THE MURCHISON GORGES 

After a leisurely start on Sunday, Adrian, Cameron, Bill, Cliff, Kim Thorson, Phil, Scott, and Tay prepared to go up river from Kalbarri to The Loop - a distance of about fifty-five kilometres.  One boat was unable to get off the start line and so Bill Breheny and Scott Overstone jumped into the back of the 4WD as part of the Support Crew.
 

The muddy tidal waters at Kalbarri were slowly left behind as the crews in the remaining three boats fought against the fast flowing current.

Kim Epton, Mike and Shane were The Bus support crew and went to Murchison House Pastoral Station to rendezvous with the boat crews.  After an exchange of pleasantries the boat crews continued their battle up river against the swift current.

The Bus crew headed for The Loop.  At the entrance to the National Park (The Loop and Z Bend road) a newly installed ticket machine presented them with the problem of finding $5 worth of the correct coins.

“Pay five bucks and give your vehicle a rattle test on the corrugations.” - Shane Kelly, who had recently been along the same tracks.

The vibrations from the badly corrugated track to the The Loop caused the freezer door to fall off and the screws holding the cooling grille at the rear to come out.

After “playing tourist” without seeing the boats (and not expecting to see them) The Bus crew returned to the caravan park, unaware that the boat crews arrived at The Loop only minutes after they left.

With Tony driving, David navigating, and Scott and Bill in the back of the Landcruiser, the refuelling team followed the boats nearly to Murchison House on a different track to that taken by The Bus crew.

Scott relates what happened:

“The Brain’s boat stopped so we jumped in the back of the Landcruiser to what we thought would be a quick trip to The Bus, only to find ourselves at the mercy of Ross Dunkerton on acid and the Silent Assassin’s weird sense of fun.  That meant two guys levitating in the back of a ute at 70 kmh with a loose spare wheel, two jerry cans, two fuel drums, and a hi-lift jack for company.

After half an hour of brain shattering bumps we came to the river and could hear the boats.  Because we were slightly hidden by trees I started to wade out. Realising I couldn’t go any deeper I thought I would swing through the trees for a better vantage point only to find teenage mutant ninja ants the size of my thumb not overly impressed with my presence in their tree.  They were very hungry after two weeks stuck up a tree that is normally attached to the ground and not in two metres of water.  The boat crews had seen my dinghy decky death dance avoiding the ants and pulled over.  Everything OK.

We continued on with Ross and the Assassin only to get bogged to the axle in mud.  Out of the mud and back to the bumps.  A noise started that meant something was broken.  We stopped. One rear spring broken and one spring bent.  We limped back to camp.”
 

The boat trip up river was very scenic and, after the effort of the first two days, was certainly a change of pace.  If the boat crews didn’t already know the river was in flood their trip through the tops of the trees would certainly have given some indication that there was more water than normal.  The “flats” of Kalbarri gave way to the gorges and ranges.

The colourfully stratified cliffs were magnificent and in some places were almost perpendicular.  Lunch was eaten in the shade of a gum tree at the base of one of these sixty metre cliffs.

Near the The Loop, people were noticed on the north side of the river.  Kim Thorson takes up the story.

“We saw it was the Rivergods rafting gurus.  I asked them if they knew where we were.  They answered “in the Murchison River.”  When asked where exactly we were on the river, the “God” pointed downstream stating “Kalbarri is that way”.  We then realised that they were not intelligent life forms and offered them beads, mirrors, and tobacco to ensure our safety.

Stretch was talking to a female from the tribe who was busy applying mud in a ceremonial style to her body and face.  We were still trying to establish our location.  He mentioned that we had seen some people further down river but they couldn’t have been our Support Crew because there was a skirt.

The female tribe member seemed to take offence and demanded to know what he meant by “skirt”.

Seeing Stretch drowning in a pool of feminism I jumped into the cauldron boiling before me. “A skirt meaning that it was either a tourist or one of our boys has taken to cross dressing, which if the latter, I know who I’ll be sleeping with tonight.”  Stretch was saved and the tribal feminist was pacified.

Meanwhile another one of the females of the species had lined up Cliff for a strange face painting ceremony.  She had already got strange symbols painted on his face.

Fearing the worst, we distracted them by pointing upwards saying, “Look, a dead duck!”  We escaped with our virginity and sanity intact!  I’m sure they’re still there.”
 

Half way through The Loop the crews decided to turn back because of a shortage of fuel.  The boat crews had underestimated the amount of fuel usage against the powerful current on the upriver journey.

The trip downriver gave an impression of going downhill.  The trees were very thick and as the river flowed out of the gorges it spread to a width of about a kilometre.

It was realised that not all the boats would reach Kalbarri on the amount of fuel remaining.

Adrian and Kim gave their paddles to the other crews, grabbed all the fuel tanks and set off downriver to get more fuel.  There was no fuel to be had at Murchison House and they continued on towards Kalbarri.
 

“Bocky asked if we had enough fuel to get to Kalbarri.  I said yes but I was lying.” - Kim Thorson.

About three kilometres from Kalbarri the flow of the river met with the incoming tide to produce a turbulence that “shook fillings loose”.

About a kilometre from the caravan park Adrian’s motor began to miss and splutter.  Kim elevated the tank to get the last precious vapours into the ailing motor.

As it turned out Kim wasn’t lying -  they had enough fuel to reach the park under full power.  Adrian refuelled all the tanks and headed off alone up river to meet with the other two boats and their crew.
 

It was late in the day before the boats returned.

The consensus of the crew was that it was a great trip through magnificent gorge country that would be an ideal venue for a race.

Once again Kim and Phil prepared a magnificent meal. See Le Kalbarri Cafe.

Before the flambe could be served for dessert the ice cream had to be retrieved from the mobile home next door where the owners had kindly stored it in their freezer.

Someone forgot to tell Bocky that it was guarded by Australia’s biggest alsation/rottweiler cross.  Bocky returned as white as the ice cream.

“Phillipe and Kime served food that wouldn’t be bettered at the Parmelia.” - Bill Breheny.