John came to bid us goodbye at 7 a.m. – « Have a good trip ! Goodonya ! » We had a hot shower at the roadhouse (AU$ 2.20/head) before continuing eastward on the Gibb. Cheerfully, we turned off a few km further down the road to visit Barnett River Gorge. The track is very bumpy. After driving 3 km without arriving at the gorge, as we should have, we asked some campers where to find it. They said they’d also like to know, they had looked everywhere the day before, but hadn’t found it (either). Oh well. As the only other track was deeply " perforated ", we decided to turn back. This gorge seems to be a genuine insider’s tip…. 6 km driver’s training had cost us one hour.

About 140 km east of Mount Barnett, and up to Jack’s Waterhole, the GRR is extremely corrugated with occasional patches of sand (a true delight for the driver). We crossed 12 water-bearing creeks and rivers. Barnett River has a sandy bed, but is easy to drive. Durack River is about 15-20 m wide, with a rocky bed, easy to drive although a bit bumpy. Other rivers we crossed were the Snake, Hann and Mistake Creek (where did that one get its name ?). All of this nestled into the breathtaking scenery of the Kimberley, a true feast for the eyes !

After a total of 12 creek and river crossings we reached today’s destination. The bush camp at and on Jack’s Waterhole is wonderful. At sunset we enjoyed the display of colours in the sky and on the water. The managers, Hubert & Maryke, are really nice. He is originally from Germany, she from the Netherlands, and their daughter-in-law is Danish.

We had our own campfire tonight, do not have any direct neighbours, as our lot is on a small outcrop facing the water, and are listening to the frogs in concert.

At 4 p.m. they heat a furnace or something beneath the showers to heat the water. The water is supposed to still be lukewarm in the morning. We’ll see about that tomorrow !

The showers were neither cold nor lukewarm, but somewhere in between.

Chiropractors would love the first 40 km of the GRR east of Jack’s Waterhole : it’s so heavily corrugated that you can literally feel your invertebral disks happily jumping about.

The scenery more than makes up for it. Six wet creek and river crossings, the best (and broadest) of them was Pentecost River. 55 km down the road from Jack’s Waterhole you have a magnificent, panoramic view of the river and the surrounding ranges. Another 10 km further on looms the crossing. It is about 100 m wide and makes quite an impression at first sight! The ford is well marked off by rocks, the riverbed is rocky and good to handle (piece of piss, mate !). Had we opened the doors while crossing, we could have washed our feet, as our Landcruiser’s footboards ploughed through the water. The Pentecost River was the crown jewel in our collection of creek and river crossings (six in total today), the highlight of our last day on the GRR.

Behind us came a family in a Landcruiser plus trailer. We filmed and photographed their crossing, the children were waving happily when they passed us.

As soon as you have crossed the Pentecost coming from the west, you’re on the grounds of El Questro Station (El Questro Wilderness Park, see also yarn 1999). At Emma Gorge Resort we treated ourselves to a cold drink and a relaxing break on the restaurant’s luxurious wooden patio.

To our immense regret we only had a few km left on the Gibb before meeting the Great Northern Highway.

In our all-favourite Australian town Kununurra we checked into Town Caravan Park. Belinda and Neil were surprised and pleased when Claudia told them that we had already stayed at their park in 1999.

After having spent three nights in bush camps, without electricity and therefore without the possibility to use his electric shaver, Torsten bravely faced the ordeal of getting rid of his three-day-stubble.

After a refreshing hot shower we once again invaded Coles to fill up on provisions and to buy a new camping chair. Last night, Torsten – to his great astonishment – found himself sitting in the dirt after his chair broke down without a warning (it was not his weight, but a frayed seam *lol*).

On El Questro Station we saw, photographed and filmed a goanna (also called monitor lizard) crossing the street.

Upon recounting our tales of the Gibb, Belinda told us that most people didn’t find Barnett River Gorge. There seems to be a fork in the track that’s easily missed….

20°C at 6.30 a.m., sure feel like being in the tropics ! ( 9 p.m.: 21°C!). We’re wondering if the nights at the Bungles will be as warm.

Today was the “support the Australian economy” day. We acquired a new pair of working boots each and a couple of other souvenirs not worth mentioning…. After depleting the shops in town we drove to Zebra Rock Gallery, where we found again some nice souvenirs (s. travel yarn 1999). We also saw four fellow countrymen, which had aroused our laughter a couple of days before, on the GRR, when driving in first gear, low range, on the terrain of a bush camp. Worse, they had a very distinctive, disgusting « mud ‘n’ sweat » perfume. They hadn’t changed…  Still in shopping mode, we drove to Top Rockz Gallery, where you can not only buy zebra rocks, but also other gemstones as well as beautiful small, wooden boxes of Western Australian hardwoods (e.g. jarrah and gutta-percha). The farm itself is beautiful, with tropical flowers everywhere and a tropical orchard.

Belinda had recommended a tour of the newly established Hoochery, where they process sugar cane. The Hoochery was established in August 2000, which is why it’s still very small and also why the tour is free of charge, including one sample drink. You can choose between Overproof Cane Spirit (57.7%), “regular” Cane Spirit (40%) and Aguadiente (spirit with herbs). They may not call the first two products “rum” yet, as rum has to mature for 2 years.

On the way to the Hoochery we turned off the tar road to an unsealed, very sandy track leading to the “City of Ruins”, an array of sandstone formations. The sand is very deep in parts. Recommendation for 2WD-drivers : leave your car on the shoulder of the paved road and walk, the access road is about 200 m long.

We finally managed to take a picture of Lake Kununurra’s Diversion Dam.

The first 258 km on the highway were uneventful. Short stop at Turkey Creek (Warmun) Roadhouse to fill up the car (AU$ 1.32/l Diesel !!!!). 50 km further on we turned off to Spring Creek Track (4WD Only), the access road to Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) National Park. That was fun! (60 km to Kurrajong Camp) 15 km down the track we had already crossed five (wet) creeks and rivers, totalling 19. Frank River is the widest of them, although easy to drive with a sandbank in its middle. The creek crossings are all quite easy to handle, some of them have rather steep banks. Two of the creeks are overgrown with plants, which makes for a very narrow passage. Our Bushcamper has acquired some more dirt along the way, in particular from the creek crossings. In the deepest creek, the side steps were submerged.

The track is partly deeply corrugated, rocky, winding, with inclines and descents – not boring at all ! It is also quite narrow, you have to pull over for oncoming traffic (or vice versa).

The first part of the track leads through Mabel Downs Station.

53 km and 2h10’ later we arrived at the ranger station. Fees for two adults and two nights : AU$ 9/vehicle (unless you have a Park Pass) and AU$ 9/night & adult. No showers, no drinking water (needs to be boiled for that purpose) at Kurrajong Camp, pit dunnies.

One paragraph in the information brochure states that “caravans won’t survive the way in". Nicely said, we suppose they’d simply disintegrate.

At sunset, we joined the parade to a rocky outcrop and marvelled at the sight of the Bungle Bungle Range, glowing in a vivid red. What a romantic sight – that and the full moon…. ain’t we lucky.

We’ll explore some of the gorges on foot tomorrow and spend the night at Walardi Camp.

We almost forgot….. the brand-new chair we bought two days ago collapsed today. It couldn’t be Torsten wearing a jumper tonight, could it ? After some taping here and there the chair’s halfway operational. You can sit on it, but you can’t move or lean back.

The morning sky was overcast, but temperatures were still high. One Aussie told us it would clear up later in the day. He was right.

Not knowing if the thick clouds would mean rain later on, we decided to do the Domes Walk and Cathedral Gorge first, and then see what the weather looked like. Domes Walk is a very enjoyable, easy, 30 min.-walking trail amidst the orange and black striped “beehives”. Beaut ! The Domes Walk meets the main trail, giving you the choice to a) return to the parking lot, b) continue to Cathedral Gorge. We highly recommend b).

The trail passes along and sometimes through Picaninny River, which is dry during the Dry…. J. Towards the end, the gorge becomes a bit more narrow, with some easy climbing exercises here and there. It takes about 30 min. to reach the end : a natural amphitheatre with overhanging rock ledges, sheer cliffs towering above, sandy bottom, a water pool in the middle (you wouldn’t want to swim in it, it looks like a frying pan in desperate need of a thorough cleaning). The excellent acoustics led a group of Aussie tourists to repeated vocal interpretations of “Amazing Grace” (very nice !).

Third and last stop was Echidna Chasm at the other end of the Bungle Bungle Range, an about 100 m long chasm with vertical walls. The further you go into the chasm, the narrower it becomes – in some places barely wider than your shoulders. Livistonia palms grow at the entrance of the chasm, but inside you won’t find any plants. Expect moderate climbing exercises towards the end of the chasm. Also expect that the experience is worth the effort !

We saw a male bower bird wooing his potential mate, but didn’t see the nest. We arrived back at Kurrajong Camp - changing our plans because it’s closer to Echidna Chasm - feeling sweaty and content. This change of plans proved to be a wise decision : Kurrajong Camp was filling up with people who had previously staid at Walardi Camp, because there was no water at all down there. It seems there was a problem with the tank (one Aussie said probably there was a dead bird in the tank….).

This afternoon we used our solar camp shower for the first, and as it turned out, also the last time. We didn’t wait for the water to heat up in the sun, but showered right away, as the water wasn’t icy.

We added six creek crossings to our ‘count’.

We enjoyed the way out as much as the way in. It only took us 1h55’ from the ranger station to the info point (53 km). Not bad at all ! One Aussie family in a Landcruiser let us pass by (“You’re faster than we are, you go in front”), and even a tour operator pulled over to let us pass. We would like to stress that we did not drive fast on purpose.

The creek crossings, well remembered from the way in, were driven in low range, 2^nd gear, but for one. Once the water swashed over the hood because of a steep bank when entering a creek.

At Turkey Creek Roadhouse we had a nice, big, yummy, fresh made hamburger each to compensate for the bitumen highway.

The way back to Kununurra was completely uneventful with the exception of a bushfire. Compared to all the dirt roads – and in particular Spring Creek Track - we’ve driven in the meantime, paved roads are extremely boring.

Our Landcruiser doesn’t look much like the vehicle we picked up in Perth – 2,551 km on dirt roads do change the colour a little.

Back on Town Cara Park in Kununurra, one of the staff talked to Torsten about the trip and said  “1h55’, then you’ve done well mate, most people need 2.5 or 3 hours out of the Bungles”. Whatever, the trip was great fun ! Torsten has become addicted to creek and river crossings.

In Kununurra it’s not warmer than at the Bungles, but more humid. Sweat evaporates quicker than it’s produced… is that were all the clouds come from ?

Tonight we could sit outside in shorts, tank tops and barefoot till 9.30 p.m. We enjoyed a nice bottle of W.A. wine and watched 30 min. of film on our camcorder. Working title : “Purnululu live and uncut”.

We had a late start today, couldn’t muster the courage to face 515 km of tar. We took off at 8.30 a.m. into an uneventful day…. We forwarded our watches by 1.5 hours at the border to the Northern Territory. After a while, we noticed a crack in the windscreen that hadn’t been there yesterday. It started at a tiny hole in the outer layer of the windscreen, just in front of the driver, but near the roof of the car. The crack was about 10 cm long. We watched it like the proverbial rabbit watching the snake, progressively growing longer an longer…. We had some duct tape of chair-repairing fame left and taped the crack with it. It did slow down the progress, but couldn’t stop it. Would the tape hold ? What if it didn’t ? Would the windscreen explode in our faces ? Could we drive to Katherine, our destination for today ? 120 km further on, we stopped at Timber Creek and called Britz Roadside Assistance (toll-free number). They put us through to the depot in Darwin. Instructions were clear and simple : replace the windscreen a.s.a.p., preferably right now. Luckily a) we had the complete cover insurance, b) there was a workshop next to the roadhouse (and open, too) and c) he had "some" windscreens on stock (looks like we aren’t the first ones with that problem). It took him 30 minutes to replace the windscreen. We spent that time eating barra-burgers and ignoring the “I’m-a-poor-half-starved-mistreated-homeless-doggy” stares of a blue heeler*. The windscreen cost us – including labour – AU$ 250, to be reimbursed by Britz. The new, sparkling clean windscreen lets the car look dirtier than it is. What an irony…. we drove more than 2,500 km on dirt, dust and gravel, without so much as getting a scratch on our car, and barely back on tar, a small stone (it must have been small, otherwise we would have noticed it) cracks the windscreen !

We happily set out on the highway again. Five minutes later we saw a large bushfire on the left-hand side of the road. Flames five m tall, thick black smoke across the road, birds of prey hovering above, waiting for small animals on the run. When we saw oncoming traffic, we drove right into the smoke, feeling for some seconds like sandwiches in a toaster.

Teehee, and we thought the 500+ km on tar would bore us to death ! Life is full of surprises….

In Katherine we checked in on Riverview Caravan Park (we were lucky, they only had three small powered sites left).

* other term for Australian Cattle Dog: “blue” as many of them are blue merle-coloured, and “heeler” as they nip the cattle’s heels when droving to make them change speed and/or direction.

Today’s trip on tar was truly uneventful. We checked in on Boomerang Caravan Park, two nights on a powered site and the third and last night Down Under in a self-contained unit (like a motel room). That will give us some space to pack our bags.

We spent the afternoon browsing through Darwin’s souvenir shops. Unfortunately, we know them well, and didn’t have the slightest problem to spend too much money.

Today’s Thursday, one of the two days of the Mindil Beach Market (the other one is Sunday). The market is still as nice as four years ago, although there were less stands than back then. We bought two very nice prints of parrots and had some 'poffertjes' (miniature pancakes) and regular pancakes with vanilla ice-cream (yummy). When browsing the “Mall” today, we noticed that the Hog’s Breath Café was gone! It was all Torsten’s fault – he had previously joked that they’d have moved the HBC knowing that we were on the way. Before leaving Mindil Beach, we found the new address – Mitchell Street. We booked a table on the patio for tomorrow night.

Tomorrow we’ll visit Litchfield N.P. again, only this time we’ll drive in through the backyard – on gravel !

This morning we met Keith from Hervey Bay/Qld. He wanted to know where we acquired the dirt on our car. When Torsten mentioned 70 creek crossings, Keith’s eyes lit up. He said the Holden Jackaroo was a “sissy car”, whereas the Toyota Heavy Duty Landcruiser (like our bushie) was “a man’s car”. Keith is such a sweetheart, upon returning late in the afternoon, we were more than surprised (and certainly not amused) to learn that our gear had been moved to another site because other campers (who stayed for a week) wanted to have exactly the site we were on. Keith looked after our stuff and showed us to our new site. A real mate ! They put us on a site in front of the ablution blocks. Once again we have all kinds of people taking the shortcut across our site (life can be short, don’t walk too much, folks), some of them almost bumping into our table or car.

We took the Stuart Hwy south, then turned right onto the Cox Peninsula Road, passed Berry Springs and Tumbling Waters Caravan Park, then turned left onto the formed gravel road to Litchfield N.P. 42 km gravel instead of tar, very easy driving. It’s open to all traffic during the Dry. A few km of tar took us to Wangi Falls. We walked down to the pool and falls, meeting a goanna (about 1 m long) on the way. Wangi Falls looked as beautiful as in 1997, with many people swimming in the pool.

Not too far from Wangi Falls we left Litchfield Park Road and turned onto the 4WD Only, 9.5 km long dirt rod to Tjaynera Falls (Sandy Creek Falls). From the parking lot, you have to walk 1.7 km – 30 minutes – to the falls. It’s worth it, but take some water ! Those falls are beautiful ! Clear, green water, fringed by lush vegetation, very quiet (we were the only ones there)…. On the track to Tjaynera Falls you can turn off to Blyth Homestead, and according to our map, continue on to the Lost City. The driver of an oncoming car told us that the track was closed from the homestead onward. To access the Lost City, we had to go back to Litchfield Park Road, follow it for 10-12 km in direction of Batchelor until we came to the turnoff (you can’t miss the sign) to the Lost City track. That track is 10.5 km long, very bumpy, narrow – extremely narrow in parts – and will take you about half an hour. But, as Tjaynera Falls, it’s worth it ! Lost City is an array of sandstone formations of different sizes and shapes, resembling ruins of buildings, towers or gates.

Altogether we drove 124 km on dirt and gravel today.

Dinner at Hog’s Breath was as good as usual. We had an Australian-size steak, accompanied by a conversation in Bavarian at the neighbouring table….

Final shopping and developing of photos.

Had a nice chat this morning with Jon (Dutch immigrant) and Keith.

Reluctantly packed our bags tonight.

A black day in our lives….. We have to go home…..

But we’re already planning our next tour – next year !

See ya later, Oz !  

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