Day 61 – 19th July – Charnley River Station

Our plan for today was to reach Mornington Wilderness Camp.  The problem with Mornington is it’s very popular, they only take a very limited number of campers and you can’t ring and book a site.  The road into the camp is 100km so there is a two-way radio just off the Gibb where you can check in before you head out to the camp.  So, we did a bit of a pack up the night before then got up ridiculously early to drive the 60km  and hopefully beat the crowds.  We arrived at the Mornington gate at about 7.45am only to be told they were already full… grrrr.  Our only option was to drive up the road another 4km to reach the turn off into Charnley River Station.

On the way between Silent Grove and Mornington is the Imintji Store.  Up until very recently, this and Mt Barnett Roadhouse were the only two places on the Gibb where you can buy fuel.  Apparently there is some debate with the traditional Aboriginal land owners which has caused the store to close.  However, pretty much every map still has the Imintji Store on it.  Before we left home and on our travels we have passed numerous signs and notices informing the public the store was closed.  There are obviously a whole lot of people out there who are unaware.  We met some people who drove the extra 20-30km to the store just so they could buy an icecream, only to discover its demise.  While they were there a car pulled in expecting to buy fuel.  Apparently the lady was in tears when she discovered there was no way to fill her empty tank… 

Back to Charnley River Station, a 40km side detour off the Gibb River Road.  This station was once a working cattle station but has been bought out by some ‘sponsors’ who then gave (leased?) the land back to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy group.  So the station is actually a wildlife sanctuary.  The size of the station is phenomenal, somewhere around 300,000 hectares.  For the first time on our trip we are starting to see the wildlife we were expecting…

After setting up camp we had enough time to explore ‘Paradise Pool’, not far from the homestead.  Unfortunately, we didn’t think the pool was much like paradise… everything is so dry up here at the moment.  All we have heard is how the previous wet season was not very ‘wet’…  because they just didn’t get enough rain all the water holes are drying up much earlier in the season. 

The one thing we are particularly enjoying is the birdlife.  We started noticing them at Mt Hart and then we were given a bird watching list when we arrived here at Charnley.  Now we are hooked on trying to find and identify all the birds on the list.  I think everyone’s favourites are the finches and wrens… we spotted these Double-Barred Finches on our way to Paradise Pool.  

  Here are some photos of some flowers we have only seen in this area.  I am pretty sure the pink one is called a “Kimberley Rose” and I have absolutely no idea what the red one is…