Thursday 11th September - We've arrived safely in Port Hedland, in a camp site with wifi, after our first long trip in the campervan - the speedo now reads 639.5km. Port Hedland is an industrial town, from which most of Australia's iron ore is shipped, but the camp site is quite pleasant with a view of the sunset over mangroves. We travelled down the Great Northern Highway, stopping to refuel at Sandfire Roadhouse, the only fuel in 400km. The view was mostly a straight strip of grey tarmac stretching to the horizon in front, and behind, flanked by wide deep-red dusty verges, with no other vehicle in sight. The sky was 180 degrees of cloudless blue, with the sun blazing down onto browning spinifex and scrubby trees. A good part of the way the road runs between the Great Sandy Desert and (20km away so you can't see the sea) the 80 Mile Beach, which gives you an idea of how arid it is.
Occasionally you would see a shimmering dot in the distance, which would gradually become more substantial, and might harden into a road train - perhaps three massive trailer tanks full of Liquified Natural Gas hauled at a steady 100 kph by a huge Mack truck. These are pretty impressive, but less frightening than the ore carriers - four trailers each carrying 70 tons of iron or nickel ore and stretching for more than 50m - up in the Kimberley one of these might be heading for the same single lane bridge as you. The approach signs say "Be prepared to Stop", because they won't be. As we reached Port Hedland we saw the alternative way of moving ore, stopping at a level crossing to let a ore train through - there were two locomotives followed by more trucks than we could count, then when the front was out of sight another two locomotives followed by more trucks. Apparently the longest train they have ever tried had 8 locomotives and stretched for more than 7km.
But back to our journey across the Gibb River Road. In Kunnunara a local festival meant that our cabin accommodation was fully booked, so we had to be put up in the Kimberley Grand Hotel - which lived up to its name. But after that bit of luxury we set out for the Purnululu National Park and our tour company's private camp site, which was under canvas but pretty comfortable with beds, flush loos and showers (luke warm rather than hot because the heater had broken down). On the way we visited Echidna Chasm, which starts as a narrow gorge and then the walls converge above you until at one point they are only a shoulder width apart. You've done the gorge when you touch the wall at the end. Emerging back into the heat we went on to the camp site and spent the night looking at a sky filled with stars while sitting around a camp fire (no singing took place).
Next morning we went down to look at the Bungle Bungles, some amazing weathered sandstone domes created when natural grid-like fault lines were weathered by wind and rain to round off all the edges, before walking into Cathedral Gorge. Here the end of the gorge has a pool of permanent water in a huge overhanging chamber open to the sky. The local indigenous people believe that this is one of the locations where their creation spirit lies dormant, so you mustn't touch the water to disturb it. There is certainly a reverential atmosphere when everyone stays quiet there.
It was much less quiet during the next part of the day - we decided that we would take up the enthusiastic recommendation of our guide and try our first helicopter flight to see the park from above. What we hadn't bargained on was that the helicopter would be so small, and that there were no doors! Mandy, our lady pilot, was brilliant, giving us a smooth ride and a running commentary. After some initial queasiness I was able to take some pictures, and the views were spectacular, but Louise didn't enjoy the experience at all. Equilibrium was restored when we arrived at our next camp site, El Questro. They were tents, but had fully made-up beds with sprung mattresses, bedside tables and lights, towels and toiletries, and the ablutions were individual en-suite units - real glamping.
The next day we had a soak in Zebedee Springs, naturally heated pools which reach 32 degrees - very relaxing, before heading to Emma Gorge. This is a beautiful spot, but the sun was very hot and the way very rocky, clambering over large boulders in the creek bed. We made it to the top, but were too exhausted to enjoy it properly so decided to sit out the afternoon excursion to another rocky one - El Questro Gorge. We found out that there is another part of the resort, the original homestead, which is 15km from the camp site and very exclusive - $1500 a night for a room or $25,000 a night for the whole place. Kylie Minogue hired the whole thing for six weeks when recovering from her chemotherapy.
The next day saw us heading off to Mt Barnett Station where we began our three nights of proper camping in an alleged 3 man tent - only if they were three Cambodians, three typical Aussie youths would stick out top and bottom and side to side. But first we had a little trip up to Manning Falls - enlivened by the need to swim across a river before you start the walk in (it was the first wild swimming either of us had ever done). Next day we visited Galvans Gorge (rather prosaically named after the driver of the bulldozer that cut the access road) and Adcocks Gorge, both pretty places with abundant wildlife including water monitors - before squeezing into our tent at Silent Grove.
Next day we visited Bell Gorge, where we both had a swim in the top pool and allowed the others to clamber down the falls to the bottom pool, or jump in from about 8m up the rocks, before another drive to Winjana Gorge, our final camp site. The character of this Gorge was very different - the rock is limestone, formed from an ancient coral reef. There are fossil nautilus shells in the rocks, the walking was level and the gorge was wide with permanent water - attracting numerous fresh water crocodiles which ignore you as they bask on the sand 3 metres away from where you are walking. There is a big roost of flying foxes which the freshies try to catch when the bats skim the water to drink, and we saw a large, and endangered, olive python in the trees.
Our final day began with a walk through Tunnel Creek, where a creek burrows 750m right through the limestone reef. It's pitch black for most of the way, so we were issued with torches, and you have to wade at times in water above your knees, but it's nice and cool inside. We walked past another freshie as well as more flying foxes and a roost of ghost bats - Australia's only carnivorous bat. Perhaps the most memorable thing was sitting in the tunnel while Jason told us the story of Jandamara, an Aborigine who killed a policeman at the end of the nineteenth century and then led a guerilla war for 3 years against the settlers who had been massacring the indigenous people "because there were too many of them". The creek was one of Jandamara's hide-outs until he was tracked down and shot by Mungo Mick, an Aborigine tracker from NSW brought in to hunt him down.
It's 10.30pm now, and we've got an early start tomorrow, so pics will have to wait until my next wifi access, which may not be until Sunday.
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