Australia, The Kimberly

A “Boomer” and Tripping My Brains Out: Traveling Solo at 63 for Nine Months to New Zealand and Australia…on a Budget!

Posted on by connieottmann

A True Outback Adventure On One of the Greatest Roads in Australia: The Gibb River Road.

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One of my favorite places on the Gibb River Road, Bell Gorge. What a swimming hole!

Since blowing up my life and walking off into the unknown eight months ago, I can say I have, miraculously, been on a trajectory of synchronicity.

Before leaving for my Auvergne Station adventure, my new Kununurra friend Jude( who also loaned me a car for two months) asked if I wanted to go camping for six days on the Gibb River Road when I returned. Months earlier, I had looked into the possibility of a tour of this region only to find out that the cheapest package was over $2,500.00 and all tours originated in Broome eleven hours away.  I figured you can’t do everything, and then…BOOM! …out of the blue ( “The blue” is a synonym for God, higher power, the Divine etc….) this invitation appeared.

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.We drove from Kununurra to Halls Creek and then picked up the Gibb River Road at Fitzroy Crossing. “Permitted for 4 W’s and AWD’s only.

The Gibb River road was created in 1950 to make way for “road trains” or semi trailers carrying live cattle to abattoirs.  The Gibb is famous for its two lane, corrugated, dirt road that cuts a 440 mile (660km) line across the Kimberley from Derby to Kununurra.

Jude and her husband Ian came to the Kimberley region, specifically, Halls Creek, as young teachers, eventually moving to Kununurra, and settling there. Twenty-six years ago, they made this iconic journey with their young daughter.  This is a woman who knows camping in the wilderness, 4-wheeling over deep, rutted roads, crossing harrowing creeks, and packing a vehicle with such precision it takes your breath away.  Armed with her Toyota Land Cruiser, two spare tires, camping gear, and plenty to eat, we drove three and a half hours our first day to Halls Creek for a visit and then proceeded west another hour to Mary Pool, a beautiful, free campsite for the night.

All set up for the night at Mary Pool with Jude, pictured here.
Looking to the right of the causeway at sunset at Mary Pool. Wildlife abounds!
Driving over the concrete causeway into the Mary Pool campground just west of Halls Creek on our first night.

I’ve never done much camping, but I now consider it one of life’s great pleasures, especially in this remote and wild part of the world.  The Milky way is visible here. The night sky is magic to behold… a super dome of stars that fire to the horizon.

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A view of the night sky and the Milky Way, the Kimberley, Australia. Courtesy of freenaturestock.com.  My iPhone 5 just couldn’t capture it!

The next morning we headed out to Fitzroy Crossing, got on the Gibb River Road, and made our way to Tunnel Creek National Park with its stunning, natural cave, and later continued to Windjana Gorge, the bottom of what was a tropical sea millions of years ago and is now a gorge of black and orange rock.

Looking in to the entrance of Tunnel Creek.
Windjana Gorge with plenty of fresh water crocodiles to see. A walk along the valley includes seeing fossilized ancient sea creatures etched into the rock of the gorge.

A walk in this valley is a little Jurassic Park-like.  Plenty of fresh water crocodiles sun themselves by water, and it is hard to resist running your hands over the coiled remains of ancient, fossilized sea creatures etched into the gorge walls.

It was soon time to think about where to camp our second night as we headed to our next destination, Bell Gorge, when Jude pulled out an APT Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge brochure.  APT Luxury Touring and Cruising started back in 1927 in Melbourne, Australia, and is still a family-owned business today.  Their Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge, located on Indigenous-owned land, provides luxury accommodations for their group tours and to people like ourselves traveling in our own car.  We figured we deserved this unique experience with all the comforts including fine dining, and ended up spending TWO nights(my treat). It was Amazing.

Walking to the guest accommodations: “Tents” with private en suite!
The lovely outdoor dining room at the Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge. This was also a lovely place to relax and read after a day’s hiking and swimming at Bell Gorge.
Comfy guest accommodations at the Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge. You can spend all night gazing at the night sky, Milky Way, and billions of stars from the front porch.
Inside our tent with bathroom in the rear. I’m on the right–not quite as organized as Jude.
Our first course–for just the two of us!

Bell Gorge, a short drive from the wilderness lodge, is a major and must-see attraction. After lounging (my favorite thing to do) and a late morning breakfast, we spent the better part of the day hiking, relaxing, and chatting it up with fellow travelers at Bell Gorge. One adventurous soul we met was a seventy-year-young woman touring with a 20- something backpacker group!  The Gibb River Road hosts a myriad of travelers and traveling styles.

After a short hike, you arrive here before heading down to the majestic falls below.
Looking down to the multi-tiered falls and water hole below.
An Olympic-sized pool entices you for a swim.

After two relaxing days, we were back on the road stopping at Galvan’s Gorge before making our way to the Mt. Barnett Road House and Manning Gorge campground for the night.

This Kimberley region truly is one of the last, real wilderness areas on earth, and part of what makes this trip so special is driving the dusty, red, rutted, two- lane road accessible only to 4WD vehicles. AUSTRALIA, NEVER NEVER PAVE THIS ROAD! 

But I say this after I learned a couple of things from Jude, who traveled a lot with her engineer father.  Faster is not better on these deeply grooved roads. A speed no more than 80km is recommended, and tire pressure should be at about 28-30PSI.  If heading down a steep section of road and the caravan or trailer you’re hauling starts to sway back and forth, you step on the gas, which seems counter intuitive.  You do not hit the brakes.  Jude has come upon, more than once in this part of the world, accident scenes involving flipped caravans and the scattered remains of a retirement dream gone terribly wrong.

A little piece of paradise just beyond Bell’s Gorge, the tiny but idyllic Galvan’s Gorge complete with a rope swing to propel you into the warm waters.
A happy visitor taking advantage of the rope swing.
A stop at Mt. Barnet Road House before checking into the Manning River and Gorge campground.

Road houses along the way are a place to refuel, fill water containers, buy snacks, and get local news about road and travel conditions.  Since cell phone coverage isn’t available, it it also common to see notices tacked up on the wall, like the one I saw at the Mt. Barnett Road House, from worried family members back home who have not heard from their grey nomad parents for days.  Uttered in any language it’s essential to: Be prepared!

Couldn’t resist swimming at one of the silken pools at Manning Gorge.
A section of Manning Gorge. There is another, larger pool and waterfall to the left.
After a long, one hour hike, the water’s great at Manning Gorge.

On the fifth day we headed to Home Valley Station for a quick lunch on our loop back to El Questro Wilderness Park to camp for our last night.  The now familiar Cockburn Range loomed again in the distance like some ancient fortress built by the Ancestor Beings of Dreamtime.   It is just one of many vistas in this wildly remote part of the world that leaves an imprint of wonder on all who visit.

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Leaving Home Valley Station and crossing the Pentecost River with the magical Cockburn Range in the distance.

I’d been to the El Questro park on a day trip to Zebedee Springs and El Questro Gorge when I first arrived in Kununurra two months ago, and I was happy to visit a second time and camp.  Since our needs were simple and required no plug-ins for electricity, we set up by a quiet creek under the stars.

Checking in at the El Questro Wilderness Park. This is a lively place to meet up with fellow travelers, especially on a Friday night to have a drink and listen to some local music.
New showers and kitchen facility available to campers at El Questro, a must visit and only an hour from Kununurra.

The grande finale on the sixth and final day of our trip was a stop at Emma Gorge Resort down the road and part of the El Questro Wilderness Park for a hike to Emma Gorge followed by a relaxing lunch on the verandah at the Emma Gorge restaurant.  How incredibly lucky I am!  Or is it simply luck???

At the Emma Gorge Resort, part of the El Questro Wilderness Park before hiking into Emma Gorge. There is a terrific restaurant and beautiful tented cabins if you want luxury accommodations!
Inside Emma Gorge. It’s hard to capture the height and depth of this dramatic gorge.
Another view of Emma Gorge.

Remarkable opportunities like this just keep popping up all over the place like bright blue forget-me-not wildflowers after a spring rain. Because of my good fortune, I’ve been  making a point each day to note all the things I’m grateful for in my life. It seems when you get on this joy and gratitude frequency, you radiate a positive energy that draws more positive things into your life, which in turn, make this Oh- so- fleeting life more fun.

To quote actor Jamie Foxx: “You better have fun. Because you’re going to be gone in a minute.”

A “Boomer” and Tripping My Brains Out! Traveling Solo at 63…and on a Budget.

Posted on by connieottmann

Volunteering and Meeting Aboriginal Artists at Waringarri Art Center in Kununurra, The East Kimberley.

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Artist Phyllis Ningamara working on a canvas at the Waringarri Art Center, in Kununurra. She told me she is very proud of the fact that her work is sold all over Australia.

 

A strong racial divide has existed for years in Kununurra similar to that in Alice Springs.  The Indigenous population is housed separately on the outskirts of town, and poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence are pervasive.  Add to that the terrible distinction in 2014 when The World Health Organization found that suicide rates among Indigenous people in the Kimberley region were among the highest in the world.

Despite these troubling problems, there is a bright spot in the form of Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, an art center that houses both artists’ studios and galleries open to the public.  Waringarri is the first wholly Indigenous owned art center established in the Kimberley region, and one of the oldest continuously operating Centers in Australia.  Since studying art was one of my traveling goals, volunteering at the Center,  a short drive from where I was staying, was paramount.  I was given an introduction via email from a gallery owner in Perth who represents Waringarri artists back in April, but when I went to the center in June to introduce myself to the director, I was told that I had to first write a letter and be approved by the board before I could do any volunteering.  Finally, after two weeks of cancelled board meetings, I was approved to work in the studio with the artists.

Waringarri Art Center supports over 100 artists who specialize in natural ocher painting on canvas and paper, limited edition prints, wood carvings and sculptures, and hand- printed fabrics.  The Indigenous group represented in this area are the Miriwoong people who hold the land sacred and see themselves as custodians caring for the country and resting places of their spiritual ancestors.  Artists typically paint a kind of aerial map of the land they grew up in which helps them maintain a connection to the sacred places of that country.  I was lucky to have the chance to meet and speak with some of the artists while helping out in the studio for several days.

In the photo above, Phyllis Ningamara explained to me that she was painting a view of the river after the wet season where she grew up and the many colored river stones reflecting in the sunshine.

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Artist Ben Ward explaining a just-completed work.

Bigger than life and very chatty is artist Ben Ward, who with his family, worked and lived at Argyle Downs station until he was ten.  He later worked at Carlton Station, and his paintings focus on his memories of when he was a young man mustering cattle. Triangles of different colors representing the rivers, Boab trees, water, and mountains appear in his most recent work.  I later saw that this piece (shown in the above photo) had been sold in the gallery.  In the past, my experience with Aboriginal art brought to mind paintings consisting primarily of hundreds of dots.  Different regions depict different styles, and the work here has a much more contemporary, abstract quality that I particularly like.

Artist Peggy Griffiths designing and hand printing a length of linen fabric. Cotton and silk fabric are also used.
In the studio doing some restoration work on a beautiful piece by artist Gloria Mengil. In the center is artist Peggy Griffiths.

Peggy Griffiths, and her husband Alan Griffiths, are two well known artists from this region.  Peggy was born in the Norther Territory but moved to Argyle Station when she was 15.  At the age of 16, she was promised in marriage to Alan Griffiths.  She started working at Waringarri in 1985, is now a senior artist, and teaches other artists. While helping to organize the studio, I noticed lots of Peggy’s notes explaining how to do color mixing.  Peggy is a beautiful woman who though quiet, has a regal air about her.  She and husband Alan are highly respected in the community, and their work is prominently displayed at the impressive, new court house in Kununurra.  I’m told they often paint together.

Canvas by Peggy Griffiths at the Kununurra Court House.
Painting by Alan Griffiths, husband of Peggy Griffiths. Dancers often appear in his work.

 

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Lovely Jalah home from acting school in Sydney volunteered with me at Waringarri Art Center where her mother works in the office. She was a great source of information about Aboriginal culture and informed me that she is what is known as “half caste”( half white and half Aboriginal). This was a common term used in the past but is now considered derogatory.

Volunteering at the center was a great experience in many ways. One morning I got a call from the center to come in as soon as possible.  The Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council (WAITOC) was doing a photo shoot for some new brochures, and they were looking for “tourists” to be in their photos.

Another local couple was drafted from town and we headed out with photographer Jack, business development manager Liz, and several members from the art center to a location just outside of town considered sacred by the Miriwoong.  After a “blessings” ceremony at the Dunham River welcoming us to the land, we headed to another location featuring a  mighty Boab tree thought to be thousands of years old.

At the Durham River in Kununurra partaking in an Aboriginal blessings ceremony welcoming us to Indigenous land. Branches from the Coolibah tree are dipped in the river and then sprinkled on the hands, feet, and head by a elder member of the group.
More of the crew from Waringarri on the photo shoot.

At one point, I got a little annoyed, and even felt a little discriminated against when Liz asked me, the single person, to step aside in a few of the shots because they wanted “couple photos.”  Although they didn’t want the photos to appear staged, they looked pretty staged to me. During my travels, I’ve met lots of single women, young and old, traveling alone.  Tourism groups and businesses would be wise to cater to lone travelers; there is a need and a market in the industry!

On the photo shoot with a local couple and members from the Waringarri Art Center. Teddy (with the hat and center) is a fun and charismatic tour guide from the center.
The photographer used a drone which everyone got a kick out of operating.

Several weeks after the shoot, I followed up with Liz about the brochures and asked if I had made it into any of the photos.  She said, indeed, I was included.  I’m now waiting to get a copy!

Up until this point in my travels I hadn’t purchased any art or souvenirs, but at the art center, where I knew the money would go directly back to the artists, I splurged on two hand-carved didgeridoos for my son and his dad(women are not allowed to play the didgeridoo), and several hand-carved Boab nuts for other family members and friends.  Each item came with a certificate of provenance and identified the artist who created it.

In the process of volunteering and meeting some of these Aboriginal artists, I’ve gained a greater respect for their culture and the deep love they have for the land of their ancestors. I’ve also come to realize that art illuminates (stealing a quote from Maya Angelou) that “… we are more alike than we are unalike,” and in this global society, we can all do with a little more understanding and less fear.  In the words of author Andrew Solomon:

It is nearly impossible to hate anyone whose story you know.

A “Boomer” and Tripping My Brains Out! Traveling Solo at 63…on a Budget.

Posted on by connieottmann

Kununurra in the East Kimberley:  Adventure in a Wild and Ancient Alternate Universe.  (Part 1 of 3)

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View of the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park, a World Heritage Area that only became widely known in 1982. These “beehive” domes are striated with beautiful colors of ocher, orange, and black!

 

When I told a friend that my travels would be taking me to Kununurra and the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, he snapped to attention, eyes wide, brows raised, and exclaimed, “Wow!  You’re going to the outback of the outback!”   My well-traveled friend is right.  Over and over I’ve been told here that most Australians don’t ever get to this beautifully remote, wild, and rugged region, let alone Americans.  And I was spending a month!

As luck would have it, I would be house sitting for the month of June(during the “dry” season May -September) for friend Gayl’s daughter Victoria, a nurse in Kununurra for the past five years.  Best of all,  Gayl would be meeting me here from Perth to help me settle in. That would mean three things:  five star hospitality, a whirl-wind of activities, and fantastic eating planned for the week.  How many people do you know fly with their travel baggage packed with farm fresh eggs, specialty goat cheese, and an organic shoulder of lamb (just to name a few)?

I’ve known Gayl since she was an exchange student at my high school back in 1971 when we were seniors. She’s had a love affair with Maine ever since and continues to visit every couple of years.  After leaving my teaching career and leaping into the unknown, well-traveled Gayl and her daughter Victoria, on a recent visit to Maine, mentioned travel and posed the question: “What are you waiting for?”  They have been both instrumental and a great support system in making this odyssey a positive and life-changing event.

Gayl is a force to be reckoned with.  Strikingly elegant, youthful, and charged with electricity and charisma, I elect her our Boomer poster girl for “Sixty is the new Forty.”  Before I knew it, we had exchanged our excited hellos, and she began rattling off all the adventures planned for the week including a camping trip to the Bungle Bungles!  But not before she and daughter Victoria (her mother’s daughter and very much her own person) acquainted me with my new home and surroundings.

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Toasting my first day in Kununurra with Gayl and Victoria and an action-packed, upcoming week.

Kununurra is a young town established in 1961 and now has a population of about 7,000.  During the dry season, the number doubles with tourists, many of them known throughout Australia as “Grey Nomads”–retirees traveling in a wide array of campers and caravans(RVs). On any given day, the local Coles supermarket is jammed with campers and backpackers, and the parking lot is filled with a multitude of vehicles resembling a tamer version of Mad Max engineering!  Eggs are always the first item to sell out.

My home while in Kununurra!. Great location right in town with the library right across the street.
The Kununurra Community & School Library right across the street. I was able to get a temporary library card. Great selection of movies too! The high school is right next door.
A view of the very good i Site Center in down town Kununurra. To the left is the town park.
A view of the park in town and the Saturday morning market. Right around the corner from my place.
Typical sunset outside my house in town.
Local business Kimberley Find Diamonds, home to the rare pink diamond mined only at the Argyle Diamond mine nearby. They are very expensive!
A Kimberley icon, the Boab Tree (there are relatives in Africa). Only found in this region and native to Australia. Some are 1500 years old or older. One of my favorite parts of the landscape.

 

The CBD (central business district) isn’t overly impressive, but located on the outskirts are interesting cafes and businesses.

The Hoochery is the oldest continuously operating legal still in Western Australia, owned and operated by a former California native. In addition to fine rum, the wife makes a terrific Ord River Rum cake!
Inside view of the Hoochery, which offers dining and is a great venue for celebrations.
The Zebra Rock Gallery and Coffee Shop. The beautiful cream and brown striped rock is found only in the East Kimberley of WA.
Shot of Ivanhoe Cafe and the shaded sitting area just outside the Kununurra CBD.

One of Kununurra’s chief industries is agriculture (cattle, mining, and tourism too) thanks to its most famous landmark the Ord River Conversion Dam constructed in 1963. Water is released from Lake Argyle( created in 1967 as a major storage reservoir) into the Ord River, into Lake Kununurra, which then is irrigated to thousands of acres of farmland.  Some local crops include mangos, watermelons, melons, citrus, and seed crops such as chic peas and sunflower and chia seeds.  Australian sandalwood is also grown here, and the pure sandalwood oil is used by many of the world’s luxury perfume houses.

View of one of the many irrigation channels in Kununurra, a great dog walking spot.
Shot of an irrigation channel at a local farm.
Visiting one of the local farms in Kununurra growing seed crops such as chic peas and chia seeds.
A beautful crop of chia seed growing at a local farm in Kununurra.

After familiarizing myself with the town(a friend of Gayl and Victoria lent me a car for the month–hospitality), we were off on our second day to El Questro (just over 700,000 acres in size) and a hot soak in Zebedee Springs.  This is truly a tropical paradise with palm trees, hot shallow pools, sheltered by rugged, orange rock looming from above. We enjoyed ourselves until a small snake slithered by my left shoulder, and we suddenly burst from the pool like waterfowl hearing gunshot!

Gayl and I in front of the turn off sign to El Questro on our way to Zebedee Springs for the morning.
Enjoying the hot springs with Gayl.
Zebedee Springs–nothing better than a hot soak in a this tropical setting…until a small snake swam by my left shoulder!

On day three, Victoria’s boyfriend Joel, a helicopter pilot who mustered cattle up here for ten years, joined us for a visit, and we headed to Wyndham, the Kimberley’s oldest town and once a thriving port when Wyndham Meat Works was operating. The abattoir closed in 1985, and the only thing happening now is the occasional export of live cattle to Indonesia. Most “live export”(pretty controversial) is shipped from Darwin or Broome, and it’s common to see the mammoth, three-vehicle-long “road trains” coming from various cattle stations on the roads.

A popular tourist attraction in Wyndham is the Five Rivers Lookout on top of the Erskine Range, where you can see all of Wyndham and the whole Gulf Coast where the Forrest, King, Durak, Pentecost, and Ord rivers flow into. We also made our way past the salt flats to the Prison Boab tree, but not before a stop at the popular Rusty Shed Cafe.

The view of Wyndham, the salt flats, and Gulf from the Five Rivers Lookout in Wyndham. The Forrest, King, Durak, Pentecost, and Ord Rivers flow in the Cambridge Gulf.
Enjoying a stop at the Rusty Shed Cafe in Wyndham with Gayl and Joel. Tori took the picture.
Close up of the Prison Boab Tree outside Wyndham.
“Prison Boab Tree” in Wyndham. After using Aboriginals for tracking, they were held captive in this tree at night according to one story.
Thanks to a photographer friend of Victoria’s, we were given directions where to view this Aboriginal rock art.
Aboriginal rock paintings at a location known to a few locals.

Barely taking a breath and barely containing our excitement, we were off day four and five camping in the Bungle Bungles at Purnululu National Park, a World Heritage area.  If you are going to spend any time in the Kimberley, a four-wheel vehicle is a must. There are a variety of trucks and SUVs on the road up here, many of them with “snorkels” attached for stream and river crossings.

An iconic, Australian vehicle in these parts is the “Ute.”  The popular story goes that in 1933, a Gippsland farmer’s wife wrote a letter to Ford Australia asking, “Can you build me a vehicle that we can use to go to church in on Sunday, without getting wet, and that my husband can use to take the pigs to market on Monday?” A young designer modified a 1933 coupe with just a tray on the back and strengthened the chassis so it could carry a load, and the rest is history.

The Ute, a popular vehicle in the outback.
At the Kununurra Agriculture show and a typical 4-wheel drive SUV.

Fortunately Victoria had a Toyota SUV for the four of us and all our gear because the drive in to the Bungle Bungles involves about two hours of off-road driving on narrow, deeply rutted, dirt roads over numerous creek crossings of various depths.  (I later met a very large, cane-toting  74-year-old woman who told me she was visiting Kununurra for two days and driving to the Bungle Bungles.  After I talked with her, she thought she might fly over them instead.)

The landscape in this part of the world is like nothing I’ve ever seen.  Not only is it visually stunning with its changing light and colors, but it also touches you on some deep, cellular level that you can’t quite understand. The land vibrates with the mysteries of the human condition, its traumas and its joys…  OK…. it’s just feels *~x#1+$%) OLD!

The Beehive formations of the Bungle Bungles with horizontal lines of ocher, black, orange, and red are truly unique.
With Gayl inside Cathedral Gorge (I know. I have that same outfit on…shirt Salvation Army shirt…skirt:Prana!)
Walking into Cathedral Gorge. Joel, on the right.
Inside the Bungle Bungles heading for Cathedral Gorge.
Setting up gourmet snacks at the viewing station to watch the sun set over the Bungle Bungles. A very expensive APT tour group set up next to us. What they were serving couldn’t compare with Gayl’s “foodie” nibbles!
Sun setting on the Bungle Bungles. The light glows with changing oranges, pinks, and lavenders that is other worldly.
The changing colors and sky are like now where else in the world. Watching the sun set over the Bungle Bungles.

Having not done a lot of camping, I experienced the pleasures of sleeping under the stars in my “mozzie dome,” comfortably curled up in my “swag.” (Does LL Bean have these?) The Milky Way is visible in these parts.  Another wonder to behold.

Victoria helping me set up my “mozzie dome and swag” at the Bungle Bungles campground. The mozzie dome allows for great star/night sky gazing!
Gayl, Joel, and Victoria setting up camp and preparing a delicious meal.

Back home on day six, Gayl and Victoria made sure I got my library card, visited Birdland Functional Pottery and the Artopia Gallery where I signed up for life-drawing classes, enjoyed “cuppas” at their favorite cafes, connected with the Waringarri Art Center, where I would be volunteering with the Aboriginal artists, learned Banjo the dog’s routine, and, finally, (whew!) met some of the locals I could call on.  I have never felt so cared for.

Then, Gayl left, followed by Victoria and Joel the next day.  I would be meeting up with Gayl again in her hometown of Perth in three months and seeing Victoria and Joel after their holiday abroad.

They left in their wake, a colorless vacuum:  The house quiet…a sense of loss. But I relish being in one place for four weeks, in one of the remotest parts of the world.

Every day I wake to sunshine*  The laundry dries in 15 minutes*