Fri 21st, Home Valley

More sprinkles overnight with increased wind. Another dull morning.

Chris drives off to the homestead to do some washing. Steve, who we know from several shared campsites offers to let me share his generator output. With another dull day and no hope of solar power I gratefuly accept. Hopefully this will give the batteries a much needed lift.

Try fishing with a variety of lures over several sessions to no avail. We will move on tomorrow even though we have paid for another day. Hopefully the flies won't be as bad at El Questro.

Fishing from the muddy banks

Campsite with Pentacost River and Cockburn Ranges beyond.

CT batterIes gets over 9 hours charge hopefully that helps them over the next few days. Wind has dropped by evening however there is still cloud cover.

Home Valley has been a wipe out. Cloudy so you don't get the view of the Cockburn Ranges either during the day or at sunset plus the ever annoying flies. We later learn that the flies came in with the cloud and the rain.

 

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Thurs 20th, Ellenbrae to Home Valley

Up at 6:20am and on the road before 8 am. Chris had suggested we trued a new setup and keep the food storage drawers in the camper so that we did not have to unpack/pack them up, this saved some time in the morning.

Road is good then 50 odd Ks out from Home Valley we strike road works where they have a stop and go, we had to wait 15 minutes before we can continue on. They have laid a new road base of gray rocky material and are in the process of grading and compacting that. 15Km before Home Valley we come up to a Nissan Patrol towing an Ultimate doing around 30km/hr, painfully slow, you can feel every bump every corrugation on the road. No way to pass with a winding road all the way to Home Valley.

Drive into Home Valley and book a campsite for 3 nights on the Pentacost River where hopefully I can do some Barra fishing. We a driving out to set up camp when who do we see driving in but Jeff and Helen, they have just packed up and are on there way to El Questro. We drive down to the river and setup camp, campsite is dry with dead grass and dusty underfoot. 14 combined loos and showers though, a bit of a change from many places. Flies abound, sticky ones that want to crawl into your eyes.

The day is still cloudy and the ranges over the Pentecost River are dull instead of being alive and beautiful. The river banks a muddy and the only real spot to try and fish is at the start of the campground where a creek joins the main river. The river is tidal here and we've heard that the best fishing is towards low tide. Nothing is caught by anyone apart from a few catfish.

We lunch at the restuarant, a burger, the biggest chunk of meat I've ever seen in a burger, all we need for dinner is some noodles.

There is not much you can do at Home Valley unless you want to fork out big bucks for their few tourist activities. We looked at the walks but all seem to be exposed with no cover so we decided to give them a miss. The occasional salt water crocodile can be seen on the far bank of the river.

Run the car for an hour to put some charge into the battery as there is no sun to power the solar panels.

 

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Wed 19th, Mitchell Plateau to Ellenbrae

Say goodbye to Foxy who is heading for Ellenbrae in the hope of accomodation and food. Some of his packet meals of late have been very ordinary.

Up early and on the road by 8am. Chris driving, we cross the King Edward River to find two four wheel drives stopped on the other side with two trucks waiting to come through the other way. The two 4Xs park up and practically block the road, why do people find dickhead spots to park?

Lots of traffic heading north on the Kalumburu road while we travel south. We are warned of approaching traffic by Bob on UHF 24.

Dump our rubbish at the Wyndham turn off and continue on east. The first two free camps are ordinary so we decide to go into Ellenbrae for tea and scones and to camp there overnight before continuing onto Home Valley. There has been no sign of Jeff and Helen at Miners Camp or any of the free campsites on the way. Weather is turning dull with clouds rolling in.

Ellenbrae is OK apart from a single combined shower and loo in the Ringers camping area. Queueing is a bit much in the morning for the loo especially with people who shower in the morning. The tea and scones are good but the camping lacks. Spits of rain off and on through the night.

 

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Tue 18th, Mitchell Plateau

A rest day at the King Edward River campground. A lovely campground, possibly the best we have had so far. It has good ambience, birdlife and a river nearby.

Discover that my solar panel Andersen plug extension cable has got a connector that has been pushed back, this is why we got no charge the day before.

In the morning we drive to two nearby indiginous art locations each of which feature Bradshaw art. We walk around the rocks at both locations seeking art.

Bradshaw's at 2ndnsite

In the afternoon we walk down the river 600m to a waterfall then comeback a bit and have a swim and sit in the rapids. I have a light hearted flick with my fishing rod and soft plastics but nothing shows any sign of interest. Chris watches the abundant birdlife.

 

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Mon 17th, Mitchell Plateau

We want an early start to the day for the drive out to Mitchell Falls so up at 5:30am. Fortunately despite the car auxilliary battery reading dead the car fridge is still running and is reading 4.5C so I don't transfer the contents yet. We have coffee and breakfast then drive off. We are not early enough to beat the traffic so have to sit back and avoid the dust of the car ahead.

Takes 1'50" out to the falls, pretty good road, some corrugations, exposed rocks and rough bits but pretty good all round. The following day Steve actually manages to get back in 1'30" without any impeding traffic.

At 8:20am we book a return chopper flight for 1:45pm, I wonder if this is a bit late. Takes a while to get ready for the walk, put stuff from the fridge in our packs, sunscreen, shoes on etc. We start the walk out and continue onto Little Mertens where we take the track under the falls and look at the indiginous art work down there.

Behind the Waterfall

Continue onto Mertens Gorge where we cross sides.

The walk then continues onto a ford where we cross the Mitchell River in knee deep water. From there we walk to various viewpoints of the falls.

We lunch at a spot that provides a good view of the four levels of the falls. Quite stunning with a good flow of water over the falls.

Just before 1:00pm we walk back nearer the helicopter pad and sit in the rapids to cool off. Comes 1:45pm we take our 6 minute chopper ride out. The 4.5 hours from the start of the walk to the chopper worked out well giving plenty of time to explore viewpoints etc.

Chopper View

When we get back to the car I check the fridge temperature, it is up to 8C, I'm going to have to transfer the contents. The drive home is also around 1'50", 4pm when we get there to find the CT has got no charge at all from the solar panels during the day, no idea what went on.

Transfer meat and other items to CT fridge, put vegies, chocs, tim tams and water in the car fridge which can function as cool storage. Hook the car up and run it to charge the CT.

Time now to relax with a cup of tea, light the fire followed by some red wine.

Chris reassesses and votes this the best ,day so far of the trip.

 

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Sun 16th, Mt Elizabeth to King Edward River

Up early, CT battery is alarming, it is still connected to the car via the Andersen plug. Looked good last night should not be happening.

Fill up the tanks with water. Have to disconnect the bleeder hose and shut main inlet to get any speed into the refill otherwise it just pours out.

Good road continuing on the GRR. The Hahn river looked really nice for a stopover with tracks both sides of the road.

Pull into Drysdale Station and order a hamburger. It is to die for! I have the delux model and Chris has the standard one. Don't go past without having one. Drysdale no longer offers a tyre or breakdown service.

The Kalumburu road is good all the way to the King Edward River turnoff. The road into the camping area does deteriorate and is moderately rough.

We get a camp on our own at the King Edward River campground, nice looking river, can swim, will go to the Mitchell River Falls tomorrow.

The car auxillary battery is alarming immediately the car is turned off, it is dead however the car fridge still seems to be running. Will check the car fridge temperature tomorrow morning. This fridge has all our meat in it. This explains why the CT battery has been drained overnight, have to disconnect the car Andersen plug when not running it.

Chris lights the fire, I make a Thai chicken & potato red/green curry, enough for 3 nights prob. Have a fireside dinner, Mike and Sue drop over having eaten the worse meal ever, a tin of refried beans with a packet of Indian vegies.

 

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Sat 15th, Mt Elizabeth Station

10C overnight, the coldest so far. Up early for the 7:45am tag along tour start. Jeff and Helen are off to Miners Camp near Drysdale Station intending to do a flyover of the Mitchell Falls.

We take off on the culural tour led by Phil in the lead vehicle, we are the only tagalong. Home made cookies with fruit juice for morning tea at a river crossing.

We stop to look at Aboriginal art aound a rocky outcrop, some Bradshaw drawings as well as modern art.

Bradshaw figures

Lunch at a water hole, skull and bones overseeing the pond circa 1900. There is a major aboriginal artwork here that was touched up and ruined under a government funded program. Disgusting someone should be shot! The so called touch up was by non-local aborigines and did not use traditional art methods, rather it was done with acrylic paints which are already peeling and don't look like aboriginal rock art.

Gov't Funded Art Destruction

Some quotes from Phil: on a bushfire "black lightning", on how much booze to bring to the Kimberley "whatever amount of booze you are planning for the Gibb double it".

The Bradshaw paintings are dated to 17,000 years ago, they are not part of the culture of modern aborigines. Apparently the area became very arid for 10,000 years and supported no life

Bradshaw Art

We get back to the station after a very enjoyable tour and I manage to buy some home made cookies like those we had for morning tea from the office.

While backing up the car to be able to re-hitch in the morning I manage to remodel the arse end by backing into a tree in the blind spot on the right hand rear corner. Mostly damage to the plastic rear mudguard.

 

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