Stations – oases in the desert

Welcome to Ellenbrae!

We stopped at a number of stations throughout the trip. These were oases in the desert where we lunched, had morning or afternoon tea, or camped. Not to mention, better toilets and the essential refuelling points – most important when there could be hundreds of km from one fuel pump to the next. The water available to make a green oasis was in stark contrast to the water available to the rest of the million acres or so of these stations.

Our very first stop was on a station – Tilmouth Well, a planned oasis on Napperby for the benefit of travellers. A fairly dusty oasis, nothing too picturesque about it, but it had the required facilities and was a good spot to learn about how the camping would work for the next three weeks.
Then we didn't stay on stations, as such, until the Gibb River Road.

Manning Gorge is on Mt. Barnett Station (as is the eponymously named Roadhouse!). Apart from the shower block, this was a bare campgroud, i.e. no irrigation to water a lawn (or grassed area!) that didn't occur naturally. The oasis was natural though – the swimming hole. We arrived there late and left early so apart from the swim had no time to further explore the gorge.

We had a toilet stop and truck refuel at Drysdale River Station on the way up to Mitchell Plateau then we stayed one night at the homestead campground on the way back. Some were delighted to have bar facilities but that didn't interest me. What I remember most is, unlike everywhere else that was so laid back, here at the camp shop they were sticklers for business hours. I rocked up 2 minutes after closing time and they wouldn't serve me, even though I told them I wanted to buy three handmade cards/pictures (suitable for framing, made by local Aboriginal artists) that would have been worth an extra three minutes on their part I'd have thought. But no.

Ellenbrae is owned by Big Business (the Grollos) but has the local, personal feel of a family run homestead. There's plenty of water for irrigation and it shows, with lush green lawns, beautiful gardens, and a vegie patch. This was the morning tea stop with the Devonshire tea!

Home Valley Station, HV8, is run by the Indigenous Land Corporation and is a training station for Aboriginal Australians across the Kimberley region. It was a great place for a lunch stop, on the Pentecost River (stay well clear, saltwater crocs!) and looking towards the Cockburn Ranges.

El Questro Wilderness Park is the station where rich folk stay. Not inappropriate that we stayed at Emma Gorge Resort, the cheaper of the two built accommodation areas at ELQ, because the tour itself wasn't cheap. The Homestead is much more expensive, apparently – we didn't get to see that! The camping area was certainly well watered and grassed. We had a morning tea stop at the camping area after our relax at Zebedee Thermal Springs, also located at El Questro.

The stations were all different but all equally appreciated. They provided variety and pleasant stopping spots along the way – and saved us from too many 'behind a bush' toilet stops!!  But I did love best our lunch and morning and afternoon tea stops that were in the middle of nowhere. The isolation was magical.

El Questro
More Station photos here

Two Climbs: One more gorge – Emma Gorge at El Questro Station – and Ubirr at Kakadu

As mentioned previously, the “walk” up to Emma Gorge waterfall was described as “medium level of fitness required”. I kept up reasonably well on the way up but coming back was a different story. I fell further and further behind. Tour director Les stayed with me the whole time. Whatever he was thinking, he didn't rush me at all, even stopping to point out different things to me – including poisonous seeds – as in kill you, not just make you sick, if you ate them. They were very pretty!

All the same, I had two aims, to get back before dark and to get back before they sent out the search party! I gather we were only about 20 minutes behind the next-but-last down, so they must have been a bit slow too, but it felt a much bigger time gap than that.

It was hard work, climbing on all fours in part, but because it was slow going, it wasn't the sort of “puff you out” difficult. It was the awkwardness and lack of flexibility on my part – which would make it hard for anyone who wasn't too nimble on their feet.

But soooo worth the effort! The swim was fun, the water having pockets of warm water in what was otherwise bracing, until you got used to it. And my two aims were met!! Plus, the added reward of a real shower in the ensuite bathroom in my 'tent'.

Easy part near the start of the walk.
Note the blue pathway indicator.
More Emma Gorge photos here.





*****

On the approach to Ubirr

Ubirr was a very different climb. First, there is the extensive rock art. The artwork was well sign-posted so you had a good idea of what you were looking at. Most fascinating of all was a painting of a Thylacine which I thought only existed in Tamania, because of its common name, the Tasmanian Tiger, and which finally became extinct in that state in the 1930s. What dingoes started, white man and his guns finished off.

About Thylacines



Thylacine painting
More rock art here

Then, after a bit of climbing along the art pathways, there's the climb to the top of Ubirr rock itself, giving fantastic 360 degree views.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to manage Ubirr. There were no warnings in the itinerary but the signs at the site were a bit off-putting: it was a particularly hot day and I was still feeling edgy after the sky-high blood pressure reading at Kununurra. However, I set off, thinking I could stop and go back if needs be. I'm glad the signs and my nerves didn't deter me. It wasn't that hard and the effort was more than amply rewarded.

Looking from the top of Ubirr Rock
across the monsoon forest
towards Arnhem land
More rock climb photos here

Four gorges and a tunnel or two

Besides the lack of plumbing, the other big challenge for me was always going to happen when we started to walk, my being more in favour of 'exercise' that involves turning the pages of a book or twisting wool around knitting needles.

Two activities on the itinerary came with warnings: the entrance to Tunnel Creek (“quite challenging”) and the walk up to Emma Gorge waterfall (“medium level of fitness required”). In fact, my level of fitness, while it could and should be better for all sorts of reasons and occasions, was OK for this trip. People in my age bracket would be more likely to find difficulty with flexibility – or lack thereof! The rough terrain was the biggest problem. There were some pathways in Kakadu but in the Kimberley there were virtually none. The tramping of many feet caused earth to compact into a path if there was sufficient soil, but often there wasn't. Instead, what you had was indicators of best routes over stone, ranging from pebbles to boulders.

The steepest walk was quite short – up to the rim of the Wolfe Creek crater – and it did have a defined path, although rocky underfoot once you got to the climb.

Climb to the rim of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater
- steeper than this looks

Both Tunnel Creek and Emma Gorge presented you with boulders for which I found “all fours” better than two feet and a walking pole. I didn't get exhausted anywhere but I was amongst the slowest, in fact the very last down from Emma Gorge.

After negotiating the entrance to Tunnel Creek it was down into the water, up to the top of my thighs – the one day I wore shorts! Dark too, literally a tunnel through the Napier Range with light midway where part of the hill had fallen in – a long time ago, we weren't in (much?) danger ... although you never can tell – there were warnings! On the way out my head torch (a great invention!) picked up the eyes of a crocodile resting on a ledge at water's edge. We didn't bother each other!! And I was too busy watching my footing to worry about the bats overhead. Back in daylight at the far end, the air wasn't thick with butterflies but there were still a few late-season ones about. It was a beautiful spot to have a picnic but you'd need to plan it well. Then back out again, stumbling along tentatively in the watery dark, over the entrance rocks again, and out. Magic!

Outside Tunnel Creek
See Tunnel Creek photos here

 


















We camped one night at Windjana Gorge, getting in too late to see the gorge that evening. We nevertheless walked there and through the tunnel but stopped at that point because we couldn't see too much by torchlight. Funny that! So much better seeing it very early next morning instead – beautiful. Flat, easy access too. The short tunnel hid the beauty from you as you approached so that there was a gasp of delight when the gorge appeared. You can walk some distance but we only loitered close to the access point so didn't have to work too much for that treat. The hardest part was walking in the sand of the river bed, trying without much success to imagine floods of water rushing through.

Windjana Gorge
See more photos here

Bell Gorge wasn't even on the itinerary. That was one of the fabulous things about this trip .... doing so much more than expected. Another easy walk to what was obviously and understandably a popular swimming spot.

Bell Gorge
More Bell Gorge photos here

Our group didn't swim at Bell Gorge because we were heading for a swim at Manning Gorge  later in the day, but in between we had a stop at Galvans Gorge (not exactly a difficult walk but you had to concentrate) where some, but not I, swam.

Swimmers at Galvans Gorge
See more of Galvans Gorge here

This is stunningly beautiful country!

Manning Gorge

Manning Gorge riverbed at sunset

 

Accommodation and the unmentionable

The proper accommodation, i.e. in a building with a proper bed and your own shower and toilet, was nicely spaced throughout the trip. Best of all, I loved sleeping under the stars. I coped with the shower blocks, was glad there weren't too many behind-a-bush toilet stops. But along with most others, I was always counting down to the plumbing of real civilisation. It varied from the luxury of Cable Beach Club, to the most expensive but nothing out of the ordinary hotel in Darwin, to a couple of better than average motels, to a permanent “tent” at Emma Gorge.

Wee small hours - full moon
at Drysdale River Station

"Tent" at Emma Gorge resort -
complete with en suite bathroom!

The stars are so shiny and numerous and the full moon was so bright. We miss these things in our cities filled with light pollution. I put up a tent when we were staying somewhere for two nights, as much as anything because it seemed odd to leave my belongings simply stacked in a pile when we went off for the day. It was the thought of it looking odd, security was unchanged. I finished up sleeping in the tent for three nights. One night there was a lot of dew and my sleeping bag got wet. It dried quickly the following day but I didn't want to be rolling up a wet bag after the night after that. Then we hit the big smoke of Kununurra. What a shock to the system! That camp-ground was very much high-density living after the isolation across the Gibb River Road. No room to put a tent up and have outside space for a stretcher.

I did have one bush shower – in a canvas cubicle with a hose poking in at the top. It was only put up once, for the experience I guess.

I spotted a couple with Outback Spirit backpacks arriving at the hotel in Darwin. I asked their owners what trip they were doing .... the reverse of what I'd just done. I said what a brilliant time they were in for then the man said to his wife, “I'll check in and you can talk about women's stuff.” Well, he and she meant toilets, didn't they? Were there many bush stops? A few. Were there really bushes at bush stops? A few, not always too bushy though. I was very pleased that in the gym programme I did before going away that squats featured and had to be practised often – it put me in good stead ;-)

The long drops – varied in design, pretty clean on the whole, didn't smell too bad, sometimes worse at a distance when 'the odour' drifted across to the camp-site on a breeze. Only one that made me gag and there was no reason for that – there was a resident ranger at Mitchell Falls so things should have been in tip-top order. The thunder-box over the hole in the ground when crossing the Tanami worked – although the hole could have been deeper. There was plenty of paper on board where that wasn't provided or had run out, and hand cleanser got used when there were no taps ... and in addition to a water wash when taps were available! For someone who always swore she'd never go anywhere where there wasn't a flush toilet, I did pretty damn well!!! 
If you see what I mean - photos here!

I am swimming

I hadn't swum in years but at Cable Beach at last I got into the bathers I'd bought for the Central Australia visit but didn't use back then. It was wonderful! I was more embarrassed by the colorful bruises on my leg from my slip at Purnululu than by my not being perfect swimsuit material. Floating about, pretending to swim occasionally, was bliss.

Cable Beach Club

 














That swim was the precursor to quite a few more, mostly 'not' in swimming pools. In firsts for me, I swam in waterholes and rivers, in pools under waterfalls and, how daring can you get?!, I jumped into the water fully clothed at Mitchell Falls. I was only going to paddle my feet but by the time I got my shoes and socks off .... and it was so hot I was dry again in 20 minutes. Surprisingly, the beetroot stain on my blouse almost disappeared. Hmmm, I wonder what magic ingredient was in that particular stretch of water?!

One swim wasn't really a swim at all, rather 'find a spot to relax' on rocks that formed a natural recliner chair then wallow in the warm water as it flowed about you, finishing up with a pounding from the deceptively heavy water from a little waterfall. We went to Zebedee Springs first thing in the morning and I did wonder if it would be worth getting wet for, then having to change, so early in the day, especially as we didn't have heaps of time there. But it was wonderful ... sheltered in amongst the tall palms and rocky walls. Pure magic!

Manning Gorge, Gibb River Road

Mitchell Falls, Mitchell Plateau

NOT wet t-shirt material  :-(

Mitchell Falls campground

Emma Gorge, El Questro Station

Zebedee Thermal Springs -
'heavy' waterfall part hidden on the right

Zebedee Thermal Springs, El Questro Station

Jabiru campground, Kakadu NP

Wangi Falls, Litchfield NP