Been 23 years almost to the day since I was on the
Gibb River Rd, just got
home yesterday. With the massive wet we have had in the Top End, the Kimberly is at its most spectacular, with rich red escarpments mixed with the green left from the wet season.
The Pentecost looks as though a cyclone has hit it with the trees pushed over by the torrents of water. The road in general is not to bad although some tracks haven't been graded yet and are a bit ruggard.
Came across some strange, sort of square, markings on the track into the
Mitchell Falls, come over a rise and here is a
young bloke walking in with two camels in tow. He has walked from
Perth in the last 5 months and has only got seven months to go! I drove in one day, looked at the falls ( spectacular) the next day and drove out the following day and here he is walking back out. I heard he caught the chopper back from the falls though... lazy bugger.
The highlights for me where,
Mitchell Falls and all the art sites,
Charnley River Station, now that in my opinion, is the best camping spot on the Gibb. It is large and flat ,clean and fire wood is SUPPLIED. When I first drove in I thought "I'll stay two Nights", I ended up staying four. The Managers, Mike and Karen, are the nicest people you could meet. They even invited me to their place for dinner. ME... bungan on with the Managers... What about that?!
There were many highlights and I met so many nice people including some fellow EO members around
camp fires. There was one bloke named Don travelling with a group of people from Narrogin WA, that I kept meeting up with. He wasn't hard to find as he would play the bagpipes for about twenty minutes each day at sundown, in the middle of nowhere.
But gees it was cold at night for a
Darwin boy out there!
Noel K.