Tuesday 1 July 2014

KKK No 7 Kununurra and the Gibb River Road

  “K K K”

 (‘Kimberley Karavan Kapers’ - Bruce and Audrey)

No: 7 Kununurra and the Gibb River Road

Salvage and Sorrow

It’s Saturday 14 June, day 70: we’re bathed in balmy Kimberley sunshine at 7:45am as we top up petrol at $1.90/ltr and excitedly depart Kununurra to commence our Kimberley adventure, bound for Wyndham, whose establishment in 1885 opened up this vast region, with its main Port situated on the broad, swiftly flowing upper reaches of Cambridge Gulf where tidal range exceeds 8½ metres. Normal tidal ranges worldwide range 2 to 3 metres.

Wyndham’s a small disjointed town with the old section at the Port, some 5 km distant from the ‘new’ town. Michael Durack (of ‘Kings in Grass Castles’ fame) arrived here in 1882 and commenced his family’s extensive cattle empire, the precursor to establishment in 1919 of the huge Wyndham (Government) Meatworks, the then lifeblood of the entire Kimberley region. 

The Big Croc
Home to perhaps the worlds biggest ‘Crocodile’, the 20metre sculpture in the main street was made by local TAFE students in 1988, contains 55 kilometres of steel rod, 10 rolls of chicken wire and six cubic metres of concrete. In addition to its abundance of real saltwater Crocodiles, Wyndham is also famous for its Prawns, so we bought a kilo of green ones for $20 from a trawler at the Port wharf.

"Our" Prawn Trawler at Wharf
Then we hauled the ‘Karavan’ up the 4km long, continually rising steep road up to the “Five Rivers Lookout” in the Bastion Range, 330 mtrs above Wyndham, to view where the King, Ord, Durack, Forrest and Pentecost Rivers join together and flow into the gulf.


View from Five Rivers Lookout
Wyndham Township was proclaimed in 1886 and the local Cemetery, predating the 1890’s, reflects the arrival of Afghan Cameleers into the Kimberley, and from there throughout central Australia. Many of the Afghan graves are very large, due to the custom of the lead camel often being buried with its Master.

By early afternoon we’re retracing our path back to the turnoff of the Gibb River Road, stopping enroute to check out ‘The Grotto’, a steep descent of 140 steps to a cavernous ravine of water 300 feet deep. 

The Grotto from above
Upon reaching the Gibb River Road we stopped to deflate all the tyres for better gravel road performance. A little further along we forded the 100mtr, over-knee-deep Pentecost River, the first of several watercourses along this 600+ km of challenging dirt road and then shortly after, we enjoyed the broad vista of the Cockburn Range from the roadside lookout.

Great Scenery along the Gibb River Road
Much Rougher than it Looks!





Cockburn Range

The Pentecost River Crossing
Fording the Pentecost
The road was rough and dusty, with many stretches of bad corrugations, and occasional other travellers creating dust clouds, so we were very pleased to call it a day by 4pm. We found a sheltered roadside spot 20km past the Pentecost, after a Dingo ‘played chicken’ scampering across the road, the only wildlife (except birds) we’ve seen in weeks. We enjoyed a top cuisine dinner tonight of (Wyndham) sauté Garlic Prawns. Yum Yum!!

 
1kg of Yum Yum!!!
Next morning, Sunday 15 June, day 71, finds us passing through reasonably open forest grazing on a not too bad, corrugated, stony road (but still limited by road conditions to 50/70 kph) which brings us to our second riparian thrill, fording the Durack River, then brief respites of bitumen as we pass over Gregories, then Rollies Jump-Ups, and ford a deep, rocky, short creek on the 5km sidetrack into “Ellenbrae Station” Campground, lured there by the seductive roadside signage of Devonshire Teas.

Many hidden rocks in 'Ellenbrae' creek
Devonshire Tea with 'Ellenbrae' wild Finches
The stony road-table improved after “Ellenbrae” to a much kinder surface and soon we were on another bitumen strip that overran the low twin ridges that constitute the Gibb Range where, upon cresting the latter, we experienced a most explosive tyre blowout on the Karavan, white smoke billowing everywhere in the external view mirror.

It’s 1pm, we’ve stopped right on the hill crest and soon two roadworks men come by and help to change the spare wheel and we’re soon back on the move – but not for long!! About 17 seconds and 150 metres later white smoke is again pouring off the same right van wheel and we hastily come to a stop in the table-drain, at the bottom of the hill, fortuitously about 200 mtrs before the end of the clean, dust free bitumen, which ‘address’ was to become our ‘home’ for the next 4 days and 3 nights! 

Home 'Address' for four days
 We are 10km east of the Kalumburu turnoff, 340km from Kununurra, 420km east of Derby with nearest civilization 110km west at the Mt Bartlett Roadhouse. Thank goodness Audrey had the presence of mind to buy a Satellite Phone so we phoned RACQ in Brisbane, 3331km away as the crow flies, and rescue plans commenced immediately.

They phoned back shortly to advise a Derby truck was in the area and would come later that day, but it didn’t arrive ‘til 10am the following morning, and after a couple of hours it was apparent to me the semi-trailer was unsuitable for the job and that our Karavan would be surely damaged by his improvised sling arrangement, so I declined his services and asked RACQ to arrange an appropriate Tilt Tray Truck recovery, which they said would take another day.

The first recovery attempt, unsuccessful
Perhaps ten to fifteen vehicles passed each day and though we waved down no one, only a very few stopped to enquire of our plight. Of course, we had plenty of food and water and books and our I-Pads, but there was nothing they could do to help. So there we stayed, 1½ metres from the bitumen for our second night, though thankfully, no traffic at all uses the Gibb River Road after dark. 

Waiting, waiting, waiting!
Tuesday 17, day 3 shines hot and sunny and after several more Sat Phone calls each way we’re told we’ll be collected the following morning by a ‘Motor Workz’ Tow Truck from Kununurra. So we spend our third day waiting – waiting, and again sleeping beside the road. During the day I jack up and remove the van wheel and discover the problem – the swing arm independent suspension is totally cracked/broken on 3 sides, allowing the wheel to roll inwards at the top, slicing the tyre completely around its inner wall.

Broken Suspension and rubbing tyre
Then, next morning, as if we haven’t suffered enough stress and concern, our hearts sink as we watch a Motor Workz rescue truck go racing past us outbound before we knew it and assumed he must not be ‘ours’. With no other Motor Workz truck in sight, a few hours later as he came back, we waved him down and he discovered that we were in fact ‘his job’ so, into the table drain he unceremoniously dumped the camper he had wrongly picked up and hauled us aboard. If we hadn’t stopped him we’d have spent another tedious day and night beside the road!

Unceremoniously dumped Camper Trailer
Recovery at last
Damaged swing arm suspension
The sad news arrived about an hour earlier, by Satellite Phone that my twin brother John had passed away the previous afternoon, ending his battle with Alzheimer’s. Once again our Sat Phone proved its worth.

We arrived back in Kununurra mid afternoon and took up residence in a Villa unit in the Town Caravan Park, and over the next two days, the sizable Argyle Engineering Company welded up the suspension; a further two days later on 22 June I was able catch a flight to Brisbane via Perth, returning to our Cannon Hill house.

A few very busy days followed as brother Grahame and I made arrangements for John’s cremation and Memorial Service, a most comforting and memorable event that took place on Friday 27 June, attended by so many of his friends and relatives.

Vale John Newton Vidgen - 1944-2014
Remembering the good times
Sunday 29 June saw me fly back to Kununurra via Broome direct, and we plan to depart Kununurra again in a couple of days to recommence our adventure down the challenging Gibb River Road. Let us hope we can give you a better story in our next KKK Report.

Love and best wishes
Bruce and Audrey.

Kununurra
30 June 2014

No comments: