Tom Price & Rio Tinto - 7/9/15

Tom Price

on the way to Tom Price

Later that day we arrived at Tom Price, a 5,000 head mining town, courtesy to Rio Tinto and the iron ore discovered by the American Tom Moore Price in 1962. It’s also the highest town in WA at 747m altitude. Due to a high number of young families there’s 2 schools plus a high school and child care centers, a newly renovated shady pool and a beautiful landscape around – a perfect little town and pleasant place to life if it wouldn’t be surrounded by mines. (I know: without the mines there wouldn’t have been a town here but…)

Rio Tinto security - you have to wear helmet, glasses and enclosed shoes, Rio Tinto mine site

We did the Rio Tinto Mine Tour and heard the numbers: The big shovel, which weighs 480t, has a fuel consumption of 8,000L per 24h. The large trucks, that can carry 240t of iron ore, need about 20L fuel per km going up hill (and there’s 36 large 240t and 6 smaller 100t trucks). Then there’s also the diggers and excavators, the grinders and other machinery plus heaps of normal 4WD cars and the trains that transport the iron ore to the harbor in Dampier – an average of 5 trains per day from Tom Price, carrying 27,376t each. You see the brown dust that covers everything and you know what else is in the air apart from diesel fumes…

Rio Tinto had a production of 5 million tones p.a. at Tom Price when they started in 1966. By 2008 it increased to 28 m tones. The overall production of all Rio Tinto mines went from 166 m tones p.a. in 2006 to 290 m tons in 2013 and is estimated to reach 360 m tons in 2015.

Mount Nameless

Mount Nameless with Christin, sunset

We met our friend Christin again and invited her for a sunset drive up Mount Nameless, which is apparently the highest mountain accessible by 4 WD in WA. It wasn't too bad - the grader must have been here as well. We enjoyed a great view over the endless landscape but it was fairly busy up there. Sarah enjoyed the time with Christin and didn't care too much about the view and the sunset but we loved it.

and the sunrise was equally beautiful...


Towards Karijini - Tognolini Restarea 4/9/15

From Port Hedland we headed south into the Pilbara area (and where most iron ore mines are located). We stayed at the ‘wrong’ free camp at Blakey’s spot as we took the wrong turn off the road. Soon a German lady, travelling on her own, joined us at our site. We’ve since met her several times. Best of all Sarah really loves playing with Kristin :-)

beautiful spinnifix grass

After a night with some road noise from the many, many road trains filled with some of Australia’s finest earth, we drove off towards Karijini NP.  Soon the drive became interesting with lots of rocky hills and some beautiful wildflowers along the way. We wanted to see one of the gorges on the northern side of the National Park, but on arrival the access road was closed as the gorge contains a lot of asbestos. Nevertheless we had a fantastic view onto the range for our lunch. 

Different wildflowers like mulla mulla, desert pea and some yellow, pea like seed pods

We drove on to the Tognolini Rest Area, just outside the National Park. Advertised as the best free camp in WA, Tognolini Rest Area certainly lives up to that standard. Lots of spacious, private campsites with stunning views, away from the road. But it’s not only the rest area; it probably was the most beautiful drive we had for weeks, from the turn off onto national road 95 all the way to Karijini NP. The wildflowers are flowering in a lot of different colours and shapes; at the horizon you see dark red rocky ranges with green flanks. It’s a gently landscape that pleases the eye.

rock formations on the northern side of Karijini

Tognolini rest area

Port Hedland 2/9/15 Big, bigger, the biggest

Port Hedland 2/9/15 Big, bigger, the biggest

It seems that PH doesn’t have a high ranking for caravaners but it’s certainly worth a visit. Everything is big: boats, trains, salt mountains, iron ore, midgees and prices. Martin went on a Seafarer harbor tour (boating again – no, thanks. Sarah and I went to the playground instead and had a great time).

Everything is big - Sarah on a crocodile - big boats and seafarer coming aboard for a trip to the mainland, tugboat, iron ore loader and salt ready to be shipped 

The Seafarer tour I did was great. This was a tour from one boat to the other, picking up seafarers for a bit of relaxing and recreation on shore.  It was just amazing seeing those big boats within arm reach. Port Hedland port is mostly used by BHP for their iron ore export. They currently have 7 berths for boats up to 300m in length, 50m wide and about 20m deep (waterline). Those bulk boats can carry in excess of 250,000 tons of iron ore.  There are several more berths belonging to FMG and the port (public berths). Two new berths, belonging to Gina Reinhardt, will fill their first boat soon and BHP has plans to build an offshore facility for even bigger boats. BTW Rio Tinto is exporting it’s iron ore out of 2 different harbors in the Pilbara (Dampier and ??). It’s just incomprehensive how much ore is leaving the country. There is one boat after the other leaving Port Hedland alone.

The entry into the harbor and the channel leading in is as small as 150m wide. It doesn’t take much wind or current for a 300m x 50m boat to come off-course. That’s why they are escorted by 3 tugboats - making sure the big boat is staying in the channel. The tugs are then used to turn the boat around in the harbor and finally pushing the boat sidewise into their allocated berth.

The turnaround time is about 35 hours. It takes about 25-30 hours to fill the ships at a rate of 10.000 t per hour with the rest mainly mooring time. The whole process takes longer because they have to fill up each of the 9 compartments in 20% increments and a circular motion.

Massive trains and gigantic conveyor belts are transporting the iron ore to the ships. Most of the operations are remote controlled from Perth

Next day we all went on the BHP Bus tour and heard all about the mining, iron ore, the trains and trucks and ships. BHP has about 650 employees in PH, with most of the devices being operated remotely from Perth. (The Australian wide number is 100.000 employees.) The trains, which bring in the iron ore from Newman, are 2.6 km long; consist of 2x132 wagons, pulled by 2 locomotives. Each wagon can hold 138t of iron ore and they drive at a speed of 60km/h. Now try your school knowledge and calculate how long you have to wait at the rail crossing for the train to pass - but I'm not sure they go that fast at the crossings! :-)

Sunset over the BHP facilities and more salt

Eighty Mile Beach - kitsch alert 31/8/15

Sandfire Roadhouse

Apart from fuel Sandfire roadhouse offers a couple of interesting exhibits and a large collection of caps, neatly hung under the roof. There's also a German family with 2 little kids, Noah (2.5y) and Lilly (14m). Sarah - completely ignoring the little boy until she bought herself an ice cream and finished it - had a great time with them. The couple had worked here as backpackers 10 years ago and loved it so much that they came back to stay. It’s an interesting way of growing up, basically at a petrol station with travelers passing by, and where the station people come in to get their supplies from a delivery truck twice per week. But they also said they're not sure yet what to do when Noah has to start school. Sandfire is pretty much right in the middle between Broome and Port Hedland, 300 km either way.

Roadhouse exhibits and the cap collection, some wildflowers and our delicious camp oven damper (lucky you don't see the burned side) from the night before.

Eighty Mile Beach 

50 km from Sandfire is the turn off to 80 mile beach, which is 9 km off the main road. There's nothing else than a caravan park and beach, beach, beach. First we thought to stay at the day-use area and head back to the main road to find a free camp but the beach is so beautiful white and blue, has so few people and plenty of shells and the promise of a stunning sunset made us change our minds and pay $35 for an unpowered but green site

80 mile beach at outgoing tide

It was the right decision as you can see in the wonderful-kitsch sunset pictures. 

The tide difference was about nine meters today and it seems that the beach not only got its name from its length but the also from the way you have to walk to the water during low tide. Next morning Martin wanted to fish in the incoming tide - like 50 other guys. A long white beach, a keen fisherman knee deep in water, every 10 meters and some lonely women tanning further up on the sand ...Sarah and I built 20 sand castles that got all washed away by the rising water. The guy next to Martin caught a blue threadfin salmon. We went over to see the fish and Sarah realised that the man cut the gills, and the fish was bleeding. She looked at it for quite a while, until the fish was no longer moving. Than she went to ask the man if the fish will still be swimming... In the end we got 2 small fishes from that man but, Sarah carrying them in her arms (in a bag), still pondering over the bleeding and dying fish and actually didn’t eat much of it when we made dinner.

We had dinner at a free camp at the De Grey river, a huge area with big sites. Instead of going down to the river bed, we took one on the plains but the wind was blowing so hard that we couldn't have a fire.

De Grey rail bridge, cattle coming to visit, wildflowers

Horizontal Waterfall and a camel ride for Sarah 28/8/15

28/8/15 Horizontal Waterfall

I got picked up at 5:20am for a trip to the Horizontal Waterfalls in Talbot Bay. Sarah and Regine stayed at the caravan, mainly because the trip involved gravel road bus travel, small airplane travel and a boat ride. All things Regine isn’t keen on (and Sarah would have a hard time on a 10 h trip)

Our tour started with some 200km road travel to Cape Leveque– the first 92km of it on dirt roads.  We stopped half way in Beagle Bay to see a little white church – the main feature is its pearl-shell altar.

Beagle Bay church and the shell altar

After a cup of coffee we drove off to Cape Leveque. This is the most northern point on the cape where Broom sits on. It’s famous for its white colored sand and red rocks – creating a spectacular contrast with the crystal blue water. We had a good breakfast at the Koljaman resort whilst watching humpback whales jumping out of the water in the distance.

Cape Leveque - where red rock meets white sand and turquoise water

Next stop was on the other side of the cape at Bardi (One Arm Point) where we visited a fish hatchery.  They have about 10 big round basins setup with different marine environments – and the guide was keenly showing us all the different fish, shells and corals living in it. I even got to hand feed a big barramundi.

Now the real trip started – as we moved from our 4WD tour bus into some seaplanes waiting for us. We were only 11 people in a 14 seater plane – so I got the whole back row for myself. A bit like traveling business class. The 30-minute flight took us across the ‘1000 islands’ to Talbot bay. We flew over what must be one of the most remote places on Earth. There are no roads for hundreds of kilometers and the area is made up of 800-1000 islands (depending on the tide height). Access is only possible by air or sea. The view over the deep blue water with contrasting green mangroves, yellow hills and red rock was absolutely stunning. I am so blessed to see such an amazing place.

Seaplane flight across the 1000 islands to Talbot Bay

We landed on the water –which wasn’t as scary as I imagined. It’s just a bit like a bumpy airstrip.

In the middle of Talbot Bay they setup an array of jetty’s, boats walkways and shark cages. Yes, next we put our bathers on, grabbed a snorkel and stepped into a metal cage in the water. On the other side of the cage we were greeted by about half a dozen 2-3m nurse sharks, which we could feed with some fish pieces.

Now it was our turn to get feed. Some grilled, freshly caught barramundi was on our menu.

Finally we got into a speedboat, just to get bored by a little tour around the different islands and waterways. It was great seeing, but the tour guide didn’t add much to my knowledge.

Talbot Bay from the water. Notice the tidal marks on the rock

At last he turned the boat and we speeded towards the two horizontal waterfalls. This is a small gap in the rock/mountain ranges and behind there is a totally enclosed lake. This is then repeated again – creating two lakes with two narrow passages that link them to the sea.  The next factor is the tide – its range is amongst the biggest in the world. Normal tides are easily 6m whilst king tides are 13.5m differences in water heights between low and high. Now when the tide is flowing in – this creates a little waterfall in this little gap as the water on the outside is rising faster than the inside can be filled. On the outgoing tide the water is trapped inside and can’t flow towards the sea as fast as the tide drops. This creates a waterfall in the opposite direction. We were able to drive with our boat up the first waterfall. The gap is about 25m wide and the difference in water height was only about 1m. The second gap is much narrower at about 7.5m. This was too dangerous to cross, as the inside was about 2m higher than our water level. At one point our guide stopped in the middle of the first waterfall – the boat had to do 12kn, (20kmh) just to hold position. It’s an amazing phenomena and very interesting to see. BTW the waterfalls can reach a height of 5m!

Driving into the horizontal waterfalls and view from above on the two narrow gaps

The water start in our plane (again business class for me) was again not as dramatic as imagined, and we got a good view from above on the two waterfalls. 

Camels

While Martin enjoyed his time off family, Sarah and I had a 'women day', starting with breakfast plus a load of washing and than we went shopping. Not really that kind of shopping most women like to do, though. We wanted to get a travel guide for WA since we don’t really know much about the regions here. First the bookshop was still closed so instead we went into the Red Cross OP Shop and bought heaps of childrens books for Sarah (we managed to read 3 over coffee and smoothie in the ‘shady lane cafe’). The travel guides were sold out so we went to do the second part of our shopping trip: Woolies (groceries). That means trying to keep the things we need in the trolley, the things, that Sarah randomly grabs, out of the trolley, as well as the trolley out of everyones heels while Sarah is pushing it around… great fun! Well, apart from rice cracker and lettuce we got everything we needed. 

The highlight of the day was a 30 min camel ride tour at Cable Beach at 3.30pm.  It was the first time in ages that Sarah left the playground without debate and we went down to the beach to find ‘our’ camels, the red ones! The guides allocated camels to every person and Sarah and I got the second one in the Karawane of about 15 camels – the first one didn’t carry anyone. Sarah was a bit shy touching the camels but once we where sitting on it she was happy as. You sit quite high up and what looks like a gentle trot can give you a good shake in the back. Having Sarah in front of me on my seat didn’t make it more comfortable and I could feel my back fairly soon. Luckily we only booked the 30 minutes tour – the view was great and it’s a fun experience! Sarah loved it and didn’t want to leave at all so we had to wait until the next tour started and the camels trotted off. First thing at home Sarah had to tell Daddy about the great day she had :-)

Our camel waiting for us and great fun on top ;-)

Derby - Broome 24-30/08/15

Derby 24-26/8/15

Luckily the idyllic remoteness of the Kimberley decreased gradually, firstly by being at THE (crowded) tourist spot “Windjana Gorge / Tunnel Creek”, so coming into Derby wasn’t as bad as we thought. It only has 5,000 inhabitants and even on the campground we had enough empty slots around us. We did what you have to do when you’re back in a town: stocking up supplies, doing the washing and making yoghurt. The first night we drove out to the jetty – the place to be for sunset. Martin tried fishing while Sarah and I got fish & chips. By the time we had our dinner and found a place to sit, eat, and watch (the sun and Sarah, because there was no railing on one side of the jetty), the sun was already gone but the colours of the sky just got better and better. 

This is what you do in Derby - The Jetty and the sunset

We just took it easy, went to an art gallery, tried chairs in a camping store and went to the local swimming pool in the afternoon. We even got a newspaper (which we used for starting the fire a couple days later because there was just nothing worth reading in it). A nice little town – we enjoyed staying there! 

Broome 26-30/8/15

Shortly after you leave Derby in direction Broome, there is a gigantic boab tree. It’s hollow inside with a small opening to get in. It was used as an overnight rest shelter, especially by police to lock up prisoners on their journey to Derby gaol – hence it’s name ‘Prison Tree’.

The prison tree, an old well and another road train

At a nice little rest stop beside the road, halfway to Broome, we stopped for the night.

Halfway stop and for the first time in months - clouds!

We arrived in Broome mid morning next day. Broome is the biggest city in the far north of WA (~16,000 inhabitants). It’s also a prime tourist destination and prices are accordingly – very high. There are several caravan parks, hotels and resorts. Tourists bring 200 million to the local economy each year. Unfortunately the caravan parks are filled with grey nomads again – people living down south escaping the winter cold for a couple of months. I say unfortunately as it makes it hard to find other families and kids for Sarah to play with. The percentage of travelling families was much, much higher in those places that aren’t accessible by bitumen roads.

After setting up our caravan, we first drove to the post office. We had two parcels waiting for us, which just missed us in Darwin about a month earlier.

Broome Jetty and the sun open-air movie theatre

We did some shopping (for groceries), but also had a look at some pearls. Broome is known as the ‘Pearling capital of the world’. It has a rich history on pearling and graveyards (separated according to nationality) full of people who died during their search for pearls. These days most pearls are cultivated and most of the south sea pearls are grown in the waters around Broome. We didn’t buy any pearls as our caravan is fully loaded and we just can’t justify the extra weight in it.


Next day we drove across Broome to the famous Cable Beach, named after a communication cable that linked this part of WA to the rest of the world. These days it’s famous for fine, white sandy beaches, azure blue water and amazing sunsets. Remember, we’re in the West of Australia, so the sun sets over the water here! Just amazing. This must be one of the best beaches in the world. However a sign reading “last Irikandji sting – 5th April 2015” reminded us that we’re still in the tropics with all it’s dangers and stinger season soon approaching again.

We still enjoyed our swim – after all it is a patrolled beach with flags.

Sarah was more impressed by the playground there. It’s a long time since she’s seen one.

Cable Beach - best beach in the world?

We drove back to our caravan park at Roebuck Bay. I wanted to see the lighthouse at Gantehaume Point. I was just stopping for some quick photos, but Sarah wanted to go for a little hike in the middle of the day! So glad she did. The views back onto cable beach with contrasting red rock was stunning. We also got close to a sea eagle by the water and then we watched a young one on top of the lighthouse doing its first flight!

Gantehaume Point with sea-eagle

Since I’ve cleaned our car yesterday of all it’s red dust from the Gibb, it was time to take the gravel road to the port of Broome. Just to keep that red tint up on the car.

We went back to cable beach for sunset. As imagined it was pretty good. However Sarah was only interested in the camels just returning from the famous “Cable Beach Camel Sunset Tour”. After watching the tourist get off, she was able to pat some camels. It was a big day for her. On the short drive home to the caravan she fell asleep. 

Cable Beach at sunset and the famous cable beach camels


Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

Drive from Mornington back to the GRR and the closed Imintji Roadhouse

The drive out of Mornington was uneventful – we were just marveling at the ranges and landscapes. We drove up the King Leopold Range and stopped for some pictures at a scenic lookout. We liked it so much that we decided to stay for the night. A couple of cars stopped for the views, but none stayed – juhuu the beautiful place all to us!

Stunning views from our free camp at King Leopold Range

The beautiful sunrise was long gone before Sarah got up and after 'breakfast with view' we were on the road again, heading to Windjana Gorge. On the way we past more great lookouts, enjoyed the different landscape of King Leopold Range and took a picture of “Queen Victoria” at the Napier Range. The road was a mix of good, bad and worse corrugations – as we thought, but a driver with a Jayco caravan was overtaking us with ~80km per hour. Everything is relative!

Lookout at King Leopold Range, the Napier Range and "Queen Victoria"

Windjana Gorge

At the turn off to Windjana Gorge the road was smooth again. Unfortunately we passed the grader 7 km down the road (of a total of 20km) but at least it should mean the way back out is all smooth!

Windjana Gorge is one of the highlights of the Gibb and therefore the campground is crowded. There is a 7 km walk into the gorge and just to look at the rock formations is beautiful. These rocks are so different from the boulders or squares that we saw so far.

We met a Swiss family with a 5 year old girl (Marina) and after a play and coffee we all walked into the Gorge (2km) to find the Freshies that should be living here. No disappointment: in the shallow, remaining water within the gorge were about 100 crocodiles, sunning in the afternoon sun or lying in the water. We’ve never seen that many before in one spot. The walk was beautiful, along the sandy beach and tree-lined side of the high vertical cliffs, lit up by the afternoon sun. Sarah and Marina had fun running around and weren’t impressed or worried by all those crocs so close by.

A bower bird nesting, Windjana Gorge and Crocs galore - anyone up for a swim?

Tunnel Creek

Next morning (after a social night with Teresa and Rob and a bottle of wine) we all drove the 35 km to Tunnel Creek, the second highlight of the area. The history of the site is a long lasting fight and resistance of the original inhabitants and the white settlers. 

Walk trough Tunnel Creek

During the Wet this cave system is under water but in the Dry you can walk through, wading through the water a couple of times until you reach the other side after about 750m. Half way the roof caved in at one point, creating a nice opening to let some light and air into the tunnel.

The End of the GRR

The road out of Windjana was freshly graded (as we thought) and there were only a couple of km's left on the Gibb River Road with some corrugation.  Soon enough we were on bitumen again and about 70km later we turned off the GRR onto the Highway towards Derby.

The End

Our Impression

Martin: When we first looked at caravans we always had in mind to do the gruelling Gibb River Road. You hear all those stories of broken down vans, shaken to bits by the corrugation. After doing the Savannah way across the top of Queensland to the centre of the Northern Territory, we weren't sure if we were up for the GRR. So we left the decision up to the last day. In the end we just had to do it - It's a long way from Brisbane if we ever want to do it - and it was sort of the highlight of our trip planning.
What we found was nothing like we expected. Throughout the GRR was in good to excellent condition. An average bit of Savannah way was probably the worst we encountered on the GRR. There are so many tourists, rental cars and tour buses that they have to keep it in good order. There was the Pentecost crossing, but otherwise no challenges. The rest of the challenging stretches are now bitumen. 
Most of the camping is at commercial camp sites. A lot of the free camps are getting closed down by the station owners. Probably because of all the rubbish and toilet paper people leave behind (Shame on you!). Also the station stays aren't station stays. They are commercial operations / resorts run by the stations. Don't expect any real outback experience there.
We finished the GRR with some mixed impressions. There is the fantastic landscape, gorges, wildlife, scenery and experiences which will leave lasting memories. But on the other hand the GRR is getting flogged to death by tourists and commercialisation.
Regine: As Martin said, the Gibb was completely different also to my expectations. I think, we've been very lucky in our timing, driving on a just graded road most of the time. Talking to other people before and after, they must have experienced worse conditions. But it's not 'Austalias last adventure' anymore and very commercial. There's no outback spirit, not as we experienced it on the Savannah Way where people stop to check on you if you're on the side of the road. But  I'd love to come back and see more of the beautiful Kimberleys and for sure there's enough left to see to do it again some day.

Mornington Wilderness Camp 17/8/15 -20/8/15

Mornington Wilderness Camp 17/8/15 -20/8/15

For our standards we left fairly early but we were still the last of the 4 campers to leave the side. We had a long trip ahead of us: 20 km to the turn off and than 88 km to Mornington Campground. At the turn off is a radio station to call into the camp before you proceed. That way they can come looking for you if you don’t show up after all… the drive was once again nothing like I expected from the Kimberleys. Flat, endless, dry land, most of it belongs to Mt House Station, red dust, some gates, some mountains in the distance and sometimes those unbelievable green stretches between yellow and red.

Drive into Mornington, morning tea break near the old meat works and one of the best boab trees

We reached Mornington after a good 2.5 h drive and praised our luck that the road has been that smooth! It’s been one of my bigger fears: Doing 88km at a maximum speed of 20-30 km/h and shaking our bones (and my back) to pieces…

We set up camp in Mornington, a beautiful quiet and peaceful place. Hot Showers, single toilet huts, and a bar/restaurant, all lit up by solar powered lights and an amazing starry sky at night.

After some lunch we thought we still have enough time to see one of the gorges, Sir Johns Gorge, which is 'just' a 14 km drive. It took about an hour to get there (gravel and pictures) and we wished we had more time. Finally I had the feeling that I had arrived in the Kimberleys. Beautiful rock formations, stunning colours, a landscape undisturbed by mankind. This is what I thought the Kimberleys are. I guess I could spend days here marveling at natures beauty, enjoying the peace and quiet, away from the hectic live in the cities…

Sir John Gorge - Martin and Sarah standing right on the edge of the gorge, what animal track is this?, Bluebush waterhole

Dimond Gorge 18/8/15

We finished our breakfast just before 8am and headed over to the office to book a canoe at Dimond Gorge and loaded life vests and paddles into our car. It took us about 1.5 hours until we reach our destination 24km away. Again we had several photo stops along the way to marvel at the beauty of the landscape and Fitzroy bluff. After some rock scrambling with our gear we reached the canoe on the bank of the Fitzroy River. As with all gorges around here there are waterfalls and rocky areas preventing the saltwater crocodiles from entering –this means safe swimming with only freshwater crocodiles in the gorges.

Fitzroy bluff - on the way to Dimond Gorge

We started our paddle down the gorge and soon made enemy with the wind as it was blowing us across the water and it was very difficult to steer the canoe.

We were greeted with a fantastic gorge and hardly any one else there. Perfect for a skinny dip as I’ve forgotten my bathers. The rock seen here is some of the oldest visible on our planet – about 1.8 Billion years old!

Dimond Gorge - only accessible by Kayak

Paddling back wasn’t as hard as feared, despite paddling into the wind. At least we were able to hold course.

On the way back we stopped at Cadjeput – another part of the Fitzroy river with swimming possibility. This was more a stony/ sandy creek with lots of paper barks and lush vegetation.

Cadjeput

The last stop for the day was at the Termite trail – a short, interpretative walk about termites. It was set in open Savannah country with some very impressive Spinnifix termite mounts. Sarah was pretty much running around the track and so we only had time to take a quick picture of each sign to read later.

Spinnifix termite mounts along the termite trail and mount halved by the grader

Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) 

That evening I’ve been attending a short slideshow presentation about AWC and the Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary:

“AWC is a private, non-profit organization. We aim to deliver effective conservation for all Australian animal species and habitats by implementing on-ground, practical land management programs. The integration of science at every stage of management, and our rigorous biodiversity monitoring makes AWC unique among Australian conservation organisations. AWC is funded primarily by donations from the public, invested directly into conservation in the field.”

I’ve been supporting AWC for several years now and also meet up with Leah from AWC whenever she is in Brisbane. So I’m aware of some of the good work those people do, but it’s fantastic to see the differences directly in the field.

Mornington covers an area of 320,000 ha. Together with 3 other sanctuaries AWC manages directly more than 1,000,000 ha in the Kimberly. They also work together with some private cattle stations for fire management and implementation of their eco fire plan.

Until the 1970 a lot of Aboriginal tribes inhabited this area. All of them did some kind of fire management early in the dry season. So there were many, little fires around. When the indigenous people moved to towns and cities the grass and bushes were allowed to grow thick and became very dry late in the dry season. It resulted in huge, uncontrolled, hot and ferocious fires. Some of them burnt several hundred kilometers of land and nothing could withstand them. Each year about half of the Kimberly burnt down with the other half burning the next year. Those huge fire fronts also provide prime hunting grounds for predators like feral cats – prowling the fire fronts and killing any mammal and animal that wasn’t consumed by the fire. Since AWC bought Mornington in 2001 they implemented what they call ‘eco fire management’. They light lots of small little fires very early in the dry. So these fires only consume a very small area of grass and are of low intensity. This doesn’t destroy the plants – it just cleans up the dry litter. It also gives animals plenty of time and places to escape and hide during the fire. Early fires also give plants the ability to start the re-growth process and provide vital food for animals during the dry. Because of this re-growth graziers can run more cattle on the land and therefore several stations around Mornington have now joint AWC’s fire management plan. This way AWC fire-manages now more than 4,000,000 ha.

On AWC properties and also some jointly managed Aboriginal land they have destocked (removed cattle, donkey’s and other herbivores). This dramatically improves the biodiversity of the land. We’re camping on a small creek bank (Annie creek). At first glance it looks quit messy with lots of shrubs, green trees, brown grass and dead wood. However on closer look there is an abundance of different trees, shrubs and grasses. There is a constant concert of birds and lots of different species fly by all day long. This is in stark contrast to all the places we’ve visited before – even National Parks don’t have this diversity. It seems more like the government calls an area a National Park – then puts a ranger in place and fingers crossed the land will recover.  A scientific survey in Kakadu NP between 1995 and 2005 showed a plummeting biodiversity. In fact the outcome was so bad that they stopped the survey. No wonder we were disappointed there. Only beautiful rock doesn’t make an ecosystem.

AWC is science based. They survey the land, plants and animals every year and adopt the management, so that the diversity and numbers increase. While I don’t have absolute numbers – the increase in biodiversity on the graphs AWC provides shows an approx. doubling of species and numbers since they took over.

Congratulations AWC!

 

Lots of birds around Mornington and I've nearly stepped on an olive python as it was sunbathing on a rock beside the walking track

At sunrise on our last day I went along to a bird watching tour. We went to a nearby waterhole and sat still on a rock for the next 1.5 hours. A lot of finches and birds showed up for a drink - amongst them the very rare Gouldian Finch. Unfortunately it flew away before I could figure out where it sat :-(


Ellenbrae Station - Mt Barnett 13/8/15

Ellenbrae Station 13/8/15

Bindoola Falls with a croc sunning itself and a little ringtail dragon

We drove off direction Ellenbrae Station – famous for the best scones on the Gibb!  Our first stop was at the Bindoola Falls. The falls were all dried up (the Kimberleys didn’t get a proper wet season last year either), but there was an impressive drop off into a water hole, made out of mainly square-shaped rocks, enough rock-hopping for Sarah and a little croc sunning itself down there. I’d love to see this scenery with some more water! We’ve also found a little ringtail dragon, which was very friendly and Sarah was nearly able to pat it, before it ran away.

Green, lush gardens at Ellenbrea and lots of double-barred finches

Ellenbrae Station Homestead was a real surprise. Settled in the midst of some lush green gardens was a small café and a young, very friendly couple running it.  The scones were fantastic (we went back the next morning for some more) and the atmosphere was very pleasant and relaxed. It seems most people just come for the scones and stay for the night at Home Valley Station or ELQ. Good for us!

The couple is employed to take care of the campsites and station. They live here all year round. During the dry (tourist) season they work 7 days a week for the full 6-7 months and during the wet they often can’t leave because the roads are flooded. They do get a weekly mail plane all year round. It will also bring some fresh food if needed and they may take it for a flight out. But otherwise they are stuck there for most of the wet.

Every 2-3 weeks the man is going shopping in Kununurra – 3.5 hours to get there, then shopping, packing everything neatly in the van and then another 3.5 hours return trip (and for sure the road is not always as smooth as it is right now). They also have to get the ingredients for the scones and all the other supplies for the campground. In July they sold about 2,700 scones (peak tourist season).

They run 2 campgrounds – one is for tour groups and the other for individuals. It’s bush camping at its best, i.e it’s very dry and dusty and camp fires are allowed, but it is probably the cleanest campground in the area. There was a little, very unique toilet block with toilet, shower and bathtub! For hot water you have to put some wood under the donkey boiler, but we are used to do this by now.

Sarah enjoying her open-air bath with hot water out of the donkey boiler

We also met another family from Darwin (Mitch, Torri, Jack and Luca) – more playmates for Sarah.

The station itself has about 1,000,000 acres (4,000km2) and approx. 4000 head of cattle. The cattle just run wild and every couple of years they get some contractors in to round them up and transport them to Darwin. The whole process and especially the transport to Darwin is very expensive, so they end up with about $30 - $50 per head.

Overall it was one of the nicest stays we had in a while. Highly recommended!

Gibb River Station 14/8/15

After a long bath for Sarah in the bathtub and some more scones we drove off again. The road was already good, but kept on getting better. Turns out we’re just behind the grader :-)

on the way to the Kalumburu road turnoff

We stopped at the turnoff to Kalumburu / Drysdale station for lunch. There was one tour bus there when we arrived. And we’ve seen 3 more shortly after. Otherwise there is very little traffic. The tourist season is already slowing down a lot.

We decided not to do Drysdale / Mitchell Plateau / Kalumburu. It is such a long drive (about 800km return) and the road is said to be very rough (even though the grader was on the way to Drysdale now). Also the main attraction – the Mitchell Falls are nearly dry. And we have to leave something to see for when we return ;-)

We stopped at Gibb River Station. It’s an Aboriginal Station / Community with a small shop, a little school and a Diesel bowser. About 30-40 people live here. But most move on when the wet arrives.  We filled up the car ($2.05/L) and had a chat to the bloke who ran the shop. They just recently opened the store to the public and are trying to build up the tourism side of things. They have a small truck and drive it about every fortnight to Derby to get supplies. It’s a day to get there, 2 days shopping and a day back. A supply truck would cost them $5,000 just in transport cost!

Another 20km on near perfect road and we found a little free camp just before the Hann River crossing. Fantastic! Just us, a lonely cow, the birds and the stars in the evening.

Our Hann River camp and the Gibb River before Hann River

Our caravan battery didn't charge properly on this last drive leg, so I went in search of the problem. After some reading in the manual and running around the car and van with a multimeter in hand for a while I figured out that the fuse for the Anderson Plug has shorted. After a long search trough all my spare parts (Where did I put those fuses??) I found a replacement - all good now.

Manning Gorge 15/8/15

The next day we drove a short distance to the Barnett River Gorge. We towed the caravan about 5km in on a very bumpy road. We decided to park car and van and walk the remaining distance. It was a bit too long for Sarah, so after a short walk she and mum returned to the car. I went in search of the gorge, but could only find some camp spots and wasn’t sure where to search for the water hole. On my return to the car Sarah had found the nicer spot at a little creek just 50m away and was trying to catch some fish…

Sarah fishing at Barnett River Gorge

Next stop was at the Mount Barnett Roadhouse. We had some lunch (bacon and egg roll) and bought some fresh fruit as well as the camping permit for Manning Gorge campground. It’s about 7km of rough road from the Roadhouse and provides basic bush camping, very dusty, old amenities and a generator for the water pump running from 6am to 9pm.

But why everyone likes it, is because of the fantastic swimming opportunity with a short white beach, green trees and a little boat to cross the water. On the other side is the start of the Manning Gorge walking track.

Manning Gorge swimming hole and ferry, some rock art.

We left camp at 8am to do the walk to the Manning Gorge (2.5km), but after about 1.5km decided to have a snack and then return to the camp as it would have been on the limits of Sarah’s ability and I had no intention to carry her back 2.5km in the midday sun. However Sarah was fine all the way back leading the way.

While Sarah had another swim and boat ride, I got the caravan ready and Regine drove us back to the roadhouse (first time off road with the caravan) to fill up petrol and buy some milk. On my normal check around the van I’ve notice one wheel on the van was flat. A big nail stuck in the rubber. As the roadhouse doesn’t do tyre repairs we changed the wheel over and rewarded ourselves with ice cream and mango smoothie to get rid of the dust in our throats.

Our first puncture - nail picked up at Mt Barnett Road House

Next stop was Galvin Gorge. We reached the swimming hole after 15 minutes easy walking. Sarah and I had a bit of a cool down (the water is always very refreshing in those gorges).

A short drive later we found – as told by the roadhouse people - the bush mechanics “Over The Range tyre and mechanical”. It was Sunday afternoon, the 3 guys were watching the footy in their open air workshop, a beer in the hands. They more than willingly fixed our little problem and after a happy chat, beautiful pictures of the region in the wet, ‘high fives’ between the guys and our bare feet “bush girl” - as they called her - (who was watching and commenting the whole process) and $65 later we all waved bye-bye again.  What an idyllic place to live a happy and simple live! They also recommended a free camp just a few km further and we happily parked there for the night. It’s a big, level, field with gravel / sand - for once no dust! ;-) There was a fire pit and the wood already sitting next to it, so we lit the fire and had some damper on a stick for tea.  

Lunch at Galvin Gorge and our bush camp near Adcock creek crossing (unfortunately we didn't take a picture of the tyre place and their tyre graveyard)

Finally on the Gibb! 10/8/15

sights from and around Wyndham (Rusty Shed Cafe and the Crocodile) and 5 Rivers lookout with sun set

Wyndham –10/8/15

After some quick and successful morning shopping (some toe-covered shoes for Sarah and a National Park Permit) we left Kununurra and drove the 100 km into Wyndham, the top town of WA in relation to the NT border and also the last port northward before Darwin. And again the scenery was very different from before: rolling, yellowish-brown hills with some cliffs to be seen in the distance and very dry. The main attraction in Wyndham is the Five Rivers Lookout, 350m above sea level from where you can see the Ord, Forrest, King, Durack, and Pentecost Rivers enter the Cambridge Gulf. There was a lot of dust or smoke in the air and the view was not a clear one but still it was an amazingly red sunset. And we still managed to skype with Peter and get Sarah to bed before she was over-tired. Successful day!

Finally on the Gibb -11/8/15

Finally – 50 km from Wyndham we turned onto the famous Gibb River Road (see picture for evidence). It didn’t feel any different, though, because it’s still bitumen for about 35 km or until you reach El Questro (ELQ) turn off. We stopped at Emma Gorges (20km into the Gibb) but decided not to do the 3.2km walk to the waterfall and rock pool because a) Sarah and we were somehow tired, b) it was about 11.30 am and 33 C, and c) it costs $12/adult for a day pass to do the walk and access the ELQ station land. But we relaxed with a coffee and scone (just another $12 per serving) in very comfortable chairs in the shade and Sarah played hide and seek under the couch cushions :-)

Finally on the famous Gibb River Road

Just after the turn off to the ELQ station Martin had to let the tyre pressure down: yeah – we’re on gravel road again!

The Pentecost River crossing. Luckily without much water.

The road was fairly smooth up to the Pentecost River crossing, the major event of this drive. The water is about 40-50 cm deep and the riverbed is very rocky - the car and van were shaking quite a bit. For a split second Martin saw a warning  “water in fuel” popping up but it disappeared and we made it safely to the other side. Sarah loved it and actually wanted to walk through the crossing – sorry, croc-country. Another 10 km with an amazing view on the Cockburn Range on the right hand side (which could easily be called the 12 Apostles of the north) and we reached our final destination for the next 2 nights: Home Valley Station. A big restaurant, a pool, a bar, horses and a donkey, and the best “official” playground for the last 500 km with playmates for Sarah. Just a bit crowded.  Welcome to the Gibb River Road, one of the last ‘real adventures’ of Australia! :-D

Home Valley Station and views onto the Cockburn Range

We stayed for 2 nights at Home Valley Station (HV8) – it was just too good for Sarah to have a playground, a pool and playmates. She made friends with a nearly 4 year old girl, Madison, who nearly taught her to swim without floaties again.  We did a small trip to a lookout (Telstra reception!!), and we returned for sunset pictures of the Cockburn range :-) and to the second campground of HV8 near the river.  It was certainly the better campground scenery wise, but no playground, no pool and too many generator- and music-playing-real-adventure-camper.

Home Valley Station has about 3,500,000 acres (14,000 km2) however the cattle property seems to be completely separate from the tourist resort. So we have no clue what happens there. Sarah was also very disappointed as they had horses for guided tours, but they didn’t do kids rides. At least she was able to pat some horses again.