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Published: October 5th 2009
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Day 159 - Windjana Gorge National Park
Another strange occurrence in the middle of the night, a lone calf mooing in the campground! It woke us both up but Darryl must have been half asleep still when he asked if it was a bear! No love, we’re not in Canada! Mind you we had to get the doona out from under the bed last night because it was so cold half way through the night! Cold, we’d forgotten what that felt like!
Anyway, the mooing could have been part of a dream but there was physical evidence outside the shower block in the morning! Something for the groundsman to get his teeth into, not literally obviously!
We’re off on another overnight adventure today which will take us along yet another outback, probably corrugated road! The caravan gets to stay in the corner of the camp ground and we’ll be spending tonight under canvas.
Despite being off nice and early we don’t manage to leave much before 7.45am but we’re still on the road before the heat of the day kicks in!
Not much to tell about the journey up to the point of turning off the
highway, bitumen is pretty straight forward and there were no road trains trying to mow us down today. We notice an immediate difference in the road surface when we turn off though and we wonder what we’re in for over the next 95 ks! The signs are out telling us that the road is open but to 4WDs only, bet you a $ that we see at least one 2WD trying to make it through before we head home tomorrow!
We take on a few creek crossings but only one has water in it and it’s not very deep at all. The rest of the road is corrugated in sections, not pleasant but we’re getting used to it now.
There are a couple of other travellers on the road this morning but not many, you can really tell that it’s the end of the season in that respect and it’s so great having many of these great places to ourselves almost.
We pass the entrance to Tunnel Creek, another national park we will visit on the way out tomorrow and we start to see lots of cattle roaming around the place. There are stations (cattle not trains)
out here and an Aboriginal community, what a wild and wonderful place to live.
Windjana Gorge National Park is our destination today and when we arrive it’s so early in the morning that the people who camped here last night haven’t left yet! There are great facilities here including flushable toilets and solar showers which means hot water! We also find numerous fire pits and wood BBQs, a bit ironic as we’ve packed a cold salad for tonight’s dinner so as to avoid any problems should we have found a fire ban in place.
The tent goes up quick as a flash so we decide to check out the gorge. It’s a beauty and is bursting with wildlife. We only walk 800 metres in and we’ve already seen 24 freshwater crocodiles! We sit there for ages to watching them before we wander through into the gorge a bit more. There are crocs everywhere, it’s fantastic to see and they’re not bothered by us at all although we are very respectful that we’re in their territory so we won’t get too close! We find one that seems to have part of his snout missing, a bit strange and he’s
quite a big croc too so maybe there was a bit of fight at some stage or he’s been caught in a trap.
After our quick wander around we relax back in camp while the mid-day sun blazes down. No point being out walking when it’s so hot, might as well sit in the shade and watch the birdlife nearby. There are plenty of finches and a huge bower bird that’s giving us a great dancing display.
Our second visit into the gorge was later in the afternoon and it brought us more encounters with the crocs, a few Brolgas, a Whistling Kite and plenty of cheeky fish swimming under the crocs noses! It’s great to be able to sit on the banks and watch things unfold naturally. We think we see a bit of hanky panky going on between two of the crocodiles, it has all the tell tale signs of their mating process and we sit spell bound looking on. It’s the right time of year as they generally mate at the end of the dry season and one of the crocs (probably the female) has raised her snout which presents a submissive posture to the
male, they touch and rub chins and there’s a lot of ‘frolicking’ in the water! How fantastic!
We were joined by another couple who have come to the gorge for the sunset and the colours from the walls but once they spot the crocodiles in front of us they stay and watch for a while. They both seem keen photographers and were carrying a separate lens bag which was accidentally knocked by the lady and started to roll down the steep embankment we were on towards the water and the crocs! Darryl reacted quickly and dived in the way of the rolling bag missing it the first time but just managing to grab it the second. Trouble was, he was now heading for the water too and was only stopped in the nick of time by the lady owner of the bag! He made it back to his feet, covered from head to foot in dust and with a cut on his face but victoriously held aloft the saved bag containing a camera lens! It really was a lucky catch. We all showed our appreciation by falling about in fits of laughter, snorting was even heard and it wasn’t
from me - it was from the lady owner of the bag! They were a foreign couple, German we think and although their English was good it wasn’t brilliant they conveyed their thanks albeit with what seemed a bit of embarrassment about the state Darryl was now in!
We decided to head back to camp for a shower because the episode had disturbed the crocs anyway!
Back at camp we both had a lovely hot shower in the great facilities and then set about dinner, a delicious tuna salad which was so easy in comparison to cooking!
The night sky was beautiful and we tried a few shots with the camera to capture the memory and then tucked ourselves into bed.
It’s great looking up into the starry sky before you fall asleep, especially with a full moon overhead. Hooooowwwwwwwllllll! Luckily, there was none of that going on. It was all very peaceful.
Dar and Sar
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Jan Kettle
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Wild Life Photographer(s) of the Year
And the award must go to ..... Sarah (and Darryl?) Howells!