndham had to offer, apart from a stop at the bottle shop, we decided to head back south to Parry Creek Farm, only 20 km away, where we booked in for the next two nights. The camping area is set on 120 acres of land, so there was heaps of space, trees and no need to be close to any other campers.
Near the reception area there is a raised walkway, that takes you partway around a billabong covered in Lily Pads. The walkway is raised because, we were told, large Saltwater Crocodiles were resident there. They must’ve been sheltering from the hot temperatures, because we didn’t see any sign of them.
We got setup on a nice shady, grassy spot, with plenty of room between us and fellow campers, then went for a swim in their pool. It wasn’t as cold as the pool in Kununurra, so we stayed in a bit longer than the previous day, before chilling and enjoying our surroundings for the afternoon.
Day 200 - Parry Creek Farm, WA 15 August, 2024
We wanted to spend today exploring some of the sights around the Parry Creek Nature Reserve.
One thing we’d been told about the day before was the presence of the endangered Gouldian Finch, not too far from the campground, but to have a good chance of seeing them you needed to be up early, preferably around sunrise.
We were up earlier than normal, cut short the morning routine, and got away from camp about 7:00 A.M. Driving back out towards the highway, we turned off onto another unsealed road in very bad condition, towards the Marlgu Billabong Bird Sanctuary, stopping briefly at Telegraph Hill Lookout to look at the remains of an old telegraph station, and where we had great views of the surrounding area.
At the bird sanctuary, there were already a few people encamped in the bird hide who looked like they’d been there all morning. The large billabong was teeming with every variety of birdlife common in the area, on the water, on the surrounding banks and in wetland areas bordering the water. We stayed for a while trying to identify as many birds as possible with our binoculars, and also hoping we might catch a glimpse of a Gouldian Finch.
Leaving the bird sanctuary, we drove out on a narrow dirt track to the highway, then along the highway for a few kilometres, before turning off on the other side towards Moochalabra Dam, where we’d read there was some good Aboriginal rock art.
It was about 20 km from the highway to the rock art site, and the road was atrocious, keeping our speed below 20 km/h for the majority of the drive in. Part way along the road we’d been told that Gouldian Finches had been sighted recently near a water source, but they remained elusive for us, maybe because it was well past sunrise by then.
At the rock art site, we put shoes on and clambered up a steep rocky slope to get to where the rock art was.
The first part wasn’t that impressive but, seeing where other people were going further along the sheer rock face, we climbed over some more rocks to get up to a higher point, and there was heaps more rock art along that section. It would have been nice to stay longer and explore some more, but the heat beating off the rock wall was stifling, so we climbed back down and started the long drive back to the highway, stopping for some morning tea along the way.
Once we got setup on our campsite again it was time for a swim to cool off before lunch, and then relaxation was the order of the afternoon after our early start this morning.
On the way back into camp this morning, we stopped off a the firewood pile and loaded a few choice lumps on the back of Mata for a fire later in the day. Once the sun was starting to go down, we got the fire going and enjoyed the ambience combined with another beautiful sunset, until the bity bugs drove us inside for the evening.
Day 201 - Parry Creek Farm - Kununurra, WA 16 August, 2024
To get back to Kununurra today, we chose to take the road less travelled, yes another unsealed road in bad condition.
There was about 70 km of unsealed road, before getting back on the highway, so we were expecting the journey to take about four hours, if we could average around 20 km/h. Because we set out knowing this the drive didn't seem so bad, despite the road condition, and we used the time travelling at very slow speeds to spot wildlife. We saw loads of small wallabies running across the road in front of us, and also many dead on the road. We puzzled over this for some time, thinking that on a road in bad condition vehicles wouldn't be travelling very fast, and there wouldn't be roadkill. The more recent roadkill was being snacked on by large eagles, that we thought may be Wedge-Tailed Eagles, which we'd read use wallabies as a food source, and kill them to eat, so what we thought may have been roadkill could possibly have been eagle-kill. We saw a large variety of raptors, that may have been eagles, kites or buzzards.
More interestingly, we also saw a few Brolgas handing around billabongs away from the road.
Getting near the end of the unsealed road, the condition improved and, making better time, we stopped of at Black Rock Falls, a short 1 km drive in and a short 300 metre walk clambering over rocks to get into the bottom of the falls, where there was a small pool, but no water running over the falls. The colours of the towering rock face were amazing, changing from a bright orange to a deep black.
Our only other stop was at the Ivanhoe Crossing of the Ord River, which was spectacular, but closed to traffic.
In Kununurra we visited the supermarket, bottle shop and servo, before heading out to the Lake Kununurra campground for the night.
We spent the afternoon catching up on socials and chores, while waiting to be picked up for the Gourmet Camp Oven Experience around 4:30 P.M.
We were picked promptly by Josh, our host and the originator of the camp oven experience, at the appointed time, along with two other couples from our campground. Weirdly, one of the other couples was also from Scarborough, and lived about a kilometre from us.
We stopped off at some other campgrounds picking up other guests, before heading about ten minutes out of town to the "secret" location of the evening's experience.
After a quick tour of the facilities and rundown of the order of events, we were each given an alcoholic ginger beer which we consumed while talking to other guests, and waiting for the first course to be served, which was a Crocodile canape.
When the next course was ready to be served, we all sat down at tables to enjoy the rosti and Barramundi stack entrée. We'd taken our own drinks for the evening, as had everybody else, so the discussions tended to be lively when we weren't eating the delicious food.
The main course was crispy-skinned pork belly, served with potato rosti and Ord Valley tomatoes.
Our final course was a dessert of rum and chocolate brownie, served with vanilla bean ice cream and salted caramel sauce.
Altogether it was a brilliant experience and well worth the $200 per person cost.
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