The Gibb River Road

On Sunday night we splashed out on a posh dinner at the Kununurra Grande Hotel where they even had white table clothes and a snobby Maitre D. We had tried to dine there last time we visited Kununurra, but weren't allowed in because Dave and Waz were wearing pluggers and singlets. Before departing for El Questro we had to arrange our fishing licences (you need a licence for everything in Western Australia) as well as pick up the new I-pilot remote. We were able to pick up the fishing licences, but the remote had not arrived at Kununurra so we left empty handed (Waz was not smiling).

It took less than two hours to drive to El Questro Wilderness Park and the road was in pretty good nick. When we arrived at the reception area we were greeted by a loud annoying girl who made absolutely no sense at all. She told us that we were not allowed to put our boat in the water because they rented boats themselves, and it would a "confliction of interest" if we did........ She also told us that we couldn't swim on the property because of the large salties, but then circled about 5 suitable swimming holes and told us that we could swim "wherever we felt comfortable except for the Pentecost and Chamberline River". She also had annoying habit of calling us "Buddy" and "Hun". We could go on all day about this annoying girl, but we won't because we paid our permits and fees and set up camp on our own private site by the Chamberlain River.

We spent our time at El Questro exploring the gorges (Emma, Explosion, Moonshine and of course the famous El Questro Gorge). Most of these required some "clambering" and even "scrambling" over the large red rocks in the scorching West Australian sun, but afterwards we were rewarded with a refreshing dip in a cool plunge pool. We also visited Zebedee Springs (thermal) early in the morning which was very invigorating. We drove up some extremely steep 4WD tracks which led to various lookouts where we enjoyed spectacular sunsets that were complimented with fancy cheese platters and ice cold drinks (I suppose we are glampers afterall).

an afternoon drive at El Questro

El Questro Gorge

Dead bats at Moonshine Gorge

Every cloud has a silver lining

On our last day at El Questro we decided to splurge and go Heli-fishing - you only live once!!!!! At 5.45am we met our shy lanky pilot Jay (who had 3 stripes) and before you knew it we were flying over Emma Gorge checking out the raging bush fires. After a truly amazing chopper flight we landed on a clearing at the West Arm of the Ord River. It only took a few moments until we had a line in the water (we were not interested in eating the brekkie supplied as we were too excited). Within a hour the four of us must have caught at least 10 Barras (plus Belle managed to land a stinking Catfish and Dave got an Archer). We were really enjoying ourselves, but Jay told us that he had purposely taken us to the 'shit' spot first and it was time to jump into the chopper and move to a 'serious' spot. We all climbed back in and flew to a small waterhole at Nulla Nulla. We thought that the first spot was good, but the second spot was amazing. We could see the Barra in the water and were able to throw lures almost directly into their mouths - it was awesome to watch. We managed to land another 20 or so good sized fish (ranging from 60cm - 78cm), but also lost about the same amount - there was lots of action that morning. Our heli-fishing adventure was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far, even if you don't like fishing (but what sort of person wouldn't) you would still enjoy it because of the amazing chopper flight.

Action Shot - Belle bringing in a massive Barra  (note the bent knees)

Might send this photo into Channel 9 for the next series of 'Farmer wants a wife'.

Farmer caught a Barra......

What were you doing Sunday morning????

Emma Gorge on fire

We left El Questro on a high and made our way North to Kalumbaru with an overnight stop at the Miners Pools which is located on the Drysdale River. After a long slow rocky drive we arrived at Kalumbaru. It was the middle of the day and were unable to process our permit or buy any groceries because the whole town had shut down for lunch so we decided to go directly to McGowan's island and set up camp and deal with the permits the following day. Kalumbaru is a dry community, so we were a little bit surprised when we saw piles of crushed VB cans at the 'reception' area of McGowans Island Camp. We were even more surprised when one of the camp locals offered us his 'sly grogging' services - we politely declined. McGowans Island Camping Ground was dirty, expensive and the owner was extremely rude - but we loved everything about it!!!!! We camped under a mango tree and enjoyed Western sunsets and fresh black lipped oysters every afternoon. We would launch the boat from the beach, travelled to remote islands, got bogged on the beach retrieving the boat but most importantly caught good sized Jacks, Nannygai, Cod, Stripeys, Trevally and more.

Double Hook-up

That ain't living Barry

GT with head twice the size of Yowie's.... Does that mean it has twice the brain power????

Kalumbaru sunset

Can someone please tell us what this fish is?????

Barb and Ron - you'r son is a legend!!!!

After 6 nights at McGowans we packed up at made our way towards Mitchell Falls along more corrugated roads. We had been told that Mitchell Falls is a truly spectacular spot, but the experience is ruined by the hoards of travellers and the noisy choppers that circle the falls. Lady Luck was on our side and we had the entire place to ourselves, we didn't see another person at the Falls (only the odd Goanna or two). The walk took about 5 hours (a fair chunk of it was in the sweltering heat) but we were able to cool off in swimming holes and stop to enjoy the Aboriginal Art.

Mitchell Falls - all to ourselves....

After consulting our Kimberly HEMA Map Guide Book we decided to stop at Mount Elizabeth Station for a couple of nights. A grey nomad had recently raved about the campground (they usually just whinge) so we were pretty surprised when we arrived and found that the rubbish bins hadn't been changed since 1975 and the whole area stank. Directly next to our camp was a tree which was home to a male peacock. He was constantly cooing his mating call all day and night, that was when we wasn't trying to get romantic with our red generator.....

Cute Wallaby liked to eat Belle's vegemite toast

The campground wasn't great, but that didn't really matter because we didn't spend a lot of time there. We took one of the 4WD tracks out to Wunnumurra Gorge which was gorge-ous (pun intended) and once again we had it all to ourselves. We spent the day swimming, reading, relaxing enjoying some Aboriginal Art.

Nice art

We spent the next couple of days gorging ourselves on gorges, we visited Galvins, Bell, Lennard and Winjana Gorges. All of these gorges were spectacular, and we must have climbed at least 30km to see them all. Tunnel Creek was another 'must do' and it was pretty awesome wading through the waist/arm-pit deep water bat infested caves with only one torch between the four of us.

sign that greeted us at bush camp on Gibb River Road

 Tunnel Creek

All good things must come to an end, and on Sunday afternoon we found ourselves at the end of the Gibb River Road. We are now staying in Derby which is famous for it's humungous tides - (11.53metres), the boab trees and it's gaol. Tomorrow morning we are going to hit the frog and toad and make our way to the Fitzroy River where we will hopefully catch that 120cm Barra............... Watch this space.

Waz in 25 years....

They finally locked up Belle