Day 85 - Derby to Broome

Sunny days, cool nights continue and today we did a leisurely 235km from Derby to Broome.  The only exciting thing that happened today was being held up at a bridge for 30 minutes or so, while they manouvered two multi wheeled trucks carrying some pretty big earth moving equipment.  The irony was that the bridge was called "Minnie Bridge".  We have quite a nice caravan park about  three km out of Broome.  Big day tomorrow - Horizontal Waterfall - so maybe no blog until the following day.

300614 Savannah Way at Minnie Bridge - a bit of a squeeze

300614 This is what was crossing the bridge

300614 The clutter - two multiwheeled units with
heavy earth moving equipment on board

300614 Minnie Bridge without the clutter

300614 Our caravan site at Broome, lovely tree, no Foxtel reception
and fear of what the birds will deposit on the van and annexe

Day 84 - Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

Today was bright and sunny, just the day to go for a 246km round tour of Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek.

Windjana Gorge is in the Napier range about 144km from Derby. It is 20km down a gravel road from the infamous Gibb River Road, with Tunnel Creek a further 25km on. There is a fair percentage of the Gibb River Road to the turnoff bitumened now, say 60%.  Fortunately we went in a four wheel drive bus and though we got bounced around a bit at times, there was no driving stress for us.  We left at 8.15am and returned at 6.15pm so it was a long day.

Windjana Gorge occurs where the Lennard River cuts through the Napier Range.  The Napier Range is a continuation of the Devonian barrier reef seen also at Geikie Gorge at Fitzroy Crossing.  The reef is highly weathered and provided some spectacular rock scenes.  The gorge is around 100m wide and is very sandy.  There are permanent waterholes in the gorge, which provided us with many crocodile sightings.  In a couple of cases we were no more than 10 metres from them.  There are plenty of barramundi in the holes so the crocs are well fed and are obviously used to humans passing by.

5 minutes down the road are the remains of the Lillimooloora Homestead, famous for its part in the Jandamarra story - more later.

Next port of call was Tunnel Creek.  This creek has cut a 750m long hole through the limestone range. The base of the creek is mostly sand but we had to wade through the creek nine times as we traversed its length, at worst through water up to our knees.  At times the roof was as low as 4m high but there were two spots where the roof  had caved in and this provided some light.  Nonetheless we had to use torches for a large portion of the walk.  There were the usual cave peculiarities eg stalactites and stalagmites, but because the cave is filled with rushing water each wet season,these were a bit nondescript.  It was quite an experience.

We had a local aboriginal guide for the day, Jimmy "Dillon" Andrews, who actually lives at Windjana Gorge.  He and his grandson provided a welcome ceremony with smoke from green eucalyptus leaves and he sang to us native stories in Tunnel Creek.  Needless to say he was well informed about the significance of these places to his people.  He related the Jandamarra story.  It was about a young aboriginal boy who grew up under the mentorship of Constable Richardson.  Their relationship was extremely close.  It was in the late 1890's when the trust previously established between the aborigines and the settlers was lost when their sacred places were desecrated by the introduced stock, particularly sheep.  Fighting erupted and Jandamarra's uncle, Elleamarra, and a number of his tribe's elders, were captured and held for five days under chains at Lillimooloora Homestead.  Under pressure from his relatives Jandamarra shot Richardson at the homestead and released his people.  He then evaded capture for three years while hiding out in the Windjana Gorge/ Tunnel Creek area.  Eventually he was wounded by another aborigine working for the police and then shot and killed by the head policeman.

290614 Jimmy "Dillon" Andrews our guide

290614 One of Jandamurra's hiding places in Windjana Gorge

290614 Crocodiles at Windjana Gorge

290614 Permanent water in Windjana Gorge

290614 Permanent water in Windjana Gorge

290614 Windjana Gorge walls

290614 Remains of the Lillimooloora Homestead

290614 Entering Tunnel Creek

290614 Inside Tunnel Creek

290614 Reflections in the water in Tunnel Creek

290614 Inside Tunnel Creek

290614 A partial roof collapse at Tunnel Creek

290614 Exiting Tunnel Creek

290614 Immediately outside Tunnel Creek

290614 Native honey at Tunnel Creek

Day 83 - Around Derby

Derby, on King Sound, is not a large town but we searched out local places to visit which don't score too many touristy points.

First port of call was the Wharfinger's House Museum. A Wharfinger is a person who owns or has control of the wharf.  The building is an example of prefabricated wooden buildings in late 20' to 30's, designed for tropical climates.

Nearby was the old woolstore.  It became redundant when sheep ceased to be raised in the Kimberleys because of Noogoora Burr.  The burrs contaminated the wool.

We took the road which said "Launching Ramp".  It was a seemingly useless ramp because the mud was well up the concrete slab and miles way from the water, at what was a fairly low tide.  We discovered the current ramp not 150m away, which was a much better proposition.

The Derby wharf has been reconstructed over the years.  It can manage the extreme changes in tides in King Sound - up to 11m.  In 1994 it was used to export lead and zinc concentrates from the Cadjebut mine at Fitzroy Crossing.

We photographed what we dubbed" Derby Beach", but there was only mud there.  One doesn't swim at Derby because of the presence of saltwater crocodiles.  However the water, a muddy brown, was none too inviting anyway.

The mural at the Centenary Pavilion near the wharf was made of 30,000 tiles and was laid by 370 children, who between them spent 700 hours at the task.

Derby's old gaol is in the main street and ironically or maybe logically, is beside the new and modern police station.

The Boab Prison Tree is estimated to be about 1500 years old and is of cultural significance to the local aborigines.  That may have been more the case when it was used as a prison to hold aborigines who were abducted from their homes elsewhere and marched to Derby where they were forced to work in the pearl industry.

Myall's Bore is a remnant from about 1917.  It is 120m long and can water 500 animals at one time.  Water is now pumped into the trough by a windmill.

280614 Wharfinger's House Museum

280614 The Old Derby Woolstore

280614 The old boat ramp

280614 The Derby wharf 

280614 Derby from the wharf - There is more town
of course but it is hidden by the trees

280614 Derby's other boat ramp

280614 Derby Beach - our name for it

280614 Remote Outback Cycle Tours - not for everyone

280614 Mural at the Centenary Pavilion

280614 Derby's old gaol

280614 Derby's main street

280614 Boab Prison Tree

280614 Myall's Bore and its 120m long trough and windmill

Day 82 - Fitzroy Crossing to Derby

Another gorgeous day with a quite cool morning and sunshine all the way (263km) saw us on the Savannah Way, between Fitzroy Crossing and Derby.  The road was excellent and passed through mile after mile of rolling plains with one small range, the Erskine Range, bringing some relief.  It did so only for the five or so minutes it took for us to cross it.

We did a quick tour of Derby which is a port on King Sound.  The salt flats surrounding the port are very extensive.  While it was high tide, it was hard to tell where the water started and the flats ended, so close was the colour of the water to that of the flats.  Derby has a very shallow port so most of the exports from this area (live cattle) are now done from Broome, 220km away.

There was not a lot to photograph, save for the boab trees.  We have seen hundreds of them today and some of them are truly huge.  We did get up close and personal with one this morning.  We sought its shade while we had morning tea.

270614 Morning tea under a boab tree

270614 Our unit dwarfed by a boab tree

270614 Difficult to park the van today - behind a large tree - plenty of gratuitous advice

Day 81 - Fitzroy Crossing - Geikie Gorge

Today we joined a tour group to visit the Geikie Gorge.  After a tour of the town we were taken to the Fitzroy River, via the old Fitzroy River Crossing, to join a boat for a trip up the gorge.  Geikie Gorge is situated at the junction of the Oscar and the Geikie Ranges. The mighty Fitzroy River has carved a 30 metre deep gorge into the remains of the ancient limestone barrier reef that existed there in the Devonian period. There are a couple of large sandbanks which back up the river for about 16km.  At its deepest in the dry season the river is up to 14m deep.

When the Fitzroy is in full flood during the wet season it covers the whole national park. Those floods rise over 16 metres up the gorge walls and the continuous rise and fall of the water has left the bottom of the walls bleached white.  

We saw a number of Johnson fresh water crocodiles but we must admit, we are "out crocodiled" at the moment.  There was plenty of bird life too. 

Our tour ended with a visit to The Crossing Inn.  The historic Crossing Inn sits on it's original site on the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River, and is the oldest established hotel in the entire Kimberleys region. 

Following is a link to more pictures of Geikie Gorge. Copy and paste the link into a search engine if you wish to see more.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Geikie+Gorge&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=tLKrU_bbFcK4lQXHnIHQCw&ved=0CD0Q7Ak&biw=1440&bih=716

260614 Our tour group and van on the old Fitzroy River crossing

260614 Exiting the old Fitzroy River crossing

260614 The walls of the Geikie Gorge

260614 The limestone rocks are washed by the floodwaters

 260614 Some grotesque shapes formed by the erosion of the limestone cliffs

260614 The layered nature of the old reef

260614 A bigger picture of the gorge's walls

260614 The Crossing Inn - the oldest established hotel in the Kimberlys

Day 80 - Halls Creek to Fitzroy Crossing

On a beautiful sunny day, max 29 degrees, we headed off from Halls Creek to Fitzroy Crossing, 293km away.  The road was excellent and it was a pleasant drive through the sweeping plains between the two towns.  We came across only one serious range in the trip and it was unique because of the two different rocks comprising the range.  One was grey/black and the other the customary red.  Maybe the black was an old reef system, where the calcium carbonate allows water to ingress and provide an excellent medium for algae to exist.  Anyway the Mimbi Caves are there (90km east of Fitzroy Crossing) but because we had the anchor in tow, the road was gravel and there was no marker to say how far in the caves were, we decided to give the caves a miss.

Fitzroy Crossing is just that, a small town on the Fitzroy River where the highway crosses the river.  One can only imagine what the river is like when in full flood.  All the creeks and rivers we crossed, other than the Fitzroy, were as dry as chips.  The town is famous for the nearby Geikie Gorge and we will see that tomorrow.

The Caravan Park where we are staying is excellent, with sweeping green lawns as you enter the property and the services and facilities here are great too.  It is a welcome change from the previous two days of red dust we have dealt with.

We had a most unusual experience today.  We stopped for a cuppa this morning and met a botanist from UQ.  He was in raptures because on the side of the parking area he had seen a very rare tree, what he described as a t-hong tree.  His excitement was infectious particularly as the tree was in flower.  It had one long red flower about a foot long.  We were happy to get a shot of the tree for the record.

250614 Mostly plains on the way to Fitzroy Crossing

250614 The range we passed through with grey/black rock on one side of the road

250614 and red rock on the other

250614  More of the red range

250614  More of the red range

250614 More of the grey black range

250614 The entrance to the Fitzroy Crossing Lodge - a welcome change from red dust

250614 The Fitzroy River from the bridge looking south

250614 The Fitzroy River from the bridge looking north

250614 The very rare t-hong tree and its flower