Tuesday 21 August – Well today has been a fabulous day, and right up there on the growing list of trip highlights.  And it even started off well when I didn’t wake up until 6.30!  So we still had plenty of time for brekky, shower and pack our backpack and bag for the day’s outing.

We were out at the front of the park a little after eight, and three other people from the park were going on the trip.  Lucky we were out a bit early as the tour bus – a big off-road looking thing, was here five minutes earlier than scheduled time.  After picking up people at other accommodation places we were on our way by about twenty past eight, with a full complement of passengers – about 28 in total.

About 5 km out of town we turned onto the famous Gibb River Road, which was sealed for about 50 or 60 km of the 390km we travelled today, driven and guided by Steve who told me he works one week on, one week off at an underground mine, so in the off week he does the tours.  He was a bit of a character.  Our first stop was at Windjana Gorge, where we had morning tea before doing the fairly easy walk into and along the gorge which is formed by the Lennard River cutting its way through the limestone of the Napier Range. 

It was beautiful – a very narrow slit between the rocks to get through at first, then a lovely walk along the sand by the river.  Before we got off the bus, Steve sent the passenger list around and beside our name we had to write how many freshwater crocs we thought we would see in the gorge.  Grant put 14 and I put 27, but we were both way out as there were about 75 – most of them just on the edge of the water or just half in the water.  So we just took our time and walked around, with Steve pointing out some fossilised nautili (shells) from lots of millions of years ago when this area was under water.

A nice spot in the gorge.

Once we eventually made our way back to the bus we had lunch which was very nice – cold silverside and about four salads, with cool drinks and/or cuppas, then left for Tunnel Creek.  As we drove, Steve told us the story of Jandamarra, a local Bunuba tribesman from the late 1800’s who had a significant impact on early West Kimberley history.  Then we stopped at the ruins of the Lillimooloora Police Station, which tied in with the Jandamarra story.  Very interesting.  We also were fascinated to see the durability and resilience of the boab trees, many of which were growing on the rocky outcrops, apparently growing in rock.

Next stop was at Tunnel Creek where we all went and changed into our bathers or short shorts, changed our shoes, got ourselves equipped with our cameras and torches, and the Tunnel Creek walk was on!  Tunnel Creek is a tributary of the Lennard River and has carved a 750 mtr tunnel through a section of the limestone rock.  The entrance to the tunnel was a bit of a challenge – very rocky – but once we negotiated that successfully, we walked through the tunnel, wading through several mostly sand bottomed pools of varying depths, with the deepest coming halfway up my thigh, before emerging at the other end. 

Ready to face the perils of the deep!

Here we saw some very old aboriginal art high up on a rock wall, as well as a live goanna sitting on a rock in the river.  We spent a few minutes enjoying the scenery here before doing the return trip through the tunnel.  At a couple of spots through the walk there is daylight coming though, but otherwise it is pitch dark, and only our torches provided the light to walk by.  Our headlights were a bit of a dud, but I took another torch as standby, which helped a lot.

 Brave adventurers.

Steve pointed out a freshwater croc sitting on the rock beside the river in the tunnel, as well as some very interesting stalactite formations, and he also pointed out a group of ghost bats, the only carnivorous bats in Australia.  They were making some funny noises.  It was really fun – I felt like a bit of an explorer or adventurer.  It was really eerie when he gathered us all into a tight group and we all had to turn our torches off, he then wanted to see who could make the scariest noise.  It was nice and cool in there, compared to the heat when we re-emerged at the end of the walk and made our way back to change shoes, etc, and partake of afternoon tea.

At one stage through the day I established that one lady in the group was born in Longford, Tassie and actually knew my Uncle Fred when he coached and played football there in the 1950’s!!

We left the Tunnel Creek parking area at a bit before three this afternoon and were back here by 5.20, very satisfied with the day which was so much better than we had even imagined.  Thanks, Hull kids, for telling us we must go the Tunnel Creek – it was great advice.

So for now …… Broome, here we come.