96km Driveway

THURSDAY 27 JUNE 2019

The blanket came back out again last night.  It is definitely colder at night this trip although still reaching about 29 to 32 degrees during the day.

Packed up and headed out off the grass and back on to the dusty road although it must be said that the Charnley Road isn’t too rough or corrugated.  The most dusty place is, however, whenever there is a gate to be opened and just as Jenny got out to open a gate another car came up behind us so Jenny ushered them through as well.  They waved cheerily and speed through at about 40 km/h coating Jenny in a thick layer of dust.  Very bad etiquette and let’s just say Jenny was not impressed and let Larry know their shortcomings for quite a while!

Through the last gate and back on the Gibb River Road for just 4km before turning off again, this time to the south.  We stopped at the little radio box at the turn off to announce our arrival to Mornington Wilderness Camp.  They only allow 50 people in per night and it is one of their (many) requirements that you radio ahead to announce your arrival.  About a 100km trip in heading south and east past spectacular ranges of hills with what Jenny said looked like crusty tops.  Passed quite a few herds of Brahman cattle, one of which was being herded along by people of quad bikes, a few more gates and we were out of cattle country and into the Wilderness Camp. 

Drove through the campground and noted a couple of likely spots to set up but drove on up to the main bar/restaurant/office to check in and, having read the notice board and noted it was beef cheeks with polenta chips, beans and broccolini for dinner, booked for that as well.

Back to the pretty nice camp site we had noted and took a while to work out how to position the van as we had the whole area to ourselves and were spoilt for choice.  Discovered after we had set up that we were probably 20m from Annie Creek so there was certainly a lot of bird life nearby (as well as mosquitos unfortunately!).  We set up, cooked up some noodles for lunch and then decided that now was a good time to use our little portable plastic washing tub that we are have been moving in and out of the shower recess each day and not yet used.  Soon we were in sudsy heaven and getting a workout at the same time as you rotate the tub by hand.  A while later we had a line full of t shirts, jocks, shorts and socks and decided that was enough domestic duties for now and that it was time to discover one of Mornington’s water holes for a swim.

Drove down to Cadjedup which is a swimming spot along the Fitzroy River.  As the water level is a bit low this year it was tricky to find a spot to get in but eventually, with the help of our pool noodles, we stumbled across pointy rocks underfoot to a place where we could paddle around peacefully.  There was nobody there but us and it was seriously quiet when we didn’t talk or paddle.  No bird song and so quiet you could hear the occasional fly buzz past.  The water was quite chilly so we didn’t stay in for too long and so headed back to camp.  Larry is down to his last few beers so it was a matter of showering, changing and then heading up to the bar for a couple of drinks before our dinner booking.  Discovered there is also Roaming Wifi so checked in on the kids and also checked up what is happening in the big world out there.

Our dinner was served at 6.30pm and was absolutely delicious, washed down with a glass of merlot.  The added bonus was that dessert had been changed from damper to sticky date pudding and that was also yummy.  Over dinner the temperature seriously dropped so that Larry had to make a trip back to the van for warmer clothing and a rug as we wanted to stay for the talk on the work of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (who run both Charnley River Camp and Mornington Wilderness Camp).  It was a very interesting and informative talk and it showed that the work AWC has undertaken over the last 18 years has made notable change to the landscape and therefore to the populations of a number of endangered species.  Their most notable action in the Kimberley has been to introduce prescribed ‘cool’ burns early in the dry season which has resulted in less ‘hot’ wildfires that completely decimate the landscape and wipe out all the habitat and food sources for native animals.  The satellite images of this part of the Kimberley show the area has become much greener over the past decade because of it as not only the areas managed by the AWC have benefitted, many surrounding pastoralists have adopted the techniques as they have seen the benefit of it.  We were saddened to note that the Federal Government has recently cut the $400,000 a year budget it contributed to this fire management programme – seems silly that so small an amount can’t be spent on something so worthwhile.

They are also working hard on the feral cat problem in Australia with what the estimate to be between 4 to 20 million cats.  If each of these eats 3 or 4 native animals/frogs/birds per night then you can see why some species are becoming endangered so quickly.  AWC have created two areas, one in NSW and one in the NT, which have feral cat proof fences around them and are reintroducing species  into these areas now they are certain are cat free.  So there are now Bilbys back in NSW after having become eradicated there previously.  AWC are now working with the CSIRO to see if there might be a genetic solution to the cat problem but they are crossing all their i’s and dotting their t’s before putting anything into practice as the last thing Australia needs is another ecological mistake!

Home to bed and rugs and trackies required.