Wednesday 28 August 2013 - heading to Port Smith

Wednesday 28 August 2013 - heading to Port Smith

We’ve enjoyed our final few days with Glenn’s parents and said goodbye to them yesterday morning. After leaving Middle Lagoon early Friday morning, we tackled the red dirt for another few hours until we hit the highway and headed into Derby. After fuelling up and restocking the fridge, pantry and grog supplies, we returned to the famous Gibb River Road, pulling up at a free bushcamp on the Lennard River crossing. Unfortunately there was a fly convention on at the same time, so we had to share our camp with thousands of the little buggers. When we dropped our rubbish off at the dump point just up the road on the way out in the morning, It occurred to us that our proximity to the waste collection point may have had something to do with the prolific number of swarming little black winged critters!

A short (20km) trip down the dirt took us to our next campsite, Windjana Gorge. We found a good spot and pottered around for most of the day, staying as cool as possible (it got up to 37 degrees that day), doing a bit of washing and generally bludging. We did go and have a look at the gorge, which is home to heaps of freshwater crocodiles (about 80 apparently) and that was pretty cool, but we didn’t do the big 5km walk because it was just too warm.

Prison Tree at Derby

Posing at the Prison Tree

Sunset near Lennard River

Windjana Gorgeous Gal

Poseur

Poseur 2

Who me?

Birdie, hunting amongst the crocs

Hanging out at Windjana

Another cool customer

Cool croc

Lots of crocs

The gorge

Glenn got a little closer to the critters

The following morning we checked out Tunnel Creek. It was pretty cool (literally), involving a bit of wading through water and torches. Afterwards we packed up and set off for Silent Grove, which is the campsite near Bell Gorge. We stopped at Lennard Gorge along the way, in the hopes of a cooling swim after lunch, but the walk in there is quite a big one, dangerous (along the ridge of the gorge) and in full sun so not ideal for the middle of the day. After a quick lunch we pushed on and found a lovely spot in the generator section of Silent Grove.

Kinda cute

The view of the mountain range right from our campsite

Lickin' those chops!

Napier Range and our gal

Our camp at Windjana

Setting off for Tunnel Creek

It's so tiring sitting in this backpack!

Near Tunnel Creek

Yas all set for her Tunnel Creek walk

Smile

The different coloured rocks at the entrance to the tunnel

The packhorse

Looking up inside Tunnel Creek

Stalactites (I think)

Rock, water

A little overexposed but shows how stunning it is

Eerie

Aboriginal art at the end of the tunnel

Glenn and Sienna in front of the artwork

Group pic!

On Monday, after lathering ourselves in sunscreen and loading up backpacks with towels, water, snacks etc, we drove the 10km to the start of the gorge walk. It’s about 40 minutes walking to get to the top of the waterfall and then another 15-30 minutes to climb down to the bottom, depending on your fitness. After umming and ahhing, we all decided we would do it and it was well worth it. The water was cool and refreshing and we had the whole place to ourselves. We spotted a quoll and a couple of water monitors while we were there and everyone had fun sliding down the mossy rocks like a slippery dip.

Queen Victoria's head (and Corrine and the van)

The top of Bell Falls 

Bell Falls

Looking down into the gorge

Kinda stunning

Corrine, Maree & Brian at the top of the gorge

Nudie gal

Another nudist

Cuddles on the rock

Beautiful red rocks

Nanna almost at the end of her downward climb

Cuddles at the bottom of the falls

That night we enjoyed a delicious corned beef that Maree cooked for everyone, with lots of yummy vegies and white sauce, followed by a few marshmallows roasted on the fire and a couple of choccies. It was our last supper, as we knew that the next day we’d be parting ways. Corrine had brought some sparklers for the girls and they enjoyed whizzing them around, although Sienna was a bit cautious because she’d burnt her fingers on one a few nights earlier. It was a really nice evening, tinged with sadness as we contemplated saying goodbye in the morning. 

A bucket of water keeps them amused for hours

The bread maker 

Relaxing in front of the van

Our gypsy camp

The tidy camp

Pyro preparing to bake his bread

Sunset boab

Bell Creek near our camp

Sienna taking me for a walk

Check those eyes

Palm fruit 

Dusk on boab 

Not sure what they are but they're pretty!

The time with Brian, Maree and Corrine was also very special because it was in remembrance of Corrine’s husband and Brian’s best friend Graeme, who passed away earlier this year. He built his caravan alongside Brian a few years ago and this trip was supposed to be its maiden voyage as a tourer, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be. Graeme was a passionate and enthusiastic traveller and although he wasn’t with us in body, he’s still travelling with Corrine in her heart. We’ve placed a special commemorative sticker on our vehicle in his honour.

Group photo

Closeup

Family pic - smile Yas!

And again

Last cuddles with Nanna and Grandad

This time Sienna's the camera-shy one

They're kinda looking

Corrine with her gals

So yesterday, after driving the 20km out of Silent Grove, we stopped at the turn-off to do a last check before heading our separate ways. The road was very corrugated and we weren’t looking forward to the rest of the drive back out towards Derby. Brian discovered he’d lost a bearing cap and Glenn had one spare, fortunately, so it was no big drama. After farewelling the oldies, we headed west again, but hadn’t got very far when Glenn noticed the right trailer wheel wasn’t looking too good. He pulled over to check it out and discovered a bearing had collapsed. We found a spot a little further up off the side of the road and the bush mechanic got to work. After nearly 2 hours in the hot sun, our wheel had a new bearing and a makeshift cap constructed out of a plastic measuring cup and electrical tape (cause we’d just given our spare one to Brian!). Glenn earnt his sundowner drink that night! We made it into Derby by the afternoon, picked up a few replacement trailer parts, gathered more alcohol, fuel and food supplies and then tootled off down to the Willare Bridge Roadhouse for the night.

The result

Lookin' good hey

The roadhouse had quite a nice campground. We could have gone a little further and stopped at a free bushcamp beside the river, but Glenn really needed a shower after the day’s adventures. It was certainly much more pleasant there than being crammed in with hundreds of others at a caravan park, like we would have if we’d stopped at Derby or gone on to Broome. The facilities were fair, although the mozzies came in thick and fast on dusk. They also liked hanging around the amenities block, in the hundreds! Fortunately they weren’t too bad and despite their abundance didn’t seem particularly hungry, but we got a car and camper-full which travelled with us all the way to Port Smith. 

We also had an interesting experience in the middle of the night, when the bellows of a few cattle nearby woke Glenn, Yasmin and myself up. It sounded like some young bullocks were getting a little aggressive with each other. We knew we were in cattle territory because the roadhouse sold Yeeda meat and we’d seen the turnoff to the station just before we reached Willare Bridge, but these fellas sounded pretty close. I asked Glenn if he thought they were inside the caravan park and he assured me they weren’t. Yasmin was getting a little worked up at this point, but we managed to convince her there was nothing wrong and she went back to sleep. After the noises continued for a few more minutes, they seemed to get louder and closer and I became more and more alert. Of course, as soon as I wake up properly I need to go to the loo, so I quietly unzipped the tent and snuck out, only to see the offending creatures cruising the campground 25-30 metres from our camper! Considering the toilets were over 100m away, I elected to do a bush wee on this occasion.