“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.
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| 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.
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| "Our" Prawn Trawler at Wharf |
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| 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.
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| The Grotto from above |
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| Great Scenery along the Gibb River Road |
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| Much Rougher than it Looks! |
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| Cockburn Range |
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| The Pentecost River Crossing |
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| 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!!
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| 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.
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| Many hidden rocks in 'Ellenbrae' creek |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Unceremoniously dumped Camper Trailer |
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| Recovery at last |
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| 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.
.jpg) |
| Vale John Newton Vidgen - 1944-2014 |
.jpg) |
| 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
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