OK, first things first. For those who wished us a wonderful VACATION (thank you!), this first installment is a TRIP, not a vacation; as my brother-in-law Randy would describe almost any travel with Sonya. We are on the go early in the morning and finish round about 8:30 pm, otherwise known as "Kimberley midnight“.
The Kimberleys are considered REMOTE and folks out here on stations only receive mail once every 13 weeks, and we have had no cell phone coverage until today – Tuesday, Sept 10, which is why this is our first post on tour. We are out here in the “dry” when roads are still passable, as the “wet” (Oct.-April), leaves much of the road system underwater and areas are completely cut off from the outside world.
This is our vehicle for the next 16 days with Outback Spirit Tours. It is a Mercedes Benz Axor 1833. Its gross vehicle weight is 18 tonnnes or about 40,000 lbs. and even THEY impose luggage weight restrictions on Sonya (16 kg) , something I was unsuccessful doing with our one ton truck. Their Mercedes is well built to haul 26 passengers in comfort. On this tour, we are only 18 passengers so no one has to ride behind the wheels (much smoother, relatively).
Jamie Nicholson is our driver and guide. He has done many things in life, but the best part, for those who are lucky enough to get on his tour, is that he grew up in the Kimberley on a cattle station and his knowledge of the area is nothing short of phenomenal! He also grew up learning the Indigenous way of life as well as the traditional Caucasian way of life in Australia. Jamie also spent time in the Royal SAS (Special Air Services) in intelligence, and seems well capable of handling any situation.
Because he does the guiding and the driving (as he doesn’t have a “dolly bird” to help out), Jamie allows one passenger to sit up front for half a day when we are driving from point to point. Guess who got on the drill right away!
We left Broome and the lovely Cable Beach Club on Wednesday Sept 4, to make our way to Derby and the beginning of the Gibb River Road (the “Gibb”). When asked where we were going, many an Aussie expressed a desire to take on this famous route, so we knew that we were in for an adventure (or rather TRIP!). Lonely Planet's book on Australia says that the Gibb provides one of Australia's "wildest outback experiences". Stay tuned.
On the way, we stopped at the Boab Prison Tree seen above. As you can see it is hollow in the centre, but no prisoners were actually kept there, contrary to popular myth, as it was believed the spirits hid in dark places. Rather, groups of prisoners were chained to each other around the circumference of the tree so that they could not escape, since scaling the tree when chained is nearly impossible. The tree measures 13.5 metres in circumference and it is estimated to be 1350 years old (you do the math!).
Our first night's stop was in Derby. If you saw the film Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, you will recognize this dock as the famous scene where the two main cattle stations are competing to get their cattle up on to the Army supply ship. If you have not seen the show, you should!
The tides here are something else. You will recall that I mentioned the tides are the highest in the Southern Hemisphere, and the second highest in the world. (For reference, the Bay of Fundy in Canada has the highest tides in the world!) Because of the shallow seacoast at Derby, the tides can run up to 25-30 knots (40-50 km/h) in speed.
The next morning, we set off on the daunting Gibb. This is 640 kilometers of largely unpaved road that is rougher than any grid road you will find in Saskatchewan or Alberta, by some measure. The Gibb was completed in 1969. Before that it was a stock (cattle) trail. If you doubt my meaning of the word daunting, you should know that there is an average of one rollover per day along the Gibb, so alertness is the foremost requirement! It is considered an Aussie accomplishment to say “I did the Gibb”, and we will have done the entire Gibb at the end of our trip.
Parts were under reconstruction, so we had to sit and wait our turn while several road trains came through.
For those unfamiliar with road trains, they are semi-tractor and trailer combinations much like we would see in North America. The difference is that these are 53.5 meters (175 feet) in length, or 100 feet longer than the tractor trailer combinations in North America. They burn about 1 litre per kilometer, so you can imagine how much fuel it takes, when the distance from Perth to Sydney is about the same as from Vancouver to Toronto across the Trans-Canada Highway. They carry about 200 head of cattle in a road train.
Along the way to our next location, we stopped for a quick dip at Bell Gorge.
What a great way to refresh, when the heat of the day gets into the mid 30's!
Also along the way, we came across a thousand year old Boab tree that had given up and fallen over. You saw the earlier picture of the Prison tree with the hollow middle - well this one was also hollow, as you can see me inspecting. By the way, those of you who saw our pictures when we were in Africa will recognize this tree as a Baobab tree, as it is named in Africa.
Our next stop was a bit off the Gibb, at Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary, run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and supported financially in part by Outback Spirit Tours, through their contribution of the safari tents and trucks, besides the nightly accommodation charges of $600-$700/ per tent they pay for tours. They are a privately funded organization doing wildlife and ecological conservation using methods such as feral cat and predator containment and traditional controlled burn patches, thereby allowing the natural environment to regenerate. They are conducting long term studies which may one day become the gold standard for conservation. Many of the staff are volunteers and science graduates with tremendous enthusiasm for their work. Thanks to the support of Outback Spirit Tours, this is our accommodation.
The accommodations are lovely but the check in instructions somewhat unique, as they warn you to look for snakes. These snakes look for frogs who hide out from the snakes in the toilet bowls. If you saw a frog in your bowl, you were to either flush it down or use the rubber gloves to pick them out and relocate them. If you were to flush, then do your business and flush again. And if they were to reappear, repeat! As for the snakes, they suggested we call and they would come in to remove them.
The next day, Jamie showed us around some of the sites.
Now in Africa, we saw some pretty large termite nests, but I don't recall seeing any this big. There are some 34 Million cattle in Australia, and if you take the weight of all the cattle, it is estimated to be the weight of all of the termites in Oz! Before you get grossed out by termites, you should know that without them, we would likely not be walking this planet, as they are one of the foundations of our ecological system. While they are mostly noted for damaging property, in fact, they play a key role in forest areas by allowing decomposition of timber which is necessary for returning minerals to the soil. Termites also are a source of food for spiders, lizards, and birds.
And of course, after a walk on a hot spring afternoon, what better treat but another dip in a Billabong! Now, a billabong is what we in North America call an oxbow river. That is, a pool of water that is left over when the river changes course. Up here, the rivers dry up during “dry”, so billa bongs are pretty common - and wonderfully refreshing when you are sweatin' your arse off!
While traveling the Gibb, you cross a number of cattle stations. A little perspective is in order here. These cattle stations are land that is leased either from the territorial government or the Indigenous people that own the land. They are long term leases (40+ years), and many stations are about a million acres. Yes, you did read that correctly, 1,000,000 acres, or 4,000 square kilometers (think 40 km X 100 km). The stations are so large they may not see some of their cattle for three years. Jamie’s extended family’s operation is so large they actually fill an entire ship, all destined for McDonald’s hamburger. By the way, the word “station” comes from the old telegraph stations that were dotted across the country. For reference; a station is a million plus acres, a “property” is 20,000 acres, a “farm” is 100 acres, and a “ranch” is typically only 10 acres.
Now at this time of year they muster (“round up” to Albertans) the cattle for sale or slaughter, as the case may be. And from time to time you get an ornery bull that does not want to be herded. So, you use a bull catcher – as seen here! The bull charges the vehicle, and the vehicle pushes back…until eventually the bull tires out and follows the herd!
Now, there are sections of the Gibb where the cattle get out of their station lands and near the road.
These ones were curious about these tourists on the bus! You will note that there are a mix of short horn and Brahman cattle. The Brahman are a much hardier breed for this area, so the short horn are generally in the minority. The Brahman are very lean, which makes them highly desirable to McDonald’s who can add just exactly the right amount of fat so you get that “perfectly” consistent Big Mac everywhere in the world!
From Mornington, we made our way to the Drysdale Cattle Station (another million acre + station). They run 9,000 head of cattle. Along the way, the Gibb got particularly harsh and the washboard (“corrugations” as they call it here) got very bad. So much so, that our bus lost three wheel-studs on the left front wheel.
Jamie 'limped' the bus into Drysdale station, and the next morning Outback Spirit flew the studs and the mechanic out to the station to undertake the repairs. Jamie and the Drysdale station manager got to work prepping the truck for the morning mechanic.
We were on our way less than an hour behind schedule! Now, you can really tell the quality of an organization and its people when things go off the rails! They were all impressive to say the least. Well done Outback Spirit!
While we were waiting for repairs, we had to muster our luggage to a central location to make it easy to load once the bus was ready, and to minimize the red “bull dust” that covers everything, including you, your shoes and your luggage.
I was one of the nominees to muster the luggage. A lot easier than mustering cattle, that is for sure!
While we were waiting, I found their telephone box. Out here, if the telephone box is made of wood, it won’t last long because of the termites! Hence, use an old refrigerator!
It was Sonya's folks wedding anniversary, so Sonya and I wanted to call them to wish them Happy Anniversary, but we could not get the phone sorted out before it was time to leave. Happy Belated Anniversary, John & Mia!
Once repairs were completed and luggage was on board, we were on our way to the Ngauwudu Safari Camp, built and operated by Outback Spirit. Along the way, we stopped at a sacred site to view some ancient rock art, with a local Indigenous guide named Terry.
Throughout Australia, there are more than 6,000 rock art sites, most of which are either culturally or spiritually (or both) significant. They have carbon dated some of this art, and it ranges from 3-4,000 years for the more recent art, and anywhere from 17,000 - 60,000 years old for other pieces.
Now one of the interesting things that we learned about the indigenous culture was that a son-in-law is not allowed to speak directly to his mother-in-law. They actually sit with their backs to each other. There is even a tree that is colloquially called the mother-in-law tree, because the leaves come in pairs and they are back to back.
Now, I can hear a bunch of men saying, “Alright, that is great!” On the face of it, it may be OK for a little while, but personally I would miss out on way too much fun teasing Mia. And before you go feeling sorry for her, she can dish it out as well as she takes it!
Have a look at this tree not seen in our parts.
This is a blood wood tree, so named because the sap runs blood red, as you can see above. The variety of plants found here is pretty unique, for someone coming from Canada, at least!
That afternoon, we hiked up to the Mitchell Plateau and were treated to another dip in the cool waters. Now, at this particular pond, there was a tree, and attached to that tree was a rope.
Well ... boys (that never grow up) will be boys!
Neil was kind enough to share this picture catching me in the act. Thanks, Neil!
One of the highlights of this trip is the trek up the trail to see the Mitchell Falls. Sue, one of our travel colleagues, rode the helicopter to the top, so she was able to get a picture of our group as we scramble up the river bed.
Next, a swim in the river above the falls. At this time of the year, the falls are not flowing, as we are at the end of the dry season, but there are many parts of the river that are still active. Here I am soaking in the river after a long hike at 35 degrees C, along with Neil, one of our travel mates.
One of the benefits of coming at this time of the year, is the opportunity to see and swim between beautiful water lilies that would otherwise never be seen because of the torrent of water coming down the river. Judge for yourself
Another benefit of coming when we did, is the ability to stand on the spillway of the falls and look to the bottom.
When we were done our trek to the top, we made our way to the heli landing pad, also on the riverbed! (Thanks for the pic, Sue!)
After a very short wait, it is our turn to ride in the helicopter from the top of the falls back to base camp, where we started.
And we're off! See you back at base camp!
The view from the copter was incredible. Here are a couple of pics for your enjoyment.
You can probably tell I had a death grip on Neil's video camera as I was holding it outside the helicopter.
When we got back to our camp, we were able to relax in our beautiful tented safari lodge.
That's all for now folks! See you next in East Kimberley!
SnP
