A Kimberley kaleidoscope

[JohnM]

Tomorrow morning it will be on the bird PER-BME for a two week loop around the Kimberley, including travelling the the fabled Gibb River Road.

Here's the plan:



Outbound from Broome on the Gibb R Rd, three nights based in Kununurra next weekend to explore Lake Argyle and Wyndham, before looping S via the Bungle Bungles for two nights and swinging back to Broome .

Temperatures there at present are around low 30s max and low 20s min .

A few good days in the office coming up, methinks... .

 

[Major]

I assume this is to complement your coastal trip 4 years ago.

Looking forward to some great photos

 

[love_the_life]

Looking forward to reading your TR. A part of Australia I have travelled to when at work.

 

[kermatu]

Looking forward to this. Only been to a few of the more obvious places on this loop - keen to see what else awaits for a potential return.

 

[Ric]

Subscribed...

 

[amaroo]

Like the look of this - safe travels!

 

[JohnM]

Danged app! Says I'm not logged in, so looks like this TR is over almost before it starts. Doing it through a web browser is too hard. Looks like it will need to be done post trip.

 

[amaroo]

Danged app! Says I'm not logged in, so looks like this TR is over almost before it starts. Doing it through a web browser is too hard. Looks like it will need to be done post trip.

That's a shame. I'm one of the lucky ones still hooked up with the old app... once that goes, so will the TRs.

 

[JohnM]

I'm baaaack!

The sensational trip is over, and I’m back in cold and wet PER after balmy Kimberley weather, so back to my TR.

While the failure of the app to work was a nuisance for the first couple of days while in mobile range, once out on the Gibb River road it would not have been possible to post because of the lack of comms.

OK, back to the trip, starting with a few pics around Broome. Almost all pics were taken with my phone, so the quality is a bit ordinary but it should give the general idea about this truly stunning part of our country.

Pics clockwise: 80 mile beach, S of Broome, from the bird. Cable Beach looking SW in the afternoon with the tide out, turn around and there’s Cable Beach Resort, looking back NE along Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point (the resort area is the splodge of green at the far end of the beach).



Beach at the foot of the main part of Cable Beach. Vehicles can enter down the slope on the left and drive N along the beach. It’s also the entry point for the famed camel rides. Looking S at beach level. Sunset. Matso’s Brewery in town for a pre-dinner ale. The next morning and the tide is in. Gantheaume Point with the tide in.



Next morning and it’s out towards the Gibb River Rd via Derby. Boab trees line the main street; prison boab.



First overnight stop is Windjana Gorge, part of an extensive Devonian (c. 350 million years ago – the fish-rich epoch) sedimentary rock formation that runs S through to Geikie Gorge near Fitzroy Crossing (the last stop before the return to Broome two weeks later).

Entry to Windjana Gorge, along the river, within the gorge, freshwater crocs (harmless) were very numerous. Some of us went for a walk into the gorge at night with torches; the croc eyes in the water and the opposite bank looked like a constellation of stars. Quite fascinating. Bower bird nest.



We took an afternoon drive a bit further into the park to Tunnel Creek. As the name implies, the creek runs into what appears to be a cave but is actually a 750 m long tunnel, with a roof collapse about half way. We walked the full length, with the deepest part of the creek being only about 50cm deep at this dry season time of year.

Entry point and starting to wade, open cavern about half way, approaching the far end, outside the far end, re-approaching the cavern.

 

[JohnM]

Moving along the Gibb to Silent Grove for the next stop. Time for a short hike into Bell Gorge for a swim in the afternoon.

The pool above the falls; the more energetic or nimble crossed here and hiked a bit further to get below the falls and into the gorge proper. The people at the top of the falls are standing just beyond the far end of the pool in the first pic; very pretty Eucalyptus miniata (Darwin woollybutt) flowers.



Galvan’s Gorge is the most accessible gorge, a short, level walk several hundred metres off the main Gibb R road.

Monet’s Kimberley garden walking into Galvan’s, the nice swimming hole. Camp under a big boab near Manning Gorge on Mt Barnett Station. It was a fairly solid 1 hour or so hike into Manning Gorge on a quite warm afternoon, which only a handful of us did. First we had to cross the river in the tinny-on-a-cable.



It was well worth it. A refreshing swim followed before the climb out. Next morning’s tea stop at the Kulumburu turnoff to the far N of the Kimberley and moving from the West to the East Kimberley. Changing our only flat tyre – the road gives some idea of the broad corrugations but on the whole the road was no worse than a lot of corrugations – for a famed ‘Kimberley massage’. First view of the spectacular coughburn Range.



Camped at Home Valley Station, just west of the coughburn Range, that night and the chance to walk up a small hill at the back to watch the sun set on the range. Next morning the classic Kimberley/Gibb River Rd shot fording the Pentecost River with the coughburn Range in the eastern background.



Then it was on a fairly short distance to hit the bitumen near the famed (well, very commercial) El Questro Station for the rest of the day taking in the main sights there before hitting Kununurra for three nights.

El Questro certainly has some spectacular natural attractions as well as the high-level facilities that only a massive up-front capital spend can produce.

First up, Zebedee Hot Springs, an amazing oasis with a pleasantly warm spring at the foot of a massive red cliff.

 

[JohnM]

Next was a bit of time at the El Questro ‘town’ before a hike into Amalia Gorge and a swim.



In the afternoon it was a much more serious hike for a very small group of the fitter and nimbler into Emma Gorge. This was perhaps the highlight of the trip for me. Truly stunning. Seriously, do not miss it if you go to the area!

I think many of the others, but not all, in the group could have done it. The trouble with trail signs is that they always seem to exaggerate the degree of difficulty. I think the signs said a level 4 walk. I rate it a solid level 2; maybe a 3. There’s a bit of clambering over large rocks. It took about 50 minutes to get to the end, stopping a bit to gawk and take pics.

It’s impossible to capture in a photo the majesty and garden-of-Eden quality of the main amphitheatre and pool, which has a small hot spring flowing in on one side.

 

[njba]

What a massive place Australia is: it's easy to forget this!

 

[JohnM]

E end of the Gibb River Road, agriculture in the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA), recently completed Stage 2 channel with a backdrop of the hills surrounding the extensive Ord River floodplain, chilling with our Kununurra friends on the sunset BBQ boat on Lake Kununurra (well worth doing if you are in KNX).



Lake Kununurra is a long, fairly narrow body of water impounded by the Ord Diversion Dam, right at KNX. It, in turn, is fed from Lake Argyle about 60 km upstream. The Diversion Dam is above the level of the main floodplain when kept full by the controlled release from Lake Argyle, so the irrigation water can be gravity fed at low cost to the farms.

Boat trip on Lake Argyle. The surprisingly small earth-fill dam impounds one of the world’s larger man-made lakes. Two successive below-average wet seasons have the water level a little low – but it still extends over an area about 20 times Sydney Harbour. It is a BIG lake, large enough to create its own microclimate. No shortage of water there! The relocated Durack pioneer’s homestead.



Then it was on a boat for the ride back along the Ord downstream from the dam to Kununurra. Plenty of stops along the way to observe land formations, wildlife and for an excellent afternoon tea. Run by the same company that does the BBQ boat and also highly recommended if you are in the area. The twin 350hp outboards can get that thing motoring at times!



And back into the main part of Lake Kununurra for a bit of a burn-off at around 65kph with one of the company’s other boats followed by a pause for a Drron-challenging sunset pic.



Next day it was time to leave Kununurra and head to the Bungles via Wyndham (nb. It is the Bungle Bungle Range, aka ‘The Bungles’, not ‘The Bungle Bungles’).

Wyndham is a mere shadow of its former self. Spent an hour in the small museum and spotted a 1939 photo of my dad when he was there in the Post Office, which was a nice touch.

View looking N at Cambridge Gulf from the top of the Bastion (the barges were used to load iron ore into ships from a small mine S of Wyndham until the mine recently went defunct), view of the Bastion from the town’s jetty, panoramas southwards and northwards, respectively. Five rivers drain into the Cambridge Gulf; it’s reputedly spectacular in the wet.

 

[JohnM]

Sitting in the cab heading west on Great Northern Highway on the way to the Bungles camp, boab sunset. While there is some accommodation within the Purnululu National Park, the 50-odd kms into the Bungles is a very rough road and towing anything is strongly discouraged. It is better to stay at the new caravan park/campground near the highway and take a day trip in. It took 1.5 hours to do 50 km in our very tough MAN 4WD truck, sans trailer – and that was regarded as fast. Usually it’s a good 2 hours. But it’s worth it!



Taking the walk into Cathedral Gorge. Termite mounds even appear way up on the ‘beehives’! The ‘cathedral’, walking out, panorama of the ‘cathedral’. Can’t resist putting in a slew of pics from the Bungles. It’s an extraordinary place.





One last ground-level pic of the ‘beehives’. Up at dawn the next morning to take the first helicopter flight into the park and over the formations. The R44s, sans doors :shock:, at the ready; we’re taking the blue baby. Piloted by a young blonde who enhanced the scenery .



Lift off, that’s a dry creek bed tributary of the Ord, PJM’s hair getting mussed up by 100-knot slipstream, approaching Bungles from the west over the western range – the ‘beehives’ are on the E flank.

 

[JohnM]

More of the Bungles from the helo.





Very little water in the upper Ord. Landing pad right next to camp, next lot on their way.

 

[RooFlyer]

General swooning noises from here.

 

[JohnM]

After the helo flights were done, it was on the road again to Halls Creek and checking out ‘China Wall’, an interesting blocky linear quartzite intrusion that resembles a mini Great Wall of China.



A fairly long run in to Fitzroy Crossing that afternoon with nothing special on the way. The next morning was a boat cruise on the Fitzroy River in Geikie Gorge. This is a continuation of the Devonian sediments at Windjana Gorge, mentioned earlier.

 

[JohnM]

Then it was back to Broome. We did an optional tour to the Willie Creek pearl farm, about 30 km out of Broome. The farm part in the estuary is really a small demo operation for tourists, the main farm being well off the coat. It’s very well done and not cheesy. We took the bus out and then opted to take a helicopter flight back to BME. The doors were on the R44 this time .

Pearl oyster frame, 1A in the R44, Willie Creek (really an estuary) pearl farm, looking S towards Broome, BME, followed by a refreshing ale, famed ginger beer and lunch at Matso’s.



The final evening was a sunset picnic on Cable Beach. Almost a full moon. Unfortunately, the famed ‘staircase to the moon’ over the tidal flats (of Roebuck Bay on the other side of the peninsula, not over Cable Beach as many people may think), was due to occur about 3 days after we left Broome.



On the final morning it was a quick visit to the Japanese cemetery (many pearl divers were Japanese and died of the bends or in cyclones) on the way to the airport. We had opted for the evening flight to PER, so we rented a car and headed about 120km S of Broome to Eco Beach Resort. And a nice spot on a balmy 31 degree day it was, with a very nicely done BLT and baguette light lunch.



Followed by a stroll on the beach as the tide swiftly went out.



Then it was back to Broome for a couple more refreshing ginger beers at Matso’s before jumping on the bird to PER and the end of an awesome trip .

 

[RooFlyer]

Most enjoyable. Was yours the optimal time of year to go?

 

[Daver6]

Looks fantastic. I await to be made jealous in person over wine.