The Gibb River Road: Munurru to Punamii-unpuu

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. We recognise the continuing connection to land, water, language and community. We pay our respect to the cultures; and to Elders past, present and emerging.

We are committed to walking lightly on the land of your ancestors, only taking knowledge and understanding, only leaving footprints and the whisper of our spirits, breathing in the awe of this great land we are privileged to call home. 

We come from the land of the Yugara and Yumambeh peoples and have stopped to rest and learn in the lands of the Wunambal Gaambera people.

Munurru (King Edward River)

We packed up at Drysdale ready to tackle the drive to Mitchell Falls and find out for ourselves just how bone jarring the drive is- which is how it was described in a Facebook post.After discussion with the men, Jade and I stealthily called HeliSpirit to see if they could fit the ten of us in for an early morning flight to the top of the falls. Each chopper only takes 3 guests, so neither family would fit in a helicopter on their own. With both families, we needed three choppers. And they had availability, so we splurged. We booked for the Saturday so we weren’t bound by a booking to rush to Mitchell Falls today and could afford a stop at King Edward River. We’ve heard that this camp is many people’s favourite along the Gibb.

We set off along Kolumboru Road again and the conditions were much the same as they were since leaving the Gibb. We shared the news of the helicopter with the kids and they were absolutely stoked, with their main concern being that we’d be doing it without the RJs. So they were excited.

We came to the turn off to Mitchell Plateau which means we were too far from Munurru (King Edward River) Camp. About four kilometres down the road we come across a bunch of cars stopped. We jump out to see what’s going on and it is a four car convoy checking out the river crossing.

It was a pretty creek, maybe 15 meters wide. Reports from the convoy people matched those of the people at Drysdale… loose rocky bottom, about 700ml deep. It’s interesting when you come across any 4WD obstacle that might evoke some nervousness or require some extra consideration. There is always someone who wants to play hero and be the advisor and giver of all their wisdom. Today is was an older man. As I wandered down to the river he looks at me, hand on hips, looking a little like Bob Irwin, and says ‘Low 4. First gear. ‘Bout 700 I reckon. Take it slow. But not too slow.’ As he finishes his instruction an old single cab ute approached the river form the other side, didn’t really slow down, didn’t stop to get out and walk through or check the water, and this ol’ expert lousy and proudly proclaims, ‘Ah here’s some redneck hooligan hero, thinks he knows best, speeding through creating holes for the rest of us.’ Just as he finishes his spiel the ute pulls out the other side of the river, with three indigenous men across the front seat, no seatbelts, windows down, full of smiles and off they went with a relaxed wave. Easy.

I hitched a ride across the river with the people in front of us so I could video our car coming through. They were happy to oblige (or didn’t know how to say no). It was an hilarious ride. Man driving, woman in the passenger seat, maybe early 30s, in a rental car.

It took about half a minute to cross the river. The lady and I were both dead silent as we rolled slowly through the river bouncing over the loose large rock bottom… The driver was whistling like one of the seven dwarfs whistling while they worked the entire way across as though it was a strategy to remain calm and confident. The rocky bed underneath was definitely loose, like little driving on a bed of shot put and bowling balls . Anyway, he smashed it! We celebrated once we reached the other side, I congratulated him and thanked them both and jumped out of their car.
I watched and videoed as Jade, followed by Leon, crossed the river. A bit of excitement but uneventful and easy done. They nailed it and we continued on our way to the Munurru camp ground which wasn’t far at all. We chose our sites and set up camp before heading down to the river at about 4.

Leon was fully saturated by child company so he took himself for an afternoon fish. Malachi was close behind as he has definitely developed the passion. The other kids explored the river, the rapids, checked out the waterfall and had a swim. It really was a beautiful river. As darkness began to fall, Jade and I took Joey, Teddy and Harriet back to camp. Elsie, Malachi, Charlie, Leon and Rob returned a little while later and Leon had managed to land a couple of sooty grunters, but not the barra he was after.

Both families gathered around the fire for dinner, and afterwards enjoyed s’mores. The RJs have introduced us to the luxury of marshmellows on biscuits; our kids are hooked. We went to bed for what was our seventh night on the Gibb, hoping for a good night’s sleep as tomorrow we are tackling the road that is all the talk on the Gibb. Malachi and Leon rose early to head back to the river for a fish. They caught some more sooty grunters, but no barramundi. The highlight of the trip was finding themselves on a sandy rock bank surrounded by crocodile tracks. They moved pretty quickly to a new spot!

They came back to camp, and we packed up to go. Rob and Jade decided last night to take their camper for the trek. They considered leaving it at Munurru considering the need for a wheel alignment, only having one spare, and a few other niggly things, but in the end decided to take her up but leave the bikes and their rack to lighten the load a little. So after a quick visit to the campground manager’s area and unloading the bikes, we were on our way to Mitchell Falls. Bone jarring was accurate. The corrugations were intense. In the beginning the bone jarring sections were at least broken up by a couple of hundred meters of sandy, less severe corrugations. But the further we went the longer the stretches of severe corrugations were and the shorter the periods of reprieve. It took us two and a half hours to drive 180km There were times where going faster than 30km/h resulted in me not being able to keep my foot on the accelerator. The scenery however was beautiful and tropical. Palm trees and grass trees everywhere.

There were some steep declines and reasonable dips. There were a few river crossings closer to the campground, one of which gave Rob and Jade’s anderson plug a bit of a beating, but we made it! We were unscathed other than losing a bolt from the roof rack, so lucky we noticed that.
It was a nice spacious campground. The heli-pad was only a couple of hundred meters away. If you’d decided not to take the chopper the sound might bother you, but that’s probably a good reason not to stay at camp. There was a bit of a fiasco with getting the rope swings up that began to show the competitive streak in me and Jade and Malachi not wanting to be beaten by the beach/rope situation. It resulted in Jade positing the car under the tree so Rob could skilfully untangle the ropes and establish the swings which involved some interesting potions while up a tree… but in the end we had success!

Leon was at it again chatting up a storm and met the birders camped down a bit from us. They drove all this way just for the birds. They told Leon that everyone’s ‘got a bit a birder in ‘em.’ Leon asked about Teddy’s kingfisher type bird and they say it’s a bee eater.

One thing I wish we packed but we didn’t was the camp oven. Silly, I know. Luckily the RJs had one. They called it a Dutch oven, not a camp oven. Which had Leon and I laughing. I have never heard a camp oven referred to as a Dutch oven… but I have heard the term used in reference to a couple of other things! I began to make damper. That is, until five minutes in I realised I was in fact making scones, not damper. So I made 10 scones and placed them in the oven, and placed the oven in the coals. They were very well done on the bottom, but otherwise beautiful. We all enjoyed them after dinner with butter, jam or Nutella. What a treat!

As we put the kids to bed Joey burst into tears. He said he was super scared about the helicopter but didn’t want to affect anyone else’s expertise so didn’t know what to do. It didn’t take much to calm him down and let him know that we were confident in the risk assessment. Reminding him that I don’t let him back flip into pools but I will let him ride in a helicopter is a good sign that we’e confident this is safe. And off to sleep he went. I was able to text Mum today who shared her diary pages from when we were here in October 1990. They had such a tough time. It was hot, at least 45 degrees, the path markers were incredibly hard to find. They made it to Little Mertens and then 4 hours on they happened across Big Mertens, but no more markers could be found. The returned to Little Mertens in case they had missed a marker, but still could not locate the path. Finally they decided to again go to Big Mertens to spend their day. Because of the time of year the falls were dry. The men continued on to see if they could locate the path. Mum and Helen stayed swimming with us kids until and hour and a half later Dad and Steve returned having found the path the the falls (or gorge) which weren’t falling. Mum still described the scene as magnificent despite no water falling!

My heart sank. I don’t know how I would have coped with a day like theirs. They started the walk at 6am and at 12:30 they’d discovered where the path continued from Big Mertens. After six and a half hours they’d not year reached the falls and it was a 45 degree day. Sweet baby Jesus. I mean, I feel for the kids. Amy was the youngest at 4 years old. But my god do I feel for the parents of those seven kids, and how grateful I am for the helicopter and that it’s May not October.

In the morning Joey was excited about the helicopter, but now Theodore is scared. I gave him the same explanation and again it worked a treat. Mum’s diary did have me thinking though, so when we would usually only take one backpack on a walk, today I packed two. Extra water and extra food, as well as our swimming gear.

It was decided that Rob, Charlie, and Elsie would fly together; Leon, Teddy and Malachi would fly together, and that Jade and Harriet would fly with me and Joey. Watching Rob, Elsie and Charlie fly off first, in a helicopter without doors, and seeing Charlie waving enthusiastically, his wild blonde hair flailing in the wind, gave Joey and Theodore all the reassurance they needed.

Malachi, Teddy and Leon’s helicopter was bright yellow and named Rubber Ducky. They thought that was super cool. The helicopter ride was better than I expected. We paid for a six minute transfer from the campground to the top of the falls and my lowest expectation was that we would get just that. Well, it was a 12 minute flight with a decent tour of Little Mertens, Big Mertens and Mitchell Falls with multiple flys past each one, both sides of the chopper allowing for great photo opportunities, it was awesome. My favourite part by far though, was watching Joey and Harriet’s faces as we took off. Sheer elation. Priceless. The helicopter drops you at the creek crossing near the top of the falls and you follow the escarpment around so you can look back on the falls. There’s a perfect little platform for viewing the falls that provides a great outlook and naturally great photo opportunities.

These falls are spectacular and full of water that artfully cascades down the four tiers from one pool to the next. The rainbows created by the falling water where it cut into the pool below were pretty special. We took about twenty minutes or so to soak up the view.

Interestingly the kids were falling apart despite not having done the 3 hour walk up, which is never helpful when you’re standing on a cliff edge. I, on the other hand, very much appreciated being at the destination soon after 9am and being completely fresh!

On top of the children being out of sorts, it was unexpectedly crowded for nine thirty in the morning. We shared the viewing platform with some people so irresponsible we removed our kids from the area to avoid them witnessing an awful accident. This one man, already a six pack deep, standing with his back to the cliff edge, girlfriend behind him (her feet maybe ten centimetres from the edge). Each of them with an open beer in one hand. She jumped onto his back for a photo. One step backwards from the man and they were both dead. It was frightening.

We considered climbing to the bottom of the falls, but it would have been a challenge, the kids were in a mood, and you can’t swim at the bottom of the falls… You’re only 20km from the coast and salt water crocs are a concern. So after enjoying the view, we began the track back to camp expecting it would deliver some pretty amazing sights.

We made our way across the river to the walking track. The water is about knee high and flowing. The kids’ shorts were definitely getting wet. Teddy took his shirt off just to be safe, but then all of a sudden his legs were swept out from under him and he began floating down stream… but he held his shirt high out of the water, more concerned about saving his t-shirt than being taken down the river by the current! Anyway, we pulled him out. He’s safe. And the shirt stayed dry!

After not too long we made it to the top of the falls. I deviated from the group and jogged out to see what they looked like from above. Not nearly as spectacular as the viewing looking back on the walls but gorgeous none the less. Knowing the magnitude of what you’re standing at the top of is a reminder of your place in this world.

Continuing along the path and we made it to Big Mertens. There are swimming places at the top of the falls, and you can get pretty decent views of the falls from the cliff top beside them. However, I was grateful to have seen these falls in all their glory from the sky on our flight up. We didn’t spend too long at Big Mertens. The kids did some rock hopping, but we didn’t swim.

As we continued along the path we took a bit of a detour and got to see some interesting aboriginal rock art. Many human figures in different formations. Some of which were so clear. The kids also played in the rock pools at this stop, before continuing on. It was a bit of a walk from here, but we made it to Little Mertens. This was beautiful. Peaceful. Glorious. Despite being a larger pool, this had a similar intimate feel to Galvins. There was a distinct rock art figure on a wall flanking the path. It was a women, and had me wondering if perhaps this was a birthing place.

As I was admiring the pool I heard the screams of a child… Joey had slid down the rock all the kids were sitting on and plunged into the water. Elsie heaved him out and he calmed pretty quickly. When you’ve been told you can’t swim just down stream because of saltwater crocodiles, working up the courage to jump in can take some time. So the screams were understandable.

Leon, Harriet, Malachi and I went to explore behind the falls. It was very cool. A hidden tropical oasis. A wide open space hidden behind the falls, fringed with dainty ferns and pretty green moss, stacked rocks, the mist from the falls keeping it cool and damp.

While enjoying hidden gem, unbeknown to me, Malachi had slipped on a big flat rock, fallen onto his front, and careered down into a rocky hole in all the fallen rocks. Rob and Jade watched, screaming, from the other side of the pool. I only became aware of this after Malachi had begun climbing back out of the hole and back up behind the falls. He was unscathed however not in need of a reminder about the clear instruction to stick to the dry rocks. 

After a swim with the kids and a chat with a fisherman who comes up to work the season as a tour bus driver who had all the local knowledge, we headed for camp. The path back out to the left of the falls presented the best rock art I have seen so far. Intricate, detailed art. A range of animals, human figures, tools, symbols I don’t understand. Fascinating.

The kids spotted an animal on the walk home. Said it was orange looking. Maybe a possum. Maybe a bilby. Perhaps a quoll. I caught a glimpse of it before it hopped away and Rob stalked it a little while and managed to snap a quick photo. 

The walk back to camp from Little Mertens wasn’t long. There was a small creek crossing with a built bridge over it and then we were home. Despite only walking one way, I was unexpectedly wrecked on our arrival home. I enjoyed making use of the camper’s hot shower, before a relaxed afternoon of board games followed by dinner and marshmellows by the fire.

We were aiming to get to Ellenbrae tomorrow and stay two nights before tackling the mighty Pentecost and heading on to El Questro.