Kimberley trip 2015 - Churchill head to WWII rest area, 57km from Mount Isa

Another great start to the day, well besides finding out that the spring suspension had gone again in the trailer. We had the suspension all replaced after the cape York trip under warranty, now the springs have gone again. Not a good advertisement for cub campers full off road suspension! Not happy, we will be taking photos and seeming them in to cub. Gaz is going to replace the suspension with something else.

We got away to a good start, and stopped at the Three Ways road house to re fuel and grab a couple of coffee's. Gaz spent a bit of time trying to fix the spring on the camper trailer. Sam and I explored around and saw a mini moke in the car museum, a memorial to "Stoney" a trucker killed in a truck accident, a cool mural of a road train and a memorial to John Flynn the founder of the royal flying doctor service.

Gaz managed to lift the spring a bit but by the time we finished for the day the spring was back where we started.

We stopped for lunch on the side of the road and then for an ice cream at Camooweal, just across the Qld border. The pub in town looked pretty packed and the camp ground just coming into town looked pretty good to. Would be a good place to stop at if we had the time.

We kept going and got to the campsite We had been aiming for. What a fantastic free campsite! You can drive way out the back of the rest area to find a secluded, private campsite. The rest area has toilets but it was too far away from where we were camped although Sam and I walked back to the toilets so Sam could go. The sunset was awesome and then the moon rose, bright orange and big.

We didn't have such a good sleep though as the wind was blustery through out the night.

Woke up after 7.30am, Gaz worked on the spring again and wee drove into Mount Isa. The spring went back to the way it was before. Gaz got to super cheap auto and got some oil to do an oil change as the turbo on the car is playing up.

We were hoping to get to Longreach today but not sure if that will happen now.

Kimberley trip 2015 - Katherine to Churchill head

Another post I've already completed but it's stock in the never never.

We left from our campsite just outsider of Katherine and got into Katherine around 9am to fuel up and do some grocery shopping. We then headed towards the Three Ways intersection trying to get as far as we can to catch up on days. We are going to get to Longreach by Monday so we can spend a full day letting Sam explore the Qantas museum.

We stopped at the Hi Way inn, a road house halfway along and bought a couple of sandwiches and a hotdog. I bought a bottle of "Bonking frog" merlot.  There was a historic plane outside the road house so Sam had a look through that whilst I ordered lunch.

We drove through a couple of scrub fires with the flames right set the roadway, Sam thought that was exciting.

We then found an amazing campsite Churchill head where you have yup turn off into the old highway and drive along for about 5km. We got set up fast with Gaz getting a fire going, the generator charging the computer and organising an outdoor shower. I cooked spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.

We literally had an outdoor shower, no shower tent just outside naked under the stars. It was great and what a view our shower room had,surrounded by rock formations and a nice warm outside temperature.

Sam jumped into bed and watched a movie, Gaz and I drank red wine and ate some chocolate whilst watching the fire. Gaz then went and watched the movie with Sam whilst I read my book for a while. So relaxing!

Kimberley trip 2015 - the long run home.

We left Home Valley Station around 8.45am and continued with the others across the Pentecost river where we all said our goodbyes. They were heading to El Questro and we were getting off the Gibb river road and starting our long run home.

We took a family photo at the end of the Gibb and headed towards Katherine. The drive through Gregory national park was awesome. It would have been good to stop and spend some time their but we have to make up time now. Our one mission for on the way home is to stop at Longreach and take Sam to the Qantas museum again.

We managed to get to a rest area about 50km from Katherine. We had passed other rest areas on the way but they were chock full of caravans. This rest area had a bad write up on wiki camps because of the overflowing rubbish bins so that meantw only had two other campers there with us. We arrived around 7pm, the sun had set around 6.30 and the moon was coming up almost full.

We had gone over the time line again into NT time so we lost an hour and a half.

We had a little bit of twilight left to set up and start cooking.

We had barramundi fillets that we had left in the fridge, lightly floured and pan fried with rice and salad. We then jumped into bed nice and early.

Kimberley trip 2015 - Manning gorge

We left the others at Bell gorge and headed towards Mornington wilderness camp. We got to the radio booth around 11am and were told they had no more spaces left. We tried to book for the others for the next day but were told they did not take bookings and they would just have to try their luck between 7am and 8am the next morning. So we left a note at the booth for the others and headed towards Charnley river station.

We got to the gate and saw it was going to cost us $20 per adult and $10 per child per night so $50 for the three of us too have the privilege of camping at their station so we decided to give it a miss and try for a free camp further on.

Malcolm had mentioned camping on the Hahn river after her had spoken to someone else at the campsite so we decided we would try for there. Suddenly we were at the Mount Barnett roadhouse the entrance to the Manning gorge. We had planned to go to Manning gorge in 2 days time for two days. We decided to push on to the Hahn river but when we got their the river was hardly even running so we back tracked to Barnett river gorge to see what that was like, again no river running so we back tracked further to Manning gorge camp ground.

It cost $20 per adult for the first night which included a pass into the gorge then it cost $12.50 per adult per night after that. Children were free. It was quite full when we arrived but we managed to find a large shaded area along the track and we set up camp. A the sun got hotter we could smell an awful smell like a decomposing animal. We found a plastic bag containing fish bait nearby and shifted that away but the smell still lingered. We persevered staying the night setting up the shower tent and having a lovely grilled chicken dinner over the camp fire but the next morning the smell started to come back.

Gaz had gone for a drive further along the track and came back all excited saying come for a drive quick! We jumped in the car and drive further down the track to find some awesome camp sites on the river bank over looking the Barnett river. It meant we would be a lot further away from the showers and toilets but it also meant we could get away from the awful smell and the sound of the camp generator which went from 6am to 9pm. So we quickly went back to the smelly site and picked up our chairs and the washing line so we could claim or spot on the river bank.

We got set up and then walked down the bank to the river under a line of trees that gave off a lovely shade. We went for a walk upstream in the river. The water was so clear and warm it was shallow most of the way with a few knee deep spots just enough to let Sam have a "swim".

We came back to camp where the afternoon sun was shaded by the awning and a nice warm breeze was blowing. We looked around and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere with no one else around. We decided we would hang out here for a bit longer, probably even 4 nights and wait for the others to catch up.
We jumped in the car and went for a drive back to the main camping area where we took a look at the swimming hole, it was awesome! Clear water with rocks in the middle and around the edges and a dinghy on a pulley system to get people across to the start of the manning gorge walk.

We then drove back up to the road house to get a few supplies, eggs, bread etc and asked about getting inn contact with Mornington to see if we could leave a message for the others. The family who run the roadside were lovely and let us use the phone to try to contact Mornington. Mornington said they did not have anyone staying in the name of Helbig or Ries so I tried Charnley river station but the phone went to message bank. So we left a note on the notice board at the road house to let the others know where we were just incase they called through earlier than expected.

They found the notes! The others made it to Charnley river station for the first night and then made their way to Manning gorge as we predicted. We were swimmingi in the swimming hole when they arrived. The ranger Glen had recognised Malcolm and Cindy's car from a photo i had shown him asking him to point them our way.

They all got set up then we all went back to the swimming hole to finish off the afternoon swimming and relaxing. Frew found a bit of rock that he was keen to chuck a rope on. We made plans to do the walk to the gorge together the next morning and then relax near the swimming hole and rock climb and swim for the afternoon. Malcolm's back was really playing up so he just stayed back at the campsite whilst the rest of us went on the walk.

It was a long hot rocky walk which was quite difficult for me going down hill over boulders but slowly and steadily I went and made it to the end of the walk to swim under the waterfall. I left too walk back a little earlier than the others so I could take my time and not hold the others up.

Gaz really enjoyed climbing with Frew, it makes met want to get back into climbing again. Sam said it was the best day ever (for the 7th time) he was loving swimming near the boat and Sandy beach.