We all woke fairly early this morning after a good 8 hours
sleep so had breakfast and packed up the van and on the road by 8am. Exciting to be heading east after days of
driving north and started to feel like
we were really on holiday and getting away from it all. Just a convoy of caravans heading in the
opposite direction to us - obviously lots of people have decided to head north
and escape the cold winter down south.
We drove directly to Derby with only one short stop at the boab tree
just outside the town which has significance both as an aboriginal sacred site
and for its use as a prison for the
police to use when moving prisoners through to Derby. A big tour group was just leaving as we got
there so that was good timing and we were able to get photos with noone but us
in them.
A quick fuel stop in Derby and we bought some pre made
sandwiches for lunch later and some hot chips for morning tea straight
away. We then turned on to the Gibb
River Road (at last!) and stopped to take the requisite photo at the big sign
measuring all the distances to the other end.
We then started our long journey and said goodbye to our phone coverage
and Facebook for a couple of weeks. On
and off the bitumen through to the Windjana Gorge road and then it started
getting very rough and corrugated so Larry let the tyres down on the car and
caravan which helped a bit. Arrived at
Windjana Gorge about 1.30pm and found quite a few caravans and campers already
in the campground. Found a shady spot
and unhitched the van and set up chairs and awnings etc so we could sit and eat
our sandwiches in the shade as it is pretty hot - about 34 degrees and the sun
has a definite bite to it. After lunch
we walked into Windjana Gorge which wasn't too bad as it descends into the
Gorge through shady trees and once in the Gorge the sun was behind the cliffs
and we were in the shade. We walked
along the water's edge and saw lots of fresh water crocodiles cruising through
the water or sun baking on the banks and rocks on the opposite side of the water
- they are pretty used to the human
traffic on the other side and wisely keep their distance.
Keeping an eye on the time we made our way back to the car
and drove down the road to Tunnel Creek National Park. By the time we got there it was about 4pm and
most people had left and by the time we were half way into the tunnel we were
the only ones there. It was very
exciting descending through big marbly boulders into the tunnel and then we
changed into our wading shoes and took to the creek to wade through the
tunnel. Actually the water was
reasonably low so there was only a few times we had to wade through the creek
to about knee height and the rest of the time we were walking along dry river
bed or steeping through shallow streams.
As we were the only ones there it was pretty dark and therefore exciting
when a bat suddenly whizzed past your head and we startled a freshie who
thought all the humans were gone and did a giant stomach splash back into the
water when we happened across it. Ben
thought it was all pretty cool - both because we were in a tunnel, in cool
water and out of the heat and because it was just pretty cool to have such an
exciting place to ourselves.
As we got back to the car some other people arrived so that
was good timing and they will have an exciting time going through the tunnel on
their own and in the dark as the sun was just setting as we started on the
journey back to the campsite. It was
just dark when we got back to the caravan so we immediately set to cooking up yummy
steak and salad for dinner and then sat outside in the cool breeze (which then
inextricably became a warm breeze!) writing this and relaxing.
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