Day 62

Day 62 Wyndham

Well what a day, we went adventuring today and had an absolute ball. As you can see there are lots of

Trude at the start

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

Rock cliffs

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

Over hang were art was to be

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

King River looking crocy

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

First views of Cockburn Ranges

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

Bustard - bush turkey

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

Roderick and a goat

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

Cockburn Range

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

Cockburn Range

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

The track

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

Cockburn Range

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

Brolgas at the dam

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

Brolgas at the water hole

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

Cockburn Range

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

Cockburn Range

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

Trude at the end of the stock route

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

El Questro "town site"

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

River crossing

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

Cockburn Range

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

Maureen and the big croc

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

View of Wyndham

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

Mud flats at Wyndham

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.

Relaxing in pool