Gibb River Road – bobmcgee

Completing the Loop …

Kimberley 24.X

After saying farewell to our friends at Ellenbrae it was back onto the Gibb. About 40km west of Ellenbrae the road improved but there were occasional relapses to bone jarring corrugations. A night at the Manning Gorge campground then two nights at Birdwood Station brought us close to Derby.

As well as having a poke around Derby we bought screws at the well equipped Mitre 10. We needed to replace quite a few in the van! We were home in time for lunch the following day.

This was not our first rodeo on the Gibb River Road. We could have crammed in a bit more but now that we live in fairly easy reach we think it better to spend a few days at a time in chosen areas rather than be traveling significant distances every day.

If you are reading this with a view to planning your own trip consider including Tunnel Creek, Windjana Gorge, Lennard River Gorge, Mount Elizabeth Station, Drysdale Station, Mitchell Plateau and Falls. The landscape at the Home Valley bush camp is a must for the photographer. If completing the loop then Purnululu AKA the Bungle Bungles is not to be missed on the Northern Highway leg. We took our dog which ruled out the Mitchell Plateau and Purnululu. You can’t take a caravan up to the Purnululu campground and it is probably wiser not to drag one up to Mitchell Falls. Swags or tents for a couple of nights at a time will make the adventure all the more exciting.

There are other places that we haven’t got around to visiting yet, famous among them being Mount Hart and El Questro.

Passes and permits are needed for some areas and should be purchased in advance.

Mechanical failure on the Gibb is likely to be very expensive. Tyre and mechanical assistance is available at Over the Range Tyre & Mechanical Repairs and to some limited extent at Ellenbrae. Getting hauled out would be expensive and might entail some delay. An extra spare wheel is a sound investment. There is any amount of contradictory advice on what tyre pressures to run. It may be of benefit to drop to 20 to 30% below highway pressures (eg Highway pressure 42 X 0.75 = 31psi). It is certainly smart to drive at moderate speed and avoid the obvious rocks.

We had a compressor mounted on the van when we started our journey across the Gibb. It had fallen off by the end of the first day. If you come across it we’d like it back!

Ellenbrae …

Kimberley 24.8

Ellenbrae Station is an incredible one million acres.

It does a roaring trade in tyres, scones and jam (with cream) and mango frappés. There are two camp sites. One is close to a billabong, the other slightly further away and just a bit quieter as a consequence. You may luxuriate in a bath or take a hike to the very picturesque Sandy Beach Gorge.

We spent four nights here made all the more pleasant by catching up with friends. We did a bit of birding, ate a few scones and we also headed out to mess about in boats on the Durack River. A top spot.

Kimberley 24 part 1 …

Safely home in Broome after an anticlockwise circuit of the beautiful Kimberley. We caught up with good friends and our little caravan survived the notorious Gibb River Road but not entirely unscathed.

With additional running around we traveled 2400km, saw 116 species of birds and took a few thousand photographs.

The Kimberley Craton is one of the oldest chunks of Australia. It collided (very slowly) with the Northern Australia Craton during the Paleoproterozoic era, 2.5–1.6 billion years ago. Sedimentary basin formation and time then conspired to produce the sandstone gorges and rocky ranges that make this area one of the most visually splendid in all of Oz.

And Boabs. There may be photos of Boabs (when I catch up with the editing).

Going straight …

AKA the Kimberley part 3.

After saying good morning to the Kimberley form of the Grey Butcherbird, an isolated subspecies Cracticus torquatus latens, we headed for the Mt Barnet Roadhouse.

The previous day we had set up the satellite phone and taken advice from our home mechanic regarding the steering. It was suggested that we get the car towed. That’s a 1200km round trip tow. What about the trailer? Or that we pour oil into the empty reservoir and try our luck. The appropriate oil is ATF if that wasn’t available try anything light. I was considering cooking oil as a field expedient, it would have made an interesting story for the blog but Mt Barnet was well stocked with all sorts of oils including ATF. We filled the reservoir and hit the road.

At intervals we refilled the reservoir. Fortunately we had bought quite a lot of ATF because the system had a bloody great hole in it somewhere inaccessible. Driving in a straight line was easy, anything else was not.

Some of the Gibb River Road’s best scenery is in that stretch.

It wasn’t our intention to stay in Derby but we broke the drive to Broome into two stages. It gave me the chance to photograph a sculpture that is carefully arranged to be at its best against the setting sun.

Next morning we did the sights of Derby and headed for Broome.

The Kimberley part 2 …

Dragging ourselves away from Parrys Creek it was time for the Gibb River Road. It’s sealed as far as the entrance to El Questro, the famous dude ranch. I understand that the drive in from there comes as a bit of a shock to the dude caravaners but I haven’t tried it. In any case the Gibb will rattle their crockery if they are driving the full length of it.

On this occasion our destination was Mount Barnet and Manning Gorge, about 390km for the day. Once we reached Mt Barnet turning right off the main road the steering felt rather heavy. It’s a popular camp site and dog friendly. We tucked ourselves way down the back where we could enjoy the illusion of bush camping.

We set up camp, had a swim in the waterhole, drank a beer and plucked up the courage to look under the hood. Searching amongst the tightly packed mysteries we located the reservoir for the power steering fluid. It was empty. Bugger.

Early next morning I abandoned Gayle and the dog and hiked the waterfall trail. First you pull yourself across the creek in a tin boat by a rope and pulley arrangement. Then it’s about a 40 minute walk, some of it uphill and rocky underfoot. Your reward is an amphitheatre into which pours a cascade that thrills the onlooker. Well it would when it’s more than the current trickle. It’s pretty and a nice place for a swim. Most visitors content themselves with that but for the intrepid a scramble down stream leads to a truly beautiful gorge.

It’s a spot where you may see one of the Kimberley’s special birds, the White-quilled Rock Pigeon. Look for them in the shadows and ovehangs.

The waterhole back at the camp is also very charming.

The moon is a few days past full now so it rises more than an hour after sunset. This means a good look at the milky way is now available.

Home Valley …

From Miner’s Pool we headed east again to Home Valley. This is one of two stations near the Wyndham end of the Gibb River Road, the other one being El Questro which is perhaps a bit more famous. Both have developed the tourist side of their operations.

On the way the road crosses a ridge and the impressive Cockburn Range is laid out in front of you. The Pentecost River runs at its foot and discharges into the West Arm of Cambridge Gulf.

Sadly, this is where Joseph Schwab, the Kimberley Killer, shot three of his five victims in 1987.

Once again we had an easy choice of camp site, the fully featured site at the homestead, with kids playground, pool, restaurant, shop and bar or bush camp on the river bank, please camp away from the water’s edge to reduce the risk of crocodile attack. We chose the crocs over the kids. And this was our reward …

We had watched a large Estuarine Crocodile slide into the water just before the photo was taken. We survived the night. The following morning we hiked one of the trails near the homestead and enjoyed a further reward in the form of a flock of Gouldian Finch.

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The Kimberley …

A fabulous and fabulously remote part of Australia.

It is the northernmost portion of WA, it is entirely north of the tropic of Capricorn. It has a wet season, the southern hemisphere summer and a dry, the winter. It is scenically splendid, and among many other wonderful creatures it is the home of the Black Grasswren. The McGee Australian birdlist hadn’t had an addition for a couple of years, an expedition was in order. Enquiry revealed that the only “accessible” places where it might be sought with a reasonable chance of success are Bachsten Gorge and the Mitchell Plateau. Early in the dry was tipped as the best time, swollen rivers close many of the roads in the wet. Access to both sites is from the infamous Gibb River Road.

The western half of the Gibb River Road provided access from Derby to cattle stations as far as, you guessed, the Gibb River. It was completed in 1956. Subsequently it was pushed further east and is now the scenic route from Derby to Kununurra. It is a reasonably well graded dirt road, 4WD is recommended. Almost all the car hire companies prohibit using the Gibb River Road. Broome is a very civilised place to begin and end, a circular tour can be completed via the Great Northern Highway, which is sealed and has the added advantage of taking you past the Purnulu National Park, better known as the Bungle Bungles.

This year has seen very late and heavy rainfall, as the time to go approached none of the roads were open. Two hundred millimetres of rain fell on Broome just before we arrived, but the outlook further west was encouraging. McGee and two intrepid companions left Broome on the 7th of June. The Gibb River Road was open, but for access to the Mitchell Plateau the King Edward River needed to drop a fair bit. It had a few days to do it.

In Derby we visited the wetlands and sewage works, a fair test of the 4WD capability of our Toyota Prado. The covering of red mud that it acquired made us look especially authentic. We headed for Windjana Gorge for our first camp site … <NEXT>.