The Month of August Halls Creek to Darwin 2013

Caroline Pool 1st - 2nd August

The start of the month saw us drive around 150klm from Mary Pool at Margaret River and headed to Halls Creek. This is a town with an IGA and a new service station, it also has quite a few government buildings as this is the feeder for the area for stations and farms. It provides a lot of resource for local aboriginals and so the indigenous population outnumbers the white by quite a margin. 

Went for a town walk which was quite quick and not much history as this was not the original Halls Creek. Alcohol restrictions are quite tough here, nothing more than an alcohol content of 2.7 may be purchased as a take away. You can drink what you like on the premises but can only take home light beer.

The old Halls Creek is located around 10 klm inland and was moved in the fantastic year of 1955. Originally old Halls Creek was a supply station for the local area but when supplies were starting to be transported by aircraft they had to find a flat area to build an airstrip. The location was where Halls Creek now stands. Initially everything stayed at Old Halls Creek but when the Ant bed brick Post Office closed and moved closer to the air field, the rest of the town moved as well.

We decided to go for a run out to old Halls Creek and Caroline Pool with van on and then move on to the Bungles later in the day.

 
The first stop was China Wall, this is a stream of Quartz that extends from here to Kunnanurra. The forces turned this layer onto it's side and then millions of years of erosion has left this pure white quartz wall up to 2 metres thick and extending quite a few metres out of the ground. This wall then meanders up and down hills and valleys, quite a sight to see. We are told that this wall runs all the way up to Kunnanurra. 

 

On to Caroline Pool, quite a nice little gorge with a swimming hole so we decided to go in to turn the van around. Big mistake, it was like having a huge anchor on the back of the car. The creek bed which looked hard at first just opened up and swallowed the car and caravan, whoops is all I could say.

Luckily there were 2 other campers here who came over to give me a hard time. Harry from Bunbury and Dave from Toowoomba. We including Patrice dug and dug, put ramps under the wheels but no matter how much we snatched and pulled we could not get the car out while it was attached to the van. I let the tyres down and unattached the van and the car came out very easily.

Now the problem is that the van is sunk in gravel. The only thing I could do was to attach a snatchem strap to the front of the car and the other end to the A frame of the van and give it a huge tug. After a total of 4 hits the van was out on solid ground, I guess we need to stay now and provide a few beers to the helpers.

It is interesting how things turn out, 8 of us sat around the camp fire chatting and drinking and having a great time.

As we were calling it a night Harry made the offer to look after our van so that we could go for a drive in the morning before we took off to the Bungles.

Dave and Annette piled into our car with us and off we went looking for Old Halls Creek and Saw Pit Gorge. The road was newly graded so other than thick bull dust the road was pretty good.

 

  
  
The town site was just up the road and was interesting to walk through, along with the Lodge, an old run down caravan park beside the pioneer cemetery.

This would have been a classy joint in it's day but it has had its day. The old town site is laid out with markers, the only building remains are the old post office which is now preserved under a large roof and surrounded by a chainwire wall. The building is now in ruins as it was built of Antbed and Spinifex bricks which have decayed over the years.

Onto Palm Spring which was another 15 klm of bull dust, we heard a call over the radio to say that there were 9 large rigs heading our way.

Fortunately you get plenty of notice because of the huge dust cloud approaching. It looks like a mining camp is being moved as they are large dongers (If that is how you spell it) on Off Road trailers being dragged along at a great rate of knots.

We found Palm Spring which was quite picturesque which has a spring pouring fresh filtered water into the pool. I tasted a hand full of water and it was quite sweet in taste.

We turned around to head towards Saw Pit Gorge. The road was about 2 klm from the main road and looks like a grader has been down here recently, I hope we don't meet it as we have nowhere to go. Fortunately we did meet the grader but is was right at the end of the road.

The gorge itself was surrounded by vertical rock outcrops and a small spring trying to empty more water into the pool. It was like it was in it's final moments of life.

We better head back as we told Harry that we would be away for a couple of hours, we should have been back at 10.30 to start packing up and it is now 12.30.

We are heading back and I get the feeling that the car is not handling as well as what it was. As we came into the camp I sensed that we may have a flat tyre. I stopped the car, hopped out and sure enough the rear tyre while not flat was certainly losing air.

After removing the wheel I found a hole in the tread from what appeared to be a rock sliver, probably from the grader.

Fortunately I had a repair kit and was able repair the hole but unfortunately it looks like the side wall has been damaged as it has a bubble in it.

I put the spare on and hope like hell I don't need a spare until we get to Kunnanarra.

Looks like we are spending another night camped on the banks of the gorge at Caroline Pool, I can think of worse places to stay.

Spring Creek 3rd - 4th August

 

Packed up early to head towards Halls Creek on our way to the Bungle Bungles. We need a bit of water so we popped into the Information Centre, we can get it here at 20c a litre, I don't think so.

Neil and Moni contacted us and it looks like we will catch up at a free stay tonight at the entrance to the Bungle Bungles. We decided to book a 4WD bus tour of the national park as I am still a bit shattered from the events of the past 2 days.

Harry and Sandra have pulled up beside us as well. We are ready for happy hour this afternoon. We have arrived at 12.00 and it has been a stream of caravans coming in since we got here. The bottom camp area is full now the top one is as well, they are starting to pull off the road further up the entrance now. We are surrounded by these bulls and cows, the boys are a bit frisky at the moment.

6.45am start in the morning just a small happy hour.

Up early for the bus tour, Trice and Moni decided to warm up by wrestling a couple of crocs.

 

The bus was a brand new 4wd and although it wasn't a cheap tour after doing a tyre I wasn't willing to take any chances and desperately wanted to see the Bungle Bungles. On we hopped with 28 other adventurers. we were dressed ready to walk as the tour included 5 walks, morning tea, lunch and dinner tonight.

Off we head to towards the Purnululu National Park. Purnululu is the name given to the sandstone area of the Bungle Bungle Range by the Kija Aboriginal people. The name means sandstone or may be a cordon of bundle grass. The range, lying fully within the park, has elevations as high as 578 metres above sea level. It is famous for the sandstone domes, unusual and visually striking with their striping in alternating orange and grey bands. The banding of the domes is due to differences in clay content and porosity of the sandstone layers: the orange bands consist of oxidised iron compounds in layers that dry out too quickly for cyanobacteria to multiply; the grey bands are composed of cyanobacteria growing on the surface of layers of sandstone where moisture accumulates.

Yeah OK I pinched that description from the internet.

The Purnululu National Park is an island of land within a cattle property. It was made known to the general public when filmed by a news crew in 1980 and instantly became a success. The problem was that at this time the land was still being leased by the cattle owner and was getting a little upset at the trespassing tourist.

In 1987 it was declared a National Park and became known as Purnululu. The interesting thing is that now the State Government is responsible for the access to the park which is 53klm of dirt road which takes around 3 hours to travel.



In 2003 it was declared a World Heritage Site. Now if this was so important to the world wouldn't you think that more care would be placed on the maintenance of the roads? Over the years the Cattle Farmer has had to close the gates as he was getting sick and tired of people expecting the farm to tow people out of creeks, organize new tyres or transport broken cars to town.

Major road improvements were made in 2002 and regular grading since, the road was graded 1 month before our tour and boy is it rough, no way would I have brought my car into here.

It is dry and dusty as they have had the driest wet season on record with only 300mls.


Our first stop was the visitors centre and after sitting in the back of the bus on 53klms of rough road, it was nice to get out.

After a short break we head towards our first walk, Piccaninny Creek which incorporates Picaninny Gorge, The Domes Walk and the lookout. Before we head off we are treated to cake and biscuits and few other touristy things.

The rocks have to be seen to be believed, the view from the lookout and the walk into the gorge just took your breath away. There are plenty of other walks here but we are limited to just 3 before lunch.

Keith joined us for the walks and at 83 years of age kept up with us with no effort. A really interesting guy who has travelled the world. he has climbed many mountains, even Mt Everest as a younger man. He is the little man in the centre of the photo.

Cathederal Gorge just dwarfed you once you got inside. It is a huge Amphitheatre and if I ever wished that I could have sung it was now, I wanted so much to sing but I was concerned that I may have caused a rock fall.

I could have put a hundred photos up here as it is just beautiful







We left here and headed towards Echidna Chasm which is at the other end of the park and I have ended up in the front with the driver. Lunch is served before we head off.

As we walk into the gorge, we are surrounded by palms and rock that looks like gravel that has been concreted together. The faces just rise vertically and the gap is narrowing.

This is a Class 3 walk of around 2klm in length, at the end you climb a ladder into a chamber around 200 metres across. The rock formation and colours made this walk a highlight.






On the way out I got to spoil a shot of Trice giving Neil a big hug.







We had spent so long in the Echidna Chasm that we were now running out of time but we wanted to do the lookout which overlooks the Osmand Range.

Both Trice and I made a mad dash to the lookout where I got to play Indiana Jones standing on top of a rock.

Whoops we are the last ones back onto the bus.

A 53 klm trip back and I am sure that the roads are worse than this morning, the bus is rattling apart. When we got back I spoke to the driver and he said that the road is stuffed and will probably be closed soon. The rear suspension of the bus has had it.

We got to finish the fantastic tour with a dinner around the camp fire with the rest of the bus, what a great day.  

Kunanurra 5th - 9th August

Watch out Kunanurra, we are on the way. We pulled into a caravan park on the lake, great spot just out of the town centre. One of my first jobs is to get the tyre replaced. I made an attempt to get it replaced under warranty but when he took the tyre off it was more than evident that it was not the tyres fault. I told him to put a new tyre on without asking price as I did need it. All done and dusted, now how much? $415, if that the best you can do? Yep, I felt sorry for you and have already cut the guts out of it he said. Actually the price was pretty good as I paid $385 in Manjimup when I bought 4. 

I can now see why you either carry 2 spares or have the same wheels and tyres on your van.

Headed out to a Zebra Rock shop on the edge of town. The rocks are just amazing and to see a zebra carved out of Zebra Rock is just beautiful. If I had had a spare $1,200 I would have bought it.

The amount of water coming through town is huge as it feeds straight from Lake Argyle, the old crossing is now under water, there is plenty of work going on at the bridge. For a main highway the bridges up this way are pretty narrow if not single lane bridges.

Happy hour down on the lake with Neil and Moni listening to Irish Music as the sun sets, not bad, not bad at all.

Lake Argyle and Zebra Rock Mine 10th - 12th August

 

Packed and headed to Lake Argyle, Trice is feeling pretty crook which is getting worse as we get to Lake Argyle. 

She got straight out of the car and crawled into bed, she looks terrible. Bit of a shame as we were offered 2 seats on the sunset cruise but I have to knock it back and see how we go tomorrow. I had a bit of a wander around just to get an insight into this place.

Lake Argyle is Australia's largest artificial lake by volume. It is part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and is located near the East Kimberley town of Kununurra. The lake flooded large parts of the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley on the Kimberley Plateau about eighty kilometres inland from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, close to the border with the Northern Territory.

The primary inflow is the Ord River, while the Bow River and many other smaller creeks also flow into the dam. Depending what you read it is somewhere around 20 times the size of Sydney harbor. Apparently if you take a boat out into the centre you will need satellite navigation to find your way back. Looking over the edge of the infinity pool at the resort towards the red cliffs opposite with the afternoon sun on them is just spectacular.

The construction of the Ord River Dam was completed in 1971 by the American Dravo Corporation. The dam was officially opened the following year. The dam is 335 metres long, and 98  metres high. The earth-fill only dam wall at Lake Argyle is the most efficient dam in Australia in terms of the ratio of the size of the dam wall to the amount of water stored. The lake was named after the property it partly submerged, Argyle Downs.

In 1996, the spillway wall was raised by 6 metres, which doubled the dam's capacity.

Lake Argyle normally has a surface area of about 1,000 square kilometres. The storage capacity, to the top of the spillway is 10,763,000 megalitres. The lake filled to capacity in 1973, and the spillway flowed until 1984. Lake Argyle's usual storage volume is 5,797,000 megalitres, making it the largest reservoir in Australia. At maximum flood level, the lake would hold 35 million megalitres of water and cover a surface area of 2,072 square kilometres. This is about 1/10 the size of Great Britain, it is bloody huge.

The next morning Trice was feeling a bit better so I enquired about a sunset tour only to be told that we couldn't get in for a couple of days. We decided to pack up and head to Zebra Rock Mine on the other side of Lake Argyle.

We finally leave Western Australia after 8 months, did we see it all? Not a chance, we will have to come back again and again as there is so much to see and do.

This is something like a cross between a caravan park and freestay, no power or water but they did have toilets and showers as well as the shop. We booked in for the cruise later today and funnily they asked what we liked to drink, beer, wine etc, a bit strange but I said all of the above.

We were then given a tour of the shop and shown the different types of zebra rock.  Zebra rock is a strange patterned silt stone (siliceous argillite) unique to the Ranford formation in the Kununurra district in the East Kimberley region.

We are allowed to fossick for rock directly around the camp. We dug and dug and finally located a couple of nice pieces, I will be able to put these with the shells and see if we can overload the van a bit more.

Time for the cruise 4.00 'till 8.00 with 12 other people. We all piled into a 4WD bus and headed to the lake's edge. Normally this drive along tracks is only about 1 kilometre but as they have only had around 1/3 of the usual rainfall the trip is now 10 kilometres.

We pile onto a large flat bottom boat along with 2 large eskys. The wetlands are just full of wildlife, fresh water crocs, Jabirus and stalks are joined by ducks, finches, pelicans and other things I couldn't describe.

Mad Max the tour guide did a great job telling us about the fauna before heading back to the lake's edge to watch the sun starting to set. Out came the eskys which were filled with Beer, Wine and savories. Max made the statement that these eskys have never been emptied, silly man.

This boat load of grey nomads was out to prove him wrong. The boat which was very demure going out was a lot noisier when we got back in to watch the sunset from the boat. I spent most of my time out the back taking photos so I wasn't participating as much as the rest. After 4 hours on a great cruise most of  the passengers were off their face and the esky was not empty.

Trice and one of her new lunatic friends decided to play a trick on Max by emptying the eskys but all that happened was that Max got shitty because he thought these 2 inebriated woman were stealing the grog. After an extended happy hour the next morning it was funny seeing little old ladies with hang overs.
We met some great people and it was a laugh a minute. A great couple from Tassie who set a goal of skinny dipping in every water hole along the Gibb River Road, yes they achieved it with some funny moments.

I booked a fishing trip but due to low numbers had to be cancelled, story of my fishing luck at the moment.

Our last night was spent with Neil and Moni again, after we leave them in the morning we will probably not see them until we drop in to say gidday next year. 

The hosts and the guests were fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. 

Darwin 12th - 17th August

 

Time to pack up for Darwin.

We are a little short on fuel and may not make Katherine so we stopped at Timber Creek for lunch and fuel, $2.05 a litre, just $50 will be enough.

We decided to stop at a freestay some 100 kilometres short of Katherine, toilets and a dump site and a great happy hour with quite a few laughs made the whole thing worthwhile.

Katherine, it appears to be a lot cleaner and tidier than 3 years ago when we were here. Time for a bit of shopping, fuel and is that a car wash? I put the car and van through the car wash, is that the colour they are supposed to be?

It was nice to just wander around out of the red dust in air conditioning. On the road again this time another 125 klm to a freestay. As we approach this stay about 70 klm short of Bachelor there are smoldering timbers everywhere. Apparently the camp site was surrounded in fire the night before, a big tree behind us is still smoldering away. A lot of vans here but everyone is keeping to themselves, it is strange how the atmosphere can change so much from one camp to another. The beauty of this form of travel is you can just pack up and move on.

Just on dinner time we hear this almighty crash and it is the tree that was smoldering , it decided to call it quits and do a belly flop on the ground.

Another great night of sleep and only 15 minutes to pack up has us back on the road for Darwin, only 200 klms and 3 sleeps before we jump on a plane back to Brisbane, can't wait.

In the lead up to leaving it is time to clean the car and van properly, Patrice is in one of her cleaning frenzies. Surprisingly even though Trice spent the day cleaning, there was virtually no dust inside the van, it has performed very well considering the amount of dirt roads that we have been on.

This is a great spot to leave the van, $8 a day to leave the car and van connected to power and $25 a day plus power to stay here. We are on the other side of the airport from Darwin City only 16klm out of town and a $16 cab fare to the airport.

Brisbane 17th - 28th August

 

A 3 1/2 hour flight back to Brisbane, Sam and Teneal picked us up from the airport, many hugs and kisses.

It was fantastic to see 3 of our grandchildren who spoilt us with daily hugs and kisses as well as Shell and Ben looking after us while we were there, love you guys. Ben and Shell have done great job in looking after the house and yard, it looked fantastic.

We went to see our son Josh finish the Ride for Cancer at the Qld University and were excited to see the girls but it was all over in 20 minutes.

We got to see our grandson Cohen's last game of football for the season. Our 11 nights at home was great with mowing chopping trees and making stuff and of course the major cause for our return home, the Engagement of Sam and Teneal.

A huge night finishing around 3.00am, the next day we we able to see our old skiing group at the final tennis day at our friend's home, after 29 years the tennis days are no longer.

We saw many friends and we were on the go for the whole time that we were there, it was sad to leave and the cuddles at the airport were long but the trip home had left us exhausted.

Darwin 28th - 31st August

 

Back to Darwin, Trice's doctor wanted her to stay in Brisbane but as we couldn't change our flights we decided to see a doctor in Darwin, nothing serious just precautionary. Because of this we are now here until the middle of next month.

Thursday nights are the Mindill Markets, they are enormous and full of activity, entertainment and stalls, Trice was like a kid in a lolly store. We both had a Chinese massage and boy were they deep.

 
The didge player was amazing with everyone clapping, young aboriginal girls dancing.
 

One of the aboriginal mothers was carrying around a water bottle, I was hoping it was wine otherwise it was urine.
We watched the sunset on Mindill Beach along with hundreds of other people, would have been great to have had a bottle of wine. 

5 hours of walking listening to the didge player and singers everywhere and even a fire eater, time to head back.

 

 

 

Today is the last day of the month so I grabbed the ride on mower and gave the lawns a bit of a clean up here.