Gibb River Road: Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

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Saturday 23^rdJune 2012

We left our Broome campsite at around 8am. The wind had continued very strong all night. I was a bit sad to leave Broome, as it has been a very comfortable and pleasant stay. We met with Mum, Dad, Marion and Richard at the Roebuck service station just out of Broome, then proceeded to Derby. We had a look at the old Prison Boab just outside Derby, a striking tree with a massive hollow trunk. We had lunch at the Derby jetty. The tides are huge here, even bigger than Broome. The water is brown due to silt from the Fitzroy River. Derby has a nice row of boab trees down the main street.

Shortly after leaving Derby we turned onto the Gibb River Road. Initially it was bitumen, then changing to sections of gravel. There are some lovely boabs here too, some very large. Such distinctive trees with their sparse foliage, bottle shape and silver bark. It is interesting how some have lots of light green leaves, some have a few, and some have almost none. There are also some nice tall wattles, and we saw some kapock trees (fluffy white flowers) apparently seeded from Afghan camel drivers who used it in bedding.

The road following the turnoff to Windjana Gorge is exceedingly corrugated. We dropped the speed right back to about 20km/h, which didn’t help much, so proceeded at around 40-50 km/h to the campsite. Luckily it is only 20 km in. It is a very good campsite, large and flat and self-organised (no numbered sites), with some flushing toilets and even some solar heated showers, and water. It is $26 a night for our family, which is not bad. We’re in the “quiet” (no generators) site, with a great view of the imposing black cliffs (an ancient Devonian reef, 350 million years old).

After setting up camp we went for a short walk along the “Savannah path”, through grassland towards the cliffs. It was evening and there was beautiful light on the cliffs and on the trees along the path.

Dad built a fire, which we shared with another family camping. Kyle roasted some marshmallows and Alex ate some raw.



Camping conveniences

Some items which have been very handy so far include:

1. Small clothesline, stored in camper boot during transit and attached to spare wheel when camped. Very handy for towels and bathers, and in this location (under rear bed) it is out of the rain.

2. Multipurpose bucket/tub – can be used as a small bath, shoe storage container, or washing basket.

3. Solar panels – for recharging camper batteries, when parked.

4. Electronic accessory storage device – holds camera cables, headphones, chargers for various devices, small torches. Thanks to my sister Jenny for giving us this one. (see photo)

5. One cup stainless steel coffee plunger – perfect for quality morning coffee for one, and robust enough for bumpy roads. Best used in conjunction with a Keep Cup so that the coffee is ready to travel as needed.

6. Solar torches – small and light, Mike has put a dot of Velcro on them so that they sit on the dashboard for daily recharging.

7. In-car dvd player and Nintendo DS toys – keeping the kids happy for long, long stretches in the car. Not the whole time though!



There are more but these are particularly handy.



Sunday 24^th June 2012

After a very cold start, the day was warm and mild. In the morning we did the Windjana Gorge walk. This is normally a 7km walk however the last kilometre or so has been closed due to wet season damage and to manage weeds so it was somewhat shorter. It was a lovely walk, with the walls of the old Devonian reef (350 million years old) towering as cliffs on the side of the gorge, and nice pools of water running through what would be a good sized river in the wet season. Lovely trees, vines and grasses line the edges, and there were some pretty birds including a zebra finch and a rainbow bee- eater. We also saw several groups of freshwater crocodiles in the water and a couple sunbaking on the opposite sandbank. One that was on the bank was a very good size for a freshwater croc. It was great to see these crocodiles in their natural environment. Alex and Kyle found the walk a little on the long side, it did take about three hours. Dad didn’t come with us as he had found an alternator belt on his vehicle had failed on the way here and he needed to replace it.

After lunch, we drove about 35 km down to Tunnel Creek. This is a 750m long tunnel with the creek currently in the form of pools running through the tunnel. We took torches and a camera and waded through, luckily it is not too deep at the moment (only mid-thigh for me) as it is pretty cold. We saw an eel swimming along just in front of Alex. Inside the tunnel, there were a lot of stalactites. The rocks near the entrance are also a very attractive pink and white colour. The roof has fallen in about halfway along, creating a daylight section. On the way out, we saw a big python curled up near the entrance. Back at the campsite, we saw a black kite circling overhead.

We had a campfire in the evening, shared with neighbouring campers. We saw a huge meteor burning through the sky, it appeared very low and close and was very spectacular.

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Comments

[Val Sheppard]

Boabab trees
Aren't boabab trees so fun! Not sure if it is the season for their fruit. A large pod (sort of like a football but smaller) with what we call cream of tartar in. They are sweetish tart little pebble things which you can suck. The Africans say that God was very angry and pulled up the trees and put them back head first, so that their branches are really the roots, hence the funny shapes of the branches.