Dust and scones?

Back to the Gibb and onward to the Kalumburra road, which goes for some 300k to the far north to the extremity of Cape Londonderry. It’s a step too far for us, the road is not as good as earlier in our travels, so we just go up it to Drysdale station, some 60k up. There we refueled and stayed overnight to recharge our batteries, this is the first time we have had power since Derby.

 The roads in this area vary greatly, sometimes we could almost be on tarmac, other times it is sand, or even flint stones. The latter is not good for our tyres, and we have to try to avoid the worst of them, and the sandy areas are difficult to drive and steer, even in four wheel drive. Then there are the bulldust  holes, you can’t see them before you hit them, and they jar the teeth out of you!

There are many small river crossings along the way, some dip down alarmingly, then rise steeply on the other side, and the danger is that the tow bar can scrape the bottom. And if there is water in, some of which can be 12 to 15 inches deep, there is no way of knowing what the bottom is like. Some are smooth, almost to the extent that they may have been concreted, others are full of rocks and holes. Pot luck! And of course there are the ubiquitous corrugations, some not so bad, others jar your teeth, but always there.

The countryside also varies, from dense forest to bare rock, shale hills, to grassland. We drive through miles of totally flat countryside on arrow straight roads, then an area of low hills and twisty passes. This is wild and untamed country, much of it only accessible by horseback or air, with stations and homesteads maybe 100k apart.  Almost all of this is cattle country, with stations of a million acres, running 10,000 cattle or more, but we are told that even at that scale returns are meagre.

On our way back down to the Gibb we followed what we knew must be a very large vehicle for many miles, the air was full of dust and we could see the double wheel tracks in the road. At times the dust was so thick that we had to almost stop, and in fact by the time we saw a large three trailer cattle truck we were almost upon it, he had stopped to negotiate a river. Scary! We were able to overtake him as he was slowly moving uphill after the river, and we could see once more.

Dust has been the bane of our lives the past few days, always followed by it, often our sight would be obscured by a passing vehicle, sometimes a road train. Occasionally we had to stop it was so bad. And it seeps into the back of the car, meaning we have to clean down everytime we stop, and our clothes are soon dirty. 

A short diversion during our mornings travels took us to Ellenbrae station, where we were entertained to tea and the most delicious cream scones by a very rustic man with a breast long beard, the most unlikely waitress ever. Ellenbrae is delightful, a green oasis in a sea of brown desert, with  tropical plants all around occupied by small birds. They have a Kimberley cabin somewhere on the station, with an open bedroom and an outside open bathroom, the bath on the top of a viewpoint. Quite different!

On again, almost at our destination for the day, Home Valley Station. As we crest a hill we catch our first sight in the distance of something we have been dreading- the Pentecost river. It is far wider than anything we have forded so far, and we have no idea how deep. Also it is full of salties, crocs that love to eat unwary travelers. But that’s for tomorrow, will we sleep tonight?