Drive to Drysdale River Station

Friday 12 July 2013

Drysdale River Station

Up at 6am at Manning campsite. We had a breakfast of cereal and toast. Our packup this morning was uneventful. We departed at 8.15am and drove the 7km to Mt Barnett roadhouse. We did a rubbish dropoff then refuelled the unleaded jerry can. We drove along the Gibb, a distance of 110km before we reached the Kalumburu Road turnoff.  The road was very rough for the first 30-40km past Mt Barnett – it was the first part of the Gibb that we found was very rough for any distance. The road was very rocky with many boulders embedded in the road – impossible for a grader to move. The road up to Drysdale had just been graded and was more sandy in nature so we had some good sections. We found the oncoming traffic to be flying along with many not even slowing down when they passed. The Red Beast took several hits in the windscreen with stone chips now evident.

Morning Tea on the Kalumburu Road

We made good time to Drysdale as the distance was only 60km. We arrived at Drysdale around midday. Drysdale is a cattle station and caters for tourists. The area accessible to tourists is well laid out with excellent toilet and shower blocks, laundry facilities, washing machines and clothes lines. More importantly it had a bar and restaurant facilities located in an oasis with grass and large shady trees.

Paul noticed that water was leaking from the seam of the stainless steel water tank. He swung into action and went straight into the station shop and purchased a two part mix of steel epoxy putty. He wanted to plug it before we lost all the water but of course we did not know how long it had been leaking for. We pulled into the camping ground and positioned the trailer in the shade. Paul got to work along with Rob’s help and the leak was plugged fairly quickly. We debated the pros and cons of draining the tank to relieve pressure but the putty held so we left it to dry. We walked over to the bar/eating area and sat in the shade. Paul and I ordered a large Kimberley burger for $18 while Robert who was more diet conscious and not wanting to upset his wife purchased a lesser burger for $16.50. We also ordered a large bucket of chips, most of which Robert ate while Paul and I struggled with eating our monster burgers. We washed our burgers down with an icy cold Bundaburg ginger beer. In all we spent $75 for lunch.

Repairs to water tank

Refreshed we returned to the trailer and set up for the night. In the process of removing the water tank cap, the lock disintegrated as the steel shaft broke. Just another thing to go wrong! We placed it back on and then taped it up with gaffer tape – looks like the trailer has been through the wars and it certainly has been blooded. Glad the trip was undertaken before the warrantly expired. In the afternoon Rob and Paul drove out to Miner’s Pool for a look – not much to see but I must have been feeling bad with the damage to the tank so did not go. I went and had a shower and found them to be excellent with a shower curtain, toilet, basins and mirror and somewhere to hang your clothes. In total they had 6 of these along with a separate toilet and a handicapped toilet.

That evening we went over to the bar area and had several beers of XXXX. If we had wanted dinner we would not have been successful as the restaurant was booked out. The station caters for tour groups by providing accommodation and meals so it was just our luck that one group was in. Anyway we were not hungry given the huge lunch we had had around 2pm. Nobody felt like cooking so Paul came to the rescue and pulled out some packet soup that he and Sue had purchased from Anaconda for the princely sum of .50c each. I had tomato, Paul had Pumkin and Robert had Chicken.

Of interest the pay phone, which was coin only, was located in an old refrigerator.

We got mixed reports on the condition of the road further north as well as the condition of the Mitchell Falls road. One of the things that you learn very quickly is that you cannot rely on hearsay or word of mouth reporting. It varies so much depending who you speak to. What we did glean was that the road conditions changed considerably, the grader was currently grading the section north of Drysdale and that regardless we would be in for rough corrugated roads. This road would be a test for any trailer.