Direct to Derby, WA.

So, we packed up and braved the “Goat Track” out of Port Warrender and headed for another overnight stop at Drysdale River Station. This time we opted to stay at the homestead camping area offering a well deserved and long awaited hot shower and washing machine! It had been near 2 weeks since I had a hot shower and it was well appreciated!

We were undecided about what to do the following day. Many places from the Kalumburu turn off to Derby are National Parks and  made it difficult with the dogs, there were other station stays too but at this point we had seen alot of dirt, many stations and enough gorges to see us through. With this in mind we set our sights on Derby.

It was sad to leave the Gibb River Road, (even though we were looking forward to getting out of the dust.) It was such an anticipated part of our trip, one we knew we would love and that we had dedicated to Ben’s Dad. Tony had talked so often of taking a trip to the Kimberley and I have no doubt that being with us all the way, he loved it as much as we did. It was everything he talked of and more. We will be back to the Gibb River Road and the Kimberley for a longer stay next time!

For now, however, the bitumen ends. A part of us excited to see the west coast and civilisation, the our part telling us to turn around and go back where we’d come from!

Mitchell Falls – Up To Date!!!

Can you believe it, nearly 1 year since departing Mackay I am finally writing a post the day it happened. Right now, I am sitting at Walsh Point in our peaceful campsite, overlooking the spectacular bay of Port Warrender in the northern Kimberley. Much to say I am far more relaxed now than I was a few hours ago!

Today we ventured back up the Port Warrender “Goat Track” to visit the Mitchell Falls. We had to do it this was as we were unable to take the dogs into the park. The walk to the falls is 8.6km return and the walk in was quite enjoyable. Along flat sandy tracks, through creek beds and over many rocks. The destination.... the beautiful Aussie outback at one of its best! We ventured across the top of the falls, passed the heli pad and across a few more rocks to face a spectacular view of the cascading falls. We sat, we watched & we enjoyed yet another great Aussie wonder. There are three main levels with numerous falls. At this time of year there is a bit less water than after the wet season but they are still amazing.

You know us, can’t sit still for too long and we had just walked over 4km in Kimberley heat, we headed for a swim. Unfortunately you cannot go into the pools at the bottom of the falls, the are unbelievably inviting. However, back at the top of the falls we re-energised with a sanga and a swim ready for our walk back.

In hindsight, I probably would have paid the $105 heli taxi that takes you on a 6 minute flight over the falls and back to the carpark. The only downside is that you have to book and pay at the carpark before starting the walk and we decided to tighten our budget and burn a few more calories.

The walk back to the car was a killer for us. The length of the walk is similar to that we did with ease at the Olga’s, as well as the difficulty, the only difference being we walked the Olga’s in winter and the falls in Kimberley heat. It was hot, very hot... so we took it slow and finally saw a shining light over the Nissan waiting for us with air-con!

It truly was a great walk and the Mitchell Plateau and Falls are a must see. We would love to see them soon after the wet season from the air, it would be breathtaking. There is always next time, but for now I am exhausted, Ben is in the boat putting the crab pots in and the hammock is calling me for an afternoon siesta!

Mitchell Falls

Port Warrender - Walsh Point. (Beyond the Mitchell Plateau)

Hold on to your seats, this was a bumpy ride! We should have learned by now not to believe what everyone tells you until you see it for yourself. Ben originally wanted to travel to a very remote place called Walcott Inlet... when advised that it would take us 14 hours to drive 200km and that their is similar fishing everywhere else we quickly renegotiated and decided to travel to Port Warrender, north of the Mitchell Falls. Another traveller had advised us that the road in was “not too bad”.

5 hours later we had travelled 100km. The last 8km we had to drive at a crawling pace, so slow that our speedo wasn’t even registering and we didn’t arrive at camp until dark! We could barely see the water in the dark, I was well and truly over it. Our bodies ached and I had every intention of getting out of their asap.

When morning came and I looked outside the camper I was met with a magnificent view or aqua coloured, calm waters. It was beautiful, but not quite enough to let me forget the rough drive from the night before. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay or go! I knew Ben wanted to put the boat in and I was way too grumpy to tackle that road again so we decided to stay put a few days.

A few days become 5. Unfortunately their was very little tidal movement at this time of month so the fishing wasn’t the best. We found a few good Barra holes in the creeks and Ben caught a few salmon.

Here’s a good one for you! Looking forward to some mud crab we took the boat up the creek to put the pots in. Within 5 minutes we turned around to see a croc smashing our pot and taking the bait. He didn’t seem fazed by us. As we continued to flick lures for Barra he continued to stalk us up and down the creek. Yep, you guessed it.... I was slightly freaking out by this point. I was convinced that at any minute this croc would leap into our tiny tinny and drag me into the water. Next thing I lost sight of the croc, I was realing in my lure and just as I got it beside the boat, BANG! A massive splash right beside me, I let out a shriek and thought a croc was going to take my right arm off! My heart racing like never before I finally realised that a Barra had smashed my lure on the surface right beside the boat! I was still panicked, now I was worried about the croc coming and taking my fish! “Get it in the boat, get it in the boat” I was still carrying on to Ben. I think he thought it was quite humorous. Looking back on it we can have a laugh, but I absolutely shit myself that day. Eventually we got the nice 75cn barra in the boat, the croc seemed even more cranky with us than before so we headed for home! Neadless to say, we didn’t catch any mud crab here.

We took a day trip from here to Mitchell Falls, read about it in the next post. It was the first time we travelled the rough track in daylight since we arrived, we were nervous but found it better than expected. With the wind blowing up after 5 days we decided to pack up and head for a hot shower at Drysdale River Station.

Walsh Point Campsite - Beautiful view to wake up to!

Finally my fishing ability is back! 72 cm Barra - the one that I thought was a croc!

Joan's Pickled Fish & Heidi's Cerviche - Addicted.

Don't be alarmed by the "No Cook" component of these dishes. The fish cooks itself in the lemon juice & vinegar!

Joans Pickled Fish

Finely sliced firm fish strips - We found Queenfish beautiful.
Finely sliced chilli
Fresh sliced garlic
Soy Sauce
White Vinegar

Method - You can adapt the flavours of this dish to anything you like. The method is basic, cover fish in vinegar, add sliced garlic, chilli and a splash of soy. Ready to eat in a few hours. Keep in the fridge in a snap lock bag or jar. We ate this nearly everyday, either by itself on a toothpick with a beer or on top of jatz crackers. We are still chasing some more queenfish to make some more.

HEIDI'S CERVICHE RECIPE

Mix the following ingredients together and let marinade for at least 2 hours!

Finally sliced fish – 500g

Juice of 2 limes (preferably), can use lemons if limes not available, but not as nice.  You may need more limes depending on their juiciness, should nicely coat the fish so that it “cooks it”

Finely diced red onion

Then, prior to serving, into the above mixture, add:

Bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped

Salt/pepper to taste

1 red long chilli – more if you like it spicier,

2 tablespoons fresh mayonnaise – I use Thomy whole egg mayo  ( because I am lazy ), - check the texture, you may like to add more mayo – but this is not a traditional ingredient, so less is better.

Serve with crisp toast wedges, fresh bread stick or similar! Yummo.

#NOTE: When we were in the middle of nowhere obviously we didn't have fresh coriander etc. I improvised and cooked the fish with lemon juice, added some mayo and sweet chilli sauce. Ben LOVED this on crackers! In saying that, when I have the ingredients, the original recipe is DELICIOUS!

Onward and Upward – Kalumburu Road, Drysdale Station, Honeymoon Bay & Macgowans Island.

We really were both itching to get to Kalumburu and set up camp for a decent amount of time and get the boat in the water. We hit the dirt once again and travelled to Drysdale River Station for an overnight stay before travelling to Kalumburu and the north WA coast. Instead of staying at the station campground we decided to head up the road another few km’s and stay at their Miner’s Pool campground. It is a beautiful area to camp, no facilities except the much loved pit toilet and a clear, freezing creek to take a dip in. So tonight was the first of many cold showers I was about to have in the next few weeks. In fact it wasn’t even a shower, but a very quick and freezing cold wash in the creek!

We packed up early and continued to head north on the Kalumburu road. It’s approx 200km to Kalumburu community from the Gibb River Road turn off. We were lucky to be travelling it really. While in Kununurra there was so much talk about the road being so damaged in the wet season that they wouldn’t re-open it at all this year! Given this we were expecting a shocking road but to our surprise it was very reasonable. The last 100km was a bit slower but we took our time and made it through the small community of Kalumburu, without stopping, and out the other side to travel another 25km to Honeymoon Bay.

Having travelled to Kalumburu with work while in Kununurra, Ben had visited Macgowans Island campground but not Honeymoon Bay. We decided to drive to Honeymoon Bay first to decide if we would camp their or Macgowans. Unfortunately for Honeymoon Bay, Macgowans was a much nicer place to camp and easier access for us to boat to the river inlet and close reef bommies. Honeymoon Bay campground was not very well kept, not shady and more exposed to the ocean.

Having settled where to stay we headed back to Macgowans and set up camp. You really have to be self sufficient here. There is water, probably not suitable for drinking, cold showers and flushing toilets, but no power. Lucky Ben put his foot down and bought those solar panels... they have been working a treat! Macgowans was reasonably busy when we arrived, it wasn’t the private or secluded area we were expecting, but it’s nice to have company sometimes. The beach itself is quite beautiful, a small bay with oyster covered rocks at either end. No good for swimming though as we are still very much in croc territory. Fish and Oysters were on the menu pretty well every day for 1 week.

Of course it wasn’t long and Ben had the boat in the water. First day fishing to the river and Ben landed a 1.05m Spanish mackerel. We couldn’t fish for long after that as we didn’t have an esky big enough for the fish! On other days Ben caught some great queenfish and we got onto a few Nanagai, cod and of course sharks at the small bommies offshore. For a while their I thought I had lost my fishing ability but after a few days it came back to me!

We met some great people here, shared a few campfires, swapped fishing stories at the end of the days, and I landed a great new fish recipe that I will be adding to my book. Joan and David are from Cooktown and were very kind to let us try their pickled fish. Ben and I are both hooked on it, as well as my version of my friend Heidi’s ceviche recipe. Both will follow this post. A must try.

We stayed at Macgowans for 1 week. I was ready to leave after 7 days in the boat but a week later all i want to do is go back. Definately one of my favourite places and one I am sure Ben will drag the boys on a fishing trip to! We said goodbye to new friends David and Joan and hit the road once again. This time about 200km, across the Mitchell Plateau and on to Port Warrender, Walsh Point.

Let the Gibb Begin ... Off to El Questro We Go

I am already freaking out about the amount of money we are about to spend on fuel....today we start our journey across the Gibb River Road. We had been waiting for this, and as exciting as it was I knew the price of fuel along the way was going to hurt. We decided to back track to Kununurra to refuel before hitting the Gibb River Road, it would be alot cheaper than anywhere else and was only an extra 90km. So, all fuelled up we pulled up at the Gibb River Road sign for a quick pic and headed for first stop, El Questro.

Everyone has always talked about El Questro, it’s been on TV and we were a little unsure if it might have lost some of its beauty to being over commercialised. Not the case at all. We are very lucky the owners of this station allow people like us to visit and they seem to be doing a good job at balancing tourism with the outback. We have heard so many fellow travellers complain about El Questro being “too expensive” and having not visited for this reason but they have missed out. For what it is, we didn’t find it expensive at all. It was $36 night to camp there, the same as any other caravan park (we’ve actually paid $40 night for no power or hot water). In addition to this they ask you pay a $36 park permit, valid for 7 days, allowing you to visit many beautiful gorges, swimming holes & lookouts. Well worth it!

On arrival we were offered to camp at the grounds with facilities near the office & restaurant or at a private riverside camp for the same price. It was a no brainer really, we were given a choice of campsites and picked a real beauty with our own swimming hole, views of the ranges and plenty of room for the dogs to run free.

Even Ben was impressed by El Questro’s scenery, it’s magnificent. You could drive around for a week, do bushwalks everyday and still see something different and spectacular. We were only staying 2 days on this visit, in hindsight we should have stayed longer.

We drove the steep incline to Saddleback Ridge and Lookout for sunset and the next morning headed to the much anticipated “Zebedee Springs”. The thermal pools are the best we’ve been to and surprisingly there are a few of them around the country. To help monitor the flow of people into the springs and to stop overcrowding they are open to guests from 7am-12midday only... i think the tours visit in the afternoon. I thought this was a great idea, the springs were still busy when we arrived at 9am in the morning but it would have ruined a very relaxing swim if we had to share with a bus load of people. Zebedee Springs is such a tropical oasis, surrounded by palms and high red cliff faces. I could have floated around and admired the view for hours.

The wrinkly skin set in however and we decided to continue our days exploring. We set off to Emma Gorge, as short drive back out to the main road. We were ill prepared for this one. The park info states:

“Enjoy an invigorating but partly shaded 1 hour walk with some pools along the way. At the top, plunge into a huge waterhole with a droplet waterfall enclosed on 3 sides by 65m sheer cliffs.”

So, having tackled alot bigger walks we set off with our 700ml bottle of water and our thongs. We were soon to find out the walk was more challenging than we expected, over many rocks, crossing the creek etc. We weren’t turning back now... the walk seemed to go forever but it was beautiful and the waterfall at the end was extremely magical... it felt like I was on a movie set. Instead of the usual gushing waterfall, the drops fall around you like gentle rain.

The other thing they failed to mention that the swim that you are really looking forward to when you get there is about -100 degrees. (Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration.) We used to think Mossman Gorge in Qld was the coldest water around but it had nothing on this. There was no way I could brace myself to jump into that. I dipped my legs in to cool down but Ben braved the swim... a very very quick breathtaking swim!

The walk back always seems much quicker than the one there... why is that? We made it in one piece, pluggers in tact, slightly exhausted and very hungry. We considered joining on to the end of one of the tour groups stopped for lunch but headed back to camp instead.

We also took a drive to Explosion Gorge. The track is beautiful with a spectacular lookout, looking across the ranges, over waterholes and across the gorge to the famous homestead. The homestead sits on the edge of the gorge but unfortunately you are only able to visit there is you pay hundreds of $$ as a guests. This time around we decided to enjoy it from afar.

Tomorrow we are off to Kalumburu, tonight treating ourselves to a bbq at the campground with some live music and a fire. We really enjoyed our stay here and would love to come back and take some more time to look around. I think Bear & Xena really appreciated having their own campsite and creek to roam and swim in too! Magic!

Start of the Gibb River Road

El Questro Lookout

Looking across the Pentacost River towards the Cockburn Ranges - Spectacular

A short walk to Zebedee Springs

Zebedee Springs.

The Bungle Bungles

So this is it, finally after near 3 months we are moving further west into untravelled territory, untravelled by us that is! Today it was time to visit the Bungle Bungles. We ventured to the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park, about 3 hours from Kununurra and 50km from the Bungle Bungles. Again, it was our best option as we couldn’t stay in the NP with Bear & Xena. It wasn’t a problem though. The campground is relatively new and still working on improvements but they’ll get there. I loved the way it was set up with little impact on the land and it really fit into its surroundings, definitely no Big 4. The office was a large safari style tent and to it left was a large marquee with communal fireplace and bush kitchen style restaurant. We were only staying the night, leaving Kununurra early in the morning we quickly set up camp and the dogs then made our way straight into the NP. The road was rough but easy in a 4wd if you take it slow. I think it took us around 1.5 hours to do the 50km.

Before continuing on to the Bungle Bungle walk we did the right thing and stopped in at the rangers station to pay for our day pass, $11 per vehicle and might I say this was the friendliest ranger and NP officer I have ever met. They advised that given we only had ½ a day to head straight out to the Bungle Bungle’s and do the Cathedral Gorge walk... so we did!

After seeing Ayers Rock, The Olga’s and Kings Canyon we had seen alot of rocks and gorges and while I didn’t think the Bungle Bungles were quite as spectacular they certainly were unique and worth the visit. They are stripped in colour and similar to a beehive. The walk into Cathedral Gorge was easy with a tranquil ending. A tall gorge with a large clear pool at the bottom and bordered by a curved cave. We were lucky to be alone here and to be able to enjoy the peace and tranquillity, so many of our natural attractions are ruined by being over crowded.

With that done it was time to drive back to camp and show the dogs some love. Tomorrow we are off the the much anticipated El Questro.

Ben climbing a Boab tree on our way back to Kununurra.