Trek 2002 - Dispatch Three

Sunday 28th July, most of the trekkers took the opportunity to fill up tanks and containers with the lovely fresh water available at the Silent Grove camp site. This water is reputed to be some of the sweetest water in Western Australia.

For those who stopped at the roadhouse for morning tea, a strange sight awaited them, in the form of a tame brolga, whose companion was an ancient fat black Labrador dog. The lady at the shop fed the brolga some bread, which it ate, untroubled by all the attention from the visitors.

The club acknowledges and thanks the owners/managers at Mt Barnett Station for allowing us to set up camp in a paddock close to Manning Gorge.

As all trekkers are fully equipped for all emergencies (including showers and toilets) they were able to be self-sufficient campers, close to one of the water holes. Manning Gorge and its surrounding tourist attractions were out of bounds, due to recent storm damage. The convoy rolled into camp over the afternoon, with some of the crew coming in quite late due to damage to trailers and flat tyres.

Monday had trek participants enjoying the opportunity for some well-deserved rest and recreation. The campsite was a gorgeous oasis with a gently flowing stream around a little island, which was accessible by a very short swim. Repairs and maintenance for the tractors, support vehicles and trailers were also seen to. Kim Henderson's welder and large generator were in hot demand as there were many heavy-duty repairs to be done. The badly corrugated surface of the Gibb River road had taken its toll, especially with some of the trailers.

Tuesday 30th and more time for rest & recreation, hand washing, and vehicle maintenance. Darcy Stevens and Paul Nunn (both aged 11) took every opportunity at rivers and waterholes to try their hand at fishing. This camp was no exception, and they managed to catch quite a few cherubim, which are small fresh water crustaceans, a little bit similar to yabbies, and good eating. Being enterprising young men, they sold their catch to the highest bidder. The first catch of cherubim they put up for auction at the "joke night" and donated most of the bid, to the club for charity.

During the evening the whole camp gathered together for a joke night. The "Year of the Outback Flag" was proudly hung up, under a huge boab tree and set the scene. A "P.A." system and floodlights were set up, which allowed the performers to be seen and heard easily.

Ken Taylor put forward a proposal for a small trek to travel the Holland Track to Rawlina during 2003. The club was also asked their opinion about the future of the "Year of the Outback" flag. The group unanimously decided that it should stay property of the club, rather thank auctioning it off to the highest bidder.

Wednesday 31st, back on the road again to Russ Creek. There was a lot of traffic on the Gibb River Road, and it was very common to see vehicles travelling at excessive speeds (for the road conditions) of around 100 kph. In almost every instance, these speeding vehicles were seen to be hired four-wheel drives.

It was decided to travel on past the designated camp at Russ Creek, and the group continued on for another 20 km to a lovely shaded area along an old creek bed. A buck's party and a doe's night were held for Geoff Faulkes (Boris) and Suzanne Wood (Doris) who are both from Albany.

Thursday 1st August, most of the tractors and support crew were on the road, when the call came from the crew of "Scraggy" for the welder to do some urgent repairs to their tractor. The road was exceptionally rough along this patch up to where the graders were on the road, about 90km from Kununurra.

Donald McLaughlin took first prize, managing to get two flat tyres at the same time on the same side of his Nissan ute. A decision was made for the convoy to spend the night at Home Valley Homestead, and again the trekkers welcomed showers, a swimming pool and a little shop.

Friday 2nd August, had Ivan Siviour, together with brothers Gary and Stan Snook sneaking off early in the morning to go on a fishing trip with a man from the station. Stan Snook managed to catch a metre long barramundi. Congratulations Stanley! Ivan caught a barra, which was just undersized and had to be thrown back. The trekkers were glad to have finished that section of road as they pulled into El Questro and set up camp along the river.

Saturday 3rd and there was great excitement and anticipation in the camp as the "real-life" wedding was to take place for Suzanne Wood and Geoff Faulkes, alias Doris and Boris.

All the tractors were given a good wash and decorated with white wedding ribbons, as they were to form a guard of honour. During the day, among other things, the bride-to-be spent considerable time giving haircuts to many of the male trekkers. This was a very generous and noble act.

The bride looked radiant, wearing a deep purple Indian pantsuit (Punjabi) complete with shawl. Two fairy girls attended her, Susan Henderson, (bridesmaid) wearing purple and Maddie Stevens, wearing aquamarine (flower girl).

The groom was transported to the ceremony by his Best Man, Kim Henderson, in Kim's tractor 'Priscilla', while the bride travelled in Cedar Armstrong's tractor, 'In Like Flynn', which had been renamed, 'In Like Boris' for the occasion. Geoff DePledge drove the 'fairy girls' in his tractor 'Ruff N' Tuff'.

Just as the bride and attendants arrived at the scene, a helicopter flew overhead to take aerial photos. Thankyou to Hugh (Cumber) Campbell, who arranged this at short notice. The alter was set on the lawn, with the beautiful river and overhanging trees as a backdrop, and potted plants placed to mark out the area.

The wedding celebrant, Teddy Birch, who had travelled from Wyndam, officiated at the ceremony. The Bride's mother June flew from Perth to be with her daughter, Suzanne for the happy event, and stayed with the group for a week.

Cedar Armstrong gave the bride away, then the bride and groom exchanged vows. Champagne was served on the lawns, as Mr. & Mrs. Faulkes were presented to the wedding party, before speeches and photos. A lovely Smorgasbord was enjoyed outside the El Questro restaurant, around a huge fire.

On the following day on the way out of El Questro Station, many of the trekkers took the opportunity to stop at Zebedee Springs to bathe in the thermal springs. Then it was time to be back on the road again. Another stop along the way was Emma Gorge, which is also operated by El Questro. Emma Gorge is another picturesque and relaxing resort style restaurant and bungalow accommodation.

Some trekkers detoured to have a look at Wyndam, while others continued on the to Kununurra and planned to do a day trip from there. Most of the convoy camped at the Show Grounds, while a few others found sites at nearby caravan parks.

Monday 5th, a day in Kununurra and many different tours were taken by the travellers, including river cruises, and scenic flights which flew over the Ord River, Bungle Bungles, Carr Boyd Ranges, Texas Downs station, Lake Argyle, and the Argyle Diamond Mine.

Hugh Campbell was fortunate enough to have a friend with a river boat, and took the Dongara crew for a sunset cruise up the river, and then skippered the boat for a repeat performance the following evening for the 9G South group. Kununurra was the last opportunity for the 'big shop' as most of the crew needed to stock up for the following 4 weeks and the Canning Stock Route.

A huge social and fund raising evening was held at the Hotel Kununurra. A special thanks you to the Managers/Licensee of the hotel, as well as the ladies from the Chamber of Commerce who managed to extract donations of merchandise from almost every business in town, or so it seemed.

These items were auctioned by Gary Snook and raised over $4000 for charity. Even the food for the BBQ was donated. Another fun evening all round, as the karaoke machine was cranked up, and trekkers showed how well they could sing.

Tuesday 7th, a fairly unhurried start to the day, to pack and do last minute shopping before heading out to Lake Argyle which was about 80km to travel. The campsite at Lake Argyle was situated quite close to the dam wall, next to the pub/restaurant. All of the old buildings at Lake Argyle were built for the construction workers when dam was constructed and were expected to have a life of about 5 years. They are still in constant use, but are looking very tired. There are a few new transportables, which house the offices for the tour operators.

Wednesday 8th and Geoff DePledge and Ivan Siviour were fortunate to have been contacted by Andy Scherell (ex Kendenup) who has a commercial fishing license to fish on Lake Argyle. They left with Andy around 4am to go out on the boat and watch the net fishing.

A tour of the pumping station and hydro electricity station was held during the morning. Later in the afternoon many of the trekkers took Lake Cruises which ran for either 3 or 5 hours, and visited the many islands to observe the wildlife. Some of the sightings included Short Eared rock wallabies, euros, bustards, crocodiles, ducks, egrets and many, many other bird species.

Drinks and nibblies were enjoyed on the cruises as they stopped for a while to view the sunset across the water.

Continue: Dispatch Four