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Across Australia Trip, Destinations, Family Happy Snaps, Landscapes, Our Rig, Photography, Travel Journal

Day 402: Galvans Gorge – Hahn River Rest Area

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Wednesday, 9 July 2014                                                                                             78.7kms

The alarm went off at 6am this morning. Moments after it had been turned off, the dingoes howled again, like our own personal alarm service. We quickly dressed and packed up the van before eating breakfast out of the car by 7am. With the morning light around us, I noticed a sign… “No camping. Stay at Manning Gorge camp ground”. Oops. Well, we certainly didn’t see that sign last night.

With breakfast done and cup of tea in hand, the four of us walked the track to Galvans Gorge. I opted not to take my camera as it is quite heavy and I just didn’t feel like lugging it around first thing in the morning. Plus, I honestly didn’t think this gorge would be anything spectacular, so I opted for the phone instead. The walk into the gorge was fairly easy. It started off as a flat dirt track, and then as we reached the pools it got a bit rockier. At first we thought that was the end of it, the pools with lily pads and small water cascades over rocky ledges. But Nath continued on leading the party further upstream. Not far along, he turned to me and said “You’re going to kick yourself now!” As I got to where he was standing, I saw it. A spectacular 3 tiered waterfall cascading into a fern, pandanas and reed lined pool. In the early morning light, with no-one else here, it was a special moment.

 

After absorbing the view for a while, Nath decided that we should ascend to the top for a better look. So we became rock wallabies and headed up the rocky slope, right to the top to the boab tree. The stream up there was shallow and rocky, but very pretty. From up there we had a very good view out over the valley below us. We peered over the edge to follow the water with our eyes to the next ledge. We then back tracked and went down a level to the middle of the falls. Here Nath went under the waterfall and said it was warm. He decided he needed a wash and stripped off to enjoy the moment. Only seconds after he put his shorts back on and 2 men arrived. Nath had just been trying to convince me to get my gear off and go under the waterfall too. Lucky for me I had declined as it would have been me they viewed as they arrived.

After a short chat and a few others arrived to have a go under the warm waterfall, we headed back down the rocky slope and out of the gorge. It was now 8.45am and as we left we past an APT tour walking in. Had we got here later than we did, we certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. Having the place to ourselves was perfect and we were so glad that we were leaving before the crowds arrived. We left Galvans Gorge just after 9am.

 

Our first stop for the morning was Mt Barnett Roadhouse, where we purchased a day pass for Manning Gorge. For 2 adults it cost us $16, children under 16 are free. We decided not to stay the night as the price was too much after paying at Mt Hart. While we were sitting in the car, about 80 Australia Post bikes rode out of the back of the roadhouse. They had Bright Blue and Australia Post flags, so we figured it must be some kind of charity ride. There was so many of them. Following them was a ute with a trailer full of spare postie bikes. My personal favourite was the cookie monster helmet while Elokin liked the one with bunny ears and tinsel.

After arriving at the day use car park we put on our boots, packed a day bag and set off to Manning Gorge. The first thing you have to do is cross the river. They have installed a tinny on a rope pulley for people to use to cross. We thought we would still have to put our stuff in Styrofoam boxes to float it across while we swam, and to be honest, we were looking forward to it. You know, a little bit of adventure! After waiting for our turn, yes there was a queue, we followed the white paint markers and set off over the rocks. The walk is a long one, but the four of us did it in an hour. We climbed up and down ridges, crossed plateaus looking out over the range beyond and navigated boulders. The walk itself was not that difficult but suitable footwear is recommended. We climbed down the last rocky ledge to arrive at Manning Gorge. We turned right and followed the gorge along until we came to the waterfall, where we jumped across rocks and went to sit near it. There was a lot of people in here, but the space is big enough to not feel as though you are on top of each other. Like a rite of passage, Nath felt the need to jump off the top of the waterfall, like so many men before him. He claims that we cannot go to a place like this and not jump in. I tend to disagree as all I end up with is a wardrobe malfunction! So I opted out.

 

We met Ben and Cleon with their two boys James and Tommy from Melbourne. They are also travelling around Australia, on ‘not a surfing safari’. We had a great chat with them and Ben and Nath both enjoyed jumping from the top of the falls, while Cleon and I preferred the more mellow walk-in approach. The water was fresh, but bearable. Elokin and Hendrix wouldn’t jump off any of the rocks, even the low ones, but they did enjoy swimming. We commented to them that Oscar and Ethan would jump if they were here in a bid to get them to have a go, but it didn’t work. And not long after that, we looked over and saw Mark, Kellie, Oscar and Ethan making their way across to the falls. We waved them over and what do you know, the three boys (Mark included) started doing bombies and horseys off the rocks. We ate a snack and managed to fill most of our day chilling out at the waterfall. Cleon and Ben left before us to take the boys back for lunch as they are camped here at Manning. We eventually decided to leave at 2.30pm with Mark, Kellie and the boys. The four kids all took off in front of us and raced back. It was great, we didn’t have to listen to our kids whinge that they were tired and their legs were sore and they couldn’t possibly walk back. You know the excuses all kids come up with.

Getting back across the river, Kel and I boarded the boat with the four kids while Mark and Nath swam across. The kids got out on the rock in the middle of the river to play before swimming the last leg with the Dad’s. Kel and I bumped into Kate and Stewart on the bank and had a chat while we waited for the rest of our party to get out of the water. They really did have a great time. Elokin and Hendrix decided to try doing a bombie and loved it! They even tried a horsey. We then made it back to the car and had a chat with Cleon and Ben as we had parked opposite their camp site without knowing. We had to drag ourselves away to make tracks to find a camp before dark. We really didn’t want a repeat of last night. At least this time we wouldn’t be alone as Mark and Kel were with us. Kel had found a spot she thought would be good, so we headed for it. We left Manning Gorge at 4.20pm.

Tonight we are camped at Hahn River Rest Area on top of the hill. We would have liked to be down at the river’s edge but there are 3 others camped here and the river spots are taken. That’s okay though as we got to enjoy the sunset from our higher vantage point. The kids went off and collected fire wood as soon as we arrived. Nath got out to open the boot doors to discover that the heat from our non-existent exhaust pipe had melted our tail lights and rear bumper. Arrghhh!!! It looks as though it may have caught fire, but lucky for us crossing the Hahn River would have put it out as it was quite deep. Our poor car. I think she is in need of some TLC.

 

While we were quietly sitting around enjoying our fire and the kids had gone to bed, a car came to the other side of the river and fired some shots at something. We are thinking feral cats or dogs, maybe, although one of the shots was very loud and too big for chasing small vermin. It was pretty scary. We turned our outside light off to not attract attention to ourselves. After they left, thankfully, we heard loud footsteps, like cattle. But then the sound we heard wasn’t a cow. We could see the figures just off in the distance with the light of the almost full moon. It looked like a horse. Mark didn’t think so, so Nath wandered off towards it to get a closer look. He called back, yes, that is a horse. We had 3 brumby’s wandering around. It decided it didn’t like Nath and bolted back a few steps. As soon as he returned to the fire and us, the horses came closer. It was very special.

By this stage it was getting late and the fire was dying down. The temperature without the warmth of the fire was freezing, so we put the fire out and called it a night. From bed we heard the brumby’s come right into camp, but given how cold it was, we didn’t pull our arms out of the blankets to open the window.

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.

Across Australia Trip, Destinations, Family Happy Snaps, Landscapes, Photography, Travel Journal

Day 401: Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge – Galvans Gorge

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Tuesday, 8 July 2014                                                                                                  178.6kms

We started the morning early. While we were packing up Hendrix and Elokin decided to go and look for other kids to play with. We had a chat with a nice man from Victoria and were finally ready to leave camp at 8.55am. We found Elokin and Hendrix playing with Ruby and Samuel. Why do kids wait until the last few minutes to find friends to play with???? We stopped at the homestead to top up our water supply and had another chat with a lovely couple from Broome. We finally left Mt Hart at 9.25am.

This time we did count the dry creek crossings and there were 30! That makes 35 in total creek crossing on the 50km driveway. It is a nice drive and very scenic as the landscape changes. We arrived back at the Gibb River Road at 10.25am and turned left, heading east.

Our first stop for the morning was at Lennard Gorge. We ate a snack in the car park before trekking off. This walk is a 3km return trip over an uneven rocky ground, a mountain and across a dry creek bed. We had a few people pass us on our way saying that it was a long walk, there are lots of rocks and it’s a hard walk. We decided not to listen to them and discover it for ourselves. We are all glad we did. Yes, there are rocks, it’s not a boardwalk, it’s a bush walk, and you can’t expect it to be a smooth, paved track. The land is what it is and without pulling every rock out, it cannot be changed. A dry creek bed is going to have rocks and boulders in it that is what they are. And as for the mountain, it has nothing on the steep steps at Circular Pool in Karijini. All in all, the walk was fine. Proper footwear would be a good idea for ankle support, but the four of us wore our crocs as we forgot to put socks in the car this morning. Oops. After you walk up, across the flat top and then down the other side of the mountain you arrive at a lookout. Now, the sign says that this is the terminus for the walk, but the article that I had with us had said that there would be two tracks that would lead us to the bottom and the top of the falls. Now, if I hadn’t read the article and known that potentially we could get to the gorge, yes, I probably would have agreed with the other people that the walk wasn’t really worth it. But being adventurous like we are, Nath led the way and we scrambled down the cliff face to the bottom pool. It is similar to walking the gorges in Karijini really, except maybe a little bit higher up, which could explain why they try to stop people climbing around here. If you slip, it is a very long way down!

Anyway, we made it to the bottom and Nath bombied off the rocks into the water. The temperature was cool he said, but nice for a swim. No matter how much he tried to convince Elokin and Hendrix, they wouldn’t get in with him, and I opted to not wear swimmers today, thinking that there wouldn’t be somewhere decent to swim. After spending a fair amount of time down here, my tummy was starting to tell me it was lunch time, and we stupidly didn’t pack any food, thinking we wouldn’t be long. Nath was kicking himself now as he really wanted to walk to the top pool of the falls, but we needed to eat. On our way back to the car, we stopped at a small, shallower pool where Elokin and Hendrix happily went for a swim with Nath.

Back at the car, we ate a chocolate to tie us over as it was hot and there was no shade to eat lunch. We left at 1.35pm and headed to March Fly Glen, a place we had stopped twice last trip. There were a lot of people already set up for the night here, so we just ate lunch in the shade and decided that we would continue on to see what else we could find. We left there at 3pm and continued onto Imintji Store for a diesel top up, plus a jerry. This is supposed to be the cheapest fuel on the Gibb and today it was 236.5c/l. We started looking for a place to stop for the night from here. There were a couple of tracks that we turned into, only to find that they already had someone in them or they were just the quarry for the road. Before long, it was getting late and we arrived at the turnoff for Adcock Gorge. Seen as it was only 5kms off the road and supposed to be good in the afternoon light, we made the trip to check it out. What we found I would not call a gorge, either that or we went to the wrong place. It certainly felt like the longest 5kms in history, but that could just be because we were racing the sun. What we arrived at was a pool in the river with a few boulders at one end, that I guess would be the waterfall when there is water flowing and paperbark tree lined banks. It looked cool in the late afternoon light, purely because of the reflections on the water and the sun streaming through the branches. We didn’t stick around long as the sun was very low by now. We left at 4.55pm and it didn’t seem to take as long getting back out. From here we tried 2 more tracks that seemed to lead to nowhere. The first we arrived before the sunset, but I got a bad feeling about it and after we had stopped and turned the car off ready to unpack, I told Nath that I wasn’t comfortable so we left. To my advantage, it was a lumpy, spinifex ground and not very appealing. The next we arrived after the sun had set and we had our headlights on. Again, it seemed to just keep going with no particular destination, so we didn’t travel as far down this one, before deciding to turn around. The problem now was that there wasn’t a place to turn around very easily with the van on, so after bulldozing a sapling in the dark, we got around and headed back to the Gibb.

 

We travelled along further still looking for another track. We saw people camped just off the road, but didn’t find the track that they went in on. At this point we thought that trying to find a track in the dark was pointless and started to make our way to Manning Gorge. But as fate would have it, at the bottom of the range on the bitumen, was Galvans Gorge, which was going to be our next forge walk. There were already 3 other vehicles camped here so we stopped in the middle of the road (as we had missed the entry), backed it up and joined them. We weren’t going to pull anything out, but realised that we didn’t have enough food in the car to feed us all, and had no choice but to access the fridge and cupboards in the van.

After dinner, everything got packed back into the van as is our standard rest area procedure. Before we went to sleep we heard dingoes howling in the direction of the gorge.

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.