Pentecost Blowout

The Pentecost Crossing is the most famous river crossing on the Gibb River Road. The Cockburn Ranges glow in the background at sunset and make for a scenic backdrop.

The crossing can be a major obstacle early in the season when water levels have not dropped yet. The problem is that you can't walk through it to check it out as it's full of saltwater crocodiles!

This river section is tidal. There is freshwater upstream and saltwater downstream.

Today, the weather had been overcast all day. We thought never mind, sometimes photographers have an incredible stroke of luck, what matters is to be out and about, nothing will happen if we stay at 'home'.

Soooo, we decided to drive 40km along the Gibb River Road to see one of the highlights of the Kimberley, the very famous Pentecost Crossing. We had been unlucky last year when we got there in the morning and the light was in the wrong direction.

So off we go, bearing in mind that Bluey, our trusty van, did us proud on the Oodnadatta Track and other very rough tracks. Thing is, it's now the end of the tourist season. No more grading. The condition was shocking. Corrugation, lots of big stones. Still, not far to go.... She'll be right as they say here.

Got to the crossing, beautiful but... the sun was behind thick clouds covering the whole sky. Except, we spotted a tiny window in the clouds. We studied their direction and it seemed that we might get lucky.

With her heart in her throat, Gen positioned herself in the middle of the road, facing the crossing, and waited a very long time. Then bingo!! The whole landscape lit up, the Cockburn Ranges in the background were glowing, everything fell into place. Gen was ecstatic and she couldn't stop pressing the shutter.

High fives, promise to celebrate with a cool bottle of wine. We could almost taste the wine in our mouth. Then, BANG!! flat tyre... Back one of course. Follows an emptying session of the van to get to the slime/re-inflating gadget. 10 minutes into it, there was no improvement. Two cars had stopped with a sorry look but carried on after a brief chat.


 We knew we had been defeated. The light was failing, we were stuck in the desert with our stuff by
the side of the road. Then, miracles of all miracles, who turned up?? Two mechanics on a fully equipped Argyle Industries truck on their way to the nearby Home Station. Compressor, tools like in a garage, ladder jack, you name it.

The two big very capable guys got stuck into the job without barely asking. They removed the spare from the insanely conceived position under the sagging rear chassis. using a ladder jack, with their own spare wedged under the rear of our van, they got the tyre changed.

In the meantime, a road train also stopped to offer his help. I suddenly felt ashamed to have called one 'motherfucker' in my mind the day before when another road train decided to impatiently overtake a caravan. The fact that we were coming in the opposite direction was a mere detail. We ended up face to face. And what was he towing? Only four tankers of fuel... Close shave!!

Anyway, it was dark when we finally got going. We gave the mechanics our heartfelt thanks plus a bottle of red. Crossing a river at night took an entirely different meaning.

Limping home, we realised that the river boulders had bashed the electric step under the sliding door, and now it was jammed.

A further blow was the discovery, when we finally got to camp, that the repair slime had leaked a venomous green sticky carpet all over the inside of the van. What the heck, turn in, sleep on it, tomorrow is another day. The straw that broke the camel's back was when craving for a comforting glass of cool white wine, we found all the ice cubes had melted away!!

Next day, we revived ourselves in a lovely El Questro private bushcamp. Just nature and the cacaphony of cockatoos, friarbirds, and kookaburras - with the occasional roo poking his nose into camp.

 

The drive in has a nice crossing of the Pentecost River further upstream from the Gibb River Road one.