Hitting the Dirt

 

Monday 31 June 2021 – Hitting the dirt

Cereal and coffee for breakfast and on the road about 8am – as usual! The tarmac on the Gibb River Road seems to last a lot longer these days – apart from one 20km unsealed section – the bitumen goes pretty much as far as the Windjana Road turn off.  Once we did hit the dirt, it was probably the best we’ve ever seen the GRR – brand new bridges constructed or being constructed following the big wet and the majority of the road had new grey road base to cover up wash outs etc.  It did mean, however, a big cloud of grey dust every time a car/van/truck went past.  Surprisingly few vans around – a reasonable number of camper trailers and cars with roof top tents etc but it took a while before we came across any full size vans.  Perhaps they have been scared off by all the stories of flooded roads etc.

We stopped a few times, once to let down the tyres, once to check the inside of the van and that had nothing had burst out of a cupboard (nope) and once at the obligatory look out spot.  We had watched all of the Wild Touring adventures on You Tube last year and knew they had come this way and left one of their stickers on the crash barrier (it’s a thing if you are a You Tube/Instagram star to leave your mark) so we found that and pointed it out to each other and then back in the car to the Mt Hart Station turn off.  Stopped briefly to take off the weight distribution hitch spring bars and lucky we did as the road in was completely different from two years ago.  There was creek crossing after creek crossing – some rocky and a lot quite muddy – the bars would have kept dragging in the mud as they are quite low down.  So it was quite slow going and the 49km driveway in took us about an hour and a quarter and the car and the van now have serious dust, dirt and mud all over them!

Finally made camp and checked in and then down to the campground.  As we were still arriving around lunchtime we weren’t too worried about finding a spot and we were surprised that the campground wasn’t actually that busy although some people had taken advantage of there not yet being camp hosts this year and had faced parallel to the river, hence taking up two camp sites.  Nevertheless there was still room for us to have a river side spot – about 200m up from where we were two years ago and we set up happily on the grass with the river a stone’s throw away.

We had yummy chicken, cheese and salad rolls to use up the hot chicken from Saturday night’s meal which were really yummy – especially as our table had a view.  We then just sat and enjoyed the serenity for a while watching the tiny little wrens flit around the water’s edge.  You can really see how high the water ran through here a few months ago with leaf litter high up in the trees.  From memory I think Mt Hart had something like 900mm of rain during the wet.

Mid afternoon we dragged our butts off our seats, put on our bathers and headed down to Butler’s Pool which is only a few kilometres away.  Two years ago we drove down here and took one look at the stagnant water and drove away again but today it was deep and clear and cool so we grabbed our pool noodles and headed in.  Well it was invigorating to say the least but if we stayed in the sun it wasn’t too bad and we stayed in for quite a while and had the place to ourselves for a while before a family with young kids turned up.  It was interesting listening to them but I wished the dad had corrected the kid shouting “Look, I found a lobster!  I don’t have a problem with people taking their kids out of school to do the big lap but they do have an obligation to teach them about things on holidays and felt the dad should have said “Actually in rivers they’re called yabbies or marron”.  Then again, maybe he didn’t know himself!

Back to the van as the shadows were lengthening and it was time for a bit more sitting and pondering the view.  A few of the campers near us left to drive up to the Sunset Hill so I suggested to Larry it might be a good time to put the drone up as it was that lovely twilight time and the air was dead still so no chance of the drone whooshing away in a gusty wind.  It’s a cute little drone and only sounds like a slightly oversized mosquito so doubt anyone even noticed – not that there are any signs saying “No drones” which is surprising as there is an air strip here (but no planes or helicopters here today hence another good reason to send the drone up now).

Lamb cutlets, potato wedges and coleslaw for dinner which was absolutely delish and we were finally driven inside the van by the onslaught of midges towards any light source – one of the down sides to being so close to a water source.  Jenny’s homemade recipe of Dettol, baby oil and eucalyptus oil is getting a workout and it seems to do the trick in keeping the mozzies at bay.

And so to bed.  We are noticing that the MDC tends to retain the daytime temperature so all the windows and the fans on to try to cool it down for optimum sleeping conditions.