Our Millenium-Tour through Western Australia...
9th day:
This night was very chilly too. We got up at 7:00 and had our breakfast outside the camper this day. After we packed up our baggage we bought some donuts, threw the postcards into the letterbox and drove to the highway then. On our way we saw a couple of termite mounds and even bushfires later. We refueled our Bushcamper at the Nanutarra Roadhouse, had fish & chips for lunch there and left the highway then to get to the Karijini N.P. Gradually the first foothills of the Hamersley Ranges raised from the plain and the landscape became diversified. But even though the run protracted we reached the turnoff to Tom Price in the early afternoon. The highway to Tom Price was via Paraburdoo, but there was a shorter gravelroad leading directly to Tom Price. We drove on this gravelroad and decided to visit the Hamersley Gorge first, before looking for a campground. The gravelroad was in good conditions and we could go about 80 km/h, except some hard dips and a number of floodways carrying pretty much water. A few minutes before sunset we arrived at Hamersley Gorge and walked down the steps to the waterfall. It was a marvellous view: the porous stonelayers of the deep cut gorge in the last rays of red sunlight. On our way back we had to take care due to the long shadows of trees and bushes hiding many hard dips in the road. Anyhow it became dark very quickly, a couple of kangaroos crossed the road and all at once we found amidst a scared herd of cattle. We were quite eased when we left the gravelroad behind and moved on the highway to Tom Price, even if there were cattle at the roadside too. We passed the city of Tom Price to get to Mt. Nameless Camp Park (A$ 18). Here it was quite cold, so we had dinner in our camper and went to bed soon.
10th day:
At 7 a.m. we got awake by the many birds at the campground. After breakfast we drove to Tom Price to refuel our camper and we even checked the airpressure of the tyres. Then we moved into the Karijini N.P. On the way we saw one of the giant trucks used in the local ore mines. Unfortunately it was not possible to visit these mines at weekend. So we moved on and left the highway at Mount Bruce to get to the Oxers Lookout. There we enjoyed the marvellous view to the crossing of Weano Gorge, Geoffrey Gorge, Hancock Gorge and Knox Gorge. We had a look on the walking tracks and their description in the map and decided to walk down into the Weano Gorge. In the beginning there were steps there until we reached the creek at the bottom. Then the way led further into the gorge and we had to wade through water as deep as our hips. The gorge became more and more narrow and at the end a waterfall fell into the Handrail Pool. There is a small rail and a rope with kinks beside the waterfall one can use to step down to the pool, giving the pool its name. It was really idyllic here. The track crossed the pool, leading further into the gorge but becoming harder and more difficult so we decided to turn back due to the less time we had. When we were back on top we went to the Geoffrey Gorge Lookout and started the walking track into the gorge. These gorge was quite different to the Weano Gorge, it was a reckless climb to get town to the water. On the way we met a man coming up who told us, the climb would be not so hard but we would have to swim the last part to get to the waterfall. When we reached the bottom (and the climb was really tricky after all!) we watched out for an option to get to the waterfall without swimming. We waded through the water and climbed around the most tricky passages and finally got to the lower pool. We enjoyed the silence and the loneliness there for a while before we climbed up again. After this straining part we still drove to the Knox Gorge Lookout and walked to the Kalamina Falls. Then we moved on to get to the Dales Gorge, where we wanted to spend the night. On our way we saw a car with a flat tyre and picked up the driver. He told us that he is a teacher and that he spends some days with friends from Karratha here. He asked us to bring him to the fortescue camping area to get a lift jack from his friends. So we drove to the campground which offers a lot of sites in different loops. We searched one after the next loop until we found his friends. Then we watched out for a beautiful site for our Bushcamper and finally found one in the Europe Loop, opposite a BBQ-Area, near the starting point of the walking track to the Circular Pool. Later we went over to the BBQ, where it was quite bustling. First a group of young people used the gas barbecue to prepare a delicious vegetable mulligan, later an australian family grilled steaks there. We met a german teacher there, who told us that he and his wife had worked in Australia for 2 1/2 years and that they now travel the country for six months before returning to Germany. He also told us, that the ranger will give a slide show at 7 p.m. at the camp site entrance. We sat in our camper for a while, wrote some postcards and took our flashlights then to go to the slide show. It was really interesting what the ranger told about flora and fauna of the Karijini N.P. We especially liked the pictures of gorge sections, where no one can get to without an experienced guide. When it got later it became more and more chilly and so we were lucky anyway when the show was over and we could get into our warm sleeping bag. The night was cold and clear, but so we could enjoy a marvellous sky full of stars no one would see in a city.
11th day:
We got up at 7:00, had breakfast at the BBQ-Area and started the walk to the Circular Pool Lookout then. There we informed about the walking tracks through the Dales Gorge and decided to go the whole loop. First we climbed a steep descent down to the bottom of the gorge, where we turned to the left to get to the Circular Pool next. We took a refreshing dip in the ice-cold water before we went back. Then we walked through the Dales Gorge (with a number of water crossings) to the Fortescue Falls. There we met the german teachers from last evening and they described the way to the Fern Pool to us. We still walked to the Fern Pool, before we climbed up to the top again and walked the Callitis Track and the Gorge Rim Walk back to the Circular Pool Lookout and then back to the campground. When we arrived at our camper we lunched a little snack and left the Karijini N.P. then. On our way we made a short stop at the Munjina Gorge Lookout and later at the Auski Roadhouse. There two giant Roadtrains entered the highway just before we restarted, so that we had to overtake them, pretty hard thing due to the fact that these more than 50 meters long vehicles go more than 100 km/h too. But so we got some spectacular scenes for our private holiday video. Originally we wanted to drive to Port Hedland making a little detour via Marble Bar. But it was quite late already and we did not want to drive in the dark again due to the many kangaroos and cattle at the roadside... When we arrived in Port Hedland we went to South Hedland, the living part first to go shopping at Coles and Liquerland. Following we moved to the Big4 Cooke Point Holiday Park, where we spent the night (A$ 18). The Campground was really tidy and surely had the best cleaned showers and toilets we saw until now. But on the other side the sealed ways and single trees inbetween had a very sterilely and unnaturally effect, we liked the last night in the bush better (even if there were no showers and no drinking water at all). We had fresh salad and bread for dinner behind our camper and watched the long trains leaving into the Pilbara Region. Then we took a hot shower (quite necessary after these days in the bush) and went to bed then.
12th day:
Today we had a giant hop to go. From Port Hedland to Broome, about 600 kilometers quite monotonously road without any change. We started after the breakfast at about 9 a.m., only made a short stop for taking some pictures in Port Hedland, but there was nothing spectacular besides the harbor, the railway and the roadtrains. It was a drably ride, only bushland to the left and to the right. So we were lucky to find the turnoff to the Eighty Mile Beach near Wallal Downs. But even here we only had a short stop visiting the fishermen at the beach and the funny birds in the covey where we parked our car. Then we continued our ride until we reached the Sandfire Roadhouse where we got burgers for lunch and moved on then. There were still about 150 kilometers when the vegetation got opulent and the bushland turned into little trees. But the cyclone `Rosita`, which rushed through here a few weeks ago, left a trace of destruction: broken trees, a lot of them burned due to the bushfires occuring again and again. A few kilometers later we saw a dark cloud on the horizon. We expected a thunderstorm to come, but when we got closer, fluffs of soot flew through the air and we realized, that there was a large bushfire on both sides of the road. After few minutes we could see the flames covering large areas, the sky became dark and even on the road we could only see few meters ahead. It was like in a volcano-movie and we were really eased when we had passed this fire because the smoke and the smell of soot pervaded into the car and we did not know when to get back into clean air. We arrived in Broome about 4:30 and went to the tourist office first. There they told us that the Gibb River Road was still not reopened due to roadworks between Kalumburu Turnoff and Homevalley Homestead. We were really disappointed because this killed all our plans for the next days. We went to the Cable Beach Caravan Park next, but we did not like it there because it was very large and the sites were as close together as in the proverbial fishcan. So we moved on and found the Tarangau Caravan Park a few hundred meters later. At the entrance we read sign: `The quiet alternative`. And it was quiet there indeed, not so many people and so we decided to spend at least the first night here (A$ 20). It was quite interesting that hundreds of dragonflies whirred there; we had already read about the increased insect population due to the heavy rainfalls of the last months but here we really could see it... When the dusk came all the dragonflies disappeared at once. We had dinner beneath our camper and had a look into the maps and travelguides then to work out an alternative plan for the case that we really could not go via the Gibb River Road.
13rd day:
Today we wanted to visit Broome. So we drove to Cable Beach after breakfast, but the beach did not look as marvellous as we read about it. The cyclone left its trace here too, a lot of sand was blown away and so the beach was not very inviting. Then we went to Guntheaume Point, where ancient dinosaur tracks should be visible at low tide. We arrived there only a few minutes after the low tide level, but we could not find any dinosaur tracks and we could not believe, that some the washed out holes there should be those tracks. So we went back to Broome and visited the Japanese and the Chinese Cemetery there. After this we moved to Chinatown and walked up and down the Carnavon Street. Here was the real center of the city having a couple of shops and cafés. We found an indigenous-art-shop where we bought two beautiful aboriginal paintings and talked to the lady behind the desk for a while. Then we watched out for a nice café where we had pasta with prawns and calamares for lunch. At 2:30 we went back to Cable Beach because we wanted to join the 3 p.m. feeding tour in Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park. The tour was quite interesting, even if the boss was not right there; he was actually working at home finishing his latest tv-series. After leaving the Crocodile Park we drove to the Old Jetty and to Carnavon Street again. We bought a carved boab nut in the indigenous-art-shop and drove back to the Tarangau Caravan Park then. On the way we stopped at a big shopping center to buy some food and kerosene for our oil lamp. Friends gave us a kind of survival pack at home and we had taken the oil lamp with us. Due to our candle was already gone we gave this lamp a trail this evening having bread and fresh melon for dinner.
14th day:
We got up at 6 a.m. and left Broome after breakfast. A few kilometers before arriving in Derby we visited the Old Prison Tree there. We reached Derby at 10:30 strolled around for a while and went into the Main Roads Office then to ask for the conditions of the Gibb River Road. It was still closed between Kalumburu Turnoff and Jacks Waterhole. But the lady in the office told us, that they are confident to reopen the road tomorrow or the day after. However, Bell Gorge and the Silent Grove Camping Area, where we wanted to spend the night today, would be still closed until late July. So we decided to camp at the Windjana Gorge tonight and to go to Mt. Barnett Roadhouse tomorrow, where we can ask for the road conditions again. But first we continued visiting Derby and at about 11 a.m. we asked for lunch at the Rock Café. The waitress there was very friendly and told us that the kitchen would not start before high noon. But she gave us some good hints what to see and to do until then. So we went to the jetty next. We arrived there at low tide and saw a sailboat lying almost on the dry. But we also could see the marks of the high tide; Derby has the highest tidal difference of Western Australia, more than ten meters. Then we saw some mud crab fishers on the jetty and on our way back we asked them if they already caught something. They answered: "A lot of mud, but only few crabs..." At 12:00 am we were back at the Rock Café and had the delicious Barramundi with baked potato for lunch. After this we drove to the Gibb River Road where we had to join a band of cars. There was nothing of the big solitude we read about...we only hoped, that this would not continue the whole road through the Kimberlys. After 130 kilometers we took the turnoff to Fitzroy Crossing, passed the Windjana Gorge and moved on until we arrived at Tunnel Creek. Here it was not so crowded, even if we met a tourist group later. The entrance to the tunnel was not just simple, but really worth it, even if we not walked through the whole tunnel. We still wanted to visit the Windjana Gorge, so we started again soon and went back. We reached the carpark in the light of the setting sun and walked into the Gorge. The steep rising rocks looked golden in the last rays of the sun and few meters later we were lucky to see three freshwater crocodiles. Two of them were lying on the shore and did not move when we came as close as two meters to take a photo; the third swam lazy in the water. We went back to our car, moved to the campground and cooked a can of beans for dinner. Later the ranger came to take the camping fee (A$ 7 per person). When he saw us sitting with our oil lamp having a glass of wine he said: "Look there, isn´t it romantic..." He asked if we were from Germany due to our Britz-Camper: "Whenever I see a Britz, the chance is high, that these are Germans". Next to us there was a big group of people coming from Melbourne. After dinner they sat around a fire and asked us to join them. It was quite funny and we kept on talking until late...
15th day:
We got up at 6 again, moved back to the Gibb River Road after breakfast, and drove to the Lennard Gorge turnoff first. The 8 km track were very rough and was a probation for car and driver. After about 30 minutes of rattling and beaming we arrived at the gorge and we were the only people there. We climbed down to the water, had a short dip and moved back to the top again. Then we drove back to the Gibb River Road. Unfortunately the turnoff to Silent Grove and Bell Gorge was still closed, so we moved on until we reached the Adcock Gorge, where we walked in too. After walking a while Andreas jumped back abruptly. A snake crossed our way, being disturbed by us obviously. We did not know, what snake it was and if it would be poisonous to us, so we kept in distance to it. Later we identified it at a picture to be probably a very poisonous Curl Snake (red-brown back and a light green to yellow front). On the way back we saw a couple of multicolored parrots flying from tree to tree. We kept on driving the Gibb River Road to Galvans Gorge, where we of course walked in too. Here it was idyllic indeed: At the upper rim there was a big Boab standing, from where the water felt down in two cascades...really marvellous. From here we drove to Mount Barnett Roadhouse, where we refueled our second tank (A$ 1,20 per liter, the most expensive fuel of our whole travel, but not uncommon here in the middle of nowhere). We wanted to spend the night here to walk to the Upper Manning Gorge next Morning. So we payed the camping fee (A$ 7 per Person) and asked for the road conditions. And here we got the redemptive message that they had reopened the last part of the Gibb River Road today, with extreme caution, but right in time to fit our schedule. We watched out for a nice site, took a bath in the Lower Manning Gorge and had dinner then. Opposite of ours there was a Maui-Camper standing, german tourists too, coming from Dresden as we found out later. We joined them in the evening and talked a while. They told us, that not only the roadworks were the reason for closing the road for such a long time but the high waterlevel of the Durack River. The first people coming through from Kununurra today told about water as high as their hips. So we thought over our plans for the next days because water damage was the only thing our insurance did not cover.
16th day:
After getting up at 6 and having breakfast we started the walk to the Upper Manning Gorge. The first part we had to swim through the Lower Gorge, but we preferred to take the 30-minutes-walk around it due to we had the cameras with us. Then we had to walk more than one hour and we saw large areas that had turned from green forest to a black plain due to the many bushfires. But when we reached the waterfalls this compensated the straining walk we took a shower under the waterfall and swam around in the pool before we started walking back. On our way we met the german man from last evening, talked a while and swapped our e-mail-addresses. Then we drove back to the roadhouse, where we had a Meat Pie for lunch and asked for the road conditions and the Durack River again. We also met two swabian people there which just came from the other end of the Gibb River Road and had no problems to get through. On the contrary they were a little disappointed that the road was in that good conditions. So we were calmed now and thought to get no problems too. So we decided to visit one ore gorge on the way, the Barnett River Gorge. But after we followed the first sign to this gorge we could not find other signs anymore and the track divided a couple of times. Finally we found the river, but we could not see the gorge anywhere. But we had two experiences that were not exactly nice. First: We walked along a path following the river and we decided to cross the water. But after the first step Andreas engulfed in the mud as deep as his knees. Second: On our way back to the Gibb River Road we missed the detour of the very softened road and got stuck with our camper. It was a week clay, a lot of water and nobody around, so we almost got in panic. Doreen already thought to hurry back to the road to get help... At least it was possible to move the car half a meter forwards and backwards and so we were confident to swing it until it gets free. But we did not succeed, our Bushcamper sank deeper into the mud and all four wheels turned free. So we gave up these efforts and watched out for some loose wood in the vicinity first. We put this wood and some firm clots of mud under the rear wheels and a big bough under the left front wheel. After some failed trials, where our camper got muddy from the wheels to the roof, we finally made it and got free again. All this lasted only 10 minutes, but for us it seemed to be like an hour. We drove back to the Gibb River Road and moved on there. On the way we saw bushfires again and again and later we passed a section where they still had road constructions. But after we were through there the road was in really good conditions and we could go 100 km/h and more. After a while we reached the Durack River which had a high water level indeed. We knew that a couple of others did match it to get through so we did not worry about it and moved slowly into the water without proving its depth. It got deeper and deeper and finally reached the doors of our camper. Even if it smelt wet the engine kept on running, the wheels turned and so we reached the shore anyway. A few minutes past 5 p.m. we arrived at Durack River Station at Jack´s Waterhole where we spent the night (A$ 6 per person). We parked our Bushcamper nearby the water and enjoyed the setting sun before we had a hot shower. Then we cooked pasta for dinner and had some glasses of wine as usual.