And so at last, after a fleeting resupply visit at Broome it was time to point the bonnet east and start our journey into the mighty Kimberley. We were held up briefly on the road to Derby due to heavy vehicle accident. It seemed the beer truck had tipped his trailer wheels off the bitumen edge and lost control, ending up with the trailer on its side and beer all over the road. Thankfully no one appeared hurt, and after a short hold up whilst they righted the trailer, we continued on our way without any more incidents.
Lunch on the Fitzroy River at Willare Bridge
We stopped for lunch out of Derby at the Willare Bridge. It was a very pleasant spot to stop for lunch - although we kept well back from the river's bank ever conscious of the Estuarine Crocodile. The river here apparently also has freshwater relatives of sharks and sword fish living in it, left behind when the water levels dropped some millions of years ago. We didn't see any of course on our brief stop.
Anyone who has been to Derby has stopped at the old boab tree reputedly used as a prison in the late 1800s. It would also seem a vast majority of those visitors have carved their initials in the trunk - yet somehow this ancient tree survives. The history of the tree as a prison is none too clear - perhaps a good thing as it seems the early European history of this part of the world, particularly with respect to the treatment of the local Aboriginal people, is nothing to be too proud about.
We refuelled in Derby and headed off, with the sun sinking low in the sky behind us, along a thin dotted line on the map marked The Gibb River Road.
The stuff of legend, the road was originally built in two parts to service the cattle stations of the Kimberely. The road over the range was completed in 1965 - providing a link to the ports of Derby and Wyndam. Closed during the wet season, it is now a tourist mecca attracting people from all over Australia allowing them to visit the heart of the Kimberley.
It is isolated and remote - however we have not felt at all alone. We are in the fortunate position of having about three weeks to travel the Gibb, and daily the crowds increase. Whilst the road is hard on tyres, the corrugations pretty feirce in sections, the biggest danger these days is a Britz or Apollo 4WD troopy driven by Sven or Helga on a week long rental between Broome and Darwin.
Our first camp was on the banks of the Lennard River. This free camp was a great place for us to relax for a couple of nights. We caught up on a bit of schoolwork, and tried to catch some cherabin or freshwater crayfish. Providing hours of entertainment, the Little Fisherman caught our only Cherabin of the day - but being of a rather small stature, it was released to grow a little bigger.
Tunnel Creek
The following morning we unhitched the camper at the Windjana Gorge Campground, and drove down to Tunnel Creek. Stetching some 750 metres, Tunnel Creek follows the course of a creek that cut through an ancient 'barrier reef' that marked the edge of the continent, some 360 million years ago. It was also for a time the hideout of Jandamalla, the Aboriginal tracker turned rebel who fought against the early pastrolists and settlers in this country.
It is a popular place to visit, and we passed a bus load of tourists coming out of the cave. We pressed on passed the boulder strewn entrance (the cave was easy to enter up until 2007 when the roof of the entrance collapsed) and found ourselves in a magnificent chamber. The floor of the cave was wide and sandy, with delightful pools that looked almost enticing. It was nothing like the Stockyard Gully system we had explored earlier near Geraldton. This was a much larger and more cavernous cave system, it had permanent water in the cave, and more importantly in that permanent water there were residents of a distinctly reptilian nature!
We decided to proceed, and soon the cave got dark and Mum realised the batteries of her head torch were pretty low. In fact her head torch was very dull indeed - which as it turned out probably wasn't a bad thing!
We found ourselves almost alone inside the cave for much of our visit. We seemed to time our run between bus loads of tourists, and with only a handful of other people venturing into the cave proper, it gave us plenty of time to contemplate this special place.
As we walked through the cave, we were mostly on a sandy beach, however several times we had to cross the creek. The water wasn't as cold as we expected, or as deep - being little over knee deep. About half way along a roof collapse provided a welcome shaft of sunlight, and we found our first evidence of the crocodiles.
It was near the end of the cave that we found our first pair of red eyes watching us from the water. Mum's headtorch was so dull she couldn't see the eyes - and didn't believe the Little Helper's insistence that there was indeed a crocodile just a few metres away!
We only had one more crossing to go until we would exit the tunnel, and it looked deep. The crocodile was a few metres away - there was nothing else to do but press on. We carefully put our toes in the water... keeping a close eye on the red eyes, only to watch them disappear as the crocodile sunk below the water on our entrance. We were all OK whilst we could see the crocodile. Now it had disappeared our hearts were beating a little faster. We huddled into a tight group and continued wading across with eyes on stalks. We made it across unscathed and sat at the exit feeling pretty good about our brave crossing. It was only on our return we saw there were in fact two crocodiles in the pool we had just crossed... and we had to do it again!
We made it out without any dramas, and the boys told everyone we met coming the other way of all the perils that awaited them on their journey. It was pretty funny to hear them explain where the crocodiles were, but I think it also gave a few people who were doubting their courage to do the walk a bit more confidence to give it a go.
Windjana Gorge
We returned to Windjana Gorge campground and set up camp, before wandering down to the gorge in the early evening. Part of the same coral reef as Tunnel Creek, this gorge also has many fossils of ancient sea life in its walls. Its beauty was hard to capture on film - and the contrast of the vegetation within the gorge to the savanna outside made the walk up the gorge feel almost like a themed exhibit at a zoo where you walk into another world.
The permanent water in Windjana Gorge looked delightful for a swim, however was home to a large number of freshwater crocodiles. Apparently they are almost in plague numbers here, causing them to be a little more aggressive than normal, meaning you can't (shouldn't) swim here. Whilst there are no known fatalities from freshwater crocodile attacks, they have been known the bite when cornered or accidently troden on. Their mouth is full of horrible sharp pointy teeth, so we happily gave them a wide berth. It was fascinating watching them for a while and we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the gorge.
Mount Hart
Our next camp was on the former pastoral lease of Mount Hart Station. Whilst the majority of the lease is now a conservation park run by DPAW, the former homestead precinct is leased by APT. The main focus of their operation is the homestead and looking after bus loads of tourists, however they do also have a shady camping area beside a swimming hole. We set up camp and then went to check out some of the other swimming holes.
Being 50km north of the Gibb River Road, the camp ground was nice and quiet - and the swimming holes also deserted. We enjoyed a fantastic afternoon splashing around in the rocky pools, enjoying the solitude and serenity... Whilst our towels got wet, our bathers again remained dry. Bliss ;)
We departed the following morning, and recounted the creek crossings on the 50km journey back to the main road. We still didn't tally with the official 36 creek crossings, but it provided entertainment for the little ones.
We were then back on the Gibb River Road, and started winding though the ancient King Leopold Ranges. This ancient sandstone (some 2 billion years old) predates complex life forms, so is fossil free, but the main ridges of hardened pink and white quartzite often provided breathtaking vistas that no film will ever capture. Occasionally we would find ourselves with a spectacular vista opened before us, and would hope that some record could be captured.
Bell Gorge
We camped two nights at Silent Grove, the designated camping area for the picturesque Bell Gorge. We bumped into another family also travelling for 12 months here, and the kids formed a little bikie gang exploring the campground. Marshmallows at the end of the day was a very enjoyable treat!
We decided to make an early start the following morning and visit Bell Gorge before it got too hot. Perhaps we should have stayed until it warmed up! The view from the top of the falls was lovely, but we soon made our way into the swimming hole at the bottom of the falls.
The water in the pool was delightful - however our early morning arrival meant the wind still had a bit of chill in it. We spent all morning here, alternating between swims under the falls, and then drying off in the sun. It was simply beautiful - and whilst there were occasional bus loads of tourists and other travellers, we never felt crowded or hemed in. The buses must hvae been on a tight schedule becuase their customers only seemed to manage a 15 minute dip before returning back to the top of the falls and then on to their waiting air conditioned 4WD buses.
We returned to the top after lunch and admired the view from the top of Bell Gorge one more time, before returning to camp and having a tetchy afternoon attempting to do some schoolwork. We normally do our schooling in the morning, but in our attempt to enjoy the gorge before the day warmed up, we had negotiated an afternoon schooling session. It was a poor choice - but the boy's soon caught up with their friends and started a game of Monopoly. Their maths skills were remarkable with the wheeling and dealing that ensued - just don't tell them they're learning!
As far as the Little Helpers were concerned, Silent Grove had been a great camp. A nice wide area to ride around on, friends to play with, and marshmallows.... what more could you possibly want? Our next camp was very different - but exceeded our expectations. And even the Little Helpers loved it too!
Click here to to Part II of our Kimberley Adventure: http://project2014australia.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/gibb-river-road-part-ii-west-kimberley.html
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