Lifes good in downtown Kalumburu

While at Honeymoon we had been discussing with Frenchy about the local cops in town. They had a good wrap with the locals & were well respected within the community. Les kept on mentioning a name of one of the new sargents in town & the same name was familiar to Troy & myself from our younger days. We both kept on denying it that this was the same guy. It for sure wasn't the same guy I had dealt with when checking the road conditions on Friday. After the weekend had passed I figured I should call the cop shop again & see if they had any updates on today's road conditions. When the guy at the other end answered there was no mistaking it was our mate Steve. I put a few personal questions to him from events that occurred back in our teens. At first he wasn't quite sure what to make of my line of questioning it but once he found out who it was he made the offer for us to come and stay at his place until we could get out of town and back on the Gibb.

The next day we packed up camp & headed to town . The last time we drove this section of road there was no water at all. That large down pour on the weekend had hit town in a big way & the outcome was obvious. Better that it dumped in town rather than out a bit further in the catchment

We arrived in town at about 3pm. We couldn't locate Steve at home or work. After driving about Kalumburu's 5 only streets for over an hour we gave up & decided to take the 20km drive down to the Carson river & check the crossing. On arrival this is what we found. This used to be the track to the upper crossing. We had parked here the week before when we tried to catch up with Geoff for diner.  The river is behind the trees in the background.

A camp fire was on the bank closest to me were the water is now flowing.. Hmmmm Not even going to think about it...

Here is our car parked in Steve's driveway. In the back ground to the left is his office...

He could walk to work faster than I could take to make a cup of coffee....

Oh while I mention it this is what we had to look forward to every morning..... HHHmmmm REAL COFFEE. Steve also had Foxtel so seeing i hadn't watched TV for 3 months I made the most of it. Towards the end of the week I started to get a sore arse from being in the recliner for so long. Steve's pad was awesome. Between him & his workmate who lived next door they had it sussed.Alternating dinner party every night between the 2 houses. It was great to have something else to eat for dinner other than our usual repertoire    

Steve got us up early this morning to go & check some art sites before he started work.  The fella in the foreground is a teacher from Perth who is studying aboriginal art in the area.

This is the cleanest i have been in weeks.. the smile says it all. FJ in the back ground doing the personal escort thing.. looking out for snakes & drop bears etc

The art in this area is known as Bradshaw rock art and is generally only found in the Kimberly region.

some of  the usual hand panting

An outdoor art gallery. Just look close enough at any rock outcrop up here.  You would be surprised. 

Real bush tucker. Bush apples. A little bitter but worth a try

This was the main road... Even the mushrooms where pushing up from under the surface care of all the rain. 

The King Edward river runs just outside of town.  Apparently Barra city. All fished out at this stage. The novelty of Foxtel was more appealing to me  at this stage.

Just out of town was some ruins of air craft from world war 2 when the Japanese bombed Kalumburu . The local Mission was bombed with the japs thinking it was the airforce head quarters as it was the only significant structure in the area. The head quarters was just a small tin shed out on the air strip that went unnoticed & survived the attack.

Captain Troy reporting for duty. 

An old rotary sitting in the dirt. 

Friday we decided to head back to the Carson & check the water levels. 

Troy was a bit toey to get back on the road. He couldn't wait for me to access the situation & chose to walk the crossing. 

Very honorable. Sacrificing himself for the progress of the trip. 

Two thumbs up. Nuts still intacked. All ends well 

Yea I was so excited I drove it 4 times back & forth. We had been told that  the Carson would be the first challenge & then it would be the black soil at Theda that would be the next. One down one to go.


 Steve was  flying out to Perth on Saturday so we headed back to town to get supplies & pack up camp ready for the morning. It would be our last night feasting with Steve & FJ before we made a break for it.

The old Kalumburu mission. One last visit to get Ice for our $1000 esky

Yep that is the correct price on the pump. Geoff knew what the price of fuel was in town & gave me a few jerry cans to take with us from Kununurra. I took an extra 80 ltrs in with me but I payed $1.40/ltr .With all that cash I saved I could have bought a carton of beer for the rest of the trip... If only they sold beer in Kalumburu. Oh well maybe further down the track.