July 2017 – Kevins Adventures in Life and IT

Mitchell Falls

Mitchell Falls is one of the iconic images of the Kimberley, and really inspired the entire trip. The amazing pictures of the rest of the area and comments from people who had been firmed up the desire. Official information can be found at https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/mitchell-river

After a fuel stop at Drysdale River Station and a quick call home before no contact with the outside world for a few days it was onto an ungraded section of road for a few hours, before driving through lush rainforest into Mitchell Falls National Park and onto the campground. The drive in was the worst so far, lots of wash outs, sun setting directly ahead blinding us on the drive in and hills that made seeing oncoming vehicles impossible.

As had become the norm we arrived just before sunset, set up the camp for a few days and kicked back with a couple of ice cold beverages, and started a fire and bbq. On the drive in we had stopped outside the National Park to get some firewood.

We woke early the next day and headed straight to the helicopter booking office to organise a one way trip from the top back to camp. At $150 each this took a bit of thought however I can say that it was honestly the best money spent on the trip. Flights organised we grabbed our day packs and started walking through the bush. Continue reading “Mitchell Falls”

Dual Battery Setup – Part Two

Disclaimer: this is how I put this together, it is not intended as a guide, and is based on my limited personal experience. I am not an electrician, nor do I accept any personal liability for any accidents that may occur after reading this post. Always speak to a professional and be aware that electricity kills.

Well the second battery has been a constant source of pain throughout the trip. It seems to finally be resolved, however it’s been a long and exquisitely painful journey.

After arriving in Karijini I had some help from a friendly camper next to me with the cabling. It turned out he was a sparky, so I let him loose and didn’t check his work, after all I’m just a tinkerer. Turns out i should have watched this a bit more.

The Gibb River Road is pretty much non stop corrugations, which work electrical connections loose. Cue one dead battery. Pretty much every night I was having to borrow power from Brienne in order to keep my battery going. At the end of the road we stopped in Kununurra and I bought an Optima Yellow Top. I should have done this in the first place as you can run these until they have no charge, and then recharge them. The one I ended up going with wasn’t like this and ended up in the scrap heap after a week. A swap of the battery, check the solar works, and off again to Lake Argyle. Where the battery was dead once more. Continue reading “Dual Battery Setup – Part Two”

Windjana to Bell, A Tale of Two Gorges

The plan for today was quite simple, spend some time at two gorges. I spent the morning doing some mechanical checks on the truck, specifically looking at the suspension to see if any of the nuts had come loose on the gravel roads that we’ve silent a lot of time on recently. As the suspension has been upgraded this was a basic check, with the left front shock needing a bit of tightening. I also managed to get some photographs of the Wedgetail eagles that make WA home, and are up here in huge numbers. I must admit I had thought these beasts were up there with Yowies and Dropbears as I’d never seen one until now.

Continue reading “Windjana to Bell, A Tale of Two Gorges”

The Gibb

Today we reached the Gibb River Road. Two years of planning (somewhat weakly as my better half says), dreaming, and reading as much as we could get our hands on. We left Broome, and headed to Derby for a refuel and then a 5km backtrack to the start of the Gibb.

And its just another bitchumen road. What the hell has gone wrong!

Well it is for the first 50km. Then the gravel starts. And it steadily gets harder. Here we go, it’s getting fun. After more roadworks, they seem to have cursed this trip, we get to Tunnel Gorge. This is a naturally occurring tunnel, formed by water over the centuries that goes for about 750m. The creek that has formed it still runs through it, providing a rare chance to walk a tunnel that has a creek and bats flying through it.

Continue reading “The Gibb”

Broome

Broome is a pretty spectacular place. We got into Broome just after lunch and managed to get a start on the normal things in life like washing and cleaning. The miracle of indoor plumbing was not lost on any of us.

Once the basics were sorted out we went out to Cable Beach Club and the Sunset Bar for one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen. There were no tables left when we arrived at 4, we got lucky and ended up sharing one with another couple. We had dinner at Divers Bar just down the road and ended up having a relatively early night as we were all a bit tired from the previous week.

The next night was a bit of a bar crawl starting at Matsos, and ending at Divers, with the obligatory photo of me in front of the only Irish Bar in town, called Captain Murphy. Unfortunately there wasn’t any Murphys on tap, so it was a quick pint of Guinness. Continue reading “Broome”