Derby

Arrived in Derby & joined the queue at the caravan park. This was the first time there was more than one van in front of us on check in. Guess it will be busy now we are near Broome at this time of the season.  Had to laugh, one young girl got out of her van & ran to reception, got behind me in the queue & announced loudly "I've booked" . Hope she learns to relax as she gets further into the trip.

Derby has the largest or second biggest tides in Australia (depending on what report you read),& the 9th largest in the world. The old wharf was originally used for export of pearl shell & wool, this new one was used for live cattle & oil. Its a big semi circular structure that can be driven around. A favourite spot for sunset & fisherman

                                 

This is a favourite spot at sunset & we were lucky to be there for a super moon as well as big tides. The water at full height was about 1mt under the deck at 11.4 mts. Lots of grey nomads & locals out for the nights excitement. Not a lot to do in Derby! 

                                 

We also went on a short tour through the School of the Air. Since February this year the schooling is now done by computer link up instead of wireless. The old way had lots of static & delays however the day we went the satellite was being affected by the cloud cover so communication was experiencing delays. Really these kids in the outback don't get their education easy! 

 

Top photo is the old equipment & the new computers at the bottom. The teacher was trying to run a third class science lesson about sifting but was frustrated by each kid getting messages at different speeds or static breaking up the voices. Solution - lesson over for the day. 

We did our usual tour of the local cemetery & once again were surprised at the local initiatives that make this place in each town unique. From old hats, boots, taps(?) and various ornaments of 60cm cats to miniature angels,a variety of seats for contemplation, Derby cemetery was an interesting conglomeration of memories.

                         

We ended up having a week in Derby. "Why" you ask? Well it wasn't the most exciting town but from here we flew to the Horizontal Falls & we had to wait for a booking as peak season 

    

Honeymoon Bay, Kunannurra to Derby

Once again we headed off to face 600kms on mostly dirt without a spare. The gods were on our side & after a 11 hour trip, 10 hours on corrugations we made it back to our 5 star mansion "The Lotus". Once Tone heads or home he is like an old horse. Despite initial plans to stay half way the lure of a real bed one out.

We stopped at Drysdale Station, hoping for a tyre but the best we could do was fill our stomachs with an $18.00 hamburger. Delicious & not a crumb was left at that price.

Not sure how many piled into this tray back that headed off in a cloud of dust.

  

Said goodby to some friends we had made at Honeymoon Bay & headed out along the Gibb again.

Di & Jim's setup was made in Hervey Bay, their bed was on the other side. Hope to catch up with them again as they are from Brisbane.

A long trip but when we hit the tar at El Questro we both whooped with delight that we were an hour from home & the corrugations & rocks were far behind us.

Travelling through the Cockburn Ranges at sunset we were rewarded with an amazing moving blockbuster of a sunset.

We spent three days cleaning up the car, washing the dust from everything & replacing the tyre before heading west towards Broome. Going through Halls Creek we ran in to Jim & Di again heading east. Bought the best meat & vegie pasties ever in Halls Creek. The bakery was owned by an Argentian, served by a Taiwanese girl in an aboriginal community town. Only in Australia!

Free camped on a "jump up" once again rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

              Moved on next day through Fitzroy Crossing & turned right to Derby for our next stop.

                                 If it wasn't for the Boabs it was a white line fever day

Love this tar road though!

Mitchell Falls to Honeymoon Bay

The trip in the truck back to Kunannurra didn't eventuate after our neighbour had a thought at 4 am in the morning. He hooked his car to ours with jumper leads left them charging for nearly an hour & Eureka, we started.

The two families were travelling together from Perth, doing the Gibb & heading for Cape York. They took sympathy on the old couple stuck up on the plateau. They performed miracles by turning my water rations to wine & starting the car. We had flattened the battery, leaving doors open & not turning off the lights - dum!!

You do meet some nice people on the road!

 

Luckily when Tony got in touch with the tow truck driver via the Rangers satellite phone he was just fuelling up & hadn't left town. If we hadn't got him then we would not have been able to get in touch with him at all. We would ave had to sit & wait two days for him to arrive.

So setting off without a spare tyre left us feeling a little vulnerable to the wrath of the rocky road. The choice was 188 kms to Drysdale or 100kms to Kalumburu in search of a spare. Deciding on the shortest option we carefully as possible made our way north over unforgiving roads.

On reaching Kalumburu not a tyre was to be found. The first guy we asked where to get tyres started to laugh. As the smile creased his black face he grinned "I don't know, I don't own a car". It turned out the only tyres were govt owned.

After speaking to a women involved in the new housing project we decided not to stay in town due to a bit of unrest in town & headed over even more corrugated roads to the romantically named Honeymoon Bay.

 

 

Kalumburu started as a mission back in the early 1900's. the mission is still there in a conglomeration of beautiful local stone buildings. The brothers & nuns have a store attached where they sell some groceries, drinks, lollies & the indigenous favourite of fried chicken & chips. The shop had just opened at 1.30pm after the lunch break and talk about absolute chaos as the kids all clamoured to get their orders in. The noise of the voices, perpetual motion of their little black bodies & one young fellow bouncing his football left your head ringing.

 

We stocked up in the local supermarket run by the local community. It had just opened at 2 pm & wasn't much quieter than the mission shop. Les, the checkout boy, full of personality recommended to stay at Honeymoon Bay, so off we went 17km of more corrugations to our next tent site. Guess who collected the money that night for the family? Yep, Les! He told me we were Goobli - same, same! Old George came around after sunset with fresh oysters off the rocks much to Tonys delight.

 

The amenities were far from salubrious but the best thing I have found is to just wear shoes & don't look. The water dribbled out of the shower & flushed the toilets - mostly!

Just love the artwork painted directly on the wall.

Our wash up water one morning! The water is bore & this lot must have just been pumped up. Luckily we had some drinking water with us.

 

 

 

 

 

What the place lacked in amenities was compensated by the nice people especially the kids that lived there.

Not sure of the exact names but the closest we got was l-r Roo, Lara & Assari. These kids go to school in Kalumburu. They spent the weekend just pottering around from home to the beach, not an electric game to be seen & not a harsh word. Lara the eldest was very quiet, but the "boss" Even Assari, the cheeky little fellow did what she told him in her quiet way. Roo was far from shy and as you can see from her photo didn't mind posing. "I am a princess" she told me as she posed.

 

 

This gnarled & weathered old tree bleached grey by the sun was washed up in wet season. The kids said when it was in the shallows they played on it in the water & it was their "Honeymoon Titanic"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honeymoon Bay was named in the early days of the Mission after the first Christian marriage in the church in town. The missionaries sent the couple out to here on a traditional honeymoon. When the worried locals asked where the couple were they were told they were on their honeymoon, hence the bay became romantically named.

Despite obvious reservations we enjoyed ourselves. If the family could upgrade the facilities I think visitors would stay longer after the tough treck to get there.

 

 

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El Questro to Mitchell Falls via Drysdale Station

The Gibb River Rd after we leave El Questro. Once again a rocky bottom crossing & not too deep but still flowing fairly quickly. The cars at the bottom are pulled up replacing the second tyre in 40kms.

The scenery around here is pretty boring, I think we have been spoiled over the last two weeks with country that has been really picturesque.

 

A number of properties have opened their gates to cash in on the large numbers of tourist flocking to the area. There are off road campers, tenters, caravans & outback four wheel drive tour buses. People of all ages & nationalities, especially retired Europeans in hired four wheel drive campers We even passed a young couple from Perth on push bikes, they were down on water, as we had plenty & would have access to water later in the day we were happy to pour some into their "camels". Not a good place to be without water but luckily their are plenty of people on the road.

 

Arriving at Drysdale Station we set up the tent again - it does get a bit tedious when it is only a night stopover. But once it's up we are comfortable & it only takes us about 3/4 hour to have the billy on. Thinking about enjoying a roast at the camp kitchen we were put off by the $45.00 price tag & instead opted for a precooked curry & rice.

 

 

 

 

We weren't prepared for the cold night, not thinking we had slowly been climbing higher up the escarpments. Finally using our beach towels as a top layer we made it through the night. By 9am the temps were up in the mid twenties. Single blow up mattresses in a tent aren't made for cuddling to keep warm!

 

Next day we were off up the Kulumburu Rd heading for the Mitchell Falls. The road has just opened for the season because of late rains making the crossings unpassable.

We also heard the community at Kulumburu had had some problems. Normally a "dry" (no alcohol) community, some grog had been smuggled in & the locals were acting up.

This photo shows some of the rocks in the road surface which mixed with fairly substantial corrugations makes the going pretty rough with flashbacks to last years trip up to Cape York. We took it slow but there were a lot of drivers who subscribe to the theory if you drive fast enough you stay on top of the corrugations. We passed one Toyota Landcruiser heading south, full of indigenous folk who were speeding along, all windows open with the driver nonchalantly resting his arm on the window ledge steering one handed. I guess this is a highway they are used to.

The drive into Mitchell Falls was scenic with literally millions & millions of Palm trees amongst the schlerophyll bush on the escarpment. The ground beneath emerald green as the new growth grasses & seedlings spike through the earth burnt black from the seasonsal burn offs.

We took it easy pulling over & letting the fast drivers pass.

 

All was going well until we were 16 km from the camp site & the nice hum of the tyres on gravel changed to an ominous "gallump". Sure enough we had an un repairable flat, with a good hole in the side probably from a sharp rock in the creek we had just driven through. So despite plenty of careful driving with good tyres, luck wasn't on our side.

After replacing the tyre the car temp was 41deg so by the time camp was set up a swim in the rock pool was a welcome relief.

It had taken us 2 hours driving to do 100 kms from Drysdale Station & another 5 hours driving to get to the camp 88 kms from the turn off, allowing 1 hour for tyre change - we did have to read the instruction book, not having had to change a tyre on this car before. As a matter fact, Tone asnt changed a tyre for many a year! While we stopped for repairs we were passed by 8 cars, all stopped but one with an old guy in it, the rest were all young folk more than willing to lend a hand.

A nice evening relaxing under the stars & we turned in at 7.30pm.

These waterfalls better be bloody good tomorrow!

My attempt at photographing the stars above - good photo???? You will just have to believe me that there were more stars than I have ever seen. Oh well, must get out the instruction book on how to photograph stars for next time.

 

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El Questro Wilderness Park, Homestead & Station

After walking the Emma Gorge we headed into the camp ground at El Questro. This is a river crossing near the campground. The corrugations have begun.

 

 

 

 

 

The surrounding scenery of more red escarpments bounding the property are stunning towering over the flood plains of the Pentecost River. Starting life as a cattle station El Questro ( no translation) the property since 2004 has become a world acclaimed wilderness resort in the East Kimberley.

Today there are camping facilities supported by a restaurant, shop & bar with entertainment provided during dry season.If you prefer you can stay at The Homestead for just $2500 per night - you do get a personal butler/cook for that money.

 

 

 

 

The Homestead is built overlooking the Pentecost river & one section of the building overhangs the escarpment. Once again Alan Emblin was involved with building the cabins here. The photo is a bit unclear as you can't get close to the resort - it is kept very exclusive down a private road.

 

 

We took the Prado up to Broncos Lookout & this is the river crossing on the way. Lots of boulders under the tyres and the car rocked & rolled all the way across.There are quite a few crossing on the property, the deepest being the one closest to the campsite on the way in. It was flowing at approximately 500 mm when we crossed. Once again it was rounded rocks underwater but not as rough as the one in the photo.

The view back towards the camp from Broncos Lookout. There is a memorial up here for a girl from Kunanurra who was one of three killed in a helicopter crash in 2008.

The walk into El Questro Gorge was once again over rock strewn ground. The only way to see the scenery is to stop walking & look around as underfoot is so rough & uneven. This walk was prettier than Emma Gorge because of the Livingstonia palms but the pool & waterfall is much smaller.

Not planning to have swim I decided to go in in my clothes instead of missing out. Nice & cool but not freezing like Emma Gorge.

The rocky path in.

 

Tone enjoying the scenery.

 

 

A swim at Zebedee Springs. Water 32 degrees. These are a series of rock pools stepping down a small gorge. Very pretty & popular. These are closed to the camping plebs at 12 o'clock so the Homestead guests can use them.

Morning tea after our spa bath.

 

Chamberlain Gorge where the boat tours go up the Pentecost. Once again no swimming as there are saltwater crocs found here.

 

El Questro is a unique place where the Kimberley's can be appreciated with a short drive from Kunannurra.

Tomorrow we are off on the untarred section of the Gibb. The rough roads will really start then.

 

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