Derby to Kununurra via the Gibb River Road

Thursday 12th June

We spent the day just hanging around. Went to a great second hand book store in Derby and bought a lot of books for $3 each, only read once. Bargains. Then back down to the jetty for lunch before going back to camp to get ready to leave tomorrow.

GIBB RIVER ROAD

I'll divide this up into the places we stopped at.
The Gibb River Road was originally constructed as a beef road to transport cattle from surrounding stations to the ports of Derby and Wyndham. It travels about 700km through the central Kimberley Plateau from King Sound at Derby to the Cambridge Gulf at Wyndham.

Windjana Gorge National Park and Tunnel Creek

The floodwaters of the Lennard River have carved a 3.5km long gorge through the limestone of the Napier Ranges.
This is the walls of the Napier ranges as seen from our camp site. The gorge is home to dozens of freshwater crocodiles which can often be seen basking on the sand.

This is another view of the campground. It is managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife and camp hosts are engaged to manage the park. They clean the toilets and collect fees. These are voluntary posts and the hosts do it for a month at a time

The parks all have firepits but you do have to collect the wood for them before coming into the park. We had a fire each night we were at Windjana and Ray cooked some meals in the camp oven including a lovely piece of topside which had all of the other campers drooling. This is a photo of John, Margaret and Ray around the fire.

This is a view of the gorge. There wasn't a lot of water in it, just some pools as the water only flows in the wet season. Geologists regard the gorge as one of the classic features of world geology for nowhere else are the various deposits of an ancient reef complex so well exposed as they are at Windjana.

Ray and Margaret along the walking trail into the gorge.

Margaret photographing some fossils on the wall of the gorge. These fossils of shells and creatures can be seen on the 100metre cliffs

 The Napier Ranges at sunset

The Windjana Gorge walls towering up to 100 metres above the water

More views of the gorge

Freshwater crocodiles are plentiful in the gorge basking on the beaches.

These crocs are up to about 2 metres long.

You have to walk through this tunnel to access the gorge.

The camp ground at sunset

Ray and John returning from a hunting and gathering expedition with some firewood.

Whistling kites inhabit the park always on the lookout for handouts

We  threw some meat up into the air and the kites swooped in and grabbed it.
Whilst cooking our roast beef we were joined by 2 couples, Margie and Jim from Perth and Robyn and Danny from Brisbane. We were to have more encounters with these 4 and I will tell you about that later.

Tunnel Creek

Tunnel Creek National Park is about 25km from Windjana Gorge. We went for a drive there and Margaret, John and Ray were going to walk through. But when we got there, Margaret decided not to do the walk as the climb down into the tunnel is quite rocky, so She and I decided to wait for the guys outside.

This beautiful Brahman cross steer kept Margaret and I company while the guys were in the tunnel

This is the entrance to Tunnel Creek. Headlights are needed as it is very dark and you also wade through water for some part of the walk. It is about 700 metres through to where the creek emerges into daylight again. And of course then you have to walk back.

This is an atrium which opens up part way through the tunnel

This is the vista which awaits you after you have walked through the tunnel. John was absolutely speechless as it was so beautiful

John surrounded by the wonders of Tunnel Creek. All decked out in his walking gear with his headlight on.

Stalactite's hanging from the roof formed by years of water dripping down and crystallising.

More formations

This is water that has crystallised forming what looks like a crystal waterfall

 

We spent one more day at Windjana just relaxing. It was now Monday 16th June and we were heading to Silent Grove tomorrow. The State of Origin was on Wednesday and we knew there was no signal at all at Silent Grove. Robyn and Danny being Queenslanders were Queensland supporters and of course John a keen NSW supporter. What were we to do? Remember I told you about Margie and Jim. Well they were Western Australians and had no interest in NRL but they did have a satellite dish and were going to Silent Grove. They left on Monday. Danny and Robyn had to go into Derby on the Tuesday to get some repairs done on their car so Robyn bought a boned leg of lamb on the proviso that Ray would cook it in his camp oven at Silent Grove. So we had a plan. More to follow.

 

Silent Grove and Bell Gorge

The rugged King Leopold ranges extends along the south western edge of the Kimberley Plateau. Folded and faulted rock formations are evidence of an episode of mountain building that occurred 560 million years ago when the rocks now forming the Kimberley Plateau were pushed to the south west over underlying granite. Bell Gorge is among one of the most spectacular gorges in the Kimberley.

Silent Grove is the camp ground close to Bell Gorge and both are managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife.

 



 Silent Grove is about 19km off the Gibb River Road and this is one of the creek crossings you drive across just before getting to the campground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went for a walk along a creek and on the way back Margaret spotted this black faced rock wallaby just watching us. We could hear dingoes howling at night and the camp hosts warned us to keep the toilet lids down as pythons have been known to sleep in the loo after feeding on frogs. John was a bit concerned after hearing this and he religiously checked the toilet many times a day. 

The beautiful Kimberley Rose which also comes in yellow. 

This may be hard to see but it is a little zebra finch. It had a nest nearby and was busy making it bigger. 

Margaret and John  coming back down from the creek walk.

 

Now for the continuation of the saga.

Margie and Jim offered their TV for us to watch the State of Origin at Silent Grove. Robyn and Danny arrived on Wednesday with a huge boned leg of lamb which Ray cooked in the camp oven. Robyn made some garlic and herb bread which she cooked in her camp oven. I made 2 potato bakes and Margie made some pre dinner nibblies including a home made hummus. We are really doing it tough out here in the Kimberley. Anyway we had a great night watching the State of Origin and having a yummy meal also. John was ecstatic that NSW won and he went to bed a happy man.

 

Bell Gorge

Margaret, Ray and John set out for the drive to Bell Gorge. It is about 10km further down the road from Silent Grove. I stayed behind as the track down to the gorge is a bit too steep for me.

Margaret and John with the Bell Gorge waterfall behind them. 

Looking down on the pool from the top of Bell gorge 

The waterfall at Bell Gorge. If you are very agile you can climb down to have a swim in the pool. 

Looking along Bell Gorge 

Margaret and John walking along the track down into Bell Gorge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left Silent Grove on Friday 20th June and after filling the water tanks in the van we drove down to the Imintji Store for morning tea. Imintji store is one of only two stores/service station/road houses on the Gibb. Sometimes they have fresh supplies and sometimes not. It depends if a truck has been in and deliveries made. But they do have nice coffee and home made pies and muffins.

Imintji store services travellers and also members of the nearby Imintji Aboriginal community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed to Mt Barnett and the nearby campground of Manning Gorge. Mt Barnett is the other store on the Gibb River Road. It is like Imintji and sometimes they have supplies and sometimes not. We bought 2 small packs of fresh fruit consisting of 2 apples, 2 kiwifruit, 2 oranges, 2 mandarins and 2 very small bunches of grapes. $21.

Anyway we paid our fee to camp at Manning Gorge for 2 nights.

We didn't have a cook fire at Manning Gorge but we did light the brazier to sit around and keep warm as it was quite cool at night.

 

 

This is our camp at Manning Gorge

This is a view of Manning Falls awaiting you at the end of the walk. To get to the walk you go across the pool in a boat pulling yourself across by a system of ropes. This is the place where you used to put your things in a polystyrene box and push it across the water to the other side. They have now gone upmarket and you get in a boat.

The pool below Manning Gorge

This is Margaret and John  relaxing after the hard slog to the falls. John is actually lying down on the top of the rock. It was a very rocky up and down climb. Margaret and John were exhausted and very hot when they got back but they said it was definitely worth it.

Margaret and John on the walk

The pool near the waterfall at Manning Gorge

This is the terrain they were walking over. Very tough













 And this is the view at the end

 
 

 
 
 


We bumped into Robyn and Danny again at Manning Gorge and after this they were heading up to Drysdale Station and up to Mitchell Falls. So we said our goodbyes.