Author: Mrs A
Since being back in Sydney from our six months away we have constantly been asked which was the one place we loved the most. I have to say that to name just one is quite challenging, but after more than 200 nights away, I think I could narrow it down to the top 20.
Here’s the first 5. These are in the order that we visited them rather than ranked and so are from our first six weeks or so of travelling along the top end of WA and The Kimberley region.
1. Bungle Bungle Range – Purnululu National Park – Western Australia
Reason: Spectacular, inspirational scenery, incredible colours, great walking. We were there outside of the school holidays so it was quiet, and nothing overcrowded. We walked and walked all day, in beautiful temperatures, marvelling at the amazing scenery. It has stuck with me still. It’s so hard just to select a few photos from this location!
2. Barnett River Gorge – off the Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia
Reason: While other gorges in the Kimberly such as El Questro, Emma Gorge, Bell Gorge, Mitchell Falls are definitely up there, and certainly we enjoyed hiking up them and swimming in the waters, Barnett River Gorge stands out for us because it was so peaceful. We arrived just as a tag along tour of backpackers was departing and enjoyed the whole afternoon just the two of us, relaxing in the cooling waters and watching a massive saltwater crocodile cruising up the deeper section from a lookout. Some great memories there. There are no signs off the main road to reach this, you just have to trust in Google Maps directing you down a dirt track through dusty dry grassland.
3. Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary – Kimberley, Western Australia
Reason: Again, in contrast to other locations along the Gibb, this was so quiet and unspoilt by crowds. We had booked this way in advance and after changing our dates around, thought we had lost our booking here. Fortunately they still had us in the schedule and allowed us to head on down. It is run by the Wilderness Society and restricted to a maximum of 30 campers or caravans on the whole property. Much of the time it was just the two of us, and we had an awesome day paddling down Diamond Gorge on our inflatable kayaks, and there were many birds to be seen. It was a fabulous learning experience in a spectacular location.
4. Windjama Gorge – off the Gibb River Road, Kimberley, Western Australia
Reason: We arrived here with low expectations. Windjama can be reached without travelling down the Gibb River Road and does not require a 4WD. We thought it would be full of people and overcrowded like many other places, but although the campground did get busy, it was not crowded in the gorge itself. We hiked into the gorge through a crack in the rock late afternoon and were bowled over by the incredible light. It has a feeling of power and spirituality, somewhat like walking into a grand cathedral, the walls towering overhead and the late afternoon sunlight reflecting off the sandstone. The feeling we had when first entering was renewed the following morning when we hiked in with our breakfast and a flask of tea. This is a very special place.
5. The Horizontal Falls – The Kimberley, flight out of Derby, Western Australia
Reason: What an adventure this was! We had originally just booked a day trip, but everyone we met along our travels told us to stay at least one night, and so we did. Definitely to be recommended! We flew from a tiny airport near Derby across to the top of the Kimberley, landing on the water near our boat. The warm waters there are not friendly for swimming in, full of dangerous saltwater crocodiles and sharks. But we stayed mostly dry (other than my snorkelling with the Tawny Sharks) and leaped on board a smaller boat to whizz through the flooded bays and observe the waters rushing out with the tide. Definitely a location not to be missed! This trip ended with me in the emergency room at the Derby Hospital (you’ll have to read the blog for that story!) but that didn’t spoil my memories!
We’ll be back in day or so with the next five best locations…it’s taking some debating on what to include and what to leave out – we have done so much!
Where to find these locations:
And so we farewelled the Cummings family and headed down the Blue Mountains to our next stop, Katoomba. We were off to visit Jennie and David, another couple of English folk happily living in Australia who had also the good fortune to purchase a Zone RV caravan – number 57. Jennie was there to wave us into the parking spot and provide us with visitor passes, and quickly ushered us into their home near the three sisters for a cup of tea and a chat.
We stopped off for a quick drink and a chat, before heading on through the narrow car lined streets to Curl Curl. We have to say that the streets of Forestville were the most challenging roads we had driven on in the whole of Australia – a combination of cars on both sides of the street, narrow roads, hills and bends!
We calculated our total mileage for this trip – 22,478km – that’s about 14,000 miles for you counting in old money. Fantastic. We’re pretty chuffed with all we have learned along the way and what an incredible adventure we have had. So far. After tonight we head back into our house for about 7 weeks, and then the cat will be away again to explore more of this beautiful country…we hope you will join us too!
We stopped there a couple of hours as the showers got heavier and Tassie did a bit of exploring.
All this wine tasting had worked up an appetite and a very timely text from friend Karen gave us a list of recommendations. We decided to call into Agrestic Grocer. It turned out to be right next door to the Badlands Brewery, the beer Mr A had enjoyed at The Oxley Wine Bar in Cowra, and they offered a tasting paddle from the bar.
After lunch we picked up some vegetables for tonight (Woolworths ‘the fresh food people’ this time) – again disappointed by the poor quality of fresh produce available – bendy carrots, soft runner beans, under ripe strawberries and nectarines – not what we expected at all.
We strolled, admiring the views and marvelling at how comfortable the 33 degree day felt amongst all this green and water.
We decided to enjoy lunch in the café at the gardens (sadly not Japanese food – the only menu nod to the inspiration was a miso soup!).
After all this learning, we thought it should be time to go and try some local wine. We headed to a winery on our way back to Cowra, but sadly the cellar door was only open at the weekend. Such a shame. Hopefully the Orange wineries will be more welcoming over the next few days…yes, I know, another wine region in our future!
…And so to our final evening in Cowra. We again enjoyed the company of Keira and Glenn for a few beverages while our Weber cooked up our butterflied pork. We shared a few stories along the way, Mr A lamenting that I will never let him have a chain saw. Our close friends will know why…and so do Glenn and Kiera now.
We jumped on our bikes for an explore. Forbes is pretty flat, and there is a cycleway around the lake. We rode out to the information centre to see what other rides were nearby – other than the lake path they couldn’t really tell us of anywhere else. We collected some brochures about the surrounding regions and continued on our way. We spotted many water birds and a young brown snake which crossed our path – there has been a lot of rain in these parts lately, so there are plenty of frogs, which means numerous snakes. The shared pathway circumnavigating the lake was flooded in many locations.
We called into Bernardi’s supermarket – a trendy ‘Harris Farm Market’ style store (our Sydney friends will be familiar with) with great choice and reasonable prices. We hadn’t eaten lunch so it was a bit of a battle getting Mr A to walk past all the goodies he wanted to buy – somehow we managed to depart only with fruit and vegetables, no fruit cakes, pastries or giant hams!
The river is an ever changing environment with flood and drought adjusting the river’s path all the time. The tree roots from the towering red gums were like incredible sculptures along the rivers edge, their solid ground long gone.
We returned to camp and cleaned up our things, dried the boats and took Princess Tassie out for another walk. She feels very adventurous here and is absolutely fascinated by the river.
A home cooked meal completed the day, eaten outside in the warm evening – it stays light until way past 9pm these days. We had a chat with some friends, making plans for Christmas. As much as we are enjoying our travels, we are quite excited about catching up with our Sydney ‘family’ again. Being apart has made us appreciate them all the more.
Tomorrow we hit the road again, heading off to adventures new. I wonder what the next camp will bring…?
Before long, Mr A’s bike was ready to collect. Sadly the bike shop owner told us a familiar tale – cycling here has really dropped back, and he doesn’t know how much longer he can sustain the business. So disappointing. Something needs to change to make people adopt this more sustainable transport method. Mildura is ideal for cycling – it has little gradient and some investment in bike lanes – but clearly not enough to shift the culture of getting in the car.
Leaving Banrock Station we drove back to Renmark. On a windy, overcast and relatively cool day it looked quite bleak. Most of the streets were shut off in anticipation of this evening’s Christmas Pagent – held at night due to the usually high temperatures. It was 37 degrees centigrade here on Thursday. Today it barely peaked 17! What climate change?
Our first task was to travel to the nearby settlement of Nuriootpa to visit the bank. I had been paid for two years of work with Vanderbilt University with a cheque in USA dollars and had to pay it in before it expired. Of course this was not an easy task and required forms to be completed and for me to pay $45 fee up front for the privilege! I should expect to see my money in my account by the end of January next year…nothing is ever quick or easy in the world of banking! It just so happened the bank was next door to a very pretty bakery café, which then ended up as our lunch spot. Mr A proudly announced they had the best vanilla slice he had tried this trip. Big call – there have been quite a few vanilla slice tastings!
It was more like a market than a supermarket, with cheese counters and delicatessens spilling over with produce. It was overall an excellent experience. Even the staff were cheerful and chatty, with our checkout server proudly announcing the store was intending to steal the accolade of ‘Best Supermarket in South Australia’ from the store we visited in Frewville, Adelaide. I’d say they are not far off!
There were some delicious wines – their single vineyard Three Brians Grenache, made from 116 year old vines, was a standout, and we bought a bottle of the Maurice Grenache (also single vineyard, younger 50 year old vines) and the Rob and Les Shiraz. We are seriously running out of wine storage now! 
We headed back to camp after this tasting. Tonight the weather is due to change quite dramatically, with temperatures predicted to drop more than 10 degrees with torrential rain and thunder storms – already there is discussion of sandbagging shopfronts and preparing for flooding. There’s nothing more people love to talk about than a dramatically extreme weather event!
We’re getting as packed up as possible while the sun still shines. We’ll be moving on tomorrow to our next location, a few kilometres closer to Sydney, somewhere along the River Murray (hopefully not on a flood plain!). We have really loved our time in the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley – a combination of lovely people, stunning scenery, great cycling (despite no other cyclists!) and fabulous food and wine. We are sorry to leave, but sure to return.