Kununurra to Broome

Includes Purnululu, Gibb River Road.

August 5th 2023

Nick has started off this blog with a gripe about the road surfaces, and an update on bolts, shackles, clunks and rattles in the car.

“Purnululu is the most fantastic place to visit but the road in is another thing all together, it is not just abominable but shockingly so. OK it is a National Park and we all know that National Parks don’t maintain any roads in their parks but there are thousands of people going into the park to view the spectacle of the beehives etc. NP charge a camping and park entry fee for everybody so why not run the grader over the road occasionally. The man in the visitor centre said they graded it in the first week of May, it is now the middle of July.

The car was going very well until we hit that road which gave it a really good shaking. At the half way stop I discovered that one of the shackles on the trailer chain had disappeared, then after a day driving over the corrugations inside the park ,there were considerable clunks in the front end and a shock absorber noise in the back. I tightened the bolts holding the front trailing arms to the diff and that made a big difference. They weren’t loose but needed a good half turn to make them really tight. I discovered that the bottom rubber on one of the rear shock absorbers was not tight enough in the hole and was rattling. On a previous trip to Birdsville in 2018, I had an issue with a shock absorber rubber, the man in the service station there gave me a piece of rubber to make my own and I have kept the excess in the back of the car ever since. So I cut a new piece and fashioned an extra rubber to go on top of the original and the noise is gone. 56 kms of hideous corrugations and lots of creek crossings are testing me. Hoping Gibb River Road is smoother.”

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Keep River NP in the NT ended the last blog. We crossed into WA and immediately lost an hour and a half. So instead of going to bed at 8.00, now it was 6.30pm. And waking up at dawn, 5.30am. A bit disconcerting still, but I reckon the body clock will eventually right itself.

We dropped into Lake Argyle first and visited the historic Durack Homestead. What a wonderful history that canny Irish family had – arriving almost penniless to Victoria in the 1840’s, settling in Goulburn and building a house and cattle station on their success from the gold rush, then Patsy, the head of the household decided to run cattle all the way up the east side of Australia and across the top end to eventually settle on the Ord River, in the 1880’s no less. From there a dynasty grew. I’d read “Kings in Grass Castles” and been to the museum before, but each time I learn more about the family and their amazing life.

We stayed in Kununurra for 3 nights, stocking up on food and resting a bit. It was the Ag Show weekend so the town was buzzing, red dogs were everywhere, as were 10 gallon hats, growly dusty 4WDs, and sadly no regular saturday market. We lunched at the Hoochery, an iconic rum and gin distillery. And of course I purchased the mandatory bottle of gin. 

Early one morning we walked in Mirima National Park which is almost right in the town. They call it a mini Bungles. I thoroughly enjoyed this walk, it was well signposted, had fabulous views over Kununurra, and the rock formations were stunning. A couple of pictures here won’t do this landscape justice.

The next destination, the Bungle Bungles, or as I prefer, the indigenous name Purnululu, was always on my “not to be missed” list. I seem to have a distant memory of seeing the news on TV back in 1983 about the “discovery” of the domes by a film crew flying in the area. I thought then, I’ve got to go there!

Anyway, off we set to Purnululu. Nick has given you an account above of the road into our camp site. As an aside, one evening at a different campsite, two 4WD hire cars parked near us. We got talking to the couples. One chap said: “ each morning I get a text from my Prado in the garage in Sydney saying thank you”. That made me laugh, but as we were traversing the horrendous corrugations on the Purnululu road, I was thinking about what our car might want to say. It went along the lines of “holy s..t, this is killing me, give me a break.”

Purnululu has sights to visit in the north and south of the range, so we did one way each day. By 11.00am it became too hot to be out walking in the sun. Echidna Chasm in the north was a walk though a narrow gap in spectacular rocks, where, for a short time each day, light shines into the chasm, a bit like Standley Chasm in central Australia. Got some delightful pictures in there. But next day in the south, the walk through the beehive domes to Cathedral Gorge was breathtaking. Again the photos cannot do justice to the awesome magnitude of this place. 

On the third morning, we packed and left camp by 7.00am. It was a nervous time for Nick – would the car survive the drive out? Sure the car clunked and made horrible noises, but as soon as we hit the bitumen the car was zinging, probably more pleased than us that it was over. We headed off to Lake Argyle for 2 nights, a bit of back tracking but it was worth it. On the second afternoon there we took a 4 hour sunset cruise on the lake. It was wonderful, very informative, fun and a great way to complete our time in the East Kimberly before we hit the Gibb River Road. I can now say I’ve swum in Lake Argyle on a noodle with a cup of champagne in one hand, at sunset, with a crowd of people all having an experience of a lifetime with me. 

Gibb River Road.

As we had driven the Gibb River Road in 2014 and seen many of the special places, we decided to be selective this time, trying to go to new spots. There were many large caravans and enormous V8 vehicles on the road, more than I remember from 9 years ago. Consequently, there are a lot of corrugations, however, it was better than we expected. We’d heard El Questo was pricey and booked out so didn’t mind passing that by. The Pentecost river with its iconic background of Cockburn Ranges was flowing fairly swiftly but we forded it without any problems. Then the dirt road began. The next station, Home Valley, was closed. We’d stayed there before anyway. Next was Ellenbrae. On our visit 9 years ago, we had scones and tea there, and then left – there was a grouchy couple running it then. This time we stayed. Now they make up to 300 scones a day at the height of the season. The lawns are lush green, shady trees surround the chairs and tables where people enjoy their scones and the staff are really friendly. We met up with Julie & George and camped near them, enjoying sharing travel stories and having a laugh.

Onwards, with a happy car and driver, we reached Drysdale Station for the night. This was a step back to the past, and not much had changed. They still make the biggest hamburgers in the Kimberly. We made a decision not to travel further north to Mitchell Falls out of respect for the poor old car. I feel I’ve missed out by not going there, but below are some photos from Nick’s sister Katherine taken at King Edward River.

Drysdale Station was dry and not much of interest so we headed down the road about 60kms to the most delightful camping site on the Gibb River. We had a feast of birdlife to watch, crystal clear swimming holes, campfire, and friends to laugh with. Birds included bower birds, azure kingfishers, red-winged parrots, blue kookaburras, double barred finches, black kites, corellas….

Mt Elizabeth Station was the next destination where we’d pre-arranged with Katherine & John, Neil & Erica to meet up for 2 nights. We really do have fun with them, we even broke out Priscilla for our dinner group photo.

The big challenge here was the Wunnumuura Gorge. We knew in advance that it was an extreme 4WD track, 19 kms long, to the gorge. The 4 people in the Red Sands hire car went first, George & Julie and us followed in our cars. “Extreme” was almost an understatement, the boulders were gnarly and one hill was quite steep. The walking track to the gorge was lovely, the gorge itself was superb, but climbing down the ledges with my short legs required the arms of men prepared to take my weight. We did it. Then coming back up the ledges was scary with no handholds and a narrow place for feet. Neil found some amazing rock art beyond the swimming hole which I’ve included below. We ate at Mt Elizabeth station restaurant that night – a very wholesome experience by the generous hosts at the Station.

But ever onwards, we were now in the part of the Gibb where a couple of stunning gorges were – Bell Gorge and Manning for a start. We heard they were crowded, so drove on. Had a lovely swim at Galvin’s Gorge before pressing on to Mt Hart for two nights. The 50kms into the station had just been graded, it was the smoothest of rides. The swimming hole at Mt Hart called Barkly Hole was small but a lot of fun – there was an old pedlo we could play with. It was George & Julie’s 54th wedding anniversary there so they took a helicopter flight to Horizontal Falls, and a pedlo cruise up the Barkly River.

We stayed 2 nights at Mt Hart, then farewelled George & Julie and headed off towards Derby, the plan was to stop at Lennard River to do a free camp. As we drove off the end of 700kms of gravel on the Gibb River Road, we heard clunking under the car, loud clunking!! So under the car went my mechanic to discover the mud deflector on the rear wheel disc had broken and was hanging off. Roadside maintenance also revealed an oil leak in the front wheel, so we decided to continue on the 100km of bitumen to Birdwood Downs near Derby. We were thoroughly over the dust, corrugations and creek crossings. We had heard of so many car related disasters – fuel tanks falling off, a new Ranger catching fire, a Jeep going into limp mode, and we saw a car that had lost it’s entire roof rack and contents as it crossed a river, to name just a few. The road is brutal for the unprepared.

Birdwood Downs was not a flash caravan park but it served us well for 5 days while we waited for our booking to fly to the Horizontal Falls. We explored Derby a little more and came across a gem – a gallery with great coffee and art, and a resident artist with a fabulous story of working with the local indigenous people over four decades. Mark Norval, the artist, was responsible for getting the giant art work of the Wandjina spirit to the Sydney Olympics. We met Howard and his wife painting a barramundi and we indulged and purchased another art work for home.

At last the big day arrived. At 8.30am we took off in a seaplane for the Horizontal Falls. Nick snagged the seat beside the pilot, he was very happy with that. We had such a great time, riding the falls was awesome – it was a huge 10 metre tide – so the thrilling ride though the wide gap between the rocks was at a peak. Everything was excellent – the lunch, the staff, the commentary, the flight. I took my movie camera, so not many still pics but enough to give you a feel for the trip. I’d recommend this to anyone.

Next morning, off to Broome. It was hot, 34C, very dry heat. Long straight bitumen road, easy on the car. I’ll finish this blog with the sunset we saw tonight (Aug 5th), even though we will do more in Broome. Still considering whether to go north or down to the Pilbara, which was the main purpose of the trip from the start. Bike ride on Cable beach tomorrow is on the cards.

Thanks for all the lovely comments. I realise they don’t always go onto the blog feed but that’s ok by me. I love that many of you are armchair travelling along with me.

Cheers Jenny and Nick