The Ryan's on the road.: Kimberley disaster/adventure..Gibb River Rd part 2..

After spending 2 hours lazing in the river at Manning Gorge we left around midday. Mum and Dad pulled into the carpark just as we were hopping into the car. We said a quick hello before heading off for Drysdale River Station.

We had heard from fellow travellers that the condition of the Gibb travelling east deterioraited – and it did! But the Gibb was awesome compared to the beginning of the Kalumburu Road. It was 59 kms of almost constant corrugations and hidden potholes. We spent a lot of the time ‘driving on the foot path’. One wheel up on the soft sand.

We finally arrived at Drysdale Station and our hearts sank. With 12,338 kms behind us, something had finally given in. One side of the trailers suspension was swinging freely underneath and one of the stablizers completely broken off – apart from two welding marks left on the body of the trailer you’d never have know it was ever there.

In our Kimberley book Drysdale River Station was marked with a repair icon, however they were only liscensed to change tyres and didn’t have the parts we needed anyway.

All that was left to do was set up and sit back with a cold one and worry about it tomorrow!!!!

We decieded not to worry about it tomorrow, instead Andrew and I (kids stayed with Mum and Dad) took a scenic flight out of Drysdale Station up the Prince Regent River to the coast – up along some the most amazing untouched coastline we’ll ever see and then over the Mitchell Falls. It was the most amazing 2 hours. Our 22 year old (yes 22!!) pilot, Will, gave us fantastic commentary to match the scenery. Well worth the ill fated journey up the road – it provided a nice distraction from our predicament too.

The pilot re-fueling the plane and the departure lounge!!

Prince Regent River

Mitchell Falls

We spent the afternoon at Miners Pool – more fantastic river swimming.

Over night Andrew and I pondered how to lighten the weight of the trailer, which until now carried the majority of our weight – fridge, food, chairs, tarps, kitchen and more. Not an easy task to relocated all these things.

Posting some letters home from one of the most remote places in Australia.

Fortunately we had Mum and Dad with us with a relatively empty 4WD. We loaded them up with as much of our gear as we could. The biggest change and one we deliberated over for a while was to put the girls four across in the back seat (much to their delight – what an adventure!!!). Giving us the entire back area of the car to fill.

So at 11:10 on departure day we limped out of Drysdale Station – the car and pod heavily laiden and the lopsided trailer dancing lightly behind us. Anxiety levels were through the roof. With 59km of the shocking Kalumburu Road and over 300 km of the Gibb River Road to travel (before we reached a service centre) we felt like it was a mountain too hard to climb.

The first 5 kms took 12 minutes……… the sums didn’t bear to think about. At one point Andrew though he might just gun it and hope for the best!! But in the end slow and steady was the way.

An hour and ten minutes in and we’d done 40 kms….thank goodness for the DVD player and good supply of new DVD’s!!

Nearing the end of limping day one the other shocker broke off - Andrew's spin on that was 'at least the trailer's level now, it looks better!!'

We made it to night one at Ellenbrae - I'm not sure if it was because of the distraction of the trailer but we were disappointed with Ellenbrae. We packed up early the next morning and limped on another 100 kms to Home Valley.

We ended up staying 3 nights at Home Valley - a wonderful station with great facilities and activities. We did a few walks, the girls had a horse riding lesson and we all swam in the pool.

The girls even got to groom their horses after the ride.

A tasting plate of crocodile, emu, wallaby and kangaroo and a 'Roo Salad'

A hike up Mount Baldy to watch the sunset on the Cockburn Ranges

Handy little gate worker!!

We did a day trip to El Questro from Home Valley - where we soaked in the hot springs at Zebedee Springs, had our lunch on the grassy lawn, then walked into the amazing Emma Gorge in the afternoon. It was a hard and often tricky walk up the gorge but the swimming hole and waterfall at the end more than made up for the effort. Rated the best gorge yet by the kids!!

Zebedee Springs

Emma Gorge

We got away just after 8 am on the final day of limping into Kununurra. We had just under 30 kms of rough, unsealed Gibb River Road and to cross the Pentecost River...

The rough dirt treated us OK it was the river crossing where we came undone. Unable to see the bumps coming up the trailer took one bump too many and snapped clean a bolt holding one of the springs, leaving the trailer yet again lopsided, but this time it was not going any further.

Andrew had confidence that he could replace the bolt and set to it. As he was having trouble jacking the trailer up effectively two other Victorians stopped and offered to help - producing the biggest jack we'd ever seen. It did the trick and we were underway again. Not far to go now - fingers crossed.