Day 29
Wednesday
1 August
Derby – Windjana Gorge National Park
We were awake at 6.30am, the noise from other campers arousing us. I was happy to stay in bed and work on the final few pictures from yesterday, keen to get them all done, before getting into today’s lot.
We eventually crawled out at 7.30am and began the organisation for our day, Paul trying to motivate himself to get sorted. By 8.20am, we were ready, said goodbye to our neighbours, who were moving on to Cape Leveque and then made way to the servo before continuing on to the Gibb River Road turn off. We parked under the sign so I could take a photo and then we continued on our way.
Windjana National Park is 140km from Derby and once you turn off the Gibb River Road, it is dirt for 20 odd km. Most of the Gibb River Road, of this section, is now bitumen, however there were a few sections of road works and we were directed to the dirt sides, however these were flat too. These edges however, had to skirt around boab trees, as they are not allowed to be removed, unlike the rest of the vegetation. It made quite a sight, as we made our way.
The Fairfield-Leopold Downs Drive that leads to Windjana, is reasonable. There are a few rough bits, where the corrugations leave you rattled, but for the most part you could find smooth gullies to slip into, as long as it wasn’t too soft. In the end, we arrived unscathed, paid the $13 entry fee and parked with the other 4wd, our little getz a bit of an anomaly.
We grabbed what we needed and then followed the trail of tourists along the path. A group was gathered near the entrance, a bower bird was busy padding out its round, humpy like nest, that was adorned with shells and pebbles. We thought we were particularly lucky to see him in action.
We continued down the path, making our way to the entrance, a narrow slit in the Devonian reef that you needed to walk through. It was really beautiful and the walls were so smooth, like porcelain. Once out, we were confronted by the sheer height of the old reef system and the colours, black, orange and sandstone. It was really beautiful.
We followed the sandy path that clung to the edge of the Lennard River waterway only a meter below. We found a clearing to look out upon and could see a freshwater croc. As we moved further around, we saw plenty more enjoying the sun on their back.
The clearing eventually opened up, where you could admire the sheer rock faces of both sides of the gorge and the water between. We spent a bit of time just standing and looking, spotting new things. Paul found a croc, close to shore and was keen to take a closer look. It appeared quite happy with us hanging around, but we weren’t going to get too close and personal.
We continued to walk around the sandy bottom of the gorge and then made our way back along the path and out to the car. This time we were keen to continue our drive on a further 30km to Tunnel Creek. We’d driven about 15km on rocky ground, when we started hearing a strange thud noise. Paul pulled over and I got out to check, sure enough the back right tyre was flat. Out came all the gear from the back of the car, then the tools to jack up the getz and take off the tyre, with is swapped over and then gear returned, we turned the car around and made our way back to Derby. Spewing we didn’t get to Tunnel Creek, but not keen to tempt fate either.
We almost took out a bird of prey on the way home, all I could see was its brown wing span across the windscreen, as we dodged a weaved a couple of times, eventually having it fly away. More successful than the little bird we collected earlier and we weren’t sure of the fate of one we passed over the top of. If it stayed put on the road it would have been fine, if not a little dusty. We also had a small wallaby, come bounding across the new road work section, only to see us scooting along at a lower level on the side and it came to a skidding, sideways, almost rolling stop.
We stopped in at the tyre shop on our return, $75 and 5min later, we had a new tyre and were continuing on. We stopped for more fuel, did a shop at the woollies and then returned to the van, happy our adventure ended safely.
We had lunch, a shower, I started on the photos and then we decided to head out for a walk. We wandered into the main centre, stopping in at the Spinifex Hotel for a drink and the comfort of air con. We found a comfy couch and hung tight for a while, keen to take a look at where to next.
We made our way back around the town site and on to the caravan park, where I resumed going through the photos for the day. Just after 5pm, I suggested we go for another walk, this time to a boab tree I had spotted earlier. We walked through the suburb, past the various homes of the locals and out on to the mud flats, where a lone boab stood.
I waited for the sun to dip and the colour of the sky to change and took the photos that I wanted. I was hoping to have the bright orange sky of yesterday, but it didn’t really show up, still the colours were beautiful all the same.
We returned to the van in the dark and set about cooking up some more soup. I finished up the photos of the boab and then we played cards, Paul winning again. We were then ready to head on to bed.
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