To Windjana Gorge

Second leg of our trip starts today.  Early pickup and head towards the Gibb River Road towards Windjana Gorge.  Stop at Willare Roadhouse for smoko the on to lunch at the Windjana Gorge camp ground.  Sleeping under the stars tonight in a swag and sleeping bag…this will test the marriage!!!

The Gibb River Road seems to live up to its’ reputation, it is over 600 kilometres from Brome to El Questro along the road and almost all of it is gravel, or corrugations, or just plain dust.  Red and rough!

Stopped at the Derby (pronounced Derby, NOT Darby) Prison tree, a very cruel history but an interesting story.  Also there was the longest trough in the Southern Hemisphere, allegedly over 200 metres long.

Very small stop at Willare Bridge Roadhouse for fuel and snack then back on to the bone breaking road, got to the Windjana Gorge at about lunch time.  Very desolate and lonely camp ground.  Made even more so when we were issued our swags and sleeping bags.  After lunch we went up to Tunnel Creek.  This is a creek which runs under/through the Napier Range, walking through it with our Aboriginal guide, Jimmy, was interesting.  Tunnel Creek is about 700 metres long and very dark.  We were all issued with torches and walked through water almost knee deep.  The tunnel is about 15 metres wide and alternates between sandy, rocky and running water.  Jimmy was kind enough to point out several freshwater crocodiles living in the creek; we were walking within 10 metres of them, lucky none were hungry!!!  Beautiful scenes from start to finish with a cave in about half way which let light into the creek, really stunning colours.

Back to Winjana Gorge to sort out the fire and unload all the food and kitchen stuff.  A walk down to the Gorge then to watch as the sun set, reflecting off the red and black walls of the gorge on to the water (which by the way was also filled with crocodiles, too many to count!!!  Not a safety fence to be seen.  The locals tell us they are not very hungry – so far that’s been true.

Worn out and after tea crashed under the stars and had a very good sleep.

Jen and Vernon at the Derby prison tree

Pam and Vernon with a termite mound

Longest trough

Willare Roadhouse

Long way from anywhere

Lunch at Windjana Gorge

Bedroom at Windjana Gorge

Jimmy, our guide who took us through Tunnel Creek.  he told us the entrance was quite large for many years.  When he was 10 years old an elder died, they went to the entrance at Tunnel Creek the next morning and found a huge rock had fallen across the entrance causing the entrance to be just big enough for one person to get through.

This is the rock that fell, didn't look closely at this photo for a couple of days...makes you believe in ghosts????

The resident crocodile

Halfway point

Stunning

The exit at the far end of the tunnel

Looking back inside

The entry down to Windjana Gorge

The creek bank

Some of those friendly crocs

Some of the cliff face

Watching for crocs

A reflected sunset