Our final stay on the way back to Kununurra was at Home Valley Station Bush Camp. This is on the Pentecost River. ( El Questro Station is directly across the river.) We spent three nights here while I fished the river. No success here though. But, the scenery, have a look at this. The Cockburn Ranges were in full view from our campsite. (The shot below taken from the tent door.) Saltwater crocs sunning themselves on the muddy banks. A Dutch film crew were filming their reality show "Outback Luke".

This is one of three crocs on the bank this day. (250 metres from our camp site) Probably a 10 footer. Needles to say, both the sunrises and sunsets were spectacular. Below is a sunrise over the Cockburn Ranges. Wyndham is over the range to the left hand side about 50 klms away.

Finally, the Gibb River Road was not the Horror Stretch that we had envisaged, it was very good. More bitumen is being laid each year and the road is being upgraded each year. I'd guess that out of the 670 klms stretch 90 is now bitumen. It is not remote at any stage with dozens of vehicles passing you each day. Highest fuel cost $2.28 a litre.

Lennard River Gorge, our first stop on the Gibb River Road. While not very accessible and a two klm walk it is worth the effort. The following is a shot of "Queen Victoria's Head" on the approach to the pass through the Napier Ranges. Look closely at the rock structure on the right, there she is, well named.

Bell's Gorge was pleasant. There is a 10 kilometre drive from the camp ground at Silent Grove and a one kilometre walk to get to the falls. I had a bit of a problem here when I slipped crossing the creek above the falls to get better photographs. While I was in no real danger, the 20 or 30 other visitors there at the time either had a good laugh or were concerned for my safety. My walking boots, removed to cross over were recovered from the pool in the background. Result-Damaged ego, soaked Ted.

Dimond Gorge on Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary. This stay was very interesting. The Station is now owned by a Wildlife Trust and is destocking to allow the land to return to its natural state. It is a "Must see" destination for bird watchers. It has two beautiful gorges, Dimond Gorge pictured below and Sir John Gorge, as well as several good waterholes for swimming. While this gorge is not that accessible down river on foot, there are canoes for hire that allow you to escape down river for several kilometres. Cop this sunset. We stopped for this one on the way back from Sir john Gorge.
The Station also has plenty of the spectacular escarpment ranges as a back drop while driving around.
The restaurant is in a rustic style with pleasant meals and great company.

Susan visited Mt Elizabeth station in 2003. She "WOOFED" there for two weeks (voluntary work for board and keep). During that period she went out with the mustering crew in their Bull catching vehicles. These are the trucks that bring them home after capture. Well it was reminiscing time for Susan who found the Bull catching jeep she had been in while the boys chased down some scrubbers. Dangerous stuff, but she did it.Mt Elizabeth station has good accommodation and a nice van park and we were welcomed by Pat and Peter Lacy who remembered Susan and her hijinks.
Susan and Pat Lacy

Retouched aboriginal art on Mt Elizabeth station. Several years ago this primitive attempt at restoring art was carried out by a well meaning group. It certainly caused outrage and was stopped immediately. Mt Elizabeth has some exceptional art in the rocky regions of the property. Our plan was to visit Walcot Inlet from Mt Elizabeth. A drive of 143 klms to Bachsten Safari camp and then a further 75 k's to Walcot inlet. The 143 k's took 7.5 hours with several highly eroded drops off hills. we needed a couple of stops for refreshments.
On one stop we met up with Robin Bowering. Here we are at lunch. While the actual drive to Bachsten took 7.5 hrs, lunch with Robin added a further 1.5 hours due to his wonderful life story. He is English and a stage and screen actor. He's had good roles in Australian movies and television series. Keep an eye out for him in the credits at the end of shows.This is a shot of Dave and Janet Rhodes, caretakers and woderful hosts at Bachsten Camp. More of that later. It gives you an idea of the quality of the camp though. A welcome site after the tough drive.

Bachsten Safari camp was to be our home for a week. We drove through a fire to get there and this threatened the camp for most of our stay. We didn't get to Walcot Inlet, 75 klms and 5 hours drive, due to the threat of fires. We left to go there but turned back after 32 k's. We would have been the only people there and without some knowledge of where the fires were we felt it was too dangerous. There was plenty to do at the camp. This Aboriginal art was directly behind the camp. It was some of the best we encountered on our trip. Bachsten Falls were a complete surprise. Susan hadn't heard of them and they are a smaller version of the Mitchell falls.
Sunsets with the fires about are special. We would take drinks and snacks up into the surrounding rocks at sunset and relax with Dave and Janet. Always on the lookout for the fires.
After the fires had cleared the track to the falls we made our way down to the plunge pool where i fished while Susan swam. Good Sooty Grunter here I'll tell you. I let 5 go, keeping these two for the table that night. Every body else enjoyed them, I gave them a miss. On arriving back at the camp we were confronted with another fire front and spent the next few hours back burning and on fire watch.

Fire came at us on four fronts over a week. While Kimberley fires are described as "cool fires" the waiting was no fun. Pandanus just loves to burn but I was surprised by the speed fire races up some of our native species. Fire approaching the camp at night. This was a night we finished about 7:00 before retiring for dinner with David and Janet. A couple of Red's helped out while waiting for dinner to be prepared.
Here we are on fire watch as the fire encroaches from the north. A creek separated us from the fire but floaters were a danger. Standing in smoke for several hours helped clear the sinuses.
Guess who? shifting gear from one end of the camp to the other as the fire flares up in different locations. I'm a bloody Hero, believe me!.

Here comes another fire!

A week of fires at the Bachsten Safari Camp were a worry for the caretakers. We stayed for the week and helped out and were pleased to celebrate the end of the daily vigil. Susan broke out the Drambuie and by the time this shot was taken, "We didn't care" any more. David and Janet Rhodes with Susan and I. As stated previously, they were wonderful hosts and we will see them again in Perth as we move back for a planned house sit and Susan's mothers 80th. birthday
Some of the more menacing fires that can race into the canopy within seconds.
Our bloody hero on a back burn mission. The owner had fire breaks around the camp, our main worry were the possibility of floaters setting fire to the long grass around the "Safari Huts"

After leaving Bachsten we made a bee line for Kalumburu so I could get some real fishing done. The roads were badly corrugated but we got there unscathed. Several vehicles had problems each day, axles, steering etc. We were lucky. We stayed in the catholic Mission caravan park. We opted to stay in the town rather than go to the more scenic Ocean parks as I wanted to fish the King Edward River on foot. The photo below shows the Mission admin. office and the town centre. Kalumburu is an aboriginal settlement established in 1908 by the Benedictine monks.

Some wartime aircraft wrecks can be seen at the end of the airfield. They appear to me to be liberator bombers with USA insignia.

I'm just about to set off fishing with fellow travelers Guido and Carmelo. We were all staying at the Mission van park. Guido has a passion for Aboriginal rock art and is very well travelled and read on the subject. We had great times with both of these gentlemen and will definitely catch up with them again in the future. We caught fish in the gorge and ate at their Italian restaurant, "the camp kitchen", mmmmm very delicious Italian food.

Kalumburu is serviced by barge from Darwin every fortnight. It is a social event when it comes in to unload. We spent the day at Marra Garra beach just vegging out. Mind you we had a cement floor shack to make it easy for us.

Having lapsed in my devotions over the years, I tried to make up for it by doing "Good Works" at the Mission. Thank goodness it was winter as I helped out with roofing the new museum. Father Anscar the priest is well known for his museum talk (and antics). What a wonderful man he is. Due to retire after next year's centenary celebrations. His advertised one and a half hour tour lasts at least two hours and sometimes two and a half.
I spent some period of every day fishing the Malindjar Gorge and the tidal section of the King Edward River. Over the 16 days of fishing I caught over 26 metres of fish. Silly I know, but out of curiosity I kept a measure of size and species. Mostly Trevally and Queenfish. I dropped a 9+ kilo Queenie one day, tackle broke at my feet as I was about to retrieve my lure and let her go. (Sorry about the "Fishy talk" here but that's what I was there for.)

This shot shows the top end of Malindjar Gorge.

Fishing the King Edward river by boat was a great experience. The Kalumburu Mission Financial Administrator Bogden took pity on me and offered a Saturday morning trip. Well, I certainly took the opportunity and bagged a 70 cm. barra to fill Susan's depleted larder. While Bogden and I were only out for the day another two groups were camping for the weekend. Here they are setting up camp and offered us a bacon and egg breakfast.
"Hello there, fat Caucasian, would you share breakfast with me?" This one was not frightened of us at all. Crocodiles aren't hard to find when fishing but some tourists hadn't seen one in 2 months of travel. Susan also did some volunteer work at the Mission store and cafe. Here she slaves over the stove, in between taking shots of me on the roof next door. We were not to wait until heaven for our reward, the staff at the mission invited us to dinner with them. A lovely 3 course meal with a selection of mains. By the way they aren't wine bottles on the table as Kalumburu is a dry community, it tasted very grapey to me though, and finding our way back to our tent in the dark was tricky. They were a lovely bunch, most of the workers are volunteers.
Surprise, surprise. "Lucky Lester, the living Legend". An old friend from Proserpine surprised Susan and I one morning as we walked through Kalumburu with a "Hey Pointa". We knew he was up here somewhere but by chance we met on the morning he was leaving. He stayed for two days and we fished the Malindjar gorge together. He nailed quite a few Queenies and Trevors, with video footage to prove it.

The trip to the Mitchell Plateau was well worth the effort. While in Kalumburu the road had been graded otherwise I was determined to give it a miss. The reports were horrific, with vehicles being damaged daily.We were lucky, by diverting to Kalumburu for 16 days the grader had almost finished the road by the time we arrived back. While I had doubts about visiting the Mitchell falls, I can assure you they were well worth the effort. In fact I intend to get back again when they are in flood. (Helicopter or fixed wing though.)

Merten creek runs into the Mitchell river to form an outstanding set of 6 falls in close proximity to one another. Big Merten, pictured below, had little water running over it in spite of the recent rains, however there is a 30 metre single drop into a very narrow gorge. This shot shows the gorge as it travels only 500 metres to join the Mitchell directly below the Mitchell falls.
The Mitchell falls, impossible to give you a perspective of the size. There is a set of falls hidden on the left hand side in the second tier.
It wont be too many years before hand rails etc will be put in place restricting access. At the moment there are only arrows indicating the track to get there. Walk where you like at your own risk. By the way there is a 3 kilometre walk to the Mitchell falls with stops at Little Merten and Big Merten falls.
Do you reckon we're enjoying ourselves? After this we went swimming in the pool above the falls, the only place we felt safe from crocs. PS, there are another set of falls a short distance down river. I guess they'd be 3 to 5 klms away accessible only by bush walking.

A Dutch production team was filming an outback reality show, "Outback Luke" on the Home Valley Station when we stayed for three days. You could understand why they chose this location when you see the Cockburn Ranges across the Pentecost River. The show will not been seen in Australia Outback Luke charms a prospective bride with a picnic out of the back of the bull catcher jeep here.
During a break in filming, the lovely Tina came by and called into say "hello". She thinks our Aussie Luke is a spunk. She was a nice young woman, contrary to my expectations.
Then what do you reckon happens? our Luke arrives to say G'day. I'm pleased to say he was a great guy,(A navigator on the Australian Ice Breaker "Aurora Australis") who was head hunted for the role. I'm learning not to prejudge people who take part in these shows if they are all as nice as these two.
PS. Susan's still in love with me, Texas Ted. PS, if you want to see some shots of the Cockburn Ranges, I had some in previous posts when I went out there fishing.