Day 165 20/5/14 – Bungle Bungles – Dunham River Rest Area WA

Today is one that will be pretty hard to beat! 

We were up early and had everything packed up in the van nice and early before we headed to the local airport. As part of our ‘are we there yet’ tour of Australia we had to not only visit the Bungle Bungles but we had to fly over it in a helicopter with no doors! Originally we were going to do it yesterday afternoon but we decided to delay it in the hope of the cloud cover clearing....and it was as gamble that paid off, there was not a cloud in the sky!

The boys were pretty excited, as were both De and I, about the chance of not only going for a flight in a helicopter but doing it over the Bungles! The staff were really good and gave us the chance to have a look at one of the copters before we flew with the boys sitting in the drivers seat pretending to be pilots. 

When it came to our turn we were marshalled out to the copter that had just returned and strapped in. I was in the front with De behind the pilot and the boys were strapped into the same seat behind me (I was really happy about that as we only had to pay for 1 person as together they weighed less than 77kgs – yeah) The pilot wrote a few numbers on a scrap of paper and then we were off. The next 18 minutes felt like 25 seconds as we went to the centre of the rock, flying over some of its central gorges and then back over the top of the bee hive domes doing a couple of S turns as he went. Jim, was a great host and provided an interesting commentary as we went. In order to capture the ‘moment’ I had my ‘go pro’ strapped to my head and madly clicked away with the camera while De had the video camera going.

Once it was over we had to peel De’s hands of the handle as her nails were embedded into the steel bar! While it wasn’t terrifying cruising a thousand feet in the air with nothing but a car seat belt to stop you plummeting to your death can be a bit scary!

We didn’t have much time to stop and reflect on our trip as we were on our second mission of the day..to get to Echidna Gorge by 11:30! We flew back to the campground, hooked Gator on, roared to the information centre and unhooked and unburdened again I channelled Mika Hakinen as we drove the 30 kms to the gorge. My knee was still a bit gummy but I wasn’t going to let it slow me down as we arrived at the gorge and I rock hopped the 1km to the entrance. Why the hurry I hear you ask? Echidna Gorge is an amazing feature where you walk along a gap 1 or 2m wide into the rock. Each side of you are sheer walls 75, 100m or higher that literally go straight up! We walked deeper and deeper into this crevasse, taking a few shots as I went. I wasn’t 100% happy and I thought I had missed the opportunity when Jack pointed out that it looked pretty good looking the other way....and there it was!

At a certain point during the day the sun is in just the right position to flood the crevasse right to the bottom, which makes a pretty cool pic. I really wish I knew how to operate my camera better as, while I am pretty happy with the pic I took, know it would have been better if I had more knowledge! Happy that had captured my ‘shot’ explored further and further eventually pulling up some 3 – 400m into the rock! Somehow I had pictures of Indiana Jones and walls closing in on me shoot through my head as we meandered back down the path.

Happy with our mass of experiences before lunch we calmly drove the 30kms back to the information centre where we hooked up Gator and drove the 52kms back to the park gate. The big benefit was that the grader had been working and more than half of the creek crossings now resembled a slowly sloping U rather than V, knocking more than half an hour of our journey for the 52kms stretch!

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving...something we are pretty good at doing. We eventually pulled up at a rest area at it seemed like the hoard of gray nomads had caught up with us. We had heard that they all left on Mother’s day and it must have taken them a week to get here as there were at least 25 other vans crammed in. I whipped up a quick dinner and the boys hit the sack after a massive day. De and I sat in the darkness and once the %^*^$( across from us turned his generator off we enjoyed the silence looking up to the stars!

Day 164 19/5/14 – Bungle Bungles WA

We again planned to be up and at them early, in order to miss the heat of the day, and again we failed miserably only making it to the walking track by 9:30. My knee had blown up again last night so, loaded up with voltarin to keep the swelling down, we hit the tracks around the world famous beehives. Around this time of the year they get a couple of cloudy days every 3 or 4 months.....and today was one of them. While it did assist in keeping the sun of our heads during the walk it also dulled the oranges, whites and blacks that the Bungles are so famous for.

While it wasn’t perfect it was still in the high 90’s and we walked along the creek beds that form the walking paths in the dry season. The domes were pretty amazing with the contrasting colours simply the result of some areas having cynobacteria (blue green algae) and others not having it. I loved the way many of the domes walls were made of what it appeared to be massive mosaics with thousands and thousands of tiles each a different hue.

We travelled further along to the ‘Catherderal’ that is an awesome spot. You follow the creek bed as it winds its way deeper and deeper into the massive rock that is the bungle bungles. It gradually becomes narrower and narrower until it is only 3 or 4 m wide and then it opens up into an extraordinary space. It is almost circular, maybe 75m in diameter, with a sheer wall running 60 or 70m  straight up on one side and on the other the weather has worn it away into a huge convex roof that overhangs at least half of the cave. There is a small pool in the middle that would be a substantial pool anywhere else but is dwarfed by the chasm above it. I have tried my best to capture it but without some very expensive lenses feel that it is virtually impossible. The only hope of portraying it is by looking for De in the photo below that will hopefully provide some perspective!

That'd De in the bottom right hand corner!

The sun started to come out as we were leaving, and so did the colours!

We wondered on to a lookout where we had an early lunch where we chatted with a Swiss couple we had seen a number of times before about all things Australian. It was pretty warm and my knee was becoming uncooperative so we decided to call it quits and head back to the van for a quite afternoon. We were all still recovering from the rodeo so a nana nap was in order but unlike a couple of days ago I was smart enough to have enough fuel to give us a good snooze!

Nothing terribly eventful happened for the remainder of the day except for the evening toad hunt where we ventured into the dry creek bed in search of the nasty creatures. Every now and then a small puddle remained that had 5, 10 or 15 toads around its edge. The boys were now proficient toaders and were holding onto two or three at a time to maximise the catch before they disappeared into the grass. After 45 minutes I declared that was enough as with 150 toads on board my arm was getting pretty sore!

Day 163 18/5/14 – Kununurra Rodeo Grounds – Bungle Bungles WA

It had been a late night so it took us all a while to get moving, eventually we headed back into Kununarra grabbed some supplies and headed south, towards the Bungle Bungles. It is a fair hike down the road and we had a late lunch while we let the tyres cool at the entrance to the park.

We had heard about the road in, as being the roughest ‘public’ road around and it didn’t take long to confirm the rumors were true. While the track its self could use a good grade there had to be more than 30 creek crossings that were pretty steep to go in and out of. So while most of the driving was around 30 or 40km/hr occasionally getting up to 50 or 60 it was down to 5 or 10 every couple of Ks for a crossing. In the end it took 2 hrs to go the 52kms to the information centre and then another ½ hour to get to the camp ground. It was about 4 by the time we got there and had been on the road all day so we set up and chilled for the remainder of the afternoon.

In WA the national parks often have ‘camp hosts’ whose main job is to ensure that everybody has paid their camping fees and in return they can camp for free. Gene, our camp host, had taken it to a new level. The cane toad, so familiar to most Queenslanders, has made it to the Kimberley and a few people are making an effort to slow their progress (I say slow as you cannot hold back the tide) and Gene is the poster boy for this dedicated bunch of greenies, earning the name Toadmandu. It wasn’t long before he had commandeered the boys into tonight’s toad hunt supplying them with gloves and a big plastic bag.

After dinner we donned out headlamps and went on the chase. The boys were initially hesitant to grab them but Jacko had a thick glove and after his first few was onto them. Sam took a little longer to master the art of toad catching, with his slight hesitation causing many a toad to escape into the long grass. After about 45 minutes we had completed the loop of the campground and had scored out ton...yep 100 toads in less than an hour! We tied up our now wreathing bag of toady yuck washed the boys down, as the toads often pee when they are picked up, and deposited two very tired souls into bed. 

As we lay in bed I could hear a strange sound outside and I wondered if it was a dingo getting into our rubbish or something more sinister. Upon investigating I realised that it must have been the sports carnival in the toad bag as they were all playing leap frog trying to get out.....

Day 162 17/5/14 – El Questro Station – Kununurra Rodeo Grounds WA

Our time at El Questro and on the Gibb had come to an end so we were all a bit philosophical, it had been an awesome two weeks however the whole time we had been timing it to pop out at the other end just in time for the Kununurra Bushman’s Rodeo...Yeeha!

We headed into town and parked outside the visitor information centre. De and the boys headed to the Saturday markets while I pulled up my chair and attempted to upload some blogs. You meet a lot of people when you travel and over the next hour I must have chatted with 5 or 6 families that were also in town for the rodeo, resulting in my uploading of zero blogs.....the pressure!

We picked up a few essentials and headed for the Rodeo grounds, where we would be camping for the night, as it was, you guessed it..free! After a quick lunch we laid down for a nana nap, but as I lay there in a pool of perspiration I decided it was time to get the generator out and crank the AC up! Our AC unit tells you what the current temp is and its first reading let me know it was 39oC....no wonder the boys were struggling to sleep. All was going well for 20 minutes until the genne ran out of fuel and I didn’t have any left...oh well we had a small respite! The boys and I went for a bit of an explore around the ‘other’ side of the grounds, checking out the bulls and horses as well as looking at the chutes.

By 4 the crowds were starting to roll in so we donned our best country looking gear and headed the 150m to the grounds. We had put our chairs out earlier reserving the best spot, straight across from the chutes and by 5:30 it was all happening. Rob and Cad with the BFF had joined us as had another couple that they had met along the way with a swarm of kids sitting with their heads pressed between the metal bars of the fence. There were sqeals of delight as the horses and then bulls threw their riders and galloped past spraying dirt and manure all over them as they all reeled away from the fence. The B grade bulls were first and the rodeo clowns showed amazing timing and skill in evading their charging and swinging head and horns.

The next four hours was much of the same with the swarm of travelling kids increasing in size and the giggles of delight peaking when a saddle bronc charged straight out of the chute, directly across the arena to where we were sitting with the rider showing incredible courage, not flinching an iota as it careered towards the fence turning with a millimetre to spare. I think his name must have been Moses as the swarm parted like the red sea as if the 100mm metal fence infront of them didn’t exist. If they remember nothing else from the rodeo it will be that one ride!

Another highlight was the station challenge where two people (there were a couple of chicks so I can’t say blokes) race to the chutes, one climbs over grabbing a yearling’s head while the other opens the gate. The beast then takes off, with the ‘header’ attempting to slow its path enough for the gate opener to grab hold of its tail and direct it across the arena to an imaginary finish line. This is where the fun began as they then had to drag the beast to the ground! There was an array of methods being used that stick out. One of the riders had also entered and was the tailer. His header had let go but that wasn’t deterring him as the beast dragged him around the arena with him resolutely holding onto his tail. It felt like about 10 minutes but probably would have only been 30 seconds, but I think I would have lasted 2 or 3 seconds. 

The other memory was Chris, who had taken the boys riding at El Questro, was in the finals and was tailing. He was trying desperately to fling his beast to the ground but it wouldn’t go, so instead he changed plan and executed a text book rugby tackle sliding down the hind legs and holding on as it desperately tried to kick free. It came down with a thud with them winning, the swarm rising as one as most of them had also been riding with him!  For all of their effort the pair won $120, not much considering the entry fee was $45 each!!!!

The events were over and the buckles presented and all of the other campers had left as the band started up. We caught up with our travel companions Logan and Larissa for a few more brews and for some reason Logan thought it would be a good idea to head into the arena where all of the kids were now playing....big mistake. A few seconds later he was mobbed, led by Jack and Sam, he held them off for a while but there were a dozen adrenalin filled kiddies desperate to tryout their new found bull riding skills, using him as the bull! I did consider going to help him but wisely reconsidered! Ten minutes later he re-emerged from a world record dog pile and sprinted for the fence, with new found stepping skills that would have got him a start in any NRL or AFL team he darted and weaved his way, spitting out mouthfuls of dirt and manure as he went. He made it with milliseconds to spare and while he had a few more drinks with us, he never really recovered!

 

The next morning, at the servo, we ran into the winner of the bull ride!

Last drinks were called and we headed across to our ‘swag’ and I am pretty sure we were all asleep by the time the key was inserted in the door!

Day 161 16/5/14 – El Questro Station WA

The boys have been pretty keen to go horse riding since we hit the road and this looked like a pretty cool place to do it. We signed them up for the 10am class and headed out to Zeebeedee Springs, a thermal spring, to start the day. This place is really cool (I’ll spare you the corny joke) as you have 28oC water bubbling up from underground and down a series of waterfalls while you sit in a rare palm forest (or is it a plantation?) There are about 15 pools but there was a tour bus in so we had to invade somebody else’s until they were give there marching orders by their guide, who must have been taking his leadership classes from the Gestapo. As they filtered out we relaxed to the bubbling sound of waterfalls all around us. It was pretty damn good! I wanted to stay longer but we had to go back for the cowboy lesson.

They were a picture as they headed off for the stables. 5 months is a long time, in growing terms, for two young boys with both of them looking like Forest Gump with their ankles clearly visible. To make things worse they didn’t have belts so they had fashioned one each using bits of rope!

They were excited to say the least and were bursting at the seams as Chris, the lead cowboy (sorry he is American so he used spaghetti western terminology), bought the horses into the yards. It wasn’t long before they were saddled up and with the boys on board we lead them out of the yard. We lead them for a lap of the paddock before Chris took them one at a time for a short trot.

For those who have never trotted a horse it is a pretty disconcerting feeling as it bounces along under you and you are in turn bounced inordinately on top of it. Jacko looked like he was kind of having fun as he felt his spine disappear behind his ears a couple of times but Sam had no idea what to do and at one stage I was almost certain he was going to end up on his head he was on such a lean!

Note the angle Sam is sitting at!

With the riding part over they helped to wash the horses down and you could already start to see a bit of a link between them and the animals.

Just as we were leaving the stables a Jayco drove down the drive way and the boys were off in a flash after it, as their BFF Finn had re-appeared! They were having problems with their fridge and after a quick look knew it was beyond me. Finn hung around until lunch when they headed off to a private camp site down the river with a couple of other families.

After lunch we headed off to El Questro Gorge. The gorge is pretty narrow so even though it was a pretty warm day and the sun was high in the sky we were walking in the shade, making it even more enjoyable! We rock hopped our way to halfway pool, which funnily enough is half way along the track. We had a quick swim and then scrambled our way to the top of the rock that forms a rather difficult part of the walk. We decided not to continue on but rather to have a bit of fun swimming in the pool, diving off the rocks The water was so incredibly clear and refreshing!

 

In the afternoon we headed down to their camp and had a couple of relaxing beers as the kids run amuck without any worry about cranky grey nomads giving us the eye! Note: Grey nomads as a whole really enjoy having the boys around but there seems to be one at every camp ground that sits there giving us the eye as the boys run/ride/climb/throw/be boys – so far I have avoided sharing my opinion about their evil eye with them, but time will tell if I can continue to restrain myself!

It had been another busy day so we left the serenity of the private camp and headed to our camping area where a quick dinner was had and we were all asleep at the drop of a hat.

Day 160 15/5/14 – El Questro Station WA

Today was fishing day, with the goal for everybody to catch a barra. We were up at 5:15 and on the road by 5:30 heading back out to the Gibb and the 30kms back to the Pentecost Crossing. We had been given a mud map of where to go by Logan and we tried to navigate our way down some rough tracks to find ‘the killin’ tree’. Having no real idea of what a ‘killin’ tree’ looked like we found a place to launch Rufus and hit the water. It was a bit hair raising loading the boat up and pushing it into the river from a muddy sandbank, beside a river that we know is inhabited by a number of salt water crocs.

Our target destination was ‘barradise’ just down the river but as we came closer to it, it became apparent that the rocks were in a different spot to last year and that we were going to be fishing where we were. No problem, there would have to be something in this stretch! It was a very rocky bottom going between 20cm and 4m in depth about 1 km in length, so we started trolling. It took me a while to work out the lay of the land but after a couple of runs I was pretty confident, despite a lack of structure, that we would have some luck. Up and down we went another 3 or 4 times until Jack noticed that the rocks covering the path to barradise were ‘gone’. The tide had come in and we made a break for it!

I had been saving my “Yo-Zuri” lure for a special place and this looked just right! We trolled a meter or two from the bank in 3m of water and within a few minutes I was on! Yeah! It was only a little one but it was a good sign! 

What a good looking rooster!

We trolled on down and then turned and headed back up the 300m stretch. By the time we got back to the ‘top’ i noticed that the rocks blocking our path out of barradise were still not visible but the movement on top of the water indicated it was no longer as deep. One more run, and no bloody fish, later and Jacko pointed out that we could now see them. One more run...this has to be the one! 

Unfortunately nothing liked our pieces of hard plastic with hooks on them so we headed for the rocks.

When we crab in SE QLD I regularly find myself dragging the tinny across mud flats looking for stingrays as we go and have often joked that there is no way I would do this up north....think again! I now had 150m of slippery rocks infront of me with water rushing over them that I had to drag the boat back up. Oh...did I happen to mention one of the locals Elvis who lives in the puddle about 200m down the river...Elvis is a 4m+ salty. I gave the boys a pep talk about looking for crocs, took the head of my landing net (as the stick part was now my first and only line of defense against a croc) jumped out and dragged the boat up stream. Needless to say I was pretty bloody grateful to have made it to the end of it and have my body back on the right side of the flimsy piece of aluminium I call a boat.

We trolled back along the same path and on our first run Sam got a hook up and as Jack started to bring his lure in so did Jack! Jack hauled his little barra in no problem but Sam was having a bit more of a problem and it was staying down really low, rather than trying to jump like barra sometimes do. I got a glimpse of it and was very excited as Sambo desperately tried to keep his fish from disappearing under the boat. He got it back up and the landing net engulfed him..a nice 40cm Mangrove Jack! Yeah! Not wanting to replicate my mistake on the Durack he was promptly cut and we even went as far as taking him back and depositing him in the fridge in the truck!

We trawled for a while longer seeing some action of the depth sounder but we couldn’t convince them to try our lures out. The tide was now in far enough for us to drag Rufus far enough up the beach that we could empty and load her without looking like croc bait. We headed back, not entirely satisfied but pretty happy as we had all caught a fish and dinner was taken care of.

Back at camp we headed for a swim and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon getting the camp fire going and having a few quite drinks. My plan had worked pretty well as my knee was back to about 80% so we are hitting some of El Questro’s famous gorges tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Day 159 14/5/14 – El Questro Station WA

The drugs had worked wonders over night and I was feeling a lot better in the morning. There are a heap of 4WD tracks around El Questro so to give my knee as bigger break as possible we lacked Izzy up, let down her tyres and hit the road.

 Our first target was Pigeon Hole and we got to the look out with consummate ease. The view was pretty good as we had a 360o view around us. We headed along the track a bit and then doooown to Pigeon Pool, a natural Billabong on the river. This part of the track was the roughest we had seen on this trip and I enjoyed the challenge as we rocked and bumped our way down the rocky track. There were a couple of drop offs that I decided would be worth a look before crossing them but both ended up to be relatively easy. At the pool we got the rods out and had a cast and some morning tea. Luckily we weren’t relying on our fishing skills for morning tea!

We climbed back in and climbed back up the way we came. Luckily as a young’en my parents had a small farm, a fair bit of which was the side of a mountain so I had been well prepared. We motored on and crossed the Pentecost, but at a different spot than on the Gibb. A few hundred meters up from the crossing is the El Questro Homestead which has a magic view across the river and to the mountains, but at around $2500/night I thought they wouldn’t know what to do with me!

We followed the track along to Branco’s look out, which was even more spectacular than Pigeon Hole and then back down to Explosion Gorge, named after a dynamite fishing style that used to be practiced there. We walked down with the rods and lunch and had a great time trying to catch that elusive barra! Unfortunatley we came back empty handed but when you are fishing in gorges, rivers and holes as majestic as this it really doesn’t matter!

It was getting pretty warm so after lunch we headed back and straight for the swimming hole at the El Questro. There is a beautiful green grassy area beside the river where they have created a swimming hole where the water runs out of it over some ‘rapids’. The boys got their boogie boards and had a ball bouncing down it with De and I eventually being made to have a go. I am not sure why De choose to go over it on the tyre tube but it was a doomed mission from the start!

In the afternoon the boys and I headed up to the stables where we met Chris who kindly offered me a beer and then taught the boys (and me) how to crack a whip. Jacko was reasonably quick to get it cracking once he understood that the ‘crack’ of the whip didn’t come from the whip hitting the ground but rather the ‘cracker’ coming back on its self. With all of my skill and dexterity I did manage to get it to make some noise but it was just a bit too hard for Sambo.

Before we going to the stable we were supposed to be finding out what time the sunset was...so once we realised it was getting dark we ran back to the van, grabbed De and headed up to Saddleback lookout to watch the sunset. We probably would have gone closer to seeing ‘it’ but all of the grey nomads had seen enough and were heading down the hill for their 5:30pm dinner while we were trying to go up! We got to the top and enjoyed a beer and a wine as the sun dipped behind the Kimberely Hills. It was awesome!

The rest of the night was the same as most of the previous 158 with us having dinner and slipping off to an early nights sleep!