Day one on the Gibb River Road - the Big Adventure

Day 25 Saturday 5^th May

Derby to Windjana Gorge

It was a quick uneventful trip on our first day of travelling the Gibb River Road. A short 2 hour drive and we reached our first camp site in the National park at Windjana Gorge.

We like walking first thing in the morning as the light is good for photography, and it is cooler so we decided to leave the walk through the gorge for early Sunday morning. We instead drove the 30 kms south to Tunnell creek. This phenomenon was caused when the creek began to erode the Devonian reef that makes up this range.

 It eventually made a track underground and became an underground stream.

The entrance to this creek was found at the site of a rock fall, so after about 20m of scrambling over boulders you pass through a gap and down into the bed of the creek.

  This sandy creek bed becomes your path. 

As your wade further into the tunnel it becomes pitch black and the water is deeper and colder. While walking you sight Cherebun ( a species of yabby) and small fish but fortunately no sight of the freshies (crocodiles) that are reported to be also in residence. The walk was invigorating and ideal for the hottest part of the day.

(PS this article includes a "Where's Paul)

Day 26 Sunday 6^th May.

The early morning walk into Windjana Gorge was beautiful, easy walking on Sand and Cool in the shadows of the towering walls of the Gorge.

This gorge is accessed by sliding through a narrow crevasse which opens up into the most spectacular Gorge. Huge sandbars had been deposited in the middle after the recent  wet season. I still had not seen any crocodiles up close, but all the walkers we met yesterday assured us that the large sand bank was full of freshies sunning themselves..

Well guess what! We had started the walk so early that the crocs were not up yet. We did find the nautilog, an ancient fossilized crustacean on the side of the wall.

We walked to the other end of the gorge (about 3 Kms) marveling at the rock formations and colours. The last part of the walk was closed so we retraced our steps.

On our way back the sun became hotter and we finally saw three or four crocs on the sand bar. They really just look like twigs in the photo

That little log is a Crocodile. The closest I've been to one so far!!!

We were back in camp by about  9.00am and sat around looking at each other, and although we had paid for another night we decided to move on further up the Gibb river road. Once you have walked through  the gorge and Tunnell creek, there is not much else to do, So we packed up and left beautiful Windjana Gorge.

BIG MISTAKE!