The Kimberly
Day 39 – Edith Falls to Lake Argyle
575km (650 via Kunnanurra Thirsty Camel)
Big day riding all bitumen but quite hot. Didn’t expect much scenery on this leg, but was pleasantly surprised. The main track is the Victoria Highway and at Victoria River Roadhouse in Gregory you cross the river which tracks all the way out to the Cambridge Gulf near Wyndham. From here you are treated for quite a long distance to the varying view of the Moray Range in the Eastern end of the Judbarra/Gregory National Park. Arrived at the WA border inspection station where Russ said they won’t search a bike – but the guy made me open all my panniers and duffle – at least he let me move the bike to the shade first. Was happy to arrive at the Lake Argyle park and set up camp before a cold wine and dinner at their bar. Nice young couple camping alongside with some good tips and a couple of nice dogs to hang out with.
Day 40 – Lake Argyle to Diggers Rest Station 197km
Booked the Lake Argyle cruise for 10:30am thinking I had plenty of time to get to Diggers Rest .. wrong! Spotted a few freshwater crocs, had a swim and lunch and fed some fish to see quite a few varieties including the Archer Fish that spits at its prey to knock them into the water. The lake is extensive being approximately 20 Sydney Harbours in size. The Argyle dam is something to see being built entirely with rocks, dirt and clay .. no concrete. It runs 70,000 litres per second through the turbines powering Wyndham, Kunnanurra and surrounds. To obtain the rock and make a natural overflow spillway they set off the largest non-nuclear blast in Australia. 500 tons of ammonium nitrate and in one blow 2 million tons of rock were excavated. Showed up on seismographs in Sydney.
Set off at 2:30 in the afternoon forgetting sunset wasn’t far off 5:30 at the eastern edge of WA having just crossed the border the day before.
Into Kunnanurra for fuel and then straight to the Ivanhoe crossing not far away. It is quite intimidating given the length and volume of water flowing over it. I just decided to go and hope I didn’t have to leave the bike in the middle in its side while running from crocs or worse still be flushed off the crossing into the lower river that is laden with large crocs.
With a risen heart rate got it done with only a minor slip and then straight into the Parry Creek Rd. 110km of terrible rocky dirt road and the sun was getting lower. Hundreds of wallabies coming out of the grass every 20 meters but I was comforted by their small size convincing myself they probably would t knock me off it I collided with one.
10 km of bitumen before into 37 km of dirt on King River Rd to Diggers Rest Station past a massive salt lake racing the sun which hit the deck 5 mins after pulling in.
Couldn’t find anyone to check in with but discovered the owners and crew sitting round the fire. My request for meals worked out great as unlike the few other campers doing their own thing I got to eat and mix with the crew when the bell rings for breakfast and dinner.
Day 41 – Easy day at the station
Burning time in hopes the El Questro fire abates. Have moved my bookings back a day for planned reopen but still fluid.
Walked a couple of km to the King River and cast some lures for a barra. No luck but another camper had landed a nice one the night before. Full salt at this point of the river not far from Wyndham and I only fished from the higher banks to be safe. Very cool landscape with cliffs surrounding and boab trees plentiful. Lots of great bird life also.
Day 42 – another day at the Station – 120km
Rode into Wyndham after breakfast following Roderick the station owner across the mud flats shortcut. Checked out the Five Rivers Lookout that provides views of the area in all directions.
Rode back South a short way to visit Marglu Billabong in the Parry Creek Nature Reserve. Out in the middle of nowhere on dirt roads is this oasis for birds .. and one very big croc sitting opposite the bird hide conveniently for viewing. Tons of birds including Magpie Geese, Wandering Whistling Ducks, Darters, Cormorants, Brolgas, and a bunch of others. A pleasant hour of twitching was had.
Nearby are some ruins on Telegraph Hill .. part of Perth to Wyndham link.
Then back to the station for a home kill. Mitch was a camper and was a qualified remote butcher and took the challenge to break down a large beast in 45 minutes. He did it in 30 even with a few of us asking him lots of questions.
He’d also caught a large barra on the property out of the King River. He donated it for our dinner .. best barra I’ve ever tasted.
A lot of history at this station. Roderick himself had squatted to take ownership of the station decades earlier and leases a large portion of the El Questro Station much larger than his own holding. I perused a scrap book they had there documenting a lot of the fun and games that went on when the flop movie Australia was filmed there along with another couple of properties. Hugh Jackman was good sort and supplied and occupied their small bar each night while staying in basic accommodation on the property. Nicole flew in from an expensive rental in Kunnanurra just when required – they had 2 body doubles to minimize inconvenience for her.
The place is quite Mad Max. Roderick owns his own full scale road grader and had graded a track for 17kms on the mud flats to assist with the muster the week before I arrived.
Day 43 – Diggers Rest Station – Emma Gorge 265km
The opening date for El Questro was pushed back further due to fires and I decided to park that one for another time and make progress. Added an extra night at Emma Gorge not far away.
The folks on the Station had told me about the Karunjie Track. A short way to the Gibb River Road at 49km. But they also told me about an experienced adventure rider who perished on it in 2018. Unsettling story .. he hadn’t told anyone he was going on it and he got bogged and while he had seemingly freed the bike, had cooked his brain in the process. The police were flying planes up and down the Gibb Rd thinking he might have gone off the edge. Then after 5 days Roderick the station owner at Diggers Rest saw motorcycle tracks on the flats and radioed Police. They found the bike, then bits of his clothing, then his helmet and then him without most of his clothes and black skin from severe burning. Sad story and no emergency beacon ..
Anyway tried to put that out of my head and resolved to try it and just back out if too difficult. Gave my satellite tracker details to two people at the station and headed off out their locked back gate with Rodericks assistance so I could ride mud flats for first 20 km and then join the track bypassing the first really rough 20km. I was literally riding a dotted line nn the GPS which was handy when tyre tracks split off in multiple directions at several points along with lots of fresh cattle tracks from the muster the week before. Completely surreal it feels like you are on another planet. The most remote and alone I’ve ever felt even though you know you’re not that far from the station .. you’d probably not make the walk back there though in the heat. Had a slightly off moment when the trail was becoming impassable through long grass in old river bed. I compared GPS maps on phone and on the Garmin unit – the maps I had on my Garmin were older and were tracking the “old Karunji track”. Fortunately the phone was current and 95% of the track is the same otherwise. Was rocky and washouts and all that they said it would be and was going fine until 35 km where it turned to sand in deep 4wd dual ruts with high banks either side. Deep in that I had to drag my feet as if on the pegs they would catch the rut. Completed a couple of hundred meter stretches of that in fast building heat and as the track was showing it running along the Pentecost river the rest of the way I thought it safe to assume it would continue. So I turned back which was a job in itself to find a spot to get the bike out of the rut and turn it around in long grass on the high bank with my 50kg payload on board .
The only remaining hassle now was that the gate I left through was locked so had to do the 20km on the official track (while official, the sign at the entry makes it very clear it’s a bad unmaintained road) that was really a mess of dips and sharp shale, boulders etc. There was one other issue that was of bad timing – my phone charger died and simultaneously as the phone was losing charge, my Garmin rugged GPS started throwing up “No Satellite Reception” messages – kept restarting it, and turned the phone screen off and managed to find my way to the last 20km track that I’d avoided earlier – it was then easy to follow by sight as you are off the mud flats. Found out through later research that a bug in the Garmin can occur when using Russian Glonass satellites in concert with GPS satellites – years of using this GPS and first time it occurs – software update fixes it! Usually the combo of satellites is a plus for accuracy and faster position fix, but not this day. Finally arrived at the 10km driveway to the station where the track exits and messaged the station so they didn’t worry to let them know I was out of the wilderness.
Arrived at Emma Gorge and checked into my glamping cabin .. it’s all they have. Afternoon in the pool followed by very nice dinner area on attractive shady grounds.
Day 44 Emma Gorge
Set off for the walk at 5:40am. Had heard it can get busy and it’s a very rocky narrow path that I didn’t want to be sharing with a bunch of folks coming the other way. Had it all to myself and saw another species of finch. Added the double barred finch to the zebra and long tailed had seen at the station.
Rest of day was swim in the pool and relax followed by dinner in the outdoor restaurant again. As soon as the sun goes behind the hill 37C goes to 30C and on down in no time. Very pleasant.
Day 46 – Emma Gorge to Home Valley Station 43 km
Had worked myself up for the last big obstacle being the Pentecost River crossing. It can be a couple of hundred meters and reasonably deep on a rocky bottom. But being so late in the season was only max 1 foot deep and 100m wide – Just rode straight across without issue .. lots of anticipation for nothing.
After you cross the Pentecost, the 440km dirt stretch of the Gibb River road begins. It’s longer than that with all the side trips to gorges, and the Kalumbaru Road to Mitchell Falls and the coast so adds well north of 1000km if you do the lot. I had decided not to ride all the way to Mitchell Falls or Kalumbaru/Honeymoon Bay – it is a lot of road to see a couple of things and I needed a little slack in case unexpected issues cropped up to ensure I could rendezvous with Lizi in Exmouth/Ningaloo on the 10th September. Plus my rear tyre was dwindling and so on and so forth. My dirt adventure on the Gibb totaled 845km all up.
Just 10km past the Pentecost River is Home Valley Station. It was relaxing and had a pool and a good bar and meals. I was ready for a relax. I camped about 4 km from the facilities to be down on the Pentecost River Camp with a view of the Cockburn Ranges and the river which was amazing in the morning and evening. And lots of birds.
While I was setting up my tent, a couple drove right in next to me who I’d met in the top pool of the Gunlom falls in Kakadu and again at Lake Argyle on the cruise. Nice people who ended up having dinner with.
Day 47 – Homevalley Day 258km
A group of tiny birds occupied the tree next to me as the sun rose around 5:30 am. Great way to start the day. Identified the birds as Weebills which are apparently the smallest bird in Australia.
Realized I would be near shops until Broome, so rode back into Kunnanurra (Kunnas as it’s known). A quick 250km return trip to the shops.
On the way back and doing the 3rd crossing of the Pentecost, I was quite confident and overtook 2 vehicles and another towing a caravan mid river.
Met a really nice couple from Narrabri and discussed all things DR650 and dirt bikes. He had one on the back of his huge Dodge Ram on a special lift so he could drop it down and ride around with his wife at various destinations. He insisted that I take a bottle of his red wine to get me through a night at Ellenbrae Station where there is no meal service or bar.
Day 48 Home Valley to Ellenbrae Station 112km
Had planned a short day as so many people said this was the worst section of the Gibb at the moment. So I set off at 6:10 and arrived at 7:21 before the station homestead opened at 8. Definitely some bad corregations and strewn rocks but as there wasn’t sand on the corregations could stay at 80km+ much of the time floating over the top of them. One of the easiest days of the trip! Ellenbrae is known for its scones. But that only took 30 minutes. Had the whole day to kill as a result and spent it sitting in tropical waterholes watching fish and birds including more Double Barred Finches and a Kingfisher. Great way to completely chill out in silence.
Day 49 Ellenbrae to Mt Barnett (Manning Gorge) via Drysdale River Station – 308km
I had booked a flight out of Drysdale River Station to fly to the beginning of walk to Mitchell Falls on the Mitchell Plateau – One of the most beautiful falls but a long way to ride for just the one thing since I decided not to go all the way up the Kalumbaru Rd to Macgowans or Honeymoon Bay. Calculated I didn’t have the longevity left in my rear tyre and could risk shredding out there with no services. The days had become hot and multiple 39-degree days in the shade (which I wasn’t), but fortunately the only saving grace was very low humidity. Anyway, the flight never reached the minimum of 4 people, and I had ridden to Drysdale on the Kalumbaru Rd already, so just turned around and retraced the 60kms or so back to the Gibb and went directly to Mt Barnett Roadhouse, the entry to the Manning Gorge Campground. A 134km easy ride became a bigger 308km day in the heat. Incidentally Drysdale River Station and Mt Barnett are the only locations you can get unleaded on the Gibb, so I was glad to have my additional 10 litres on the back – $2.90 a litre for 91 octane..
The campground is beside the Manning River and very pleasant to swim in, so went straight in on arrival and stayed there until the heat of the day abated chatting to various folks doing the same thing.
The campground was very peaceful, except old mate next to me had his Starlink out and kept facetiming with his daughter until late. I could hear every soppy word she said – eventually was going crazy and so went over to ask him to go off speaker – he didn’t seem to know what that meant, so turned it down a bit and now I could hear every word, just a bit softer … Arghh.
Day 50 Mt Barnett Roadhouse to Silent Grove Campground near Bell Gorge 133km
Manning Gorge is really beautiful and hence very popular and the number of people who pulled in the previous evening made me want to get up early and hike in to beat the crowd, as well as get back in time to ride off in the cooler time of day. Started the hike from the campground which requires swimming across the river immediately. As the air was still quite cold, and near darkness with no-one was around, I quickly stripped and swam across nude (I bet you can’t unsee that image). From there it’s a 5km return hike. Longest 5km I’ve ever done – lots of rocks and ups and downs, but worth it. I arrived alone to the gorge and had it all to myself for an hour while the sun came up. Really amazing place.
Returning to camp, quickly packed up and headed off in the direction of Bell Gorge .. on the way you pass Galvan’s and Adcock gorges. Both smaller but quaint. Adcock had ceased to flow, so I just stopped and did the 2km return walk to Galvans.
Then onto the Silent Grove Campground 10km short of Bell Gorge walk. It’s 30km to Bell Gorge up a crappy side road off the Gibb. And while I thought the Pentecost was last real river crossing, there were 6 on this road .. had to do them both ways so that’s 12. 2 of them were over the front wheel of the bike but kept it up but for a bit of skidding around on the steep gravel exits. Set up the camping gear and unloaded some weight and then road the last 10km to walk into the gorge. Very pretty and not too taxing a walk – 3km return. This gorge was also spectacular and just fantastic place to spend the rest of the day on another 39 degree day. You walk in at the top of the falls, and hike over a hill and down some very bouldery paths and then are just in this huge swimming space in front of really nice falls and big rock walls.
Back at camp a very nice not quite axe murderer type of guy who was into bikes was chatting to me and asked me over to his fire to have a couple of beers. It was fortuitous as I hadn’t really mapped my detailed stops on the west coast down to meet Lizi at Ningaloo and he reeled off places worth staying which I duly planned into my itinerary.
Really peaceful night’s sleep which was badly needed after the prior night listening to facetime.
Day 51 – Silent Grove to Windjana Gorge via Tunnel Creek 206km
This was the last serious day on the Gibb Rd dirt section. Headed back down 20km of the crutty Bell Gorge Rd. Having dried my shoes and socks overnight, was straight into a couple of the deeper crossing and wet feet again for the day. Down the main Gibb and then onto the Fairfield Leopold Downs Rd to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. This road cuts through to the main highway where Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek are traversed. It’s a terrible road covered in rocks and deep bulldust sections. It’s 60km down to Tunnel Creek and 35 back to Windjana Gorge retracing to the camping ground.
Doing this all late season has been great as the crowds are down substantially. And just getting it done before the “build up” starts as they call it as the humidity goes wild signalling the coming wet season. Arrived at Tunnel Creek walk and stripped my gear – I wear swim shorts and Nike Fit shirt underneath all my armour so can just drop it and go swimming as required. I’ve become really good at tying shoelaces as well taking my boots on and off every time I do it.
Tunnel creek is a really cool walk in the dark in water. The entrance is super rocky and you have to squeeze here and there to get through. If it was the nanny state of NSW, you’d have to have a guide, but in the Kimberly and in NT, they just say knock yourself out. My head torch was buried deep in luggage so I asked a group of 3 if I could walk with them as they were well equipped. Turned out the two guys were aircraft engineers maintaining the Border Force planes out of Broome – nice people. We walked through the cave and up to midriff in a few places, then toward the end of the tunnel there is a freshwater croc just sitting on the edge. Didn’t seem to be bothered by us. At the end, we walked up a small path and checked out the Aboriginal art on the rock wall/ceiling.
Rode back up the road the 35km or so to Windjana Gorge Campground. Another nice national park campground with some nice people about. Thankfully they had a quiet section as plenty of caravans carry generators along with their Starlinks. It’s funny when you look at networks on your phone in some of these places, you’ll see 50 Starlinks. My favorite network name was back at Ellenbrae Station where someone had named theirs “NotYoursBuggerOff”. Set up camp and cooked some noodles as hadn’t eaten anything all day. And as the sun got lower, headed into the gorge walk right opposite – an easy 3km return or so. Beautiful rock walls and water. There are a lot of freshwater crocodiles in here including a male that is quite big, so while normally that wouldn’t stop you swimming, they recommended no swimming here. Each gorge has its own totally different personality – this one had nice sandy banks, and you walked amongst some dense acacias along the edge of the gorge. Spotted a lot of Archer Fish that seem very common up North, and quite a few Freshies. At the end of the walk a beautiful mirror image looking up the gorge was the reward.
Day 52 – Windjana Gorge to Broome – 420km
Dare I admit it I was ready for a break from weeks of really rough dirt roads. My windscreen on the bike which was new on leaving Sydney has formed stress cracks all over it from the violent belting on so many corrugations. Just 25km of dirt out of Windjana Gorge and then beautiful bitumen into Broome. Did a quick deviation up to Derby just so I’d know why I never need to go there again. First job was to ride onto the beach coz that’s what everyone does. They had an event on the beach and road was closed but the nice women guarding the entry let me in for a quick photo op. I rode along until I intercepted a guy with 2 dogs and asked him to take my pics. His name was Steve and he rides motorcycles. He recommended I head up to Willie Creek Pearl Farm so I did. But the 13km red bull dust road into the farm was just so intractable front wheel was sliding everywhere. 4wds were all letting their tyres down. I aborted and discovered Matso’s Broome Brewery by the coast. Super pleasant with nice food and great beers. Checked into my luxury cabin I had spoiled myself with for 1 night with an ocean view to pull myself back together after the Gibb. Took all my gear into the shower and no matter how long I ran the water and squeezed clothes, the red dirt just kept flowing. In honor of Russ, I rode to bottlemart and got a nice bottle of WA chardonnay. Crashed out watching a big screen TV – seemed so foreign.
Day 53 – Broome
Broome has really got a nice shopping and cafe district these days and very good atmosphere for just hanging around. Had a walk-in barber so I grabbed the chance and a nice French girl tidied me up. Groovy music and good atmosphere – unfortunately had my cut just before 11am, so missed out on the free beer. Restocked a few food items at Coles and then very tasty breakfast at the Dragonfly Cafe with fresh juice and excellent coffee. Most days have had nothing for breakfast or lunch, or sometimes boil water at campsites and have a nescafe black which seems pretty luxe when that’s all you’ve got.
Decided to see if I could get a helicopter flight over Broome – it’s a very compact town – the airport is right in the middle of it, as well as the prison. Need minimum 2 people so left my number in case anyone else inquired. The nice British gal Laura manning the phones took some initiative and called up a woman who had a voucher she’d been gifted but had yet to use it because previous attempts were fogged in – she was available so away we went for a 1 hour flight up to James Price Point and back. Overflew Willie Creek Pearl Farm, Camels on Cable Beach, several other beautiful creeks and saw at least a dozen manta rays – one pack of 5 – and 2 Dugongs. While the manta rays were all spread out, they were all heading in the same direction, so maybe a migration of sorts.
While I’d waited for the chopper flight to be confirmed had the bike in for a rear tyre and had them put a new bearing in the sprocket carrier for peace of mind – they can go on the DR650 and shred the wheel spacer leaving you with a flopping wheel on the side of the road. They charged like a wounded bull but good quality service and was great to get a tyre with some tread – the prior ones had the middle knobs down to 1mm. Changed from a full knob to a 50/50 adventure tyre that will probably get me the remaining 12 or 13 thousand km back to Sydney. Booked a new front tyre in Albany for a few weeks time and will get a new chain at same time, so feeling quite organized on the logistics front.
Silver Foxes Motorcycle Club Australia 
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