Queen Victoria Head

The road is getting rougher with more bends and steep climbs to be negotiated in the process of getting through a raft of mountain ranges and spectacular hills. Every now and then one comes across random bush fires that burn out of control. It seems that aboriginals still light fires to burn off the scrub for the next season. Every time one crosses hills, the mountain ranges and valleys are visible for many miles ahead. This serves as a reminder that the Kimberley is definitely not a flat country. A good few rivers are to be crossed; I would not want to do this in the wet season. The road would be unnavigable. Once in a while a road train has to be dodged so one has to drive with care.

Heaps of mountain ranges

What a rock wall!

A few hundred clicks further is the Mt. Barnett Roadhouse. This serves as a ‘half way house’ as there is a store and fuel is available.  They cater for overnighting of various sorts. Another good distance further is the turn-off to Kalumburu. The Gibb River road makes a right hand turn and continues to El Questro. The road to Kalumburu is very bad and rough. However it takes in the Drysedale River, Drysedale station, Mitchell plateau and falls. Kalumburu itself is some distance from the coast where you will find the scenic Honeymoon bay. I decided to give this fantastic area a miss and leave it for another trip because of time constraints. Several times I left the road to pursue tracks and explore the country side. There are many gorges in this country, some of which are very deep. Some of the rivers that are crossed have very long pools that just invite one for a swim to cool off from the heat. It is then that I remembered the Salties and so turned up the air condition instead. As a rule nobody drives at night in the Outback. It is too dangerous. No cattle properties are fenced around the road and the cattle roam freely. By the late afternoon I pulled off the road and set up camp next to a river. Some other weary travelers joined me and once again turned in for a well-deserved rest after a day’s travel and a fire.

Deep rock walls down to the river in the chasm

If you follow the rift it looks as if the land has been ripped apart

We have been knocking around the neighborhood the last few days. That includes one or two beach walks a day. Last night we sat on the beach just before sunset and had a few frosties as the sun went down. Very relaxing.

The day before I was at Yeppoon harbor and took this interesting picture of the harbor at lowtide. It looked very funny with all the boats resting on the mud bank of the creek at lowtide. Turns out that the harbor is made up by a small creek. Turns out that the general water depth is pretty shallow all along this coast. The tidal differences are large.

Once the tide comes along again everything looks normal. You’d never guess that  the water was so shallow.

To the north of Yeppoon the main beach becomes the Farnborough Beach which continues on for 20km and terminates at a natural bay where the Fishing creek runs into the sea. There is a beach access where we got onto the beach and drove to Corio Bay. Just great to have a decent drive on a beach again; makes you feel so good and free.

Ex-Turtle

There was a bush fire burning vigorously which cast a pall of smoke over the coast.