The Windy West Coast

In conversations with other travellers hailing from the east of Australia we have warned them of how windy the West Coast is, but we probably should have listened to ourselves a little more! We did time our trip to the Ningaloo Coast a little too late, and we copped the wind BIG time.

We had a fabulous campsite on Ningaloo Station (via Exmouth for a day or two), just behind the dunes, with the amazingly clear turquoise lagoon in front of us, and the reef just offshore. There has been big swell, so there were enormous waves pounding onto the reef not very far from us. But it just blew like crazy the entire time – too windy to put the tinnie in the water, too windy and cool to snorkel very much, too windy to walk for very long without getting sand blasted.




This campsite was pretty isolated, a few people dotted about, but our only visitor an emu which came in to say hello.


We did have one morning when the wind dropped off and we got the tinnie in, and we had a fantastic time exploring around the reef, saying hello to the huge number of big turtles that were either swimming underwater creating their own impressive bow waves, or sticking their heads up out of the water checking us out. And we caught lots of fish for this one morning that we had, including two Spangled Emperor.



And now we head south, into wildflower territory.

Now that is a gorge!

It was just a quick visit to Karijini but what a special place, which started on the drive inland. The countryside seems to be changing very fast – probably a function of 2 things – we are travelling much greater distances in shorter times now and, of course, we’ve ducked back inland again!



The foreground of dusty spinifex with solitary white trunked gums gives way to vibrant iron red ranges which in the distance shimmer into purples and blues. Truly a dramatic landscape! And of course hidden in the folds of the valleys are the gorges.



Tim has had this running thing of not being quite satisfied with the splendidness of the gorges we have visited. But he was very satisfied with the impressive Karijini gorges. He may have even said in a very admiring voice ‘Now THAT’S what I call a gorge!’


We walked down into or through most of the gorges we could access, and ended up in some very narrow canyons knee deep in icy water. Clambering back out up the steep walls tested our legs which hadn’t had such a workout for months!

Barn Hill & beyond

We didn’t go very far when we left Broome, just 150km or so down the road to Barn Hill, a beachside camp on a station. We drove through lots of bushfires on the way in, and it turned out that the fires were all on this station’s property. The fires got quite close to where people were camped. Our mates Kerry & Greg (who we bumped into YET again!) told stories of falling embers and smoked filled caravans the night before we got there. The wind swung around to a sea breeze which meant the campground wasn't in danger any more, but the back burning meant that the fires and smoke were very close to us.

It was a good spot this one – a beautiful long beach in front of red cliffs. Tim fished a while from the beach, we took long wandering walks, it was great for a couple of days! And our tent was invaded by a pair of killer centipedes late at night, which freaked Tim out for an hour or two!




And then further south to the stark but beautiful Cape Keraudren where we stopped for the night, right next to the spot that marked the northern start of the Rabbit Proof Fence. Which was kind of cool, because we also love the southern end of the Rabbit Proof Fence!

Broome

And then to Broome…. Have we expressed adequately enough our amazement at just how many people there are travelling up north right now? Broome was so busy, and we ended up in a fairly dodgy corner of a caravan park, its saving grace being that it was at least close to Cable Beach.

We had a lovely time in Broome, long walks along the beach, or out near Gauntheame Point (and we still haven’t quite figured out how to say that!), Tim had a fish off the jetty and came back with a nice mangrove jack, we wandered around town a bit and we ate out a few times which is always a treat, and something we hadn’t done since Darwin.




We were also in town for the start of the Shinju Matsuri festival which involved a street parade (think the Freo Festival parade of primary schools and community organisations, but with a multicultural Broome flavour!) which was followed by a big ‘Mardi Gras’ on the oval in the centre of town.





We had a chance to catch up with Gary, Sue and their son Camden whilst in town. Gary is a jeweller and his shop was laden with beautiful pieces featuring the famed local pearls.

Ardi

After an overnighter in Derby and a sunset fish from the jetty we drove up Ardi (or the Dampier Peninsula) on a mostly appalling road with possibly the reddest and finest dust we have yet encountered. That lovely new camper trailer is looking decidedly well worn these days with all the streaks of red dust.

Up on the peninsula the land seems to be split up into lots of small lots, with 99-year leases given to Aboriginal people who were at the Beagle Bay Mission. So there are lots of smaller family groups, as well as larger Aboriginal communities, with lots of them getting into tourism in some way.

We shared our custom around up at Ardi, staying a couple of nights at one very small family sized community just near Middle Lagoon, and then a couple of nights at the Middle Lagoon camp, which was something like paradise. We had a secluded campsite up on the dunes behind the lagoon, with a long white beach in front of us, red cliffs to one side and a big reef on the other that was being exposed daily with the enormous tides.



We also drove up the peninsula a little, dropping into Lombadina community and spending a couple of hours on the idyllic white sandy beach, and then up to near the tip of Cape Leveque.




And Tim found a fishing buddy, Geoff (who is possibly even more obsessed with fishing than Tim) to go out on the boat with, letting Nic have a break for a couple of days. And they had a little success, with Geoff getting a big mackerel on the first fishing expedition that fed all of us, including his partner Trish, that night, with some to spare. They are a lovely couple, on an open-ended trip (having already worked in Darwin for 11 months) and are staying at Middle Lagoon for about six weeks to do a few hours work a day. This place is quite idyllic and we were a little envious, and wishing that we didn’t have to leave quite so soon.

Gibb River Road - at last!

Finally we both get onto the Gibb River Road after so many years of hearing about it! From Kununurra it starts so spectacularly, you drive out on the floodplain of the Ord, with ranges all around you in the distance. And then you turn onto the road, and to your right is the magnificent Cockburn Ranges, with its big rock ramparts, looming right over you.

Our first stop was El Questro, which was kind of pricey and kind of developed in parts, but so worth it. We had a secluded shady camp spot right by the Pentecost River - one of the loveliest places we have camped on this entire trip. And there were so many amazing walks to do and places to visit on the property – Emma Gorge, El Questro Gorge, Chamberlain Gorge, Zebedee Hot Springs, Moonshine Gorge – we went pretty hard for a few days.







After a short detour back to Kununurra to repair the front axle on Elsie, we carried on, stopping briefly at Ellenbrae Station, and then up to the Mitchell Plateau. Which, having seen some aerial photos, is probably best experienced from the air. It is a long drive up there and the country you can see from the road is very flat and not all that spectacular. We were so thankful that the grader driver was working as we were driving through - otherwise it would have taken us three days to get up there, the road was SO bad in parts. The corrugations were so deep and wide you couldn’t skim over the top, Elsie was down to about 5km/hour. For a little while Tim turned up the hand throttle and we both got out and walked alongside! Once we got there, the Mitchell Falls and surrounding gorges were pretty amazing (although kind of dry) and we did see some fabulous rock art close to our campsite on the King Edward River. Including the ancient Bradshaw figures (and we finally found out an Aboriginal name for them – Gwion).



Next stop was the lovely Manning Gorge, and then down to Mornington, which is a former station bought by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, who are gradually fencing it off, removing the cattle and managing the whole property for conservation. It is the biggest private conservation reserve in Australia, so we were really keen to check it out. It is a great spot, set in some beautiful country, and has the upper reaches of the Fitzroy running through it. We went out to the Sir John Gorge and had the whole place to ourselves.


Back to the Gibb River Rd and onto another beautiful red sandstone gorge, Bell Gorge, and then our final stop at Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. Both of these ‘icons’ which have been talked up over the years are features of an old Devonian reef system which juts up onto an otherwise level red countryside. The popular Tunnel Creek (finally Tim got to go in a cave!) was cool, eerie and good fun although with more water flowing through it could get interestingly squeezy. Windjana Gorge has a huge population of freshwater crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks or just hanging in the water. The gorge walls exhibit a cross section of ancient reef with watercut hollows and ledges. At this time of year the wide sandy riverbed is dry, crunchy and very hot.

And at Windjana we bumped into Kerry and Greg again – we’ve been on the same route for about six weeks, and become better mates every time we see them. This culminated in a great fun and very boozy night, where we probably kept our neighbours awake far too late and left us a little ‘battle scarred’ the next day.

Bungle Bungles

Triple wow at Purnululu… The first wow was the 250/300km drive down to Purnululu NP and the Bungle Bungles. The road took us through some incredibly stunning country. First we were seeing Fred Williams paintings and then there were parts that were purely Albert Namatjira. (Our completely inadequate photoshopped versions below!!)



The second wow was getting into the national park to camp close beside the huge Bungle Bungle range. We did some great walks into a few different gorges and chasms, and in amongst the famous eroded domes of the Bungles. By walking either very early in the morning or late in the afternoon, we pretty much had these walks to ourselves, meaning we could amuse ourselves endlessly with the acoustics.



And then, the wow to end all wows… we had a major splurge and took a helicopter flight for 30 minutes over the Bungles - outrageously expensive, but a once in a lifetime kind of thing. And despite the feeling that the universe sped up threefold for that particular 30 minutes, it was well worth it. It really was so beautiful, all the colours and shapes up on top of the range, the kilometres of the stripy domes spread out in front of us, the deep chasms in the rock with palms clinging to the rock face – all of it was really amazing, especially from a helicopter without doors, where you could look straight down onto the range.

Old Wyndham

We drove to Wyndham for the day – Tim nostalgic about when he used to arrive in port when working as a merchant seaman, and Nic following in the footsteps of great-grandparents who met and lived there.

We travelled via the old inland road which skirted the Ord River for a while then cut across country via an old signal station site on a hill and a RAMSAR listed wetland Parrys Creek Lagoon with a vast armada of very vocal whistling ducks. The presence of water in such an arid landscape (at this time of year) always provides a striking contrast.



The old port town of Wyndham (separate to the contemporary town a bit inland) has definitely seen better days – actually it looks like it is on its very last legs. Which meant lots of great old buildings about to fall apart.