Looking back on this part of the trip I can breathe
easier…but there were definitely some moments where I was chewing my
fingernails! We got on the road by 8:00 to get out of Silent Grove and we
arrived at Elisabeth Station by lunchtime. While we had originally planned to
spend the night here we decided that the day was still young and given that the
people at Elisabeth told us that there were quite a few places to camp on the
Munja Track anyway we decided to get out on the track and bush camp wherever
took our fancy. So we had lunch and headed for the munja track. You need to
retrieve a key from a particular hiding place to open the gate to get on the
track…which we did and were on our way. With Nat at the wheel the track started
out pretty good – just a nice smooth farm track that followed a fence line for
the first 15 km or so. There were a few creek crossings that we started using
4WD for (as a precaution) but after a while the nice sandy road became more rocky
and we had to slow down and be more careful.
Soon we were slalom driving around tight turns where we had
to take the corners a bit wider than the road so that the trailer didn’t get
dragged along trees. Some of these corners were so tight that we had the car in
low range first gear to inch the trailer past the trees. Of course about this
time is when we encounter a 4WD APC Tour bus heading in the opposite direction
and we had to get off the road to let them pass. It such tight confines this
was quite interesting, but somehow we manage it. (As an aside APT are a big
tour outfit and they seem to run a lot of wilderness lodges and stations on the
Gibb. Personally I hold them a bit to blame for what I consider the
“over-touristisation” of the Gibb and given that their tour busses are usually
full of old people, Daz and I refer to them as APT – “Aged Pensioner Transport”
or simply “retirement villages on wheels”)
 |
| Rocky River Crossing on Munja Track |
As the day wore on
the road called for more and more use of 4WD and low range until eventually we
just decided to stay in 4WD. Nat’s last hurdle for the day was the upper
Drysdale River which is marked on the track notes as “Flat Rocky Crossing”.
It’s a bit more complicated than that though as the road sort of S bends
through the river – this is made more challenging as the trailer always wants
to cut the corners and that is not always a good thing. So Daz got out of the car and talked Nat through
the first part of the S bed to the point where the road crossed the water, but
being a bit precious about getting his shoes wet he got back in the car and
said “righto this looks like nice flat rock just drive across it now”. So Nat
does as she’s told and about ¾ of the way through hits a series of bloody big
rocky holes. The only way out is to give it the berries and keep the momentum
up which got us across the river but not without a fair bit of whimpering from
the kids (whose heads were bouncing off the roof I’m sure) and spluttering/ groaning from Daz. When we reached the other side of
the river Daz was staring intently out the passenger window and I could hear
him thinking “bloody women drivers” all the way from the other side of the car.
Never one to take that sort of crap laying down I let him have it. “Flat rocky
crossing you said you bloody idiot! You’re meant to be guiding through!! Etc
etc” The whole episodes ended with a slightly bent step on the Patrol and Daz
back in the drivers seat. (men!!)
 |
| A near "Vertical Jacknife" |
So now that his lordship was back in control of the wheel
Nat decided to take the role of “guide” a bit more seriously – especially given
that after crossing the Drysdale the road became significantly more rocky and
there were quite a few steep creek crossings that almost had the stone
reflector on the trailer kissing the spare wheel on the back of the truck. Thus
we coined the phrase “vertical jack knife”. But at least Daz and Nat were
working as a team now..
Stupidly we decided to tackle the first serious jump up
(Magpie Jump up) late in the afternoon. Really we should have left it till the
next morning but by the time we realised this it was too late. Negotiating
Magpie Jump Up means driving down a seriously steep set of rocky drop offs and
with trepidation Nat and Daz got out to take a look. In Project Management
terms we would call this a “Go/No go decision point” and we took some time to
consider if this is too much for us. Daz was more confident than Nat though so taking
the lead from Daz we agreed on a track through the drop-offs and discuss if we
think we’ll ever be able to get back up this. Again Daz was cautiously
confident and decided to give it a shot.
So we took the kids and sat them on top of the hill (In case
the car rolls or something) and Nat grabbed the hand held radio and called the
wheel positions while Daz eased down the drop offs. It’s worth noting that for
the driver, going down this sort of drop off is pretty scary as he’s sitting
looking at the nose of the vehicle dangling out into space and putting his
faith in the spotter who’s telling him where to steer. Equally the spotter is
freaking out over…..well…pretty much everything! (the drawbar, the diffs, the
six tyres getting torn apart, the side walls of the truck & the camper…and
the driver)
 |
| Coming down Magpie Jump Up |
It takes a bit of drawbar scraping but somehow we got the
rig down the drop off without sustaining too much damage…and the sun is about
to set. So we get back in the truck and head on looking for a camp site. But we
only got about 20m when Nat hears “SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS” coming from the back
passenger tyre. Daz springs into action and before the tyre had a chance to go
flat he got the bottle jack under it and pulled off the wheel. With Nat running
around fetching this and that for him as we raced the setting sun Daz
discovered that of all things it is a Tech Screw that has neatly punctured the
tyre. Within about 5 minutes he plugged the hole with a repair kit (what a man
huh?!?). We got the tyre back on and pressured it up with the air compressor
and get on our way asap as it was now getting dark. After 15 more minutes of
crawling over rocky road we hit a sand patch next to a creek and make that our
camp site.
 |
| Tyre Repair at the bottom of magpie Jump Up |
 |
| Naughty Tech Screw! |
Despite our frayed nerves this turned out to be a beautiful
place to camp with no one else within cooee and the first beer of the night may
well have been the best we’ve ever tasted.
Next morning we got on our way continuing our winning
combination of Daz at the wheel and Nat as spotter/ chief road engineer (given
that the job frequently required re-arranging rocks on the road to get the
trailer or the diff or various other parts of the car through without getting
hung up.) We met a few vehicles travelling in the opposite direction who
assured us that Magpie Jump Up was the worst one although we would still need
to navigate a few other nasty bits. This we did pretty well and it was late
afternoon when we finally pulled into Bachsten Camp. Where we got a great
campsite complete with Sink, tables, shade cloth gazebo…and…best of all…No
Neighbours!! Bliss at last.
 |
| Trailer Shockie |
There was only one small hitch – We can only assume that it
was in the 5km before reaching Bachsten Camp that when Daz hit a nasty pothole
with a bit too much speed (neither of us saw it coming) that we has busted a
shockie on the camper. The steel loop on the bottom of the shockie (the bit
where the bolt goes through) had been pulled into a straight line and the
shockie was now dangling loose. Hmmm What to do????
Well it’s a running joke in the Semmler household that Daz
is a genius but usually this term is rolled out in sarcastic tones. This time
there’s no sarcasm – Daz literally outshone himself by fixing the shockie by
welding it up using the car batteries and welding gear he has in the car….for a
full explanation on how to do this see the next blog post “Dazza Coight – Welding With Car Batteries 101” This activity took up our first day at Bachsten Camp
and we spent the rest of the arvo generally bludging around and reading books
etc. Late in the Day we took the kids fir a swim and set some Cherabin traps.
 |
| Cherabin |
Next
morning we had 10 huge Cherabin, so we rest the nets before hiking to Bachsten
Gorge. This would have to be one of the most impressive gorges in the Kimberley
with a 5 tiered waterfall. It’s also a pretty serious hike to make it to the
bottom of the 5th tier where we were assured that we could catch
Black Bream (Sooty Grunter). Despite our
best intentions (we took our fishing gear) the last part of the walk was just
too dangerous with kids in tow and we aborted the mission at the 3rd
tier. We had to satisfy ourselves by gazing longingly at the hallowed fishing
pools below whilst eating our lunch. We had a terrific afternoon swimming in
the sae 3rd tire pool with the kids. Jess (after he success at
Honeymoon Bay) was keen to catch another fish with her new pink handline from
Derby and spent a fair while patiently fishing on the back although she didn't catch anything.
 |
| Jessica Fishing |
 |
| Bachsten Gorge |
When we returned to camp we pulled our nets and found we had
1 more Cherabin to add to our entrée. And some campers had arrived back from
Walcott Inlet. After several days they had caught nothing (2 catfish actually)
and they told us that Walcott was teaming with mozzies and crocs, and that you
have to wade out through knee deep mud to be able to fish. This information –
added to growing concerns that Matilda was getting an ear infection (we’d be 5
days drive from medical help if we went to Walcott) was enough to stop us in
our tracks. We decided that Bachsten camp was far enough and to head back to
the Gibb instead of attempting to reach Walcott inlet.
So after 3 nights at Bachsten camp we packed up the camper
and turned our heads for home. We dis a quick tour of some aboriginal rock art
and honeycomb caves before we left so it wasn’t till lunchtime before we headed
off.
Obviously getting out was going to be every bit as rough as
coming in except this time we were keeping a close eye on one welded shockie.
Every creek crossing and jump up that Nat spotted Daz through via the hand held
radio was followed with an epilogue of “…..and the shockie is…………….still there!”
We took a bit of tyre side wall damage going up Bachsten Jump Up on the same
tyre that we had to repair on the way in, but so far it was holding up.
That afternoon we made camp on a nice creek crossing and as
it was pretty warm Daz and I sat our camp chair in the creek and had a few
coldies while the kids paddled about.
Next morning (after following some obscure directions we got
off a local) we checked out some of the best rock art that I’ve seen in the
Kimberley to date.
Not long after this the side wall of that injured tyre finally started to star hissing air. So with a quick tyre change we kept going until we reached the dreaded Magpie Jump Up. This was going to be our trade test – of Darren’s driving, Nat’s spotting, Darren’s welding and …..Jessica’s cinematography skills! Daz and Nat picked a path and agreed on where the tyres had to go, we repositioned a few rocks and got Jess into position….Show time….
 |
| Winjana Rock Art |
Not long after this the side wall of that injured tyre finally started to star hissing air. So with a quick tyre change we kept going until we reached the dreaded Magpie Jump Up. This was going to be our trade test – of Darren’s driving, Nat’s spotting, Darren’s welding and …..Jessica’s cinematography skills! Daz and Nat picked a path and agreed on where the tyres had to go, we repositioned a few rocks and got Jess into position….Show time….
As daz starts driving up the Jump up, Nat’s spotting… and
suddenly Daz is halfway up and Nat is in the way!! At this point the whole procedure
turns into Nat running up the hill trying to get out of the way while Daz
chases her up the hill (Maybe all those years of take the piss out of Daz has
finally made him snap?!!) Thankfully we get to the top and Daz finally stops
trying to run over Nat. “…..and the shockie is…………….still there!”
We load the
kids back into the car, give Daz 3 cheers for being a legend (and in Nat’s case
for nor running her over), and to the sound of Queen’s “We are the Champions”
we press on. Jess’s footage is not too bad…she even managed to get the truck in
the frame a few times…check it out!
Nat took over driving from the Drysdale River and the sun is
getting low when we make it to the locked gate. Unfortunately someone has
swiped the key from the hiding place and it takes a Satphone call to Elisabeth
Station to get someone to bring a key to let us out….so it’s pitch black by the
time we get to Elisabeth and set up camp.
 |
| Cooling our heals waiting for the gate key |
Next morning Matilda is covered all over her body in an
itchy rash and we’re glad to be only an easy drive along the Gibb to get to
Derby. After a night in Derby were we
get some good antiseptic cream to help poor Matilda we head to Broome for a few
days
 |
| Boab Prison Tree outside Derby |
