Gorgeous

The next dawned with the promise of yet another gorge excursion. We climbed into our 4WD bus at Fitzroy Crossing not knowing what to expect and imagining another walk. It didn't take us long to alight on the banks of the Fitzroy River with waters still high after the end of the monsoon season. We were told about the Aboriginal tribes on whose traditional lands we were standing before we found, to my surprise at least, that we didn't confront a walk, but rather a trip in a flat bottomed boat.
















We soon departed on the broad, but placid, river. At this point the banks were low and thickly wooded, but soon the banks heightened and became much steeper on both sides. We also began to see some unusual rock formations - but on an even grander scale than I reported in a previous post.










And we drifted closer to shore to get better images of the rock formations and even view some Aboriginal art.











The banks even began to overhang, as shown above and the colouration of the rocks reveals how massively high the water rises in the wet season. I enjoyed the fancy patterning shown here on the left. But on the other side of the river, the forest lingered.












The were even some interesting rock formations in the middle of the river at a spot where the rover banks lowered dramatically close to where a tributary entered.











On looking closer at the sandy beach we spotted something that shouldn't have surprised us - a crocodile, but I'm pretty sure that this specimen is the fresh-water variety and not a saltie. This was nice to know, but I'm pretty sure that not even a saltie would attack a metal flat-bottomed boat however attractive the potential meal! More interesting cliffs are shown below.




















Again, the sizeable overhangs suggest massive erosion at work in the swirling monsoon waters. I'm glad we were viewing the gorge at the start of the dry season!

























How's the above right picture for a massive wall of rock?













Well! That's some gorge and it was lovely viewing it from the boat. Its name? It's the Geikie Gorge on the massive Fitzroy River which flows into the massive King Sound near Derby (pr. Durby). That sound is about 100 km (c. 60 miles) long and up to 50 km wide! It's well worth a visit.

AS

Tunnel Creek

Our trip through the Kimberleys was with a party of 14 aboard a 4WD Bus and was to take nine days. And on the first day after we left Broome we travelled up the Gibb River Road which is mainly dirt for its almost 700 km (435 miles). Three of the other hazards of these outback roads are the frequent low-level creek creek crossings and wandering cattle and native wildlife. The cattle properties are huge and one we came across was 2.5 million acres. Here a few photos which, for me convey something of this lonely countryside:






























After about 130 km along the Gibb River Road we did a left turn towards Fitzroy Crossing and three successive national parks: Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek, and Brooking Gorge. The first two concern us here. Windjana Gorge lived up to its billing - pristine and beautiful countryside:

Our first encounter were these vertical cliffs. Look at the clear skies and brilliantly sunny weather.

This placid little river flowed through the gorge, but a few months ago, in the wet season, it was possibly a raging torrent. The gorge had many spectacular overhanging cliffs like this one, which is testimony to massive river flows after heavy rain. And in 2018, Broome is reported as having received 600 mm (24 inches) in one day.


And guess what we've spotted on the right! Yes, a crocodile - but this time a freshwater croc, not the man-eating salt-water (salties) variety. And there were plenty around!



Even given their more placid reputation, I'd have still been wary of dipping my toes in the water.













Aren't these cliffs just gorgeous! I loved the shapes and colours of the rocks, which like much of the region are very old. We saw some rocks with an estimated age of 1.9 billion years - or half the age of the earth.



























And so we reached the end of this section - a great walk on easy paths.




Our next destination was tunnel creek - yes, I walked through an interesting tunnel drilled through rock by a river. In part, we walked on 'paths' alongside the river and, when necessary we walked through the river itself wearing special water-proofed shoes. The tunnel was several 100 m long and very dark so we carried solar powered torches (pre-charged in daylight). The water wasn't particularly deep and only came up to knee level at most. Here's the path into the tunnel.

As we got closer to the entrance, the terrain got rockier and rockier and some members of our party pulled aside. I kept going, along with Bec and Max, so I had some support. At last! Here's the tunnel entrance, and a glimpse of the pools through which we'd have to wade.




















We were dwarfed by the scenery! And, again, I was mesmerised by the contorted shapes and colours of the rocks and the occasional deeper pools of water. It was about this point that I saw a small freshie (freshwater croc), but we all kept going anyway. None of us was eaten or attacked.






















There were some stalactites - right.









And we could see daylight though cracks in the roof as we progressed to the tunnel's exit.












































All I can say is that this was one of the most exciting bush-walks I have ever taken. It was brilliant. From here it was a pleasant drive to Fitzroy Crossing - on the banks of the Fitzroy River - where we overnighted prior to the next exciting day.

AS