Across The Kimberley

The Kimberley claims to be Australia's last great wilderness. Like Cable Beach in Broome, it's a 4WD parking lot. Everywhere there are tourists in 4WDs. Anyone who thinks the Kimberly is a wilderness is dreaming.

As we headed east from Broome, we came upon a line of cars behind a (250 ton capacity) mine haul truck on two low loaders travelling very slowly. They were the full width of the road, and the police escort was stopping all oncoming vehicles, including road trains. On the two way radio, the drivers were scoffing at the line of timid drivers behind them, so we piped up and asked if the door was open. It was. The line of timid drivers are now probably telling stories of a mad 4WD that passed them and the convoy they were stuck behind.

Our first stop was Fitzroy Crossing, gateway to Geikie Gorge National Park. Geikie is the most visited gorge in the Kimberley (because the road in is tar). CALM use this to full advantage, charging $20 bucks a head for a boat ride, and virtually banning private boats.

Heading away from the tar, we came to our first river crossing. Right in the middle of it was a 2WD, up to its (low clearance) axles in mud. Out came the drag chain again - the cruiser hardly noticed the strain. Another successful recovery.

Tunnel Creek National Park is a much larger version of Stockyard Gully where the creek has carved through/under the rocks. Tunnel Creek has many of the more typical features of limestone caves, and tree roots dangling from the roof into the knee deep water. The pleasantly cool hike is a welcome relief from the hot Kimberley winter.

Windjana Gorge National Park claims to be the premier location for crocodile viewing, and we certainly saw our fair share. We also spotted a huge array of birds, including a pacific baza and a restless flycatcher (among the many honeyeaters, corellas, kites, and others).

From there we headed out along the famous Gibb River Road. Our first stop, Lennard River Gorge was a little unimpressive, but you have to stop and look or you don't know. From there we headed up to Bell Gorge. The campground was crowded, so we headed into the gorge early the next day. We spotted the very pretty red backed fairy wren on the way in, and were early enough to get a private swim.

On the advice of some fellow travellers, we diverted east off the Gibb River Road into Old Mornington Camp. Sir John Gorge provided another excellent and private swim, and Dimond Gorge gave us the chance for our only croc-free gorge kayak. Mornington is run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, but being a pastoral lease, they have to run cattle to hold title. An interesting conflict of objectives!

Back onto the Gibb, and there are two small gorges, Adcock and Galvans. Neither are signposted, and the track into Adcock has big signs saying "no entry". The signs are pretty old, and after checking the GPS co-ordinates to confirm we were on the right road, we went on in. The road into Galvans is now blocked, but it is worth the walk, with a nice boab tree at the top of the falls.

The Gibb River Road is more like a highway. A constant stream of 4WDs making their way between crowded campgrounds. Of course there is virtually no police or rangers, so the cowboy mentality reigns. Dog owners ignoring the "no pets" signs, drunks at the wheel tinny in hand, and of course and endless stream of Europeans in rentals driving way to fast. Wilderness, not bloody likely!

Our next night was at Manning Gorge. It is on Mt Barnett Station, one of the few fully self funding aboriginal communities in Oz. Manning is a particularly nice gorge. There is a large swimming hole at the campground, and after a long hot hike, the gorge itself offers two very nice swimming holes.

After a quick stop at Barnett River Gorge, we turned north off the Gibb River Road, and headed up to King Edward River. Another nice campground, and the nearby swimming hole is big enough for a quick kayak. It also served as a base to explore the Mitchell Falls.

The bush on the Mitchell Plateau is an interesting and unusual mix of palms and eucalypts. The water in Mitchell Falls makes a spectacular cascade through a series of large deep pools on its way into the gorge below. The shallower pools before the falls make for pleasant swimming before the return hike to the campground. Unfortunately, the constant drone of helicopters ferrying tourists to and fro makes the campground an unpleasant place to stay.

After a second night on the banks of the much quieter King Edward River, we headed up to Kalumburu. Unlike Cape Leveque that caters very well to tourists, the aboriginal community at Kalumburu has a long way to go. The museum tour at the mission is a particular highlight, as the half blind monk explains some of the history of the area and offers his own interesting viewpoint on a wide variety of topics.

Drysdale River Station provided a stop on the long haul from Kalumburu to El Questro Station, or ELQ as all the signs and vehicles proclaim. On the way up to Kalumburu with Helen at the wheel, we had our first flat tyre. On the run from Drysdale to ELQ with Bill at the wheel, we had two more. There we were, on the side of the Gibb River Road with two flat spares, until a good samaritan in a cruiser offered us one of his spares. As the tour busses careened past covering us in dust, it was good to know that there are still some nice folks about.

ELQ may remind geek minded readers of the NLQ (near letter quality) of dot matrix printer fame. NLQ is a better acronym, because although the works of nature at ELQ are indeed magnificent, the efforts of the station itself are a poor second. It was without question the most expensive camping anywhere we have been ($75 for 2 nights), and even the facilities at the vastly over-rated Wave Rock Caravan Park were better.

The warm Zeebeedee Springs are fantastic, as are El Questro and Emma Gorges. It's a shame that Zeebeedee is only open to those guests paying premium prices for the best part of the day. The station abounds with opportunities to explore their million acres by 4WD. We followed the Karunjie Rd between the Pentecost River and the Cockburn Ranges through the north of the station out to Wyndham.

After a great afternoon spotting birds at Marlgu Billabong in Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve (including sighting the star finch), we headed on to an excellent camp spot on the edge of Parry Creek at Parry Creek Farm on the Ord River delta.

Apart from all the gorges and waterfalls, an icon that symbolises the Kimberley is the boab tree. During our visit, most of them had few or no leaves. We'd always thought that there were no deciduous native Australian trees. Eventually we discovered two (unconfirmed) boab facts. Firstly, the boab is believed to have arrived from Madagasgar about 10,000 years ago (long after the dingo). Secondly, they loose their leaves in response to water stress. Up here, that's probably close enough.

The Gibb River Road can be tough on vehicles. In addition to our tyres, one of our shocks chewed out its rubber mount, and the CD player konked out. Worse still, Helen's bike tried to commit suicide by jumping off the back of the cruiser. Several times. It is now unridable, and is held onto the somewhat damaged rack with cable ties. We picked up a new set of tyres at Kununurra TyrePower store at a very reasonable price, and popped into the Toyota dealer for an overdue service.

While the car was being serviced in Kununurra, we took a boat tour up the Ord River to Lake Argyle. We can only wonder at what aboriginal heritage and majestic beauties of nature have been lost under the lake. Whatever environmental destruction it caused is long since done, and there's no point worrying about it now. What boggles the mind, is that with so much water, the Ord River irrigation area is so small. Surely this agricultural area should be expanded.

With a repaired and serviced cruiser, we headed south to Purnululu National Park in the Bungle Bungle Ranges. Being much further from the coast, Purnululu is much drier than other places in the Kimberly, but its many gorges provide a cool, moist environment that is good for hikers and palms. One of the gorges is tall (100 m) and narrow (<1m) and only sees sunlight for 5 minutes each day. We successfully planned our visit to this gorge to be there to watch the sunlight come and go.

Of course, the thing that Purnululu is famous for is its bee hive formations. Naturally we hiked amongst them. By various means, we located some of the side tracks on this hike that are open to the public, but not publicised. All the tours visit them, but the average visitor is kept unaware of them. In a purely commercial enterprise like ELQ you have to expect that visitors are separated by social class, but in a publicly funded National Park it is offensive to find status separations in the general visitors.

There are disappointingly few hikes available in Purnululu. To see a little more of it, and to get a different perspective on it, we indulged ourselves in a helicopter flight over the range. It really highlights how little of the park is open, and how little you actually see when hiking.

As we have toured the Kimberley in general and Purnululu in particular, we have seen very little rock art. The ranger at Purnululu told us that the art sites have been closed because they were being trashed by the visitors. It's always unpleasant to be reminded how pervasive mindless white trash are.

In Purnululu we had the pleasure of finding the bower of a great bower bird. In fact, great bower birds are plentiful in the Kimberley. So are black faced cuckoo shrikes and pied butcher birds. Kites are ever-present soaring above, and blue winged kookaburras are regularly audible in the twilight hours.

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