Wildfire on Derby - Fitzroy Crossing road

Thursday 8 August 2013

Today is our travel day from Fitzroy Crossing to Derby or Broome but we elected Derby given that we lost some travelling time with the fire below. I was not going to do a post today as the drive was quite uninspiring. However that was before we nearly got caught in a wildfire crossing the main highway this afternoon. We had seen the smoke in the distance but thought nothing of it given that bushfires are very common up here at this time of the year. Most of the bush adjoining the roads is burnt out like someone has deliberately lit the roadside. Anyway this fire was about 10km before we turned off for Derby. It was moving very fast and just happened to cross the road before we could drive through it. Just as well we waited.

The birds in the photo are hawks looking for a quick feed

Fitzroy Crossing/Geikie Gorge

Halls Creek/Geikie Gorge

6-7 August 2013

We are camped at the Fitzroy River Lodge and Caravan Park located on the Fitzroy River just outside of the township. The site is on 50 acres and it was nice to see grass, sealed roads within the park and lots of shady trees. The drive from Halls Creek is about 300km in distance and there is not much to see after driving across the Gibb.

This morning we decided to drive out to Geikie Gorge some 20km from the township to take a boat cruise. The cruises are run by DEC and go through the Geikie Gorge area – they are about an hour long with a commentary from the local indigenous community. At this time of the year they have four scheduled per day which is an indication of the number of people in the area. The boats can hold upward of 50 people on them and they can accommodate larger numbers if required.

The gorge is quite spectacular and one easily gains an appreciation of the size and volume of water that flows down this river when it is in flood. The photos below give some indication of the scenery.

We have had a relaxing day today after returning from the cruise and I have enjoyed sitting under a shady tree watching the caravans/campers come and go. Most are pulling in and the vast majority are on road caravans being towed by Toyota Landcruisers. They are everywhere and come in all shapes and models. All are driven by grey nomads. The most interesting viewing has been watching the wives direct their husbands into their caravan site. She is giving the signals and he is backing the rig into their site. Without a word of a lie, all have had words to say to one another, most cannot be repeated in this blog. Oh well I am thinking that will be me in a couple of years time. To avoid the argument, I think that I will let Lucy do the backing in whilst I do the directing. Most of the males appear to be ignoring the signals being given to them by their partners. Maybe it is a male thing? Not sure why!

Boarding our cruise boat

Banks of the Fitzroy near old Fitzroy Crossing

Geikie Gorge

Limestone cliffs

Fitzroy River views

Geikie Gorge

Geikie Ranges

Croc sunning itself

Old Fitzroy River crossing

 

Tomorrow we are off to Broome or Derby - we have to pick up the dead battery from the trailer (warranty claim) and exchange a faulty battery charger that we purchased from one of the local hardware store in Derby. Not sure how long this will all take. Cheers.

Halls Creek/Wolfe Creek Crater

Monday 5 August 2013

Halls Creek/Wolfe Creek Crater

Today was about driving out along the Tanami Road and viewing the Wolfe Creek Crater. The crater is a drawcard for many tourists travelling the Kimberley – Paul in particular was keen to view it. As we found out, the meteorite smashed into the area some 300 million years ago and left a crater that was 800m wide and 120m deep. However since that time, the inside of the crater has been filled by desert sands and it is only 20m deep. It does make for some spectacular viewing after a short climb to the top of the crater wall. The site is some 150km from Halls Creek and took us about 2 and half hours to drive out there. The road was in reasonable condition with parts of it being a flat clay surface wide enough for a small aircraft to land on. Of course we had the other extreme of corrugation in the road but the gods were smiling on us today and most stretches were only for short periods. So for five hours of driving and one hour of viewing, was it all worth it?

 

Tanami Road (good section)

 

Poor section

Looking up at crater wall

The pathway up

On top looking in

The crater

Carpark (no McDonald's out here)

One last look





 

 

Tomorrow we head for Fitzroy Crossing - not sure what to exect and/or see but looking forward to it.

Purnululu National Park - Bungles

Sunday 4 August

covering 1 to 4 August

Well here we are in Halls Creek after spending 3 nights in the Bungles staying at a DEC campsite at the southern end of the Bungles.

We drove from Kununurra on Thursday morning and headed south on the Great Northern Hwy. Rob departed last night after we had a great send off and dinner at the Pump House Restaurant. Dinner and drinks were on Rob to celebrate the end of our Gibb travels. Thanks Rob. We already miss your keen sense of humour, your cooking prowess and your can do attitude.

After a 50km drive into the Bungles from the Great Northern Hwy - it took us 2 hours on what can be described as one of the worst roads we have driven on even after the Gibb. The early part was very corrugated and then we crossed two ranges which resulted in the road becoming extremely windy and undulating. Most of the drive was in second gear sitting on 20-30km per hour. It was an experience I will remember for a long time. I am happy to admit that the car and trailer handled it ok although one of the covers on the shock absorber loosened and has dropped down. So that day was very much about driving into the park, finding a campsite (DEC required bookings being done through their Kununurra office) and then it was a further15 km drive into the site. We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves after setting up camp.

Friday 2 August 2013

Today was very much about exploring the southern side of the Bungles. The area known as Piccaninny is where we explored – it takes about 30 minutes to drive to the carpark from our campsite at Walardi and we were in location by about 8.30am.

From the drive in to the car park we could see the beehives which the Bungles are known for. All very stunning. We walked the Domes walk first a 700m loop, then connected with the Cathedral Gorge track which is a 2 km round trip walk. The Gorge is simply stunning and opens out into a cathedral like gorge. We then continued onto the Piccaninny Creek walk and continued to the Window. We walked up a creek bed which was very rocky although the rocks were quite smooth and made for easy walking. The domes were all round us and the scenery was quite stunning from the dried river bed. From the Window we decided to walk to the Whip Snake Gorge which is a 10km return trek from the start. On our return from the Gorge we turned off to have a look at the Piccaninny Creek lookout for some stunning views. It was at this site that Paul ran into their (both Paul and Sue Hewitt) long time friends Peter and Marg Hunter and his brother Eric and his wife. Paul knew that they were travelling up to Cape York and then coming over to the Gibb for a stint but he did not know their exact movements. To think that we ran into them at a particular point and at a particular time is just amazing. Anyway it was catch ups all round with photos being taken.

On our walk

 

Drive in to Bungles

Beehives

Cathedral Gorge

 

Picaninny Creek walk

 

 

Whip Snake Gorge

The Window

The Window

 

Bungles pose

 

Paul, Marg and Peter Hunter, and Lindsay meet at Piccaninny Lookout

 

We departed the car park around 1.30pm and headed back to our camp. It was a hot day with the temperatures hovering in the low to mid 30s. The breezes in the area were very welcome as they were cooling. We rested and recovered from our walk which we estimated was about 12 km in length. A few cold tubes and a bottle of red were just the treat we needed to ease the aches and pains from our walk.

 

 

Saturday 3 August

Today we headed to the north side of the Bungles. You do not realise just how large an area mass that they occupy. Some 50km by about 40km. Anyway it takes some time to drive into position and we drove about 35km which took us about 40 minutes. The northern side is very different to the southern side which is the more well know site with the Beehive type topography. The northern side is very much about sandstone and conglomerate rock faces with the escarpment being somewhat taller than the southern side.

Anyway we walked into the Echidna Chasm after viewing the Osmand Ranges. These ranges are 1.8 billion years old compared with the Bungles that are a mere 360 million years old. Quite stunning and humbling. The Chasm was just spectacular and nothing that I have seen before. We did not gain this appreciation from our earlier aircraft flight over the Bungles from Kununurra.

After the walk back out we then walked into the Mini Palm Gorge which again proved to be a stunner. The photos will attest to this. More Australians should be viewing this scenery.







Entry to Echidna Chasm

Walking into the chasm

The Chasm walk

Entry to Echidna Chasm

Taking a breather inside the Chasm

Rockfall but the walk continues

 

 

More of the Palms

 

View of Osmond Ranges

Walk into gorge

Trails ends Mini Palms Gorge

Lunch at Mini Palms Gorge and a soldier's five

We finished our walking in the early afternoon and headed back to camp. It was interesting to note that the temperature in the northern end of the Bungles was 25 degrees but it was 31 degrees by the time we got back to our camp. Anyway we settled in for the afternoon with a few chores to undertake - Paul needed to check out the shock absorbers and do some tightening whilst I needed to download photos.

Today the 4th of August was all about heading out of the Bungles and driving to Hall Creek. From here we have set up our trailer in the local caravan park and tomorrow we head to Wolf Crater. We will leave the trailer in the park and drive down early tomorrow returning late afternoon.