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Day 92 Broome -> Derby*
Today 255kms / Total 14265kms
* A pedantic pronunciation pointer to non-Australians: Our destination for today is pronounced 'durby'; not the same as the identically-spelt English city usually pronounced 'darby'.
Off bright and early, but into a headwind with the odd splatter of rain turning the red dust on the bodywork into an outbreak of auto acne. We started to see more termite mounds again, with some looking like they were trying to emulate the magnetic variety in the Northern Territory.
The other thing we started seeing were boab trees (AKA baobab, or bottle trees).
Not exactly riveting scenery today, but it also wasn't too long a journey.
Derby has the biggest range of tides in Australia at up to 11.8m (38' 8"). We knew that a low, low was due about the time we were arriving, so we dropped the van off at the caravan park and drove down to the harbour.
Derby, 1.1m low tide.
We went back this evening to get the other end of the scale.
Derby, 8.7m high tide about five hours later.
The North West of the state relies on road transport for all manner of goods. Fuel is one such item.
I wonder what his consumption is? With 4 tanker trailers, he certainly won't run out though. :-))
Day 93 Derby
Today 36kms / Total 14301kms
A little sightseeing around town today. After a morning cuppa at a local art gallery, we set off for a few kms down the Gibb River Road to the Mowanjum Aboriginal Community where there is a dedicated gallery for local indigenous art.
The gallery was designed by the same folk who designed the Wandjina that featured in the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. While you couldn't take photos of the terrific art works inside, the outside of the building was interesting.
While the design may seem a trifle strange, all becomes revealed when seen from above.
If the building is viewed from above, it appears as a Wandjina, or spirit.
(Screen capture from Google Earth)
Off then to the Prison Tree.
This boab tree is 14m wide and has an opening or doorway 1m wide, 2m high. Capable of holding a number of prisoners, it was used by police during the 1890s as a lock up for Aboriginal prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing. It is believed to be around 1500 years old and also has Aboriginal religious significance.
Nearby in 1912, a man called Myall originally sank a bore - Myalls Bore - to a depth of 322m. The water from Myalls Bore was used to fill a 120m-long, 1.2m-wide cattle trough thought to be the longest in the southern hemisphere. Myalls Bore was capped as a water conservation measure as the flow from the artesian well slowed . The trough contains water now pumped by a windmill.
Although capped and now wind-powered, the overflow from the trough creates a mini-wetland. I doubt Mr Myall knew about PVC piping.
There are still large areas of the Kimberley that are inaccessible thanks to flood damage to the remote roads.
This is where we're going tomorrow. Good thing we're not over 15t.
We were hoping to do a day trip to Bell Gorge while we were at Windjana Gorge. :-(
We ended the day with a farewell meal of fish and chips at the harbour, watching possibly our last sunset over the sea for this trip.
Derby Wharf
Day 94 Derby -> Windjana Gorge Nat Pk
Today 163 kms / Total 14464kms
Goodbye to Derby; Hello to the inland of the Kimberley. Part of this morning will be down the western section of the Gibb River Road – a stretch of road that used to be on the list of ‘must-do’ tracks of every red-blooded 4WD adventurer. It was originally created to help cattle stations truck out their cattle to ports like Derby, but it also allows tourists to access parts of the north-west that were previously inaccessible. The cattle trucks are still king in this part of the world.
This (and the other five in convoy with him) were carting cattle to Derby. Note the width of the bitumen and how much of it the truck takes (ie: All of it!) At least we passed them where the road was sealed and we could get off to the side.
These days, while it’s still a dirt road, it’s becoming more civilised. However, due to the late wet season mentioned previously, parts of it are still closed. Unfortunately, this includes some gorges that were on our list to visit.
Fortunately it wasn’t a long day’s drive, as we had more strong headwinds and a lot of corrugations, so 145kms took about 2 and a half hours.
It included one very small creek crossing.
Just before we reached the National Park, we came across a pedestrian.
This monitor lizard was about 1.25m (4’). He wasn’t at all worried about the car and was taking his time crossing the road, but as soon as I got out to take a better photo, he ran off into the bush.
We checked into the Nat Pk, paid our camping fees and set up in the ‘generators’ area. While we don’t normally have to use our genny, it’s nice to not have to move if the situation required us to use it (battery recharging if the sun doesn’t shine, etc). By late afternoon, the camping area had about 20 groups, including a tour bus with 15 tents. The camping area here is very civilised, with showers with solar heated HOT WATER and real toilets that flush instead of the usual long-drop bush toilet! Sheer luxury!
It also has the toilet with the best loo-with-a-view we’ve come across on the trip.
The King Leopold Range runs alongside the campsite and is part of a Devonian ‘Great Barrier Reef’ that is 350 million years old. This has been eroded into spectacular cliff walls in grey and orange that glow in the afternoon sun.
The Lennard River has cut through the range and this has created Windjana Gorge.
We’re now in crocodile country. Australia has two major types of crocs - Freshwater and Estuarine (or Saltwater). Freshwater crocs are normally smaller and quite passive, while Estuarine ones (AKA ‘Salties’) are known man-eaters and are to be kept away from at all costs. Just because they’re called saltwater crocodiles does not mean they stay exclusively in saltwater.
Anyway, after about a 400m walk upstream from the campsite into the gorge, we came across a pool with four freshwater crocs.
All you could really see were pairs of eyes and nostrils above the water.
This one was about 1.5m (5’) long and just lazing in the cool water.
They certainly didn’t seem perturbed by the dozen or so people taking photos of them. We’re here for three nights, so we may well visit them again.
Day 95 Windjana Gorge (Tunnel Creek)
Today 64kms / Total 14528kms
Today’s visit was to Tunnel Creek Nat Pk. At Windjana Gorge, the river has cut through the limestone Devonian Reef, while at Tunnel Creek it has drilled its way through to the other side of the reef by going underground. There is no camping at Tunnel Creek, so we drove the 32kms for a day trip.
The entrance is beside a huge rock that seems to have fallen off the hills above.
Sue, hiding in the shadows.
The water flows into the cavern via a small set of rapids.
The intrepid adventurer can either walk down the rapid or try the alternate rock-scrambling route.
The major cavern has an opening to the sky, so for the first hundred metres, you can see what you’re doing and where you’re wading. A torch and footwear that can get wet are essential!
Looking back towards the entrance. Note the three people against the wall in the middle distance just above the water.
After about another hundred metres, the pool empties via another small rapid over some rocks. It’s now very dark – I tried to light the rocks in the foreground with my torch for this long exposure.
This is a 20 second exposure that managed to get a couple of tourists with torches as they wandered through (left side bottom). At the far end was a baby freshwater crocodile, (60cms or 2’) but it wasn’t in the mood to have its picture taken. I could get the reflections of its eyes from a distance with my torch, but it would disappear every time I got close. :-(
On the way back to camp, we came across this delightfully bizarre collection of boabs.
Day 96 Windjana Gorge
Today 0kms / Total 14528kms
Today was a walking day, so after a leisurely lie-in, we headed off up the gorge as far as the path would let us. Due to the floods that closed the park during the wet season, the path only went about 2km before it was closed. It was very apparent that a lot of manual labour had gone into getting even the path we were on back into usable shape.
By the amount of debris in the trees, it would seem that the flood through the gorge had been about 10m (30’) above its current level and had certainly been shifting a lot of water.
According to the Nat Pk Ranger, the flood waters were from one rock wall to the other and would have certainly covered the large rock in the centre of the river.
As the walk was along the old Devonian Reef, there were fossils still embedded in the walls.
This one is the half section of a Nautilus. You can still see the flotation chambers.
On the same sandbar where we saw the crocodiles a day ago, there were another couple sunning themselves – one ashore and the other just submerged.
Mmmmm, tourists! (Crocodylus Johnsoni)
We walked up the gorge, taking in the lovely scenery and delighting in the fact that it was only in the mid-20s with a cool breeze.
At the end of the walk, we spied a family (?) group that contained at least one large male croc.
The one in the centre was about 2.75m (8’ 6”), the others being around the 2m (6’ 6”) mark. The fourth member was off to the right and I wasn’t about to climb down to get a better shot!
You can tell it’s a freshwater croc by its narrow jaws. Total croc count for the day was 13.
Otherwise, it was a quiet day, with a few housekeeping duties such as topping up the van’s water tanks with the water we had been carrying in the car in two 20lt jerry cans. This brought us back to 75% capacity.
Day 97 Windjana Gorge -> Fitzroy Crossing
Today 146 / Total 14674kms
We packed up after 3 delightful days at Windjana Gorge.
How many pairs of footware do two people actually NEED?
Today's trip was going to be the first big test for the previously mentioned Dust Exclusion System, DES,(pat pend, TM, ©, ®, etc) as we had about 130kms of roughish (for a caravan) dirt road to cover. I powered it up and we set off - slowly, as dirt roads have a great ability to damage the undersides of caravans as the stones get hurled in all directions. We try to stop this happening with covers over electrical and plumbing fittings, but nothing is totally proof against damage so we keep the speed down.
There were a few very small creek crossings, but nothing of any great import.
Car wash, Kimberley style. Nothing over about 8cms (3") today. The rocky bottoms and hidden potholes were more of a problem than the water depth.
There were also some locals interested in wanting help escaping from their confining paddock.
Their leader of the pack (on the left) tried to block our path but finally saw the folly of his actions and let us pass unhindered.
Arrival at Fitzroy Crossing (pop 928) showed that the DES had at least stopped most of the dust getting into the van and it required little effort to get it back to its usual condition. Development will continue. Watch this space! :-)
Day 97 Fitzroy Crossing (Geikie Gorge)
Today 42kms / Total 14716kms
Geikie Gorge is a gorge on the Fitzroy River that is another section of the Devonian 'Great Barrier Reef' that we encountered at Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. Again, a river has cut through the reef as it forces its way out of the Kimberley and towards the coast, finally emptying into the sea near Derby. Here in Fitzroy Crossing, we're about halfway along its 733km (~430 miles) length. It's one of the major river systems in this area, with a catchment area of 93,829 square kilometres (36,228 sq mi).
One of the most impressive features of the Fitzroy is the amount of water that comes down it during the wet season and the heights the water achieves.
This the Nat Pk information rotunda at Geikie Gorge, and the white markers are the flood heights of the river for the last 12 years. The height for the 2011 peak isn't on here as it was more than a metre above the roof of the building. The floor of this building is already 9m (30') above the normal river level.
Like Yardie Creek, the WA Dept of Environment & Conservation (DEC) runs boat trips along the gorge.
The white lower section of the rock face marks the extent of the average flood level and is where the cliffs are scoured clean by the sand and other debris in the annual flood waters. This year's flood was significantly higher than the top of the white band.
The gorge through which the river flows is about 400m wide, but when it reaches the flood plain, it spreads out to about 15kms (~9 miles) The flow rate down the 15 kilometre wide flood plain at Fitzroy Crossing was estimated to be 30,000 cubic metres per second. In flood, it is probably the largest river in Australia by volume.
Needless to say, this is an ideal environment for freshwater crocodiles. A few photos follow...
Sunny side up on a quiet rock ledge.
I haven't found out why this one is a lot darker than all the others. Too much sun and no sun-screen?
A nice quiet mudbank...
...or even a handy log...
... is great to relax on after a busy day. Most of the crocs above were about 2m (6') long, but this last one was young and only about 1m (3'). Anyone want a pet?
Today's croc count was 30+ (lost count as there were lots on both sides of the river).
Another very wide angle view of the gorge.
There are some really gorgeous patterns in the rock face. This one combines vertical erosion stripes with stippling and horizontal strata stripes.
A nice event was meeting up with Darryl and Sandra again as they were now heading in the opposite direction to intercept the bottom section of the Gibb River Road in their hired 4WD. A very pleasant and convivial meal was had in the hotel associated with the caravan park. We hope to catch up with them again in Kununurra in about a week or so.
Day 98 Fitzroy Crossing
Today 25kms / Total 14741kms
As mentioned when we left Windjana Gorge, gravel roads have the potential to do nasty things to cars, but more particularly caravans. We found yesterday that our van's water tanks were dry. An examination under the van found a water pipe connection had been fractured and hence we had thoughtfully been spraying 75lts of our high quality drinking water to dampen the dust for following traffic. How considerate was that? :-)
For those not familiar with caravanning, when we are at a caravan park (as opposed to a Nat Pk or free camp), we plug into their water and electrical supply so consequently don't use our on-board water or batteries. As I suspect we'd have zero chance of finding a replacement connection in Fitzroy Crossing, I've isolated the tank with the broken part (there are two separate tanks under the van) and wait until we get to Kununurra where there'll be more chance of a caravan parts' store. Fortunately this doesn't really impact on our plans, as we have only one night's free camping between here and Kununurra, so we'll just make do with one van tank (50lts) and the 2x20lt jerry cans in the back of the 4WD.
Otherwise, a nice day to catch up on reading and other stuff.
This afternoon we decided to see what was left of the old township. The brochure for Fitzroy Crossing (and Charlotte, our GPS) showed a dirt road that went to “Original Town Site and Post Office” as well as the low level crossing of the Fitzroy, so we set off to see what was left and to make our way back into town via the low level causeway.
Getting to the end of the road at the river, there was an impassable, overgrown and very eroded track down to the river, and the shape of an old concrete ramp under the water.
The causeway can just be seen at the bank and a few old marker posts halfway across the river. Obviously we’re not going to cross the river here!
Not a sign of the old town or post office, despite looking through the undergrowth while being careful not to surprise any of the local fauna. We then retraced our steps and went to the Information Centre in town to ask where we had missed the ruins. “Oh, the map’s wrong. It’s on the other side of the river”, was the reply. Off we went again, and found the Pioneer Cemetery, or to be more precise, the marker for the Pioneer Cemetery.
It seems that when the cemetery was threatened with being washed away by the floods, all the remaining graves that could be identified were moved to the current cemetery above flood level. All that remains beyond the gateway above is a 10m drop straight into the river. The floods also seem to have removed whatever remained of the old town site as well, so it was not exactly the most rewarding afternoon we’ve spent to date.
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