Windjana Gorge, Kimberly, WA

Gibb River Road

 Thursday 17th and Friday 18th July

Windjana Gorge

So we hit the Gibb River Road and headed out from Derby to Windjana Gorge. This National Park is formed from ancient reef dating from the Devonian period and is spectacular. We camped in the shadow of giant cliffs and walked down to explore the fossils, rock holes and see fresh water crocs sunning themselves on the banks.

'Tell me if it moves!'

'Can I wrestle it Dad?'

 Tunnel Creek

The following morning we drove to Tunnel Creek in the heart of the Devonian Reef Park and explored the deep cave formation by torchlight running beneath the reef. Light slanted in the cave through jagged teeth like rocks and stalactites dribbled from cavities that time left unfilled. We did some school work; a lesson bringing language to life using similes, metaphors and personification to describe the environment – school has never been so good! The cave is an important part of Aboriginal culture and we met the local custodians of the land. The ladies asked us what it was like and told us that it is a sacred ‘men only’ place that they are forbidden to visit!

Exploring Tunnel Creek

Moving On..

Packing up camp after Tunnel Creek was getting easier and we were on the road by midday with the intention of seeing Bell Gorge and camping at Mornington Wilderness Camp. However with a gremlin in the electrics of the car causing random locking/unlocking, failure to start and stereo weirdness we decided not to leave the beaten track  but get to a road house and reassess. After lots of travellers looked and discussed the problem we decided to head up to the only mechanic on the Gibb ‘Over the Range’ between Adcock and Galvans Gorge (and way past our turning to Mornington) to touch base with his expertise. By the time we pulled in and spoke to Nev the problem hadn’t re-occcured so we were trying to fix something that wasn’t broken! After cleaning the battery terminals and doing a few checks we went drove another 30kms to Manning Gorge. Now we were 3 days ahead of schedule and had some decisions to make...do we go back to Bell or change plans entirely? That was a discussion for the next morning!