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KIMBERLEY COOL by Stephen Tuff Dirt Action No44 January 2002 (intro) If you want to get away from it
all, I mean really get away from it all then the Kimberley region of Western
Australia is about as far away from anywhere as you can get in Australia. The
Kimberley is a vast expanse of harsh land littered with spectacular gorges,
beautiful swimming holes and some damn fine trail riding. (start of main text) Being young and naive I used to
think stress was mythical. Just one of those things that city people invented
as an excuse for chucking the good old Aussie sicky. Boy was I wrong. It
seems the older I get the more I stress. And the one thing that completely
distresses my brain is getting on a dirt bike and riding to my heart's
content. The further from home the better. The isolation and beauty of the
Kimberley region in far North West of Western Australia has long held an
attraction for me. And when I found a motorcycle tour operator in the area I
jumped at the chance to experience the Kimberley on a bike. I loaded up my
mates ute, threw on a couple of bikes and told him to kiss his missus good
bye, "because we're goin' ridin'." I jumped on the phone to Rugged
Red Kimberley Trail Bike Adventures in Broome and booked a seven-day ride
into one of the most beautiful places on earth. We pointed the Hilux ute in
the direction of Broome and we were on our way. (sub heading) Hit The Road Jack We kicked off our tour with a
brief meeting at Rugged Red head quarters in Broome at 5:45am where we were
given a run down on the tour and introduced to the Rugged Red staff and the
rest of the paying customers. There were nine of us in total including Rugged
Red owner/operator, Eric Bermingham and Steve, Rugged Red's support vehicle
driver. To save some boring road riding
we drove about 300km East of Broome to Windjana Gorge where the bikes were
unloaded and the real fun began. We jumped on the bikes and headed East up
the Gibb River Road with a lunch stop at the first picturesque river. And
would you believe there were two bikini clad women at this very water hole.
Oh yes! What a great start. With lunch over we continued up
the Gibb River Road at a leisurely pace and soon enough the landscape seemed
to grow. Mountain ranges emerged and the much anticipated Kimberley scenery
started to deliver. Lennard River Gorge was our
first swim stop. We parked the bikes and a short walk down some rocks in 30
degree Celsius heat had us keen for a dip. It was at this very point in time
that I realised I was totally stress free. Sitting there in the Gorge in my
jocks, literally thousands of kilometers from home, having spent a good part
of the day riding a dirt bike, I was in heaven. By this time the tour group was
starting to get to know each other and I said to Young Eric - a 58 year-old
farmer from Northampton, WA on his second annual Rugged Red tour- , "I
wonder what the rich people are doing?" "I dunno. But I reckon
they'd be fuckin' pissed off because they're not here," was his reply.
Couldn't have put it better myself. (sub heading) Bush Tucker Man Our over night stop at Silent
Grove camp ground in King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park was not too far up
the road. Day one's total riding was 148km. The group set about refueling
and lubing bikes and setting up camp while tour guide, Big Eric started on
dinner. There was nothing left to do but kick back, get to know each other
and wait for the food. As you'd expect all conversation took place around the
camp fire and soon enough we were all laughing, telling jokes and swapping
ride stories. The first two blokes to grab my
attention on the ride were the two veterans, Eric and Garry, or the
Northampton Fossils as they were introduced to me. These two farmers from
Northampton in WA are local WA footy legends that have discovered the joys of
dirt bikes. This was their second Rugged Red tour. Eric is a big man, who at
58 acts more like a 20 year-old. Full throttle everywhere at all times. And
he insisted that I refer to him as Young Eric. Not to be confused with tour
guide, Big Eric. "Ah, you've gotta do it
while ya can," Young Eric reckons. "Ya never know when ya
time's up. I'm 58 so my time could be up real soon. I just wish I was doing
this ten years ago." Gary was the practical joker of
the group. He was always up to something or telling a yarn. More than often
he was winding me up with a tall story with me totally sucked in. In the end
I just didn't believe anything he said. Gary and Eric had talked their
local bike shop owner, Brett Gannon from Sun City Motorcycles in Geraldton,
WA to join them on this ride. Big Kev was the next interesting
character on the ride. He looked incredibly similar to tour guide Eric. Turns
out to be his older brother. Aran was the youngest in the
group. A preservation officer with the ABC in Perth, Aran usually rides a
road bike but he soon got a handle on riding in the dirt. Then of course there was myself,
the roving dirt bike journo and my mate, Grant who was taking time out from
farming in Victoria. (sub heading) Hells Bells With no TV or radio, just a sky
full of stars, a camp fire, a big feed of steak and veggies and a cold beer,
everyone hit the swags reasonably early. In what became a morning ritual,
Garry was the first one up and making enough noise to wake us all. We were on the bikes by about
7:00am and just 10km up the track we were at Bell Gorge. Seeing the size,
color and raw beauty of this gorge just blew me away. We were swimming in the
cool, fresh water below by 8:00am. What a way to start the day. Another thing
that struck me was there was no indication that his Gorge was there until we
were right upon it. "That's the thing about the Kimberley," Big
Eric said. "You could be 100 meters
from water and you'd never know it. Its easy to see how people perish out
here." I was just glad we had a local
showing us around. Back on the bikes we headed
further up the Gibb River Road before stopping at Galvans Gorge for lunch.
Another swim at another incredibly beautiful water hole. We refueled just
10km up the road at MT Barnett Road house then rode into MT Elizabath Station
for our over night camp at a very secluded spot. Great riding on flowing
sandy trails. 228km for the day. (sub heading) Warm Beer Tastes Ok The adventure of this ride
stepped up big time on day three. We were going to be away from the support
vehicle for the next two nights so we needed to carry fuel, sleeping gear,
some food and a change of clothes with us on the bikes. The riding conditions got more
interesting with lost of rocks, sandy sections and dried up creek beds. We
stopped to look at some incredible Aboriginal art throughout the day, all the
while dodging some huge Brahman bulls roaming the Kimberley scrub. We reached our camp after 110km
of great riding before Big Eric led us on a 3km walk to a massive Gorge where
we went for yet another swim in a water hole surrounded by large and very
warm rocks. We all spread eagled laying on our backs like lizards sunning
them selves. It was like laying on a giant heat pack. Now there is no power at Eric's
secret bush camp so we cranked up a generator when we got there and plugged
in a freezer to cool the beer. Big Eric was the first to crack a can. I
watched him crack it open, take a swig and say to himself, "it's Kimberley
cool." So I tried a Kimberley cool
beer. Let me tell you that lukewarm is colder than Kimberley cool. Kimberley
cool is another way of saying, " its warm but it'll do." Fish Monger Day four and we were on a
mission to catch some Barramundi. We rode 80km on a private station track to
a secluded inlet where Big Eric warned us, "This is serious croc
country. Someone please be on look out at all times." Shit! I put my hand up as look
out man. I strapped on my 200mm camera lens, sat on the muddy inlet banks and
watched the rest of the crew make like Rex Hunt from a safe distance. Within
half an hour we had four good sized Barra and we got the hell out of there. Young Eric took the fish and
went on a bonsai mission to make it to a fresh water creek to wash the fish
before the 30 plus degree day took its toll on the precious Barra. I followed
his dust trail. The big fella was so focused on charging hard he missed the
turn off to the designated creek where we were to meet the rest of the group.
We eventually found each other, cleaned the fish and headed back to camp via
a swim at another hidden water hole surrounded by large rock walls strewn
with Aboriginal art. That night we ate like kings. Kimberley style! (sub heading) Rock And Roll Hill We rode up a hell rock hill just
half an hour into day five. It wasn't all that steep, just oh so rocky with
bowling ball sized rocks, stacked on basket ball sized rocks, stacked on
swiss ball sized rocks stacked on a rock hill. We rode on and were greeted by
Steve and the support vehicle at Beverley Springs with hot dogs for lunch. A
very welcome sight to tired and weary riders. Night five was spent at Old
Mornington Camp where there is the coolest outdoor bar, The Bull Bar. Washing
down the dust with a few cold ones at the Bull Bar was a priority for
everyone. 243km. That evening while I was in the
shower, Garry the practical joker crept into the shower block and tied my
jocks in a knot to repay me for giving him a bit of stick throughout the day.
Little did he know that I had been wearing those jocks for three days straight.
Its a wonder his finger nails didn't drop off due to some sort of fungal
disease. I put my fresh jocks on and threw the knotted ones out. I never
mentioned the knotted incident and neither did he. Maybe he did catch
something? Day six was a very relaxing 77km
in total. A short ride after breakfast to Sir John Gorge for a swim. Back to
camp for lunch then another swim at Dimond Gorge in the afternoon. Sir john
and Dimond Gorge are both massive and supply amazing views! It must be an
incredible amount of water that flows through these two gorges in the wet
season. The back drop of the mountain ranges on the ride to Dimond Gorge was
very impressive. Even more so on the ride back to camp in the afternoon sun. (sub heading) Take Me Home Country Roads Our final day started at around
6:00am like every other day and we were on our bikes by 8:00am heading back
toward Windjana Gorge 235km back down the Gibb River Road. We reached Windjana Gorge just
after lunch and walked into the Gorge to check out the fresh water
crocodiles. There were plenty of them and our presence didn't seem to bother
them at all. With the croc spotting over, the
ride was complete. We packed up our bikes, said our good byes and went our
separate ways. In the past seven days we covered 1,121km of incredibly
beautiful, isolated and unforgiving country in the best way possible. On dirt
bikes. If you don't get up to the Kimberley at some stage you are being
cheated in life. It's just so beautiful. And if you don't see it from the
back of a dirt bike you just getting plain ripped off. SIDE BAR (sub heading) Rugged Menu The quality of meals supplied on
the Rugged Tours is very impressive. Check this bush tucker menu out. Steak and vegetables. Garlic chicken, honey carrots,
cabbage and bacon, baked spuds and peas. Steak, vegetables and cheese
pasta. Crumbed and garlic barramundi,
peas, corn and cheese pasta. Curry sausages and vegetables. Beef stew and mash potato. Eric can cook and he certainly
doesn't skimp on meal sizes! (sub heading) Stroke Me Rugged red have hire bikes
available or you can take your own. A four-stroke bike is the go for riding
in the Kimberley. The torque and fuel economy of a four banger makes life
easy, not to mention not having to mix fuel. I took a DR-Z400 kindly loaned to
me by the good people at Maffra Motorcycles. The crew at Maffra MC set it up
with hard terrain tyres, heavy duty tubes and spare levers tucked behind the
head light. Spare cables would be a good idea too. You're a long way from a
bike shop so you have to be prepared. If you want to ride your own
bike but don't want to trailer it up to Broome, Rugged can organise for your
bike to be freighted to Broome from just about anywhere at a reasonable cost. (sub heading) Hitting Budget Broome is a long way from most
places but don't let that stop you visiting. Quantas fly there daily and of
course you can drive. I drove there with a mate via Perth from Melbourne and
came home via the Tanami Track, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock and Adelaide. If
you want to go Broome and don't want to fly, do the great Australian drive
across the Nullabore and up the West coast. Our total fuel costs came to $1,
028.20. That's just $514.10 each. We saw a hell of a lot of country and saved
a hell of a lot of money on air fares. Plus the bonus of stopping when we
wanted, seeing what we wanted and enjoyed the thrill of experiencing one of
the greatest road trips you can do in Australia. And we did it easily in just
three weeks. We stayed in caravan parks the
whole way, not paying more than $19.80 per night for a powered camp site. The
added bonus of caravan parks is the number of friendly, single and good
looking international travelers you meet. (sub heading) Who Where And When Rugged Red Kimberley Trail Bike
Adventures operate from Broome, WA. Six and ten-day tours run
between May and November. Phone: Eric Bermingham (08) 9192
1992 E-mail:
www2.tpg.com.au/users/rugedred |
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