Day 42 - 45 Eastern Kimberleys

Please let me apologise for having such a long pause, after writing upto and about arriving at Kununurra, Western Australia, upon crossing the border from North Territories.  In the meantime, we have to take on another trip, to drive around Argentina and Chile, through Patagonia, Carreterra Austral, Iguazu Falls etc..  We only just returned after 6 weeks of this epic adventure, filled with near disasters, multiple police strong armings, stolen luggage, and above all, majestic scenery of great varieties.  So here I am, trying to finish writing about this 2011 trip of Crossing the Australian Outback, before getting on another one in May, this time to the extreme north and the coveted Simpson Desert.

It is my pleasure to write and finish the story of this journey, firstly urged on by the encouragement from some of you which I attach great values, secondly, to fulfill my selfish needs for my Alzheimer days.

OK, here we go, and we began our Kimberleys' part of the journey.

Our first night at Kununurra was to check into one of the local caravan parks, just besides the mini-Bungle Bungle, that is the Hidden Valley Reserve. The real Bungle Bungles is another 360 Km away. We set up our tent in mid afternoon, right underneath a huge Mango Tree, because of its huge shade. In the middle of 35+ deg heat, it was to be an ideal spot, we thought! A quick trip into the mini-Bungle Bungle was made, really just to kill sometime, and checkout if it had changed since 6 years ago.  No, wind corrosion works verrr...ry slowly.




We also collected a few big mangoes, with permission from the owner, for our trip ahead, and a couple of them for one of my old classmates, visiting from Canada, now waiting for us in Perth.  Perth is at least 3 weeks away, hopefully, by then, green hard Mangoes will become yellow and soft! And sweet!  Hopefully, that is!

At about 11 pm., we were woken up by big thumping sounds around us!  What the &*&$# is going on!  The bats were attacking those hanging mangoes, and apparently, chewing on the stem, probably where it is the first part to ripe, and each falls onto the ground as the stem thins out.  It is no fun if not downright dangerous, from such height, a kilo of hard stuff will hurt and kill.....So we hurriedly, grab the tent, and run to the open space....this is the end of our camping under mango trees!

Beautiful shady Mango trees....but never camp underneath them !

Size of the mangoes ...

On the next day, after having our car serviced and tyres rotated, aligned etc, we noticed the oil leak in the passenger side front wheel hub, first seen a couple of days ago, had increased.  What's there to do!  We spent all our money in the local supermarket, and some more ( nearly ! Phew ! ) on a couple of Argyle Pink Diamonds, perhaps. Mined locally, these are the most revered diamonds in the World.  With no money in the pocket, and no diamonds, we left with something to monitor over the next few days.

So we fuelled up with two extra jerry cans' worth, and headed towards Wyndham, the oldest and northernmost town of Western Australia.  This time, we decided to take the dirt track, a shorter road to travel, probably not saving time, but to have a crack at the famed Ivanhoe Crossing!

Picture this, a sinking Landcruiser in the rushing Ord River waters, surrounded with salt water crocs...with which, perfect news headlines are made!  But before we left, we shot into the local ranger office to buy the pass for entering Bungle Bungles, and some local information at the tourism office regarding the condition of Ivanhoe Crossing.  Yes, the good news is, the road is open, but the bad news is, the Crossing is closed due to flooding...and there is an alternate track.  So bloody what!

What could have been..just to borrow a picture from the web, excuse the plagiarism here..

Anyway, we drove pass the Crossing to be awed, and to imagine what could have been, the proverbial 64000 dollars question!  This is a 300 meters crossing over a rocky causeway with the Ord River waters rushing over it...infested with man eating crocs. Well, next time...definitely!

Ivanhoe Crossing on our arrival......no can cross !!

The sun was about to set over the Bastion Lookout at Wyndham as we pulled up at the top of the hill. There was a strong haze floating about which masked the sun's strong ray.. and we could smell a big bush fire somewhere.  The panoramic views of the Fiver River confluence were as majestic as it was 6 years ago, there were quite a few people hanging around with guitar and music fun, sipping champagne.  The next morning, we went up again, at the crack of dawn, the haze was still about, and the view remained as majestic as ever with the sun coming from a different angle.

The hazy sunset over the Bastion Lookout at Wyndham...



Before departing Wyndham, our well used air pump for the tyres decided to packup completely in the deep heat, and in the process, aired down one of the tyres instead of up. It is a 320 Km long drive on grade A highway to Bungle Bungles, so there was no choice, but to drag the car to a nearby shop to have it pumped up.  Their pump was not much better than mine! Anyhow, after a few fixes to their pump, we got enough air to go.

On the way to the Bungle Bungles access road, we could see where the haze were coming from.  There were bush fires along the side of the highway for most of the way, not raging, but enough to wreak havoc on the air quality.  In fact, from memory, the fire caused some serious injuries to an outback marathon organised by a Hong Kong based adventure organisation just a couple of weeks back, litigation is still ongoing.  Bush fires in these areas can go on for months, once ignited.

Many cattle, wild horses and 'roos were milling about on the side of the highway, driven out by the fire.  Poor things, some possibly have no water to drink. Such is life in the hardy outbacks!

The access track to Bungle Bungles is a 50Km long and winding track with numerous water crossings, more than I could recall after 6 years.  I could only recall killing two Kangaroos on the way out, just after twilight.  There was no way of avoiding them when they decided to have a tilt at your car just after a blind corner.  That was my first and last kills, no more. I've been avoiding driving after sun down like a plaque.



We spent nearly two days exploring the Bungles, its epic formations of sandstone domes over millions of years by water and wind corrosion.  Majestic views they are, and sometimes eerie, some with dotted eyes like Cousin Itt of Adams Family fame, aka a KKK hood....all in 37 - 40 deg heat.  The car fridge warning lights were flashing after standing in the shade just long enough to have lunch, but it recovered later in the day.  On the last day, I was originally planning for an early morning trek, starting at about 5 am. over a 14 Km return ( or more, depending on conditions ) over reasonably flat terrain to the Piccaninny Gorge. However, the extreme heat made that impossible because, Julia, as she is not mad like me, would have to wait in the heat for hours....it is just not sensible!  The rangers air conditioned office would not be opened until after 8.  So, this just marked down another reason to return.

You are invited to view David's photo album: 2011 4x4 trip ( East Kimberleys ) 2011 4x4 trip ( East Kimberleys ) Sep 25, 2011 by David View Album Play slideshow Message from David Tam: Day 42 - 45 Easter Kimberley - Kununurra ( Argyle Pink Diamonds ), Wyndham ( Five River Lookout ), Bungle Bungles then Gibb River Rd eastern end. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Australia.dt&target=ALBUM&id=5861442261178130593&authkey=Gv1sRgCPC14dHXkf_R4wE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Although there were no bush fire in Bungle Bungles, but the haze was still lurking around.  Unfortunately, that meant no clear sky for night time pictures of the beautiful and epic Milky Way.  The night was nevertheless, cool and comfortable, especially, after a warm shower with our garden spray bottle setup, surprisingly relaxing after a long day of trekking.  Three litres per person for a shower was absolutely necessary in this place as there were no natural water available.