1 Aug
Shaun Whale from 4wd Action is camped beside us! Some of you may not know who this is but for those who do ‘SHAUN IS CAMPED BESIDE US’! He has been filming a Kimberley DVD and now has a couple of weeks holidays. It didn’t take long for Michael and I to introduced ourselves and after a bit of a chat we left him alone. A bit later Shaun came over so we could get a photo (we had mentioned it earlier). He also got chatting to Graham and ended up having a look under the bonnet at the engine conversion.
A short time later we were on the road again (after filling water tanks) headed for Mitchell Falls. The road is very corrugated. After we turned off onto the Mitchell Falls track the corrugations improved but it was a slow track taking two hours to go 85km with a stop on the way to check out some Aboriginal rock art. Luckily it was only early afternoon when we arrived meaning there was plenty of room to camp at the camp ground. You have to ‘self register’ by filling in your details on a special envelope (provided) and putting your payment into the envelope then into a box. After setting up camp we decided it was too late and hot to do the 8.6km return walk today so we did a short walk to Little Mertan Falls for a swim. We started having a dip at the top of the falls but then found our way down to the bottom below the falls where the water was deeper and cleaner.
That night we had a visit from a Spotted Quoll which had a drink out of Michael and Jules’ sink water then came to our camp to scavenge for Jacob’s dropped dinner then was off to someone else’s camp.
2 – 4 Aug
Today I set the alarm so we could have an early breakfast, pack up camp then get on with our marathon walk. The track in wasn’t that bad; a few rocks to climb but not as many as Emma Gorge. Jacob also let Graham carry him intermittently so we could speed things up for a bit. Once we got to our destination we went for a swim while Michael carried on further around the far side of the falls, having to crawl on hands and knees in some areas so he could get a decent shot of the falls.
Once back to the camp ground we were hot again having dried off from our swim a number of km back. Graham filled up a bucket of water and we had a hose off to cool down. We were then on our way to McGowan’s Island above the Aboriginal Community of Kalumburu. WA’s northernmost settlement. The road had bad corrugations and big dips that caught you by surprise. We probably should have slowed down a bit but you’ll have to tell Graham that as he’s the driver.
We were originally going to Honeymoon Bay which is near McGowan’s Island however after a fella recommended McGowan’s when Graham was helping him sort out a fuel problem at Drysdale River Station then Shaun also recommending it (that’s where he was heading when we parted ways at Drysdale) we decided we would go there too. Glad we did, it was a lot nicer than Honeymoon Bay.
When we arrived at McGowan’s, we parked behind a couple of other travellers who were checking in. Two cars up something didn’t look quite right – this family had a cracked chassis on a dual cab Colorado and the camper trailer’s independent suspension arm on the drivers side was also broken. He had been caught out by the dips but had come off second best.
We all liked this spot a lot and ended up staying for three nights. We spent our time relaxing, fishing and at one point went for a drive to check out Honeymoon Bay and the Pago Mission Ruins.
To catch the big fish you really need a boat, something we don’t have but we had a go off the rocks and on the last evening Graham watched Jacob so I could go out there and give it a go. I don’t think I have fished since I was a teenager so much to my surprise I really enjoyed it (probably because I caught two fish!). Now I have the fishing bug and want to go out on a charter boat but am worried about sea sickness.
We also caught up with Shaun again. He is a very nice young man.
