So I’m cruising up and down the Gibb River Road, which goes through the Kimberlies (and has no cell/3g coverage).
Along the way on this trip I have varied between free camping in the desert, camp site or a motel/resort.
Right now I am in Mornington Wilderness Camp, which is primarily a chunk of land owned by a private non profit, AWC. They buy land, de-stock it and introduce good fire management.
At this site they also have tented cabins, and after 2 nights camping I felt like a change. Great timing- an early rain storm came in just as I walked into the tent, making me feel pretty happy.
The camp has a team of scientists along with operations and accomodation teams. Sadly the research team’s server had gone kaput, with 46gb of data at risk. Happily my brother, who turned up the next morning, worked with the team to save the data, and right now we are about to eat a BBQ with a load of meat supplied by the grateful locals, along with a bag of goodies complete with hand drawn thank you note. That’s artist Katie in the picture, and we are drinking some of those goodies.
It was great to peek behind the scenes here- an astonishing team of people working in important scientific & environmental areas and for an impressive and rapidly growing organisation. Many thanks to Richard, Sarah, David, Katie and everyone else here. And thanks also for the wifi!
Lance Wiggs 