Gibb River Road | Seeingoz

Monday, 7 July 2014 82.5kms

We were up at 7am this morning and greeted with another beautiful winter morning in the Kimberley. We ate breakfast and packed up camp. At 8.55am we left camp and headed west on the Gibb River Rd, back to the Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge turnoff. It was a nice drive through the King Leopold Ranges. The sign at the entrance said to count the creek crossing and enjoy the serenity, so we did just that. We counted 5 creek crossings with water, but plenty without, so perhaps we should have been counting them instead. Maybe tomorrow on the way out.

We arrived at the reception and booked in for just the one night. That has cost us $50 for the family. The price has gone up as the information I have said it would be $40. A massive $10 price rise! Anyway, we are here now and driven the 50km driveway to get here, so we aren’t turning around now. The staff was very friendly and up for a chat which is always nice.

By 10.45am, we had set up our camp in the campground and were heading off to the gorges on the property. The track to the gorges starts from the campground and heads north. We decided to drive to the furthest point and then make our way back stopping at all of the sights. So 8kms from the campground is the Big Boab. We crossed a deep creek crossing to get to this, even though the man at reception said to walk across and it would be thigh high. When we reached the creek Nath said that this must be what we walk across. I looked over and saw 2 cars parked on the other side and disagreed with him, that the car park must be on the other side. No, Nath was right, but we made it through like the 2 vehicles before us, no worries. The boab tree is said to be one of the oldest in the Kimberley and around 1000 years old. It is not alone, as it has a strangler fig holding it tight. It was really impressive to see and absolutely massive.

Elokin and Hendrix with the big boab and strangler fig

We left there and made our way back 500 metres to the fork in the road that leads to Annie Creek Waterhole. It is then a 1km drive to the car park and a short stroll up a rocky creek bed to the water. We were slightly disappointed with the waterhole, as it would have been nice had it not been covered in spider webs and spiders. We are guessing that no-one has swum here for quite some time.

We moved on and drove back 5kms to the junction for Mt Mathew Gorge. It is then a further 1km drive over a rocky but graded road to the car park. Here we ate lunch in the car park before setting off up the creek. The walk is marked by rock cairns and is an easy, but uneven walk across boulders and a rocky, dry creek bed. Now, you can walk as far or as short a distance as you like. The emphasis on this gorge is more of a sink and dip in the pools along the way, more than an actual bushwalk. So the first deepish pool that we came to, Nath slid into, and encouraged Elokin and Hendrix to follow. Elokin got in, eventually, but only because her dad assisted her. Hendrix was going to get in, but changed his mind.

After they were refreshed, we continued on to an even bigger pool and waterfall. It was a great place for a swim, although the temperature was refreshing. But luckily there were nice hot rocks to lay on to warm up. We all got into this pool, and then a family from Sydney that we had chatted with earlier and another couple joined us in the water. A few bright red dragonfly’s were flying around and landing on the rocks near us, so Elokin took the phone after I put it on macro setting for her, and I had my camera. We each had a dragonfly near us to photograph. Elokin got really close to hers, and with the macro setting, she got an excellent photo! I was jealous. Mine were not as good as it with the expensive camera.

Nath, Elokin and Hendrix in the waterfall at Mt Matthew Gorge

Elokin, Romandar and Hendrix in the pool

We were the last ones to leave Mt Mathew Gorge. Nath decided he would swim back through the pool as far as he could. He didn’t get very far, and then had to wash off in the deeper pool he was in earlier as he got covered in green slime. The reflections on the pools by this time were fantastic and I loved it.

Nath swimming his way back through the gorge

Once back at the car, we drove back another 2kms to the secret fishing spot for a look. The pool itself was very pretty, with lily pads, paperbarks and reeds. We don’t know how much fish would be left in there, but we weren’t going to try. We continued on, past camp and the homestead to Barker Pools, south of the homestead. We found a spot by ourselves and got out to go for a swim. Barker Pools is a deep section of the Barker River that is suitable for swimming; however the part we went to wasn’t. Downstream where the other people were may have been, but where we were was covered in slime and not very deep, so we gave it a miss and headed back to camp. It was too early to stop at the sunset hill, so we figured we would head back to that after we got dinner organised at camp.

Of course things don’t always go to plan and this time ours didn’t. We cooked dinner and got our shower stuff organised, but by the time we were eating, the sun was getting low and we would have needed to put our dinner down and leave to make it to the summit of sunset hill before the sunset. Nath decided that was a silly idea and I had to agree. We called it and enjoyed the sunset from our seats eating dinner. Hendrix then got the soccer ball out and started to kick it around. Elokin joined him and they both have good dribbling skills. They then changed ball and game and started to kick around the football. Nath joined in and taught them how to drop-kick it. I decided they were having way too much fun without me and joined in as well. It was a fantastic way to end the day.

We then got our shower stuff and headed to the ablution block. The kids got stripped off, but when Nath checked the water only to find that there was no hot water, we got them dressed again, got into the car and headed off to the homestead for a hot shower. No way I was paying $50 for my piece of dirt and not enjoying a hot shower, considering it has been about 3 weeks since we had a decent one in Broome and we all needed to wash hair. The shower at the homestead ablutions was great and the four of us piled into the ‘disabled, or for those who are confused’ shower/toilet cubicle. Back at camp, I cut Elokin’s hair after brushing it, as she had too many split ends and it was getting far too knotty. It looks so nice and healthy now.

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.

Saturday, 5 July 2014 284.9kms

It was freezing last night. Maybe we shouldn’t have given our big yellow blanket away to Mrs Macs Op Shop after all. There was a late arrival at about 11pm right near us, but then at 12.30am, it took off hooning down the road trying to do a burn-out, but failed! Haha.

It was still really cold this morning but fine and sunny. We got up at 6.30am, packed the van down and ate breakfast. Last night we made the call to put all of our stuff back in the van, eat breakfast out of the car and climb over the benches, that way we couldn’t have someone steal our stuff. I was glad we made that choice after that late arrival clown.

We were on the road 8am. We drove to Derby for a top-up of diesel and to fill up a jerry now that we are going on the Gibb. We also went down to the jetty to see that the tide was in-between. They have done up the car park since we were here last. After a quick look we headed back to the BP for fuel and then to Mitre 10 where Nath and Elokin went and bought a new dolphin torch for us. We had been putting it off for a while, and decided that we would need something better than our headlights for walking around in the dark of Tunnel Creek, and so we can see the crocodile eyes at night.

After that we drove back the 5kms to the Gibb River Rd turnoff. We stopped at the signs before making our way along the road. It starts out as a thin tar road, so overtaking and passing is done half on, half off the bitumen. We found a huge boab tree on the side of the road and stopped to get a photo. Then two road trains passed us, so Nath moved off the road for them and we almost came to a stop. The day was warming up by now. It was a beautiful temperature, but it was almost the middle of the day.

Our first walking stop was at Windjana Gorge. Windjana Gorge is where the Lennard River has carved a 3.5km gorge through the limestone of the Napier Range. The Napier Range is part of an extensive barrier reef from the Devonian Period around 360 million years ago. Back then, where we were standing would have been the sea floor. Today the gorge walls rise abruptly from the sandy river bed and in some places can be towering over 100m above. Windjana Gorge is the foremost place for viewing freshwater crocodiles in Australia.

We ate lunch in the car park before heading off on the Time Walk. There was a tour bus just finishing their lunch and I think they may have been leaving scraps around because there were at least 20 Whistling Kites flying overhead and landing near them. They were calling their beautiful whistling sound. After we finished eating, we had a drink of water, put our crocs on and at 1.40 headed off down the track. We read the information boards to Elokin and Hendrix and checked out the bloodwood tree. They had to identify which of the two species it was by looking at its leaves. They got it.

The gorge was itself was an easy one. We walked through a crack in the gorge wall which was cool. That led to an open sandy area with Lenard River on the left and the limestone gorge wall on the right. There was a fossilized nautiloid imprint in the limestone wall, that we had to search for of course. Further up we got close to the bank and on the opposite side we saw our first freshwater crocodile. It was just a small one and it was very cute. A second small one started moving along the water, drifting like a floating log. We continued to walk and this time there was one on a log on our side just out in the water. As it turned out, I had walked right past 3 sitting on the bank under us. Nath got really close to them and it wasn’t until he got up to move away that one hissed at him. It puffed out its belly and deflated it as the hissing sound came out. We moved on after a group of people went past. We continued to walk along the bull dust river bank until we got to a big open sandy area where the river sakes around some large boulders. There was a bigger croc sitting in the corner as we walked down. We heard some people jumping into the water near one big boulder and after a couple of photos made our way towards the noise. The two fellows had finished their jumps and swim by the time we got there. I personally wouldn’t be getting in there. We walked all the way up to the end of this big sandy patch before turning around to make our way back. Another freshie landed came waddling out of the water on the point so I called Elokin and Hendrix back to have a closer look. We then made our way back to the bigger freshie at the entrance to the sandy patch and conveniently he was still there. We got closer to it this time for some close up photos. It is such a cool looking creature.

Back at the car, we had afternoon tea and made cups of tea for the road. We had spent 2 hours in the gorge. The camp host came over to make sure we were all good, which we were. We then left Windjana and headed south towards Tunnel Creek. Tonight we have found a track off to the side of the road and it has a dried creek bed behind it. While I unpacked the van, Nath took the kids into the creek bed to look around. The sunset not long after we arrived and we have decided to get an early night so we can make an early start on tomorrow. It is definitely not as cold tonight as last night which is a pleasant relief.