Of Gorges and gorgeous Gorgie porgies. 25th July to 15th August.
We picked Georgia and her mate Bunny up from Darwin Airport at 1 am . She was faithfully sporting her Antiqueteenagers tour teeshirt . It was great seeing her as a lot had happened since we departed Melbourne 5 months earlier . You are never too old for a mum and dad hug !
There was a day or two exploring Darwin for Georgia before we set off for Wyndham as just south this is the start of the Gibb River Road.
The Gibb runs for 640km west to Derby. The route is sprinkled with gorges and swimmable rivers and waterholes.
It would be fair to say that Georgia just loved sleeping in her mini swag. Sometimes she looked more like a human sausage roll than a 1 person sleeping device as is was so snug
We diverted away from the Gibb to take in the Bungle Bungles and after numerous Humphrey and Zippy jokes we enjoyed the walk through the cray rock formations.
We were quite worried about Georgia as she seemed very peely wally (pale and sickly ) but it turned that she was normal and we were baked !
Victoria Rover roadhouse
A good stay heremade even better by managing just to beat Georgia at pool. She is improving which is worrying as it is the sign of an ill-spent youth !
Home valley We camped down by the river which allowed fishing and croc watching to take place. Cedric the local and very big croc did his early morning rounds and was joined at one stage with 3 other crocs. Lots of fishing with no result but in a great setting. Loved the phone booth too !
Georgia not quite in the camping rhythm of bed at 9 is ended up seeking out a group also watching the fires/stars and talking gibberish !
Having left Home Valley we stopped at Ellenbrae Station who specialise in scones so we couldn’t resist elevenses !
Drysdale Station is a diversion north of the Gibb river road . It is base camp for visiting the Mitchel Plateau containing Mitchel falls and even further Honeymoon Bay.
The section of road from Home valley to Drysdale was undoubtedly the most unrelenting and serious corrugated road that we have experienced. About 100k of corrugations 8 inches apart that were as hard as concrete . With the van you couldn’t get enough speed up to get on top of them so we just had to endure it. Georgia looked like she was in a washing machine on the back seat at times.
We left the van at Drysdale and pushed on right up to Honeymoon bay. It was an amazing beach to set our swags up on. The facilities at Andys Dunny were perhaps the most likely to cause dystentery that we have seen !
Georgia found an old bike frame and spent the night with it half buried in the sand practising wheelies and down hill slaloms. She must have bumped her head in the back seat ?
We parked up at King Edwards campsite to break the journey back to Drysdale and to allow us to visit Mitchel Falls. The walk in took about an hour but first you had to cross the river via a little tinny on a rope. It was so holy i reckon it wouldn’t be much wetter swimming .
The falls were impressive with a great big deep swimming holes and plenty of rocks for the adventurist to jump from .
Now Georgia is a bit like her Dad (and mum and sister) and not competitive so the great breakfast damper competition scandal that erupted will come as a big surprise to all that know us. The rules were that over two days a damper would be made in the dutch oven over an open fire with brekkie ingredients. I went first and went for sausage and wonderfully soft eggs poached on the surface. Damper mix was slightly sweetened with a hint of cinnamon
Georgia also went for sausage ,savoury with secret ingredient of worcester sauce . She also opted to bake the eggs into hard nuggets within the damper ! So the scandal is that the one and only judge was tricked into helping Georgia make decisions on the damper ingrediants and in fact in cooking the meal which according to Woodburn rules means the judge was compromised.
So Georgia cheated and stole the prize not that there is any bitterness you understand .
Next stop on the Gibb was Jigngarrin Gorge. This turned out to be one of our favourite places. The campsite was down by a little creek which we had to ourselves and the gorge was within walking distance of the camp. We ended up staying 3 nights and using it as a base to visit Galvans and Manning gorge.
We were lucky enough to take part in the first ever desert catwalk . Not my new career i think .
Georgia caught her first fish here and had her first fish based panic attach when it came to getting it off the hook !
I dropped the yabbie net in and was rewarded with two good sized Cherubim (fresh water prawns ) . They were cooked up and resulted in a breakfast for royalty !
We spent an afternoon up at the main gorge which we had to ourselves. We could make as much noise and be as stupid as we wanted – which we duly did with naked high diving being the pinnacle of our stupidness !
At the quaintly named Dog chain creek bush camp we stopped for a couple of nights by the waterhole that allowed us to cool off when needs be . We found that the hot water tank in the van was leaking and was to be our only casualty of the Gibb River road. We had heard stories of bent axles , broke subframes and disintegrated shock absorbers.
We met a very funny family from Queensland that we shared the site with for one night .
The highlight of the Woodburns getting the giggles was when the youngest of the family called Cohen was asked to spell his name . C-O-N-E he replied . Now its mildly humorous when a kid gets his own name wrong it becomes food spittingly funny when the child in question has a very pronounced pointy head ! Of course the family were oblivious to this but needless to say the Woodburns let themselves down badly.
On to Windjana gorge where we saw around 30 fresh water crocs of various sizes on the banks of the river in the gorge . I don’t mind “freshies” but even i wasn’t too keen for a swim here.
We then traveled the short distance to Tunnel creek which is a creek that funnily enough is in an underground tunnel ! Now the tunnel also is home to three different kinds of bats and as we found out late a couple of freshwater crocs mope around in the pools that you have to walk through. Kate bailed out halfway through and Georgia was close but overcame her jitters in the end .
Georgia was DJ for the car music and i was surprised and pleased at her choice of music for the whole trip. A mixture of Proclaimers , Johnny Cash Tom Jones , 80s classics and of course Zac Brown. Georgia had forgotten to download any of her music on her phone so she had to choose from mine !!
The holiday song was a toss up between Willie Nelsons on the road again and a Hatful of Love by xxxxx
When we hit Derby and the official end of the Gibb river road we had a celebratory beer in the first hotel we found. That evening which was the start of the Derby camp draft and rodeo saw the hotel hold the “auction a cowboy “. This involved 40 local cowboys who would be competing on the Saturday being sold off to the highest bidder. The money then went into the pot and the winner took all less some that went to charity . So the best cowboys auctioned for the highest amount and had the best chance of winning.
Georgia got in the agricultural mood !
It was great to be surrounded by people who clearly and a very different way of life to us e from fashion (jeans shirt hat ) and drink ( all men were drinking spirits and orange ) . A good night was had by all .
The next morning Georgia and I were doing a walk – well it was a short walk until the cafe opened. We could hear some shouting and what sounded like a quad bike in the distance. What came round the corner later was an old troopie full of locals clearly still celebrating from the night before, oh and one was on top of the car as it sped noisily down the high street past the Police station.
Then off to Broome !
We spent some time on cable beach an inadvertently parked the car in the middle of the over 65 male nudist beach !
Georgia treated us to a meal on her last night at the cable beach restaurant where we watched the sunset over the famous beach.
It was with sadness that we dropped Georgia off at Broome airport for her flight home via Perth . It had been great seeing her and to find that her joi de vivre continues to blossom !
