DAY 1
It’s 5am and the sky is starting to turn from black to red –
that magical colour that only the outback has. Our backs already starting to
get sticky from our big packs and the warm morning, we boarded the truck and
set off for a couple of days in the West Kimberleys.
First stop was the Willare Roadhouse to stock up on last
minute essentials, (coffee), before tackling the Gibb River Road. Originally
constructed in the 1960’s to transport stock between cattle stations, “The Gibb”
is a 660km dirt track right through the heart of the Kimberleys. I’ve done a
fair bit of off-roading but this got me good. Some parts of the road are so
heavily corrugated your brain rattles around in your skull. And the dust. Oh man.
Everything gets covered in a fine layer of red dust. EVERYTHING. In the truck
we were continually breathing it in, especially when some smart aleck thought
it would be a good idea to overtake us.
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| Willare Roadhouse |
We stopped off just South of Derby (about 220km from Broome and
the first town to be settled in the Kimberleys), to see a huge Boab tree. Boab trees are amazing,
they look like something out of a Dr Seuss book. This particularly tree is
about 1500 years old and has circumference of nearly 15 metres with a hollow
centre. It was used in the 1800’s as a temporary prison for indigenous
prisoners being walked into Derby for sentencing. The graffiti carved into the
tree from these hundreds of prisoners is still visible today.
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| Boab Jail |
Next stop, (only) 145km down the road was Windjana Gorge
National Park. Part of a 375 million year old Devonian reef system, the gorge
was carved out by the Lennard River and is over 300km long and some of the
walls are up to 300m high. There are deep freshwater pools all along the gorge and
permanent waterholes, a perfect habitat for freshwater crocodiles. Easily
accessible for hiking during the dry season we walked along the banks of the
river, which are surrounded by native fig and liechardt trees, which attract
fruit bats. We started playing Spot the Croc before we realised we were
entirely surrounded by them! There were so many on all the banks and in the
water. Luckily “freshies” are smaller and less aggressive than their salt water
counterparts and were actually more scared of us than we were of them. I
actually managed to get quite close for a photo opportunity. Getting in the
water with them would be another matter though! Little did I know that later
that day I would be doing exactly that….
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| Windjana Gorge |
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| Freshwater Croc |
From Windjana we headed to Tunnel Creek National Park – part
of the same Devonian reef system. A huge cave has been carved by the Tunnel
Creek waters flowing beneath the Napier Range. We walked through the tunnel for
about 750m, the water waist deep in some places. It had many beautiful
formations; stalactites and stalagmites, reflecting off the water. Once you get
far enough in it is pitch black. I thought I’d been super prepared bringing a
head torch and two sets of bike lights as back-up. Stepping into the pitch
black tunnel I discovered my head torch had run out of batteries and the
flashing lights of the bike hardly made an impact on the darkness. Luckily the
girls were slightly more prepared than me and between us we managed to
illuminate our way. Splashing through the creek we suddenly see two eyes
reflecting back at us. I kid you not. Hello croc! Let’s just say running
through water in the dark is quite hard.
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| Tunnel Creek |
Camp that night was at Silent Grove. We set up camp around a
big fire pit and cooked dinner for the night. We were sleeping in swags. For
those of you who don’t know the pleasure of a swag, it is basically a canvass
cocoon with a thin mattress inside. You get in and zip yourself up and ta-da,
bed time. They are actually quite comfortable to sleep in. But cold. I was not
expecting the temperature to drop so much at night. I ended up having to put on
all the clothes I brought with me. But the best thing about them is that they
have a mesh screen just above your face so you can look up at the night sky,
which in the Kimberleys which have no other light pollution, is just
incredible. There is a trick to assembling them though, and after a very early
start and a very long day, and a broken head torch, it’s safe to say it was a
bit of a struggle!
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| Camping in Swags at Silent Grove |
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| Starry night sky |
DAY 2
Another 5am start. With the embers still going in the fire
pit, we grabbed a quick breakfast and a cup of hot Milo (amazing, I’d recommend
if you haven’t tried) and headed back on the road. Day 2 was going to be a day
of gorges.
First stop was Bell Gorge. Following the wet season, great
volumes of water cascade from the King Leopold Ranges into beautiful waterfalls
at Bell Gorge. A short hike over rocks and rivers we reached the gorge. The
waterfall cascades perfectly over the cliffs down into a deep pool of water. It’s
an absolutely amazing spot for swimming (although colder than I was expecting!)
and the pool itself is surrounded by large flat rocks and ledges perfect for
drying off and soaking up the sun.
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| Girls Gone Wild - Bells Gorge |
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| Bells Gorge |
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| Bells Gorge |
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| Morning swims |
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| Hiking back out of the gorge |
Gorge number two was called Galvans Gorge: a pretty little
pool with a small multi-tiered waterfall. I was told there were freshwater
turtles here but we didn’t see any. It was much smaller than Bell but equally
as beautiful and complete with a rope swing from the overhanging gums! We spent
a few hours here amusing ourselves jumping into the pool and swimming,
basically using it as an excuse to wash ourselves from all the dust.
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| Rope swing at Galvans Gorge |
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| Jumping into the gorge |
Last gorge of the day was Manning Gorge which I think was my
favourite. It was a much bigger walk in (about 1.5hours each way) but well
worth the schlep. We got to the start of the track about 4 hours before sunset
and encountered a ranger who told us we shouldn’t go because we wouldn’t get
back in time. Confident of our hiking abilities we decided to go anyway, to
which his response was “well don’t be calling me when you get stuck – I won’t
be coming to rescue you”. Gee, thanks mate. Leaving the grumpy ranger behind,
the first part of the hike involved crossing a pool of water. Not wanting to
get wet immediately (and also knowing that crocodiles frequent that particular
pool often) the national park authorities had kindly set up a tin boat on a
pully system which allowed us to cross staying dry. There wasn’t much shade and
it was very hot and quite steep. The pools at Manning were very deep and there
was a large waterfall which we could swim right up to and under which was
amazing. Conscious of the ranger’s warning we didn’t spend too long swimming
before heading back up the trail to where we were parked.
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| Hiking to Manning Gorge |
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| Under the waterfall |
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| Deep pools at Manning Gorge |
We spent the night camping on a cattle station at Mt
Elizabeth. This was a real life cattle station, with wranglers and cowboys walking
around. Very tired after all the swimming, we settled down for the night,
hoping we hadn’t set up our swags on any cow poo.
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