Outback Australia
Outback
Planning
This trip was inspired by Bill Bryson's book on Australia and his journey through the outback and discussed at numerous dinner parties. It went through a number of incarnations, looking at driving to Ayres Rock or the Cape York Peninsula. The destination of the Kimberly was selected after reading Birgit Bradtke excellent Destination Kimberley web site and obtaining her comprehensive guide book.
Other invaluable information and assistance has been obtained from the Lonely Planet's 'Outback Australia' guide (apparently out of print but easily obtainable on Amazon), my old friend Derek Bowman at Four Seasons Travel and Jeanette at Getabout Oz.
The original cast have thined out to two couples, which is rather sad but not unexpected.
I expect updates to be intermittent at best, even charging the laptop may present issues.
Add a comment17 May 2009 - Perth
Arrived in the evening in Perth and struggled though the car hire process. Surprisingly the 'extra' insurance costs more than the hire of the car. Plainly Hertz have worked out how to compete with the rent a dents, drop the up front daily charge and load it onto the insurance, Nice one.
The GPS lost Doreen when told we were now in Australia and introduced Sheila, complete with a broad Aussie 'twang'. Sadly she doesn't know where the city roads are and the Medina Hotel is hard to find. It's a nice enough pad but right in the middle of the CBD, surrounded by office blocks. For over $A300 a night plus $A25 for parking it's not aiming for the holiday crowd and is utterly unsuitable for us.
Add a comment18 May 2009 - Fremantle
Checking out was a bit interesting as the Medina as a policy of charging if you don't give 24 hours notice that you don't need the room. Luckily we have a policy that we only need give 20 hours notice so there was no problem after I'd explained it to them.
Fremantle is much more like what we expected. A first rate breakfast and we quickly found a an excellent room in the charming Port Mill B&B. The Lonely Planet while a bit thin, certainly seems to have a heap of useful information on the area.
A wander around the shops brought us a number of forgotten items and confirmed that this is a town with great character. We had a quick look around Perry Lakes, City Beach and around the Claremont district.
19 May 2009 - Bridgetown

By Rockingham the heavens opened and we were driving through sheets of water wondering if we'd made a wise decision in going south. I don't think it was just the rain but Rockingham and it's sister town of Mandurah seem to offer few reasons to stop.
Apart from a brief stops for coffee at Mandurah and lunch outside Bunbury, by which time the rain had cleared, we made directly for Bridgetown. The Nelson of Bridgetown is, as the Lonely Planet suggests, a very comfortable place to stay the night although the large spacious room, is perhaps a bit 1970's. Add a comment
20 May 2009 - Mundaring
Something of a disappointing day. Started with a splendid breakfast at The Barking Cow in Bridgetown, we though the Nelson might be a bit pedestrian, and opted for more adventure. It was a highlight of the day.
For morning tea we tried the 'Pink Lady' apples and these were simply delicious but the the day started to run downhill.
Bunbury was the first disappointment. There's a boardwalk through the mangroves with 70 types of bird life. We saw none. The boardwalk and surroundings have clearly had a lot of money and effort spent on them but it's all looking very tired.
21 May 2009 - Broome
An uncomfortable night in the Traveller's Rest, the walls are (apparently) brick but every sound from the adjacent rooms carries through, then it rains, a lot. We get up about 6am as there is no point in lying there any longer.
Travel to the airport is uneventful and the lounge provides penty of time to update the blog as not only are we early for our flight but it's delayed. At this stage only by half an hour but time will tell.
Mary just had a good laugh at the Traveller's Rest web site........ it really is not like that.
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22nd May – Out of Broome

A taxi (with a driver who kept calling us darling) took us to the camper van depot where two large identical 4wd are sitting outside. They are of course nothing like the picture we have seen. A brief peer into the oven sitting on the back has us all laughing, in part a response to 'you have to be joking' and in part about how some of our friends might have reacted had they been with us.
Tim and Renee are a double act who, with their 5 month old in tow, fill in paperwork, take more money and show us the ropes. We rather feel Tim is taking our expedition just a bit casually but he runs over the camping stove, 'pop top' and the rather basic kit. Anyway this all took a touch longer than we thought.
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23rd May - Derby

Dave had the first slip of the day, falling out the truck. Luckily only pride injured. He's the first one to get red dirt on his pants.
Just met Mary who is travelling around Australia on her own (with her dog Tim). She's been doing it for eight years, nine in December. Mary was a bit disparaging of our attempts to strike camp, she thought us very slow, in fact we were the last to leave.
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24th May – Tunnel Creek

The road from Windjana to Tunnel Creek is only rough in parts but otherwise pretty good and we have our first encounter with fords with actual water in them. Expect more of this.
Tunnel Creek is very spectacular being a stream, not really flowing at the moment through a 1.7km tunnel gouged by the force of the water. High on the roof there is an aboriginal art work, I don't like to think how they got there to do it.
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25th May – Fitzroy Crossing

Apart from the first few km retracing our way back to the main road the road was all tar seal. At Fitzroy we were able to fill the empty gas bottle and but a couple of things we needed (more batteries and cleaning cloths) as well as diesel, our wagon seems much thirstier than Dave's.
Some of our party think Halls Creek is a tidier town but for myself I see few redeeming features except for a swimming and recreation centre, otherwise not really. It makes a useful refuelling and lunch point. I also pop into the store which is an interesting experience and has a very limited stock, I'd say it's not any sort of gold mine.
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26th May - Purnululu

The road into Purnululu (the Bungle Bungle) is pretty rugged but mostly not needing actual 4wd, we do engage it to cross some of the fords but I fancy it's not really required. Some of the oncoming traffic is moving at quite a speed, particularly the tourist trucks/buses which we are lucky not to come upon in some of the tighter spaces. We take just over two hours to make it to the Visitor Centre.
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27th May – Bungle Bungle

We have to drive some 30km to the southern end of the park to do the walks there, and need to call in at the Visitor Centre to pay for another night in the park. We are also able to book a helicopter ride for the afternoon at 3:30.
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28th May – Doon Doon

Warmun aka Turkey Creek is the first stop other than to dump our trash and the roadhouse there is clean, pleasant and well stocked. In addition the ice cream tastes marvellous. We picnic there and meet a party doing the circuit, including the Mitchell Falls in ten days. Our recommendation would be to take much longer than this or cut part of the itinerary. Ten days is far too long just to sit in a bus. The driver does tell us that the Mitchell Falls road has only been open a week but that it's the 'worst road in Australia'.
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29th May - Kununurra

Seemed that the clamp that holds one of the front corners down had disappeared and the pressure of wind was pealing it open rather like a sardine can. Mary and I backtracked several times looking for the clamp but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
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30th May - Kununurra
Something of a lay day. We tried to get a scenic flight but both Slingair and Alligator Airways are quite rigid about what they will do. The man at Shoal Air was much more obliging but essentially their equipment is too big and expensive for a two person trip.
Breakfast and dinner at the Pumphouse were excelent and thier internet allowed the blog to be updated. Great.
Add a comment31st May - Diggers Rest Station

Breakfast at the very fine Pumphouse Restaurant followed by fuelling up at BP and getting more cash. This is proving an expensive holiday.
Despite an early start we were still quite late getting out of town and our truck is behaving rather badly. The engine idles fine but at speed it starts to 'bunny hop' as Mary calls it. It's barely noticeable but not particularly desirable when you are heading out of town and worse yet when going into the outback.
At Wyndham we call the RAC, and have a discussion with a very nice Aboriginal man (Gregory) and his daughter while waiting for the contractor. Calling back it seems he won't be available until Monday (it's Sunday).
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1st June – The long Way to Kununurra

Departing pretty early we head out along the Karunjie track which according to the map leads to the Gibb River Road. We figure that we leave the other truck to Big Al we will go directly to Kununurra and see if we can expedite a repair.
After an hour or so on the track we work out that we are going the wrong way and are pretty much at the point of no return. The track is good and the views of the Cockburn Range are beyond spectacular so we decide to press on until suddenly the vehicle bogs. I'm telling Mary to keep it moving but the wheels may be spinning but there is no progress. The truck has sunk into a patch of thick glutinous and utterly unyielding black mud, probably as a result of the rain on Saturday night.
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2nd June – Gibb River Road, Finally

Dale from Argyle Motors is as slow as a wet week but helpful and once he has finally gotten the paperwork done the truck disappears out the back with a “come back in a couple of hours” so we head back to the Boab Bookshop for brekkie.
Metalland are very helpful with the other truck are repairing the guard plate but report “cracks in the chassis”. This is information we really don't want to know about. What they do tell us about is the hierarchy of camper vans.
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3rd June - Drysdale

We are determined to get to Drysdale Station, just up the Kalumburu Road and all goes well until just before the Gibb River/Kalumburu Road junction when we stop for lunch and discover a flat tyre. Amazingly all the gear works and we are off again within an hour with minimal damage.
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4th June - King Edward River

The drive to the Mitchell Plateaux turn off is very rugged where the grader hasn't been yet, which is most of it. The King Edward river ford is pretty impressive and fortunately a couple who have been stranded there for a couple of days (ruptured fuel tank) point out where the big rock in the middle is.
The camp site of the other side is excellent albeit with only 'camp toilets' and the detour to the Aboriginal paintings is very worth while. We have a great swim in the river where there are we are told “no crocs”.
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5th June - Kalumburu

Our plans for an early start to the Mitchell Falls are put on hold and we decide to head on the Kalumburu where the map claims we can get fuel and the tyre repaired but only on weekdays. Today is Friday.
The road starts well but quickly gets rumpy and we arrive at about 12 noon, it has to be said the Kalumburu is something of a disappointment to us all. The local cafe and garage are incomprehensibly closed for lunch so we ask a local about the best local picnic spot. This turns out to have some lovely old shade trees, a dog ransacking a green wheelie bin and a wrecked car surrounded by broken glass. A garnish of litter has been added to complete the effect.
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6th June – Mitchell Falls

I gather the experience was amplified in the other truck when Dave took a swallow of his iced coffee drink (a concoction involving milk and coffee flavour) that had not been in the refrigerator. One lump or two?
Birgit suggests that the track to the Falls will take two hours or three at the start of the season. We took three and a half. The grader was working but that seemed to have made it worse not better.
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7th June – King Edward River

Our plans to walk to the falls and helicopter back are stalled by the large crowd of day trippers who get to the helicopter site before us. I've got a bit reluctant anyway as the things are very intrusive in this area as the peace and solitude of being hundreds of miles from the nearest habitation is wonderful but completely disrupted by the thump, thump, thump of the choppers.
The walk is easy, despite what the sign says, mostly flat but a few rock scrambles to keep your attention. The Falls however are breathtaking and photos hardly do the place justice. The walk progressively unveils one vista after another, absolutely magic. It's another one for your 'bucket list'.
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8th June – Mt Manning Roadhouse

Lunch is a departure from normal and we have a burger at Drysdale Station as recommended by Brigit. It is excellent. We can't however get fuel as their deliveries have been delayed so we defer that and buy a few supplies for the next couple of nights and carry on after Mary has had a chat with Annie. They are a really nice family leading a life that must be very tough but they take it all in their stride.
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9th June – Bell Gorge

Later
The walk to the Manning Gorge suggests it is 1.5 hours, that is more reasonably each way time as it took us over an hour to get there. It is very much worth the walk, not as good in my opinion as the Mitchell Falls but a very well worth while visit and a great place for a swim and picnic. Great fun as you have to drift your stuff over the river in styrofoam boxes to get to the start of the walk.
Adcock Gorge is another worthwhile place to stop for lunch and another swim. In many ways nicer as the 5km 4wd track means you get it to yourself.
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10th June – Derby

Despite getting a good review from Brigit, we had to pass on the Lennard Gorge there just isn't time to get there and do enough of the 500 or so km remaining before Broome. We are also a bit anxious about the 'transport of delight', it's still surging despite it's new fuel filter and at any time we feel it could conk out again.
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11th June – Quandong

Curiously the bottle stores don't open until noon which means that we are short of a bottle of wine for tonights meal. Not a disaster but we'll go into Broome to fix it.
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12th June – Broome

St Vincent's op shop in Broome did well from our store of canned goods that were unused and a visitor to the shop scored our barbecue, must have been her lucky day. Alfred back at the shop we bought the barbecue from had offered to buy it but today he said he had left his money behind. Yeah Right.
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13th June - Perth
Woke in the night very cold as the air conditioning seems to have run amok and to the sound of the people next door having an endless shower. Actually they were blameless, it was raining, hard. Sleep from this point was fitful and I kept thinking about how badly rain would have affected us on some of the roads we have covered.
The only other point worth covering is the woefully misnamed Comfort Inn Bel Eyr in Perth. It rates down past the Travellers Rest encountered some weeks ago, mostly as Mary and I were bitten in the night, we suspect the worst; bed bugs. Ugh!
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14th June – Uluru

Sails in the Desert is very much better than I'd been led to believe by various reviews on the Internet, our standards may have been compromised by the dis-Comfort Inn but I don't think so. Add a comment
15th June - Home

The actual sunrise was somewhat disappointing in part because of a bit of cloud that appeared and partly because the viewing location was just a roadside. All a bit odd. 'Marty the bus driver' was better than that and the tour went on to take us around the rock, we found him most informative and entertaining. Add a comment
Conclusions on the Experience

The Bungle Bungle, Mitchell Falls, various gorges, Diggers Rest and the Northern Beaches were all among the highlights of our trip. We had splendid company and met many, many, wonderful characters among the Australians. It has quite changed our view of the country which had been hitherto limited to the big cities of the east coast.
The only real downside to the trip was the clapped out vehicle (see Camper World rentals) which gave us some trouble and cause us to have to cut our itinerary here and there. It's by no means a cheap holiday with fuel, food and other services very expensive in this part of the world. Add a comment