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Made an early start and were on the road by 8:30am, heading back to the Imintji aboriginal store to try & fix the fridge. Luckily they had exactly the required fuses we needed and Grant replaced in the battery so fridge now back in working order. As it was only down overnight most of our food seems fine which is good.
Couldn't resist some real coffee either seeing as we were there - so a flat white & a cappucino also went down very well.
Back on the road we were headed for the turn off for Windjana Gorge & Tunnel Creek National Parks. The GRR headed over the King Leopold Ranges which made a nice change as there were a couple of good lookouts (middle section of the road had been quite flat with just long grass & trees at the side of the road). The turn off road actually runs through to Fitzroy Crossing & again an unsealed road. It was a bit ropey in places (worse than the GRR - Grant did a rather spectacular sideways skid in it at one point on the return trip !) and we followed it down to Tunnel Creek Nat Park
(about 55 kms off the turn off).
Tunnel Creek is actually a 750m long tunnel through the Napier Ranges, which are limestone ranges made from an old Devonian reef (Great Barrier style reef) that was here millions of years ago when the Kimberley was all a huge inland sea with the site (& Windjana Gorge) well known internationally for their geology. Tunnel Creek is also famous as an aboriginal outlaw ("Jandmarra" or "Pigeon") hid out at tunnel creek for 3 years before being found by the police. You are able to walk all the way through the tunnel (wading / swimming at points - depending on time of year & water depth) to the other side.
Checked out what everyone else was wearing and settled on our togs with a T-shirt over the top & sturdy shoes. We also decided not to take the DSLR camera with us, as too risky for getting wet & destroyed (so hence photos are from the iPhone).
The entrance to the creek itself was quite tricky to find & when we got there we found a family who had camped beside us the night before, hunting around for the entrance. It was
not at all obvious where to go as you just came to a cliff with a whole bunch of large boulders at the bottom of it which disguised there was even a tunnel / opening there. Grant worked out where to go and after a bit of a scramble over some very large boulders at the entrance way and a walk through ankle deep water we were in. The tunnel has a creek in the bottom of it, so the walk along follows dry banks and then some wading through some permanent pools en route. The deepest one was waist deep, but the water was not that chilly - refereshing but not icy cold. Once used to the wading / getting wet bit (& not trying to think too much that there might be snakes there) it was very exciting & eerie. At some of the pools you could hardly see the other side with the head torch, so we would wait for someone else to come along or return from the other direction & see where they went.
Lots of stalactites too along the way and some caves / caverns shooting off to the side.
Eventually we made it
to the other end, and then headed back again. Probably the hardest bit was actually getting in the entrance to start with as the large boulders were very slippy when you had wet feet.
Overall it was fantastic though and a great experience.
Headed back to Windjana Gorge campground for the night (35 kms or so back towards the GRR). More bush camping (4th consecutive night) and loads & loads of mossies & flies again. We are getting really fed up with them, both of us have heaps of bites over our legs, arms & hands. Turned out to be a very muggy night - very very humid - and some very light drizzly rain from early evening through until the middle of the night. Thought the rain might turn heavier & stormier overnight but all good - I guess it is supposed to be the Dry Season.
Distance travelled : 222 kms (3 hours, 30 mins)
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Paul
non-member comment
Rare sights
Tunnel creek looks awesome. You guys really are seeing/experiencing lot on this trip! I think that's the first photographic recording of the rare Scottish Ninja!