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2017 GTG Trip Report plus extra travels from Tiny

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  • 2017 GTG Trip Report plus extra travels from Tiny

    So a few of those not fortunate enough to have been able to attend the GTG this year have been disappointed with the lack of trip reports. Basically this is because we all had too much fun living it to have time for posting about it. Ever one to bow to peer pressure though, here's a bit of a trip report, at least from my family's point of view.

    We had 4 in our car, me (Tiny), my wife Danielle and two boys Jake (10) and Charlie (7). Also joining me was my Dad in his hilux. Dad and I high-tailed it straight to Darwin and I flew the wife and kids in to join us. It was a fairly uneventful trip except for randomly running into Vaughn and Peter at the three ways roadhouse.

    We tried a few touristy things in Darwin before we left including the flying doctors tourist facility which was pretty interesting and went looking for an old world war 2 bunker which blows our local ones on Bribie Island out of the water.

    (Warning: most of these photos are likely to be of the family rather than 4wding. Sorry about that)





    We headed out of Darwin and made it to Timber Creek to stay for the night. It was an impressive caravan park/roadhouse, especially as they do free crocodile feeding sessions at the creek out the back some nights (luckily we were there on the right night), then they let the visitors throw strips of meat into the air for the resident hawk population to swoop down and grab out of the sky. My boys had a go and couldn’t stop talking about it.




  • #2
    From there we heading for the first meeting point of the GTG at Lake Argyle Resort (note, as you get more remote, the word “Resort” is closer to fancy caravan park than Club Med). Lake Argyle was a pretty nice one though. The infinity pool was pretty spectacular but ridiculously cold. One thing that amazed us on this trip is how it could get to over 30 degrees during the day yet every body of water was freezing cold. Lake Argyle’s infinity pool became our standard for how cold each swimming hole was for the rest of the trip and although a few got as far as “Infinity Pool Cold”, I don’t remember any actually beating it. We had a pretty impressive welcome dinner at the resort restaurant as well.

    On our day off the next day, our fantastic guides Michael and Sherron took a few of us on a local drive. We found a nice little cave with some aboriginal rock art before moving on to our first swimming hole of the trip Thomson Spring.





    We moved on to Kununurra the next night for a bit of souvenir shopping and restocking the food supplies as well as a visit to the Hoochery distillery for a tour and a few samples.

    The next day was a trip to Wyndham. Those of us not towing took a roundabout route for our first bit of real off road work. We circled around to check out ivanhoe crossing which was flowing way too fast to actually cross unfortunately. So fast that they’ve dropped some big concrete blocks at each end to make sure no one actually tries it but from the look of it when we got there, you’d have been mad to try it.



    We detoured via a few springs and walked into black rock falls which had the most incredible colony of butterflies everywhere. The boys spent a good few minutes insisting they were going to catch one though they were unsuccessful.

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    • #3
      At Windham, most of us headed up to the 5 rivers lookout for a group photo (hopefully someone else has posted it somewhere), although our intrepid guides missed out as they didn’t remember that towing caravans up to the lookout is frowned upon. The lookout itself is quite amazing seeing 5 rivers all emptying into one delta.





      There’s also a giant crocodile statue in Wyndham which the kids had fun climbing on.



      The next day, we headed for El Questro station and on the way, hit the start of the actual Gibb River Road. Thanks to Bushbasher for turning up at just the right time to take a family photo for us.

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      • #4
        El Questro was really quite a nice place although they needed to get a better telly sorted before the next time they try to show the state of origin. We did a day trip from there to Branco’s lookout which included quite an impressive low range river crossing along with a massive Boab tree which the Durack family originally used to mark their station boundary.





        The next morning we headed out to Zebedee Springs. A nice little natural hot springs that’s part of El Questro station. Lovely and warm but really only enough room for 1 or two bums in each of the pools.



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        • #5
          El Questro itself has a nice (and of course freezing cold) swimming hole which most of the groups with kids had a swim in followed by an impromptu boat race with the kids. Most of them were very enthusiastic building their boats out of natural materials that they could find then we floated them down the rapids.





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          • #6
            The trip out of El Questro threw up our first real catastrophe. The water tank I have mounted up under the back dropped out on one side and I dragged it along the road for 100 metres or so. With a little effort, a jack and a few good kicks, we undid it and bolted it to the roof and it still held water for the majority of the trip which is a bit of a testament to how well made they are.



            Continuing that day took us across the iconic Pentecost River crossing. Not particularly difficult but still a nice drive.



            After a stop at home valley station for a late morning tea in their impressive bar, we went on to the Cockburn Range lookout and our last bit of phone signal. I think most of us stopped for a last few Facebook posts and a few photos.



            Followed by a stop at Bindoola Falls which had no actual flowing water but we did see a freshwater croc sun baking in the shallows of the pool at the bottom where the falls would be.

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            • #7
              We also crossed the Durack River that day which wasn’t nearly as long as the Pentecost but probably a little deeper and being muddy, you couldn’t see the bottom so it made for a bit more of an interesting drive. Turned out to be fairly easy again though.



              Our stop for the next night was Ellenbrae station which is currently being built up under new management. The new managers were lovely and make some of the best scones I’ve ever had which you can eat in their impressive oasis of a garden. They also have a nice little puppy which my boys were very disappointed to say goodbye to.

              The campground has a single toilet and shower but the water was hot courtesy of a very impressive donkey heater. For those of us crazy enough to brave swimming in the freezing cold waterhole, the warm water (and warm fire while we waited) was very welcome.



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              • #8
                The next nights stop was the Manning Gorge campground behind Mt Barnett Roadhouse. We were there for 2 nights so that we could all make the hike into Manning Gorge. This was one of the longest and most difficult hikes of the trip. It starts with a boat ride across the creek near the campsite, then a like of a few k’s into the gorge itself (nearly 3 k’s I think?) with the last part of the hike scrambling down, then up, then down again some quite steep rocky hills requiring hands and feet. It was all worth it though when you make it into the waterhole. We all jumped into the first waterhole and the kids all had fun jumping off one of the rocks at the first bit of waterhole. Then some of us swam and some walked to the other end to get to the falls proper. Once you get there, you find a large deep water hole with various levels of rocks for the kids (and most of the older gents as well) to jump off. This had to be the highlight of the trip for me, spending an hour or two jumping off the falls with the kids. Seeing them scared to go their first time and building the confidence to go higher and jump for themselves was really great for me.









                After the swim though, you unfortunately have to hike back a few km’s to get back out. Not many took the boat back across after that. I’m pretty sure most of us swam back.

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                • #9
                  The next day we stopped in at Galvan’s Gorge with another walk, another swim and another rock to jump off. This one had a rope swing too although I wasn’t game to climb out on the branch for that one. Some big monitor lizards sat around watching the proceedings with no fear, obviously used to idiot humans jumping in the freezing cold water all the time.



                  We stopped at Adcock gorge as well but didn’t swim there as it was very dip and we’d forgotten to bring the boys pool noodles with us. Our stop for the next 2 nights was the Silent Grove campground at Bell Gorge.

                  Bell Gorge was another decent walk into another spectacular waterfall. Probably the best we saw on the trip since we didn’t head for Mitchell Falls on this trip. It had an impressive water hole at the bottom (again somehow managing to be below freezing point but not actually solidified to ice). The boys found another rock to jump off although you had to be a bit careful on this one to jump far enough out to miss the rock ledges and get just in the right spot.





                  The next day saw a few lookouts on the way. Didn’t get great lookout photos but since the wife hasn’t made it to many pics yet, better put one of her in.

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                  • #10
                    The stop for the next 2 nights was Windjana gorge campground. Warm showers that manage to trickle a bit slower than you could pee but I guess it’s better than nothing. The gorge at the back of the campground included a creek walk that takes you along the river and delivered up the best croc sightings we’d had so far. I think the kids reckon they counted 30 different crocs.





                    This was also the base camp for a visit to Tunnel Creek. It’s basically what it sounds like. It’s an impressive tunnel carved through the range by a creek a couple of hundred metres long. There’s a bit more aboriginal rock art at the other end as well if you climb up to the left.



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                    • #11
                      The next day was the trip to Derby. Just before Derby was the Mowanjum Aboriginal art gallery which had quite an impressive display and we had an informative talk from the artists around the artwork they do and why. Well worth a stopover if you’re in the area.

                      The pier at Derby was a bit of an eye opener. It’s hard to imagine a 12 metre tide when you come from queensland with roughly a metre to a metre and a half of tide. When we got to the pier though, we looked at where the water level was and after our 10 minute walk, the water level had dropped a foot. You could see the massive amounts of water gushing out to sea around the pier pylons.

                      On the way out of town the next day, we stopped at the Prison Tree. A big hollow Boab tree that they used to lock the prisoners in on the way to Derby. It’s right next to the longest (maybe second longest??) cattle trough in the southern hemisphere. Apparently it can handle the 500 bullocks at a time.





                      We stopped for our first crack at catching a barra at the Fitzroy River. The score was zero Barra and 3 lures donated to the snags in the river but who’s counting?



                      We finished the GTG in Broome with a group shot on cable beach followed by a farewell BBQ cooked by Ian and Lyn from the Sirens of Silence charity supporting members of emergency services. It’s worth checking out. http://www.sirensofsilence.org.au/

                      I think the total raised from a few auctions and the fines tin was over $1000 in the end.

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                      • #12
                        From there, we dropped most of the rest of the GTG crowd although some of the victorians headed to the same place as we did to check out Cape Leveque. On the way, there’s a church at Beagle Bay that is really worth a look. The whole alter and most of the interior of the church has been inlaid with mother of pearl shells and it’s quite a sight to see.



                        We stayed in the beach shelters at Kooljaman and they are worth the extra. Quite sizeable shelters, right on the water with an outdoor shower, a table and chairs, a few benches and your own fire pit. Easily the most spectacular campsite of the trip.



                        Considering how long this trip report has gotten, I’ll shorten up the remainder (plus I’m getting tired of typing). We made our way home via the bungle bungles and the wife and kids had a helicopter flight. We took the Tanami back to Alice springs (tip for beginners, Tilmouth Well roadhouse locks the gates and shuts down at 7pm. We had to camp in their day use area and use our own dunny.

                        We did Alice Springs, the red centre way to Uluru including the Kings Canyon rim walk. Through Finke to Mt Dare and then on to Dalhousie springs for a lovely warm swim. We crossed the Simpson Desert and it couldn’t have been more different to the last time I was there with some pradopointers back in 2013. It was cold, rainy and blowing a gale the entire time. No stargazing as the cloud cover was permanent and there’s been so much rain, there was grass everywhere. Quite surprising really. All in all it was quite nice to get into Birdsville for a hot feed at the pub and some warm showers.

                        From Birdsville, Dad had had enough and ditched us to head straight for home while we deviated up to Winton to take in the Dinosaur Stampede and then Longreach for the Qantas Museum. From there, we headed straight back to the west coast and Hervey Bay to stay with Danielle’s sister and her new Baby for a few days. We did a day trip to Fraser Island (spoiler alert, we were investigating accomodation options for a potential GTG there next year) and then took rainbow beach home to Brisbane. By the time we got home, we were ready for a few days of R+R before heading back to work.

                        In total, I managed to crack a windscreen in 2 places, my old UHF died, the water tank dropped out, my maxtrax holders snapped on the Cape Leveque corrugations, a back door handle broke and I cracked one of my rims. Not too bad considering we did just over 13,000 km’s and some of it on some pretty savage roads.

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                        • #13


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                          • #14
                            Get trip report Tiny.

                            I will need to pull my finger out and do something myself. In the end we traveled 16,427km but it was all worth it as the 2017 GTG was a great event.
                            [B]Tasmania 2015 GTG Committee Member[/B] 2005 Prado Pilbara, Sovereign Bar, Driver & passenger weathershields, UHF TX3220, Spare wheel spaces, Lifestyle rack, Genuine front & midrow seatcovers, Genuine front & midrow rubber floor mats, ARB 47 litre fridge/freezer, Hilux washer jets, BF Goodridge A/T, Radiator protection plate, Dual battery tray and isolator, ARB 2.5m awning, Rhino heavy duty areo bars, MSA rear wheel bin, MAXTRAX

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                            • #15
                              Fantastic trip report Tiny, it was a really great read. Looks like you and the family had a blast.
                              2007 120 GXL D4D 6sp Man - My Rig https://www.pradopoint.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24945&d=1487341201

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