Having recently returned from an amazing trek in northern
Australia, I wanted to share with you my experience travelling the Gibb River
Road.
We flew to Darwin, a fabulous city, for a four day winter
sojourn. There was bike riding along the
waterfront, swimming at the wave pool, a visit to the War Museum, great food
and finally the Mindal Market experienced under the glow of the best sunset.
On the 30th June we picked up our 4-wheel-drive
bush camper and headed to Katherine, which is a thriving place. The sunset tour
on the Katherine Gorge has to be on a ‘must do’ list.
After Katherine we crossed over into Western Australia and
went to Lake Argyle. This is an amazing
place. The Ord River was dammed creating the biggest lake in the southern
hemisphere. It supplies water for a vast irrigation scheme in the Kimberly
where massive sandalwood plantations are being developed. The lake is home to
incredible wild life, lots of different birds, fish and over one hundred
thousand fresh water crocs. We took a sunset cruise on the lake which ended
with us all jumping in and swimming around in the middle of Lake Argyle, with
the crocs!
From Lake Argyle we drove our trusty troopie to the Bungle
Bungles (Purnululu). Here we walked the many magnificent gorges experiencing
the changing colours of orange, red, pink and purple with the movement of the
sun over the sandstone escarpments and gorges.
Then we were off to El Questro, great gorges, hot springs and the start of the Gibb River Road. The Gibb River Road is mostly dirt, running from Derby to Kununurra. It passes through vast savannah grasslands with sandstone escarpments and ranges, such as the King Leopold Range.
A detour up to the Mitchell Falls and camping at Drysdale Station tested my 4 wheel driving skills but overall we were lucky with the road conditions and river crossings. We hiked into the falls, had a great swim and helicoptered out, a real highlight as it was our first helicopter flight. We had an amazing view of the eighty meter falls and can only imagine what they would be like in the wet season.
From there we continued along the Gibb, stopping in at
Galvin Gorge and Bell Gorge for well-deserved swims. We camped on Bell Creek
near the local Aboriginal communities’ swimming hole where we befriended some
local kids. Over the next couple of days James (my son) and I had a ball with
them, swimming and swinging from their rope swings.
Then there was bush camping at Lennard River and visits to
Winjama Gorge and Tunnel Creek. If you want to see fresh water crocodiles,
Winjama Gorge is the place to go, they line up like cars in a car park basking
in the sun.
The Barnett River Roadhouse and the Iminet Store provided us with fuel, ice and more importantly a latte to go. Finally we made it to Derby and Broome where it was back to hot showers and comfy beds. Cable Beach has to be one of the best beaches in the world.
It was thirty degrees with blue skies when we left Broome,
arriving in Melbourne to the winter chills was quite a reality check.
To top off a wonderful trip the practice didn’t miss a beat,
we have such great staff at the Bendigo Animal Hospital!
Dr John
Dr John
A great day time was had by all of our 250 staff members. This topped very last year’s sporting activities Working day XL EVENTS, and was really expertly maintained. Your focus on security was impressive…
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