Ramblings from the road
27th June 2002: Winjana Gorge – Bell Creek
We make our way to the famous Gibb River Road (GRR) travelling around 90kms along its length and passing some great scenery, in particular the King Leopold Ranges. Bell Gorge is 29kms off the GRR with two creek crossing required between the GRR and the gorge.
After packing up we make our way into Fitzroy Crossing for a brief stop for supplies and then drive another 170kms north to Winjana Gorge.
The Winjana Gorge camp is stunning with the gorge walls as a backdrop . Plenty of fresh-water crocodiles – you can practically stand beside them. The gorge walk is around 7km return up the Lenard River, with high, colourful cliffs on both sides. Our our return we find the croc’s are a lot more active with many diving off the rocks, swimming & walking around.
Continue reading “Windjana”Great couple of weeks spent exploring Broome but time to move on. Packing up was a bit of a challenge as its our first time packing with Paul on board.
Just south of Derby we stop at the Boab Prison Tree, a large hollow Boab tree allegedly used in the 1890’s as a holding cell for Aboriginal prisoners on their way to Derby town for sentencing.
Say goodbye to our fellow campers, pick up supplies & petrol and head toward to Marble Bar almost 200kms away. We set up camp on the Coongan River around 45kms north of Marble Bar. Amazingly we are the only campers here for our two nights stay. We have an easy afternoon relaxing and explore the area the next day visiting Dolena Gorge, Kitty’s Gap and Copping Gap. The drive to Kitty’s Gap is on a pretty rough 4WD track but with good scenery… plenty of red dirt and greenery after the recent rains.
3rd June 2002: Weano Gorge (Karijini National Park) – Deep Reach Pool (Millstream/Chichester NP)
We break camp and travel 40kms north. We pass a number of coastal camps and find a few have been flooded by high tides around the new moon. We decide on Mesa Camp; certainly more people than Yardie Creek (room for 11 other campers).
Continue reading “Gorged Out”
Broke camp to drive west to the coast. A 500km day and virtually dirt roads all the way. The roads aren’t too bad, just a couple of soft spots, a hang over from the recent rains.
Continue reading “Ningaloo”
10th May 2002: Gladstone – Carnarvon
We make our way to Carnarvon where we decide to spend a few days catching up on maintenance of the camper, shopping, washing, etc. We also book a flight for Julie’s dad from Melbourne to Broome in mid-June so he can join us for around 11 weeks while we explore the Kimberley region.
So it came to pass that the old man and I entered the Middle Rhine gorge and found ourselves at the ancient town of Koblenz on the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. My intentions are rubbery; unlike Switzerland I haven’t been here before, nor is there a set itinerary such as the recently completed wonderful Bavarian tramp. The basic idea is to explore the sixty-odd kilometre gorge by boat, train or both.
Our lodging is modern and well appointed, with a view of the impressive edifice, Herz-Jesu Kirche (it’s an old, big Church). The pension is situated near the old town and not far from the two aforementioned rivers; we feel upbeat about our next few days and what they will add to our already impressive cache of sightseeing features and historical learning.
Continue reading “The rock, the Rhine and the climb”
We make our way north in the rain to Shark Bay camping at the Monkey Mia Resort (sardine city); we are packed in on a lawn with plenty of other campers. Having said it is packed like a tourist city, the surrounds are excellent.
Continue reading “Shark Bay”