With only a two hour drive between Bell and Windjana, we arrived with plenty of time to choose a good campsite and set up camp before heading 37km to Tunnel Creek. It is an amazing natural tunnel almost a kilometre long containing pools of fresh water, stalactites, stalagmites and bats hanging from the ceilings. The roof of the tunnel in the middle has collapsed, so there is a little light there but otherwise you are reliant on torches. It was lovely and cool and a great experience. The deepest water was about a metre, so there was no swimming needed here. Photo shows the entrance at the far end. Where we entered, we had to 
scramble over big boulders again.
We ate our special fish from King Ash Bay for dinner and it was fantastic - possibly the best we have ever eaten. The following morning, we did the Windjana Gorge walk. It is a narrow canyon which was once a coral barrier reef. It's 3.5 km long, up to 100 metres deep and has near vertical walls for most of its length. In the dry season (now) the river is not flowing and is the home to lots and lots of freshwater crocs, from babies to full-size. They spend their day basking in the mud along the edge of the water. We watched in horror as 3 German backpackers approached 2 crocs on the river edge to take photos and they kept stamping their feet to try to get a reaction from them. Fortunately for them the crocs took off into the water and not the other way! It was an easy walk for us - flat, few rocks and shaded most of the way. The other two photos show the gorge and a couple of the crocs. Sadly for us this is the end of the Gibb River Road trip. Tomorrow we will be in Derby on the coast and then on to Broome the following day. Car is making some strange noises, hopefully it's just dust on something but it also sounds like something is a little loose. Not surprising after the roads we have been on. We've booked it in for service in Broome so that should fix anything that isn't right.
scramble over big boulders again.
We ate our special fish from King Ash Bay for dinner and it was fantastic - possibly the best we have ever eaten. The following morning, we did the Windjana Gorge walk. It is a narrow canyon which was once a coral barrier reef. It's 3.5 km long, up to 100 metres deep and has near vertical walls for most of its length. In the dry season (now) the river is not flowing and is the home to lots and lots of freshwater crocs, from babies to full-size. They spend their day basking in the mud along the edge of the water. We watched in horror as 3 German backpackers approached 2 crocs on the river edge to take photos and they kept stamping their feet to try to get a reaction from them. Fortunately for them the crocs took off into the water and not the other way! It was an easy walk for us - flat, few rocks and shaded most of the way. The other two photos show the gorge and a couple of the crocs. Sadly for us this is the end of the Gibb River Road trip. Tomorrow we will be in Derby on the coast and then on to Broome the following day. Car is making some strange noises, hopefully it's just dust on something but it also sounds like something is a little loose. Not surprising after the roads we have been on. We've booked it in for service in Broome so that should fix anything that isn't right.
No comments:
Post a Comment