Mon 22 May 2006
Up at around dawn, it's raining so we make an early start into the Alice.

We buy a few things and fuel up, spending around $700, then get out of town where there's nothing to buy.

We drive all the way to Redbank Gorge, a place Chris and I spent some time at a couple of years ago, getting there just in time to view the day's last light on the foothills of Mt Sonder.

Tue 23 May
We walk into the gorge today. It's a lot dryer than on our previous visit, and doesn't look nearly as good.

I climb as far as possible into the gorge and get some photos from the side of the cliff.

Apparently this gorge is a series of 16 pools interconnected by narrow water courses. If you have a wet suite (the water is very cold) and maybe a li-lo you can explore them all, something I must do one day.

Wed 24 May
Today we plan to get onto the Tanami Track, but rather than go all the way back to the Alice, we take a shortcut and drive past Haaste Bluff.

After some time we reach the Tanami track, it's bitumen for a short distance then reverts to dirt. We fuel up at the Tilmouth roadhouse (very clean, $1.71/litre) and then top up at the Yuendumu community (filthy dump, $1.95/litre) and carry on.

I've heard that there's nothing much on the Tanami, it's just a shortcut to the Kimberley. And I have to agree. However we do find a very pleasant campsite at the Mt Doreen mine ruins.

Thu 25 May
Long day just driving. We don't need petrol but thought we would drop into the Rabbit Flat roadhouse anyway, just to check it out.

Rabbit Flat is closed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we know that, but at least we figured we could drive in and have a look around. Maybe use the picnic tables and loos or something.

No such luck, the roadhouse is some distance off the road, and the access track is blocked.

We have lunch on the side of the road and carry on.

Not far down the track we get a call on the radio from the lads. "You haven't seen our solar panels on the road have you?" they ask.

Bradley has been ahead of us doing about 95kph, and it seems that the wind got under his panels and peeled them off.

Within minutes we catch them up. The three Unisolar panels are lying in the middle of the track. It doesn't look good.

After some deliberation though we decide that things aren't as bad as they first appeared. Two of the panels have no damage at all, the third one is looking a bit sad though.

We bundle various pieces into both vehicles and carry on, looking for a campsite that will be suitable for fixing the panels.

After finding a spot we get to work. Bradley fashions a frame for the two undamaged panels, then he and Kevin screw them back on the roof.

Meanwhile I'm looking into what can be done with the third panel. The wires and junction box have been ripped clean off. However I figure that, if I scrape some of the silicon from the panel's substrate, I can expose the area where the wires were connected. I do this, then Bradley solders some wire directly to the exposed metal.

Viola, one working solar panel. Physically it's in a bad way and cannot be mounted back on the roof, but electronically it works fine. From now on Bradley will plug it in when we camp and place it out in the sun on the end of a wire.

NOTE: The Unisolar panels have no glass. We use them on our truck, the idea being that they will take more hammer than other styles. Obviously this is the case. On the Cruiser however we use glass panels because we need more power, and with glass we can get 240W from just two panels. If ours fall off though there will be no repairing them.

That's it then, all done. Now a cold beer would be nice. Unfortunately for Kevin and Bradley the circuit breaker tripped when the panels flew off, and the fridge hasn't been working ever since. No cold beer for them.

Fri 26 May

After a quick breakfast we continue along the Tanami track.

We intend to camp at Wolf Creek meteorite crater, however when we get there the campground doesn't look that enticing, so we have some lunch, a quick look at the crater, then head off. Might as well get to Halls Creek or even to the Bungles (aka Bungle Bungles or Purnululu) turn off.

Just a few kilometres west of the Bungles turnoff runs the Ord River. There was a good rest area here last time we traveled this way, but I seem to remember it being on the other side of the road.

It looks like a new high-level bridge has been constructed and the road realigned, that may explain my confusion. Then again, maybe I'm just confused.

There's a lot of people in the rest areas so we camp on the other side of the river on the old low-level crossing, right in the middle of the road.

There are some huge boulders blocking the crossing so we shouldn't be in any danger of being run over. However it looks like they have only been there a day or so, judging by the fresh dirt and scrape marks, so Kevin and Bradley place some buckets and an old sign on the road, about 20 metres from our camp.

That was probably a good idea as it happens, because while we're sitting around having a drink we see some headlights coming our way. The car is coming pretty fast, but at the last minute the front of the vehicle dips, indicating that the brakes are being applied.

The driver has seen both our camp and the boulders. He's obviously a station hand on his way into Halls Creek for a big night out, and the old road is a good shortcut.

"Where the hell did those rocks come from?" he asks, "They weren't there the other day". He does a U-turn and screams off. For several minutes we can hear him gunning the ute as he crosses the new bridge and hurries towards town. He must be on a promise.

Sat 27 May

After breakfast we drive into the Bungles. It's officially a three-hour drive, but most people do it in two.

For the most part this is a pretty good dirt road. There used to be a difficult section at about the halfway mark, at a spot called Calico Springs, however this appears to have been filled in, and is now nothing more that a shallow creek crossing.

We check in at the office, then make our way to the Walardi campground, about ten kilometres away. After selecting a spot, and leaving the trailer in place to reserve it, we drive to the Piccanniny creek car park. From here we can walk a few hundred metres into Cathedral Gorge, or thirty-odd kilometres along Piccanniny Creek.

We choose the gorge.

It's only about a kilometre walk from the car park and well worth it, especially if you have time to wait for the tour groups to leave. They only get a few minutes, so it's easy to get the place to yourself if you wait a while.

Sun 28 May
Bradley and I get up early and drive around to the Piccanniny Creek area for some sunrise photos.

After breakfast we strike camp and drive north to the Kurrajong campground, this time leaving a table and chairs to reserve a spot, then head off to Echidna Chasm.

We walk into the chasm through an incredible landscape of conglomerate rock.

At the end the gorge opens out just a little, and we get a clear view of the sky.

Kevin and Bradley are well ahead of us, and are already at the Mini Palm Valley car park as we return from Echidna Gorge.

On the radio Kevin says I really have to "come and see this". He doesn't elaborate as to the nature of "this".

We drive around to the other car park and Kevin leads us to the end of a small gorge. On arrival we see a pool but nothing of any real interest. "Look closely around the edge of the pool" he says.

I look, but still see nothing.

Then something moves, it's a tiny frog. As I approach another one moves, and another. There's hundreds of them, all sitting within an inch or so of the water's edge. Some in the water, but most are on the pebbles or the sand.

Mon 29 May
It's a long drive up to Kununurra, where we stock up on food and beer, then drive out to the Mambi Island boat ramp, about 30k along the back road to Wyndham.

I've been wanting to camp here since our last time through this way, about four years ago.

The boat ramp is no more, just a slab of concrete surrounded by mud on the side of the river, a victim of last year's wet season I assume.

It's still easy enough to launch a boat from the river bank though.

Tue 30 May
We stay at the boat ramp having a relaxing day. The lads go fishing, I take photographs, and Chris reads.

Just on sunset a car drives past the nearby dirt track, the sunbeams streaming through the resultant dust look great.

Wed 31 May
It's beautiful and peaceful here on the side of the Ord river, there's the occasional fishing tour speed boat heading down river, but apart from that there's no sign of man.

Today Bradley takes me out on the river, looking for crocs.

And we find plenty, in fact there's a croc every hundred metres or so. Some freshies, and some salties, but the biggest of them all is a huge salty we find sunning itself on a bank, just a few hundred metres from our camp.

Thu 1 Jun
From the boat ramp it's a short drive up to Marlgu Billabong, a bird lover's paradise. There's a hide here, it's placed at the end of a boardwalk and right in the lagoon. From here you can observe the birds at very close quarters.

I'm particularly amused by the Pied herons as they attempt to stand on the lilies. They manage to do so for between 5 and 15 seconds, before the lilly sinks and they have to jump ship. The time depends on such factors as the size of the bird, and the size of the lilly pad.

I could spend days here, but before long it's time to go.

We drive the short distance to Wyndham, where I have to post some photos and check my email.

Having done that, and spent some time up at the Five Rivers lookout, we leave town.

After a short drive we turn right and head west, finally we are on the famous Gibb River Road (hitherto referred to as GRR).

There really doesn't seem to be much on the eastern half of the GRR. The most obvious place to visit here is the well-known El Questro resort. It's quite nice by all accounts. "Accounts" being the operative word, as you'll need a healthy bank account to stay there.

I dub the place El Costo, and we move on.

Before long we cross the Pentecost River, and shortly after that we find a lovely secluded campsite on the side of a billabong.

Fri 2 Jun
Still on the GRR, today we plan to get up onto the Mitchell Plateau. We reach the Kalumburu turn off at around lunch time, but drive another couple of kilometres to the Gibb River before stopping for a feed.

From here it's on to Drysdale station, the last chance to get fuel for some time. Drysdale is a real hub of activity, mostly because everyone who comes up this way drops in for something. There's a bar, restaurant, fuel, mechanical repairs, you name it. Plus it's still a working cattle station.

From Drysdale we continue north, turning onto the Mitchell Falls road after 100k. There's a campground on the banks of the King Edward River and we plan to stay there. It's on the other side of the river however, so we must cross that first.

It's looking rather deep, Bradley wades into the stream and decides it's a goer, then Kevin also goes through on foot so he can photograph the cars as they cross.

Then it's Bradley's turn with the trailer.

Because we have a petrol motor and no snorkel I decide to put the tarp over the bull bar, just in case. As long as I drive at the correct speed this will stop water entering the engine compartment which can flood the motor and/or pull the fan through the radiator.

We get slightly wet feet in the cab, but the old bomb done good. It probably wasn't necessary to use the tarp, but better to be safe than sorry.

Just a few hundred metres along the track we find the campground on the banks of the river, and pull in.