Day 19 - 17062015 - Gibb River Rd/Kalamburu junction to Gibb River Station - 42 km

While I was updating the blog at Mt Barnett I lost all my notes for today so I will try and re create them.

Left the junction early aiming for Hann River to get water and then onto Snake Creek for the night. Surface was pretty good.

Joe reckons he saw a camels hoof print, but I don't think he would recognise a camel toe if he saw one.

After a few hours we came to the Gibb River Station and their shop.  This was not on any of the maps and booklets and as it was only 2 km in we decided to have a look.  

Gibb River Station was bought by ATSIC in the 80s and is run by An Aboriginal community.  Rode in there and shop was closed but a nice young lady, Marcia got her husband, Warwick to open up and we got some Coke and a few other essentials, including sausages for tea. We sat under their veranda and more tourists came along and we chatted to them and the shop manager for quite awhile.

Warwick offered for us to stay and used the communal kitchen and showers in the workers hut.  Who could knock back an offer like that?  So we spent the rest of the day kicking back and reading, showering, washing and setting up camp.

The station is in the middle of doing a complete muster.  The first for 27 years.  They reckon there is over 7000 cattle on the property.  The project manager Richard Paterson and his wife Anne were staying at the workers hut with us and we talked to them a lot during the day.  They are busy.  Richard was organising a dozen things all at once.  Trying to ring people and the phone constantly dropping out.  Jumping on the motorbike and running of to deal with an issue and neck again.

Anne was just as busy running cattle through stockyards, training half trained horses, scavenging bolts etc.  The stockyards were broken, but where do you get bolts out here??? Bunnings is 500 km away.  You scavenge them from other equipment, the huts...

I had seen 3 little Aboriginal kids riding a small quad bike and in the afternoon they came over to the hut because their quad bike wasn't working. The rear cog had come loose from the axle. They had 4 unmatched bolts and no tools. Between Joe's shifter and my considerable mechanical expertise we got them going again with the cog attached by 2 bolts.  Pretty dodgy, but it worked.

They were really funny, cute little guys, but the funniest part was watching them push start the bike.

Had a super tea of beef sausages( we have been missing meat) and Continental Pasta.

While we were having tea Richard came rushing in as one of the stockman had crushed his hand catching a bull.  Richard sent photos and organised the air ambulance that came and got the guy about 9:30.  At one stage Richard was going to have to drive the guy into Derby 5 hours away as the ambulance was not able to come.

Some Aboriginal women came over to copy some movies from Anne but the HDD would not work even after a technological guru like me had looked at it.  I said I would send them some movies when I got back.  We chatted to them for awhile.

Once they left Anne offered us a XXXX.  It is a voluntarily dry community, but it is OK if you don't advertise it.  Even though it was XXXX it tasted great.

More talk and off to bed.  We have to be up early to make up for the short day today.