13 July 2016

The Kimberley is our current location.  The land of boab trees, fruit bats and brahman cross cattle.  We have finally escaped winter with temperatures here in the low to mid 30s.  This is the life; warm days and cool nights.   The cold weather clothing has been stored away and its now shorts and swimming gear.  Observations from the Kimberley:

• The Bungle Bungle National Park or Purnululu is something to behold and dare I say a better experience than Uluru and Kata Tjuta(Ayers Rock and The Olgas).  This might be heresy since Uluru has become such an Australian icon however the Bungles are amazing and well worth a visit.
• They, that being the WA state government, have to get their act together when it comes to road maintenance up here.  The WA end of the Tanami was bad enough but I have since heard the road into Wolfe Creek, a meteor crater, was far worse and was responsible for destroying the suspension of a number of cars in recent days.  This is crazy, Wolfe Creek is one of the biggest craters in the world and it should be accessible to international tourists who would really appreciate the experience.  But no, the roads up here are only for the intrepid four wheel driver with a well prepared vehicle.  Of course this group enjoys the fact there are no tourists in their field of view but this is not helping the development of the tropical north.  More rant to come.
• We camped outside of the Bungle Bungle park and drove in the next day.  Going in wasn’t too bad as I drove fast enough to manage the corrugations.  With speed you just hit the top of the corrugation and don’t bounce over every lump and bump. The drive out at 4.30pm was a whole different experience.  Driving into the setting sun, with dust from other vehicles and wandering cattle meant this was a time for caution and of course lower speeds.  The corrugations on the way out were horrendous.
• It turns out the Bungle Bungles were part of a huge cattle station and the owners didn’t appreciate the tourism value of the landscape contained within the boundaries of their property.  When this became apparent they agreed to the creation of a national park, one of the conditions being that the government maintain the road that traversed their property.  The owners of the cattle station did not want to be responsible for helping tourists with broken down vehicles.  Well you can guess what has happened – maintenance on the road is nowhere near sufficient for a site that attracts the tourism demands of this site.
• Kununurra is amazingly green and it’s all about the water which is free. With Lake Argyle just a short distance away the supply of water is almost inexhaustible.  This means Kununurra is a green oasis in the middle of a dry and never ending savannah.  There are palm trees and vast lawns everywhere.  At the camp ground they even ask you to water your site every day to keep the place green.  Compare that with Coober Pedy where the showers were timed to save water and the camp ground is just gravel.
• They say that when in full flood during the wet the Ord river is second only to the Amazon for output.  Of course this probably only lasts a short while.  Regardless, too much water to waste so in the 1960s they built a dam.  It was really a solution to an undefined problem.  They thought with all this water they could grow cotton.  The bugs ate the cotton.  Next they tried rice.  Perfect with all that water.  Problem was the magpie geese from the north flew down and ate all the rice.  Next it was sugar cane but didn’t make enough money.  And so it went on.  Now the big news up here is sandalwood trees for incense and perfume.  They tried farming barramundi in Lake Argyle and found you could import the fish cheaper from Indonesia.  An excellent example of a solution waiting for a problem.  That said without the water there would be no Kununurra and maybe there will be a time when it will make economic sense to send all this water to Perth, a city in need of a regular supply of water.
• We visited the prison boab tree yesterday.  It seems back in the 1890s a number of policemen were bringing a number of aborigines in for trial at Wyndham.  They were 25 miles out from the town and had to stop for the night.  They found a large boab tree and noticing there were holes in the top of the tree they realised it was hollow.  The police cut an entrance into the trunk of the tree and confined their prisoners into what would have been a cool retreat out of the sun and weather.   The tree was huge and somewhat ancient then, who knows how old it actually is; it is like the old sentinel of the surrounding bush.  Do you think the coppers got planning approval to cut a hole in this venerable old tree – I think not.
• Down the road from the prison boab is some aboriginal rock art.  Again, I have no idea how old it is but would image the art is 10s of thousand of years old and it’s just by the side of a dirt road accessible to all.
• Wyndham is an interesting town.  The Japanese bombed it in WW2 but you have to wonder why they bothered.  It’s a dry and dusty port surrounded by vast open country.  You can’t swim in the sea because of crocodiles, there are no beaches only mangroves and the tidal movement is such its either mud flats or muddy water.  This is Australia’s defence against invasion, crocodiles, mud flats and nowhere to go for 100s of kilometres once you arrive.
• You see some massive road trains up here – a semi trailer with up to four trailers in tow.  The most interesting vehicle to date has been a grader on the Tanami.  The grader was moving to a new location and wasn’t doing the grading bit when we saw him however the configuration of his vehicle was interesting.   Behind the grader was a large trailer with a fuel tank, behind that was another trailer this time it was something that looked like an accommodation unit and behind that was a truck.  So in total the grader was towing three vehicles.  You have to assume the grader drivers are on the road for long periods and don’t go home every night for a hot meal and a night to watch the football.
• Categories of travellers up here:
  • Well prepared for remote travel with heavy duty 4WD vehicle and off road camper.  Has all the off road toys.  Vehicle has a big engine. Easily identified because the car is rarely never washed.  It’s a badge of honour to have a dusty red vehicle and dusty red wife and dusty red kids.
  • Travels dirt roads but not extreme.  Enjoys a shower when one is available. At least windows of car are washed and maybe whole vehicle when the layer of dust and dirt effects fuel consumption.  Falls between the other two groups and learns stuff from both.
  • Never leave the bitumen.  Car is washed at every opportunity as is the caravan.  It’s never a camper trailer.  Generally shower and put on clean clothes after hitching up caravan.  Always look immaculate.  Has many on-road toys which may include a satellite dish. May have a small dog.
  • All groups are well travelled.  First group could be travelling just on school holidays or doing the big trip of several months.  The second group as per the first with the addition of they have been doing trips like this for a while.  Third group are generally retired and have been travelling for years.  They never experience a winter and enjoy their creature comforts along the way.
• Still the camp grounds are filled with the retired.  I have however discovered a major advantage of camping with this demographic – they are all in bed by 9.00pm and the camp ground is dead quiet.  Sorry that should be very
• The cupboard door that came off on the Tanami has been fixed however our travelling companion Russ damaged a spring on his trailer on the Bungle Bungle road.  This has now been fixed and he is off on the road again.

Our next destination is the El Questro resort on the Gibb River road and after that we will be heading for Darwin.