Day 62 Wyndham
Well what a day, we went adventuring today and had an
absolute ball. As you can see there are lots of
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| Trude at the start |
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| Mud flats near town |
pictures and Maureen took over
400 photos today so I have had to do a drastic cull. We had the best fun, met
the nicest people and pushed old Trude to her limits and loved every second.
We started off with the plan to drive out to the police Boab
and onto Diggers Rest, a station that offers camping and accommodation and from
there we would see what the track was from there to
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| Rock cliffs |
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| Cliff near rock art |
see if we could drive
through to the Gibb River Road and if so we would stop at El Questro. Off we
went and started down the track to the Police Boab. This tree is much like the
one at Derby, it was used as a staging post for police with prisoners to chain
up for the night. The track was reasonable and we came to a sign saying
aboriginal art so we drove up there, it was also the dam for the Wyndham water
supply. We
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| Over hang were art was to be |
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| King River |
found the location of the art and Maureen scampered up the cliff to
a small cave/overhang. I must say the rock wall was impressive in itself with
lovely red rocks all layered and cracked. Maureen found a sign saying please
preserve the art but could not find any, maybe it washed off the rock and the
locals have not put it back! She took pictures and climbed about but no luck. We
then drove up to the dam site and what a picture that was. It has a huge
granite Glacis wall and a lovely catchment area.
Back on the track we headed up to the Boab and there it was,
no fences or big pavilions with
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| King River looking crocy |
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| My girls at the Policce Boab |
information. The tree is in a lot better condition
that the Derby one, but then it has no big entry inside and was not used by the
army as a storage room during the war either and it is some way back off the
road. We got our happy snaps and hit the road. From the Boab we went through to
Diggers Rest. We saw the King River on the way there. It is a protected
crocodile breeding area and livestock are restricted there as well. The river
is classic croc country with big, high muddy banks that just reek of crocodile,
but we
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| First views of Cockburn Ranges |
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| Diggers Rest |
did not see one. I tried to get Maureen to go down for a closer look but
she said no. Diggers Rest was an absolute pearl. We drove into the property and
the first thing I see is a Bustard, that’s right an Australian Bush Turkey. I
have not seen one of these in nearly 30 years and I think most people do not
believe me but now I have a picture. The property is a working cattle farm and
there were no other vans or cars there and the sign said stop at the homestead
so we did and this guy walked over to the fence. Maureen
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| Bustard - bush turkey |
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| Monica and Rodericks daughters |
thought he looked a
little cranky but when she went over he was happy as a lark and invited us in
for a cuppa. We had expected to stop here for a coffee and morning tea and
expected to pay, Roderick (this is his name), said no come in and have a cuppa,
you will need one after the drive. He was off to have a shower but his
daughters would look after us. And so they did, sit down, we will put the
kettle, yak, yak yak, like
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| Roderick and a goat |
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| Roderick and his wall of signatures |
we always dropped by for a tea at this time. We sat
on their house veranda and chatted like old friends. Turns out that Diggers
Rest was used for the filming of Australia. Baz Luhrman, Nicole Kidman, Hugh
Jackman, the lot all came there. Everyone except Nicole stayed at the station. They
had tents, huge winnebagos and all sorts of caravans and equipment. They turned
one of the rooms into a
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| Cockburn Range |
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| Boundary |
bar and all the cast and crew signed the walls.
Roderick showed Maureen his room and there is a picture of him with his wall
with Hugh Jackman’s and Baz’s signature just over his shoulder. His daughter
thought Nicole was bit of a princess as she flew in each day but Roderick said
she was nice. His daughters gave him a hard time as he will be in the Myers
catalogue. Jen Hawkins and her models all came to Diggers Rest and shot their
next catalogue there and Roderick is in it.
Roderick is a cattle farmer now but wants to farm Boar goats
but the guy who started to export them
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| Cockburn Range |
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| Cockburn Range |
had so many problems with Government
that he now flys them out of Sydney! He still has a hundred or so and some of
the kids came in for a feed and Monica, a Swiss working tourist feeds them. She
is working on the farm for a bit longer, I get the feeling she was the chief
cook and bottle wash for the guests, before she goes back to Bridgetown for a
while. They had a big day tomorrow as the maker of the film Red Dog was
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| The track |
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| Cockburn Range |
coming
out to look at the property for another film. We could have stayed there all
day but chatting to him about the road through being a little rough but
beautiful views, had us hitting the road. He expected the 50kms to take us
about 2 hours and recommended that when we got to the end of the stock route,
at the broken fence, take the left turn as the other went through some soft
river sand and might cause us
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| Cockburn Range |
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| Cockburn Range |
some problems. Roderick is one of life’s true
gentlemen and we said our goodbyes and thanks for the cuppa and cake, and hit
the track.
The track takes us through Diggers Rest and into the El
Questro station property. It skirts the Cockburn Ranges and are they just
spectacular. Maureen was beside herself, which made driving hard with the three
of us in the front. When I said Roderick estimated 2 hourshe should have
doubled
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| Brolgas at the dam |
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| Brolgas at the water hole |
it. Drive time was about 50% the, stop, stop, I need to take that
picture, took up the rest. It was hard to drive far before you had to stop to
admire the view. Cockburn Ranges thrust up out of the flat country and would
have to be the most spectacular piece of scenery we have ever seen. There are
these cliffs that jut out and the colours are rich and varied with reds and
blues and greens and blacks, just beyond words to describe. We took hundreds of
pictures and they still do not do it justice. The track started off fine with a
bit of
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| Brolgas at the water hole |
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| Pentacost River |
corrugation but we hit the mud flats and we made up a lot of time but
then we got to the end and boy did it get rough. One second you are on rocks,
crawling your way over them and then you are up to
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| Cockburn Range |
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| Trude on the track |
your hubs (literally) in
dust and ploughing through what seems like talcum powder but red and then as
that finishes you hit a wash out where the track has huge ruts in old mud and
Trude is almost
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| Cockburn Range |
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| Cockburn Range |
on her side and then bang you hit soft sand and you are in ruts
40 – 50 cm deep and hoping you don’t stop as it seems like bottomless sand. We had
our hearts in our mouths more than once and laughed the whole way. Trude was a
champion, crawling one second, racing the next, dragging herself out of huge
holes and over big rocks. We did stop to take some pictures but not the really
bad ones as we could not stop and it was too hot to run back. We were very
impressed with the old girl, not a hiccup. We saw some of
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| Trude at the end of the stock route |
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| entrance to El Questro |
the best wildlife and
as we went past one of the dams, there was a flock of Pelicans but also some
Brolgas. We got a couple of pictures and drove on. We got to another watering
hole and there was another flock of Brolgas, just standing there, no worries,
we drove closer and took some pictures, just absolutely stunning.
The track at this stage was getting worse but we were almost
at the end and we pressed on. All the time we are going, Maureen was out of the
car taking pictures, then back in and then out taking
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| El Questro "town site" |
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| Trude cooling her feet |
pictures and then back in
and so it went on as the views just kept changing and getting better. We found
the Pentecost River, again a stunning view with crocodile written all over it
and beautiful. We finally found our broken fence and the end of the track sign
and we did a hard left and drove out onto the Gibb River Road. This road has a
bad reputation as we mentioned before, but this end was nice. It is under
construction and has been graded and improved and we headed off to El Questro. The
road was fine and we soon made up some time. El Questro is a huge business and
was in stark contrast to Roderick at Diggers Rest who said he was happy with his
small operation as it was still his home. Well El Questro is a business. There are
staff everywhere and tours and bars and cafes. The road in was so so and the
worst part was when we
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| River crossing |
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| River crossing |
followed the grader in! he was finished for the day as
his blade was up and he drove in to the sheds, no worries about the corrugations!
There are river crossings here as well and they were fun.
We stopped and had a sandwich and a drink and hit the road
again. Back on the Gibb River Road, it
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| Cockburn Range |
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| Cockburn Range |
was now bitumen and we drove down to
Emma Gorge where we had considered staying and it was lovely. It is part of the
El Questro setup, just down the road a bit, a bit lower market maybe. Again,
very nice and they have a number of walk trails setup that Maureen would love
to have done but it was getting late and we started back for Wyndham.
The last 50kms were the most tiring as we had already seen
the views and it was all main road but we
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| Maureen and the big croc |
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| View of Wyndham |
eventually made it to town so we
thought we would go and look at the 5 Rivers Lookout. On the way we stopped at
the big crocodile and Maureen had her picture taken. We wound our way through
town and up this huge hill. This would have to be the tallest one we have done
and it was truly spectacular. It is over 800m in elevation and you can see for
miles. Today was a bit misty with all the fires recently but on a clear
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| View of Wyndham |
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| View of Wyndham |
day it
would be truly spectacular. You can see the port layout and the surrounding
flats and country side and most of the 5 rivers. We drove down again and
stopped at the dreamtime statues put up by the locals, a lovely set of
sculptures of the people and some animals.
Finally we got home! It had been a long day but a very
rewarding one. We hopped in the pool for a
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| Mud flats at Wyndham |
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| Dreamtime statues |
quick dip and then had our mud crabs
we had bought the day before – to say we were disappointed is an
understatement. I never knew you could make crab meat go tough and chewy. We will
have to try again in Darwin to see if they improve, best part of dinner was
cold roast chook from last night.
Tomorrow we head out for Kununurra.
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| Relaxing in pool |
