Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Bike trip From Kununurra to Broome in 2015

Back in Jun 2015 I went on a bike trip with 15 other riders, one whose husband came along to drive a 4WD with trailer with our camping gear and food for the whole 20 day trip. I had not met any of the other riders but am still good friends with about 5 of them. I rode on a FAT bike with 4 inch tyres and had no issues at all with the bike. I flew to Kununurra and spent 4 days looking around before we all headed off to Derby and 5 of us rode on to Broome, the rest got a lift in a car. Here is a bit of a summary of the trip.







Day one – a great ride doing about 70km’s along dirt tracks, finishing at a camp ground called Mambi Island Boat Ramp. When we got there I walked down to the river with the idea of cooling off but saw what looked like a crocodile and as you can see from the photo it was and it caught a Wallaby. After watching it fight another croc off while a huge Eagle tried to get a bit for himself we decided to not camp under the trees near the boat ramp but about 400 metres away in a cow paddock. It was quite horrible, no shade at all so 16 of us sitting on the side of the car trying to keep out of the sun all afternoon. That night first my cheap Aldi torch that seemed perfect at home died – I think the heat killed it, then my air mattress went down as my sons friends had played with it and my Bengal cat must had got his claw into it. I lay on the hard ground in my tent at 2am in 40 degree heat covered in sweat and dirt with a very sore bum from riding a new bike with new seat thinking what have I got myself in for - I have another 20 days of this.







Day two – a nice ride for about 50km’s into Wyndam. We were staying in a Caravan park with a pool. The only issue was I was one of the first to arrive and the backup car was a long way behind and I didn’t have swimmers with me so had to wait. Once it arrived I had a shower and got into the pool with my mattress and found and fixed the puncture, then walked into town (one petrol station, supermarket and a takeaway shop run out of a house garage for two hours a day) to buy a new torch. That night we rode to the wharf and had dinner in the only other business which was a restaurant with only one thing on the menu – fish and chips and two drinks – Ginger Beer and Mango Smoothie – however the Mango smoothie had won awards and I bought one – it was great. I slept my better without a hole in my mattress but my new torch died after about 10 minutes – I nearly missed out on breakfast the next morning.

Day Three – a nice ride out of town – I left later than everyone else as first I was late packing up my tent after sleeping in and I also waited until 6:00am for the petrol station to open and I bought a different torch. (all up now that place had got over $60 out of me in torches and batteries), We Rode to Diggers Rest along salt flats which was very hot but nice to see. Spent all afternoon fixing a ladies bike. Diggers Rest is where the film Australia was filmed. Bum sore again – so I learnt to carry both swimmers and shorts with me and as soon as possible change out of cycling shorts into something else depending on whether we could swim or not.



Day four – Rode along the Kurunji Track, across the Pentecost river and into Home Valley – a high cost caravan park that had a nice pool. Unfortunately it took a long time to get there as it was a long day so only spent a few minutes in the pool before having to set up my tent before dark. The Pentecost river is full of crocs but the tide was low and we found a pool near the crossing that looked safe so swam there for about an hour waiting for the car to finally turn up.



Day five – Rode to a place called Gregory’s Jump up – basically a patch of dirt at the top of a hill for trucks to pull into, very hot, dusty with no shade. Not a nice place and if the other riders were faster we probably would have gone on further looking for somewhere nicer.

Day six – Rode to a place called Eliingbrae. Has a reputation for Scones with Jam and they were nice but at $8.00 I only had one. We camped there and I was hoping with Scones it would be a bit of luxury but no it had a pit toilet with a heat your own water shower (you light a fire behind the shower block and the water pipe runs through it) and the advertised pool is a very dark dirty water creek that I went in with the others but it didn’t feel safe.

Day seven – rode to another dirt truck turning area that had a no camping sign so we camped 500 metres up the road in the bush.

Day eight – rode to a river 50km’s away which was OK but thought might as well try get to a gorge we were told is very nice. I got there first and some 4WD driving out told me there is no water around here, I was very dirty and hot so not happy but went for a look and found the most beautiful gorge, so went back to find the others and tell them, we went there and a lady in blue dived in just as we saw a croc swimming downstream so she got out straight away and we left, about 500metres away there was another pool with no crocs so we all had a swim – however it had leaches, I found a bit where the water was running faster than the others that had less leaches so cooled off there.

Day nine – Rode into Manning gorge – very nice.

Day ten stayed in Manning Gorge swimming and had a rest day.

Day eleven – rode 70km to a dry cattle yard. Unfortunately the trailer broke so it was taken to a fix it place – luckily it broke right next to the only fix it place for over 400km’s. Everyone decided to try ride down to nicer spot but someone should wait for the car to tell him we are further than he expects. As I was in a bright orange I volunteered thinking how long can it take to weld a new hinge on the back of a trailer. Anyway everyone else found a very pretty little river a few km’s down the road, they went for a swim and then found out that across the road was an aboriginal settlement with a pub so went in for a drink. Fixing the car took for ever, it got dark at 5:00pm and the car didn’t’ run up until 6:30pm. It was about as high above sea level as the Kimberly’s gets and once it got dark for once in the trip it got very very cold. The car got to within 100 metres of me and then thought he must have gone too far so turned around. We finally got dinner rather late and went to bed, in the morning I went for a look around and it was a very pretty stream, I went into the bush to do a Number two just as everyone else quickly rode off and stopped just up the road, what they forgot to tell me is not only did they find a pub in the bush – it has toilets that open very early.

Day twelve - Winijana Gorge, another 70km ride to a Gorge with a reputation for good swimming, however when we got there we found it was much swallower than usual and we counted 57 crocs in it. Even though they are Fresh water ones that are not as aggressive as the big salties theses ones were about 2 to 3 metres long and none of us went in.





Day twelve – half of us got into the car and drove to Tunnel Creek it was only 35km away but would have made a 70km round trip on a very sandy and corrugated road. Tunnel Creek is about 750 metres long underground and dark for most of it.



Day thirteen – bush walk at Winjana gorge while the others go to Tunnel Creek.

Day fourteen – rode 80km and camped on the side of the road – however this was nicer than places like Gregory’s jump up as there were some shade.

Day fifteen – rode another 80km or so into Derby and had a look around. Went out to the Wharf to see the biggest tide change in Australia.



Day sixteen – 5 of us rode 116km to be half way between Derby and Broome. The car took 6 to Broome with their luggage and bike and had our tents etc. so dropped it off where we stopped. This was a long day but was all tar so quicker. Lots of Road trains so I spent a lot of time riding in the dirt on the side anyway.

Day seventeen – The car returns from Broome to pick up our stuff at 6:30am and continues to Derby to pick up the others. By having 5 of us ride it meant the car didn’t have to do three trips between Broome and Derby. That night I see the Staircase to the Moon – only occurs at a low tide with a rising full moon – happens most months for a day or two.





I spent 3 days riding around Broome seeing the dinosaur foot prints (also can only see about once a month when the tides are very low), having Chocolate milkshakes in real metal tin cups like back in the 70’s, Mango drinks etc. and basically enjoying myself with a few of the other riders.

My wife then flew to Broome to join me and I went from the camp site to a Hotel and my roughing it days was over – I had a shave as well. During our time in Broome we hired a car and went on a Pearl farm tour, they gave my wife a pearl necklace worth $100,000 to try on but luckily I had left my credit card at the hotel while checking in.