The Gibb

(April 27)

Leaving Purnululu we continued to travel east toward Kununurra on the Great Northern Highway. Along the way we stopped in at an Aboriginal Art Co-op in Warmun (Turkey Creek) and were delightfully surprised to find an outstanding collection of paintings – all done using natural materials for the paint. It was painful to have to chose just one to come live with us in Whitehorse but we finally decided on a painting by younger woman that represents living in ‘two worlds’ – white and Aborigine. The colours are rich and strong, especially the deep charcoal black. The gallery was able to ship it home for us.

We spent the night in Kununurra in a very ‘urban’ campground. The showers felt so good and I never bothered to turn on the hot water. The next morning we had to stock up on supplies in preparation for our trip along the Gibb River Road, back to Broome. We made one other stop in town at a stone carver’s workshop. The stone found in that part of the Kimberleys is full of beautiful colours and playful patterns. One of the rocks is called zebra stone; another one is called star-burst stone and that is exactly what they look like.

Then it was time to hit the gravel. The Gibb reminds me in many ways of the Dempster Highway – unpaved, isolated, lonely and beautiful. A day’s drive of 300 km and we are passed by only 8 cars going the other direction.

The road, mountains and termite mounts are the colour of rusty nails, the sky is as blue as it can get and the land is speckled with green spinifix and bulbous gray boabs. We’re instantly in love with it all.

There are only two seasons in the Kimberleys – the wet and the dry. We were told that May 1 is the official start of the dry season. The Gibb isn’t during the wet as all road passage is blocked by creeks and river that can rise many metres. The land is green now, after the wet. It will get browner and browner as the dry season lengthens. The number of travellers will also increase, with July and August bringing the ‘crowds’.

The price of diesel up here is high - so far ranging from $1.52 to $1.92. (At $1.52 it was costing us 18 cents a kilometre, driving a 90 km/hr on the paved highway!)