Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park

[JohnM]

As I’ve mentioned to you before JM, those are the types of locations and conditions I used to work in. I wouldn’t do it again without a similar pay cheque!!

Cut him some slack, peeps; he's a troubled soul...

 

[JohnM]

And the Desert Queen Baths camping area. I scoped out the immediate area of the lowest pool of the Baths near the camping area during the early afternoon before going back for a late afternoon swim and then setting up camp for two nights.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning all of the other eight or so vehicles that were at the camp when I arrived departed, so I had the place to myself until later in the day when another group of three vehicles came in.

This was the day for my morning rock-hopping hike up the gorge past a string of pools to the Desert Queen Baths proper: three closely connected pools at the top of the gorge. It was solid going; I learnt that I am now too old to do such things again.

 

[drron]

What a beautiful spot. Thanks for the pics.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning all of the other eight or so vehicles that were at the camp when I arrived departed, so I had the place to myself until later in the day when another group of three vehicles came in.

This was the day for my morning rock-hopping hike up the gorge past a string of pools to the Desert Queen Baths proper: three closely connected pools at the top of the gorge. It was solid going; I learnt that I am now too old to do such things again.

 

[JohnM]

And then the three upper pools. Notice the rock shelf at the far end which acts as a dam to the second pool, which in turn has a similar barrier to the top pool.

The only way to get to each of those weirs was to swim.



Pool two was shallower (and warmer), requiring some dragging and sliding over the slippery algae-covered rocks.



The top pool.



Heading back through pool 2. Very soon after I returned to the bottom of pool 3 and was drying myself, I saw in the water nearby a sizable snake swimming across pool 3! I couldn’t get my camera out of the waterproof bag quickly enough to capture it swimming, but it came to shore very near me.

 

[JohnM]

Time to walk back to camp and chill in the shade for the afternoon with a book and camera to capture birds foraging around the previous campers’ fire.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning, it was back out to the main track.



And continuing N on the main track. The functioning N well.



Sections of the track run along a creek bed.



These were the more tolerable corrugations. I guess the stonier ground changed the amplitude and wavelength.

 

[JohnM]

Then it was out of the park and through to Nullagine (between Marble Bar and Newman for the night, before beelining to Cue the next day.

After a 720-click drive, a legendary Cueburger and a bottle of Far-Cue () red at the Murchison Club Hotel is mandatory.



The run home the next day was punctuated with a fair number of extra-wide loads on Great Northern Highway. It’s highly advisable to have a two-way radio and be monitoring Channel 40 on that road.

For those unfamiliar with this stuff:

Loads over a certain width need a front and rear pilot; extra-wide loads have the same with the front pilot running well ahead, followed by a Department of Transport escort that looks like police with red/blue party lights. They mercilessly force you off the road to a halt. I imagine they assume most LVs do not have a radio; even If you do, they hardly need to engage with a car and make unnecessary chatter. I only pipe up where absolutely necessary; it is better to listen - and just be aware of just how well those big boys and girls are doing their job.

When another truck is approaching, the pilot will advise words like: “Two at 3.8 metres.” Or “Three at 5 metres.” to indicate the number of wide vehicles in the convoy and their width. It may then involve some juggling to get an approaching vehicle off the road entirely and safely to a halt without damaging road infrastructure. I think that explains why lead pilots often seem to be so far in advance of the main convoy.

If going in the same direction, radio communication with the pilots is the only sensible way to overtake these loads. Once you advise being on-channel, they will work graciously and effectively with you and the convoy drivers to bring you around as expeditiously and safely as possible.

Listening to the radio talk, the courtesy level and professionalism amongst truckers and with other travellers is impeccable, and they really appreciate LV (light vehicle) drivers who have radios and use them when advisable. In particular, anyone towing a caravan up there without having radio comms would, in my view, be at best stupid and at worst a major menace. However, I think it’s unlikely that would be common.

In these pics, they had brought the caravan (sitting behind the DoT escort) and another truck around the load trucks a little further back (I could hear that the caravanner was on-channel, and then the solo LV was being brought around. Those haulpak bogies were 5m wide, IIRC.



And that’s it. Mission finally accomplished!

 

[VPS]

Looks amazing - thanks

 

[TheRealTMA]

Lovely photos. I’ll never get out there so many thanks.