The Travelling Dixons

16th September

Manning Gorge was one our favourite so far. The colours were really pretty as the water changed from shallow to deep.

 

The boys loved it because of the jump rocks. Cam loves pushing the limits and did what was probably his highest rock jump yet. If you click on the top, right photo below you will see him launching himself from around 10m above the pool.

 

The Manning Gorge campsite had a beautiful swimming hole with a white sandy beach. A welcome retreat from heat and dust!!

 

There were some freshwater crocs floating around and sunning themselves on the rocks while we swam and surprisingly we were as unperturbed by them as they were of us.

 

The afternoon light made the most beautiful reflections across the water.

 

Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!

 

15th September

Today we drove from Ellenbrae Station to Manning Gorge campsite, which is the longest leg we will do in one day on the Gibb. We travelled about 200km, which took us 5 or 6 hours – and we seemed to get a taste of everything the Gibb has to offer.

The road conditions varied considerably during the day. After the first 50km or so, we finally seemed to be past the sharp shale rock. We hit some really dusty red dirt. We got some of the best conditions we’ve had when we followed a newly graded section for about 30km, but it was followed by some of the worst corrugations of the trip so far.

 

But it was the change in colours I found so fascinating. With the change in the road from rock to sand, we watched the road change from blue to pink to orange and the most brilliant red.

 

The campsite is a few km off the road behind the Mount Barnett Roadhouse, which is pretty much the half way point along the Gibb. Saw this car being towed out. The Gibb is certainly not kind on cars!!

Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!

14th September

100km further on from Home Valley Station, Ellenbrae was a nice little stop. The road was pretty bad between the two. Again deeply corrugated in parts and more of the dreaded sharp rocks. The shredded tires at regular intervals are a constant reminder to take it easy. Again we travelled slowly – much slower than anyone else on the road – and arrived dusty, but in one piece after about 3 hours.

Neither Ellenbrae, nor Home Valley are working cattle stations anymore. They just serve as a campsite for those travelling the Gibb River Road and are only open in the dry season (approximately May to November). As it’s getting late in the season, there is less water in the pools and some of the falls have stopped flowing. But it’s a trade-off, because there are fewer tourists around and the campsites and waterholes are nice and quiet, which we prefer, and most places you can still swim anyway.

 

The waterhole here at Ellenbrae is only accessible to those who are camping here, so we had the place to ourselves and I thought it was one of the prettiest little creeks we’ve seen.

 

The campsite was really quaint, with a wood-fired donkey burner to give us hot water for the showers. We had a visit from a couple of roaming wild bulls and shared the shower with the green tree frogs.

 

We are still travelling with our friends from El Questro and met another nice couple, so had another great night around the fire – good conversation, drinks and marshmallows for the kids.

 

Ellenbrae is famous for their home-made scones, so we stopped in at the homestead this morning to have some for breakfast before heading off on the next leg of the Gibb.

Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!

13th September

From El Questro, we headed back to the Gibb River Road and travelled about 30km further, crossed the Pentescost River and stopped at Home Valley Station. This section of road was our first taste of the horrid roads that the Gibb is famous for. It was all corrugations littered with sharp shale-like rocks. A perfect recipe for ripping the side wall out of your tyres. In the 30km we did between the El Questro and Home Valley turn offs we saw at least one shredded tyre every couple of kilometres. We just went slow, taking over 2 hours to travel 45km. We crossed the Pentecost River to get here – pretty straight forward and only 30-40cm deep. Earlier in the wet season apparently the crossing can be a bit hairy.

 

Home Valley is an oasis in the outback. It has a beautiful green grassy campsite. Such a luxury when you are used to camping in red dirt!! There is also a pool and a playground which the kids loved.

 

Home Valley doesn’t have the variety of gorges that El Questro does, but offers a beautiful view of the stunning Cockburn Ranges from a hill a short stroll from camp or from the banks of the Pentecost River a few kilometres drive from camp. The river is particularly beautiful at sunset with the changing colours of the ranges reflecting along the river.

 

 

There is no swimming in the river here due to the salt water crocs. We did see a few lazing on the river bank and floating by. The Barra fishing is reputedly pretty good here. The boys tried their luck, to no avail.

 

Temperatures the past few weeks have been around the high 30’s – surprisingly bearable – with the hottest part of the day being early afternoon. Yesterday hit over 40 degrees so we were happy for the reprieve of the pool and our shady campsite.

We ended up spending 3 nights here. Just lazy days, sunsets by the river and nights around the campfire with our new friends.

 

Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!

10th September

Our first stop on the Gibb, was El Questro, the turn off to which is at the 33km mark – the end of the tar for the next couple of weeks!! A bumpy dirt road and a few creek crossings lead us to El Questro Station, where we had a beautiful campsite right on the river bank for our 4 night stay.

The El Questro area is full of beautiful gorges, swimming holes and waterfalls. We spent our days exploring these..

El Questo Gorge and Moonshine Gorge

El Questro Gorge was pretty, but challenging walk, clambering over boulders up through the gorge. We only went half way, as after that you had to wade through chest-deep water (overhead for the boys) and over boulders the size of cars. The half way pool and waterfall were lovely though. Crystal clear water and deceptively deep!! The tiny plunge pool next to the waterfall was way overhead and deep enough to jump into from the top of the falls.

The road out to the gorge was an adventure itself, with the longest and deepest river crossing for the trip so far.

There was another gorge out along this road, called Moonshine Gorge. As it was already late in the day and getting hot we walked just a small way up it. The gorge had stunning tilted sandstone walls and a nice swimming hole.

 

Emma Gorge

Emma Gorge is just off the Gibb River Road, 10 km back toward Kununurra. We thought this was the pick of the gorges. Clearly they think so too, because they have built a separate resort out there. The walk, like El Questro, had lots of rock hopping, but not quite as difficult. The rippled rocks along the way were really interesting and there were pretty creeks and a smaller plunge pool on the way to the main falls. The main pool and falls at the end were absolutely stunning!! A huge drop into a beautiful pool that changed colour from the shallows out the deep section where the falls landed in the pool. The curved gorge walls were like a cave over the pool and water spilled over like rain into the shallower sections of the pool. The water was freezing!! But it was worth braving. Looking up at the roof of the ‘cave’ from the deeper section of the pool was amazing, seeing the ferns growing on the sides and the sunlight coming in above the falls.

 

 

Amalia Gorge

This walk would be much better earlier in the season when the water was still flowing. It was pretty, nonetheless, with a lovely waterhole and beautiful red gorge walls. Much of the walk was along the dry riverbed which was full of the most beautiful rocks and pebbles. The kids and I lost the track as we were too busy with our heads down picking up and looking the rocks.

 

Zebedee Springs

These are thermal springs cascading down through the gorge to create a series of pretty, crystal clear rock pools. Such a nice place to relax and soak for a while after one of the gorge walks.

 

The sunsets at El Questro are beautiful too. Though we only went out of camp to see two of them because it was nice just relaxing by the river in our campsite at that time of day, while the kids played with new friends.

 

The first of our sunsets was up a pretty hectic little 4WD track to Saddleback Ridge. Thank goodness we parked at the point and walked the rest of the way. The view at the top was beautiful of the surrounding escarpments. It was one of the Kimberley’s very rare cloudy days, so we got some amazing colours too.

 

Our other sunset away from camp was a walk up the hill behind the campground looking back toward the Station, saddleback ridge and the escarpments. Apart from a lovely sunset, it gave a great perspective of the area that we have been exploring for the last 4 days.

 

El Questro has been a great start to our Gibb River experience. It was a bonus that the kids met some other kids, so were keeping occupied (and very dusty) playing football and bullrush when we were back in camp. They made particularly good friends with the kids camping next to us, as we did with their parents. They from the Sunshine Coast and on much the same itinerary as us at the moment, so we will probably be seeing more of them as we head across the Gibb over the next week or so.

 

Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!

7th September

We have spent the last 2 nights in Kununurra making the most of ‘civilisation’. We head off on the Gibb River Road today for the next 2 weeks and will have no (or very limited) phone and internet reception, no supermarkets and increasingly spread out and expensive refuelling opportunities.

The caravan park stayed at was right on the lake, so when we weren’t running around town, we had a nice place to sit. And the sunsets were stunning too.

We have stocked up on groceries, booze, diesel and a few hardware items. The boys have had WiFi withdrawals, after not having it since leaving Darwin, so they spent most of the 2 days sitting around the pool on their iPads using the free WiFi. And I’ve been catching up on my Blog (which I can only update when we have Internet), paying bills and making phone calls home.

We are looking forward to doing the Gibb River Road. It is meant to be one of the most stunning, but most challenging 4WD roads in the country. We hope that the scenery out-ways the terrible road conditions that we will face along the way.

Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!

This has been one of our favourite stops so far, so lots of pics!!

Lake Argyle is one of the Australia’s largest freshwater lakes and is quite stunning. The view from the Resort is amazing, with a beautiful infinity edge pool.

 

And we jagged probably the best campsite in the place, with a beautiful view out to one of the ridges.

 

The Sunset Cruise

This was one of highlights of the trip so far.

You don’t really get a gauge of the huge expanse that the lake covers until you get down on the water. From the resort you can see less than 1% of the Lake. We travelled about 12km and barely made a dint. At times you could not see the other side of the lake and it felt like you were in the open ocean and at other times we were nestled in between pretty little islands.

The kids loved jumping off the rocks and driving the boat.

We saw crocodiles and wallaroos (a cross between a kangaroo and a wallaby)

The best part, of course, was the sunset over the water. While the kids did bombs off the roof, we floated in the water having drinks and nibbles.

Watching the colours of the sunset, while floating in the water with my beer was an awesome experience.

 

The Lake Argyle Adventure Race

This event is held once a year at Lake Argyle is a combination of swimming, kayaking, cycling and running. It happened to be on the day we arrived and the kids soon found out about the Junior adventure challenge that they run in the afternoon after the event. They have never done anything like this but were keen to register and the locals were more than happy for them to compete and made them feel very welcome. It was such an awesome experience for them.

Cam had to do a 250m swim in the Lake (a distance he has never swum before), then run up the side of the ridge back to the campsite to collect his bike for a 2.5km ride, then finished with a 1km run which was combined with a few obstacles and finished with a slip and slide.

Matt had to do the same the 3 legs, but of a much shorter distance, and his swim was in the infinity pool, rather than the lake.

They both did such an awesome job – and loved it. They finished the day with a kids club with all the other kids from the event and had dinner and a few movies.

We have seen a a lot of fires during our trip so far, but the fires here were some of the biggest and closest. We watched the first night as the fires came toward us from a ridge not too far away before the wind changed direction and sent it away. They were not taking any chances and the following night back-burned the ridge on the road into camp. Definitely made for some spectacular night viewing between the fires and the full moon.

Lake Argyle was certainly a great welcome to Western Australia and we are looking forward to exploring the rest of the state over the next few months.

2nd August

What a stunning National Park this is!! A spectacular landscape of ranges, amazing geological formations similar to the Bungle Bungles and beautiful Boab trees.

Our campsite was awesome, with a huge towering rock behind us.

 

These cool rocks formations were all within a few minutes walk of camp – and a nice spot to walk up to and watch the colours change as the sun set.

 

The views looking back toward the ranges behind our camp were also stunning.

Some of the Boab trees were huge!!

We did an 8km walk in the north of the park, with stunning views out over the ranges and the honeycomb rock formations more similar to the Bungle Bungles.

And the best part is, this park is so quiet that we had the campsite and walks pretty much to ourselves. It really was a beautiful place to spend a couple of nights and a great way to end our time in the Northern Territory.

 

30th August

As we left Katherine and headed west toward the NT/WA border, the scenery changed dramatically and made the 400km drive more interesting.

Different shaped ranges and rocky outcrops dotted the horizon and we saw our first of many Boab trees.

We stopped at a great free camp for the night, at the foot of one of the rocky mountains we had been seeing all day.

We got a beautiful sunset and had a great fire – a good travel day!!

We are only about 60km from the WA border but tomorrow we will stop about 3km short and head into Keep National Park for a couple of nights.

 

 

 

 

 

We have just had 3 lovely days in Litchfield National Park. Beautiful waterfalls, swimming holes with crystal clear water and jumping rocks for the kids, nice creek walks and bush camping.

We based ourselves at Wangi Falls. It’s lovely bush camp and the falls are only a few minutes walk. There is a huge plunge pool to swim in – with good jump rocks for the kids. There was also cool little rock pool in the rock beside one of the pools – only just over a metre across, but so deep you can’t touch the bottom.

 

Nick, Maria and Karina came down for the the day on Sunday and we had a picnic at our campground before heading to Buley Rock Pools. These are a series of pretty waterfalls and plunge pools.

The kids loved jumping from the rocks!!

 

Florence Falls are lovely and have such crystal clear water.

We took the 150-step decent to the plunge pools and came back via a pretty creek walk.

 

 

There’s more than just waterfall’s at Litchfield. We took a drive out to a place they call the Lost City due to the rock formations looking like the ruins of an old city – pretty cool!

Fun for the boys climbing, jumping and playing amounts the rocks.

 

We thought the prettiest falls were Tjaynera Falls.

To get to the falls we had to take a 4WD track, then a half-hour walk. Needless to say it wasn’t busy like the other falls, so that was part of the appeal.

Also along the same 4WD track is Blyth Homestead, built in 1929, and still in the state it was abandoned in the 1960’s. It still contained a lot of original artefacts and a very interesting story of how tough it was living in the bush in those early days.

 

We have really enjoyed our time in Litchfield. By chance, there happened to be quite a few kids the boys age, who they soon made friends with. So when we weren’t out swimming and sightseeing, they were riding their bikes and hanging with their new friends – and we had a great night around the bonfire with all the parents.