HORIZONTAL FALLS

We had the best day yesterday with our trip to the Horizontal Falls.  I was afraid it was just going to be one of those things hyped up for tourists but the scenery really was spectacular.  The falls themselves are nothing much - just where the sea is forced between narrow gaps on the incoming tides, but the tour operator made it a lot of fun by tearing through the narrows and swerving the boats about.



One section of the horizontal falls

After a thirty-five minute flight in a seaplane over the Derby mud flats and the beautiful Kimberley country, we landed in gorgeous Talbot Bay and taxied to pontoons moored there by the tour company.



Mud flats





Pontoons in Talbot Bay

Aerial view of both falls

The sea was turquoise coloured, the temperature was about 30 with a light breeze and the scenery was spectacular.  The view from the top deck of the pontoon reminded me of the Greek islands.  Lovely.



View from the pontoon



After a session feeding the sharks:

we cruised through Cyclone Bay and Cyclone Creek - an area where boats and cruise ships take shelter when rough weather is forecast -

before tackling the wider of the two horizontal falls:

When the skipper checked out the narrower gap, it was obvious that there was a significant difference between the water levels each side of the gap and he deemed it too dangerous to attempt a crossing at that time.  So back to the pontoons we went for our lunch of barramundi and salad.

After lunch we returned to the second "fall".  By this time the water levels had evened out to the point where we could get through.  (These falls are totally dependent upon the tides and we had ascertained that Thursday was the best day this week.)

Once through the gap, we cruised about the "Inland Sea" for a while so that, by the time we were ready to return, the sea levels either side of the gap were about equal.

Back in the air, the return flight followed the coast to Derby

but we ran out of camera battery before we got back.

A fabulous day in the beautiful, beautiful Kimberley.

DERBY AND WINDJANA GORGE

Driving into Derby, from either the Victoria Highway or the Gibb River Road, is like driving through an avenue lined with gold.  Especially in the early morning light, the acacias are a glorious sight, the gold of wattles contrasting nicely with the red dirt.

Derby is a town of about 5,000 people so most services are available here.  Its main function is to serve as a port for the export of live cattle and minerals.  As it's school holidays in WA, there are lots of kids around the streets.  A favourite pastime in Derby is to watch the sunset from the jetty.  There's a restaurant strategically placed at the end of the jetty so we took the opportunity to watch the sun go down from there.

Derby tides are 5th highest in the world - up to 11 metres.

Derby mud flats

WINDJANA GORGE

The best gorge we've seen so far, ie the prettiest, perhaps because the walls and water are closer.

Freshwater crocs inhabit the gorge

We walked the length of the gorge (well, the part that was open) in the middle of the day and it was very hot - 33 in Derby.  Some of it was quite hard walking as it involved trudging through thick, coarse river sand, out in the open.

About two and a half hours later, we returned and were pretty exhausted, as much from the heat as anything else.

Are you tired of photos of rock yet?  I know it all looks pretty much the same in the photos, but it really is quite awe inspiring to actually see these sections of the fossilized reef.  Our photos don't really do it justice.  It's hard, no - impossible, to capture a sense of the sheer scale of the thing which extends over a vast distance, let alone the variations in colour and texture.

Tomorrow we're doing a flight over the so-called Horizontal Falls as well as "an exhilarating thrill ride" through the falls.  I think I'll give the swim in the shark cage a miss.  I hope they mean shark free cage

FITZROY CROSSING, GORGES AND CAVES

The western part of the Kimberley seems to be flatter and more open than the eastern part, at least that's the impression from the highway.  Fitzroy River Lodge is something of an oasis but they work hard to keep things green. 

Old Fitzroy River Crossing

Fitzroy Crossing is a great place from which to explore some gorges and caves located in the ancient reef that would have been similar to the Great Barrier Reef 360 million, or more, years ago in the Devonian era.

From Fitzroy Crossing we drove 43 kms west along the highway before turning north onto the dirt road into Tunnel Creek.  The first 10 kms or so of that road were very rough, but the rest of the 83 kms were not too bad.  Nearing Tunnel Creek, the fossilized remains of the ancient reef appeared.

Over the aeons, the creek has made its way under the Napier Range so exploring in there involved some wading through water from sandbar to sandbar, often in darkness, so torches are essential.  At least it was cool in there.  Bats are supposed to inhabit the tunnel, but we didn't see any.  Nor did we see any aboriginal art, in spite of frequently shining our torches around.  We had booked a tour with an aboriginal guide, but there was some mis-communication between him and the local Information Office, so he didn't turn up for our booking.



Inside Tunnel Creek

A local inhabitant

Although Windjana Gorge is only 24 kms further on, we'd heard numerous reports of how bad that section of the road was, so we decided we'd leave Windjana for the time being and travel out to it from Derby.
On the way back from Tunnel Creek we passed an accident.  A four whel drive vehicle was on its roof on a bend and police and ambulance people were there.


GEIKIE GORGE

This gorge, another section of the ancient reef, is only 18 kms north of Fitzroy Crossing and the local Department of Conservation people run regular boat trips on the Fitzroy River through part of the gorge.

 

Freshwater crocodile enjoying the sun

Richard Nixon in stone?



We were told by the skipper of the boat that the gorge was named in colonial times after an Englishman who'd never set foot in the place, so the plan is to restore its indigenous name next year.


MIMBI CAVES

According to the brochure "Mimbi Caves is a 400 million year old cave system which was worn by water during the Devonian period".  We drove about 90 kms east of Fitzroy Crossing to meet with our guides, a Gooniyandi man and three aboriginal women rangers.  First up, we were welcomed to country with a smoking ceremony.

The caves were also part of the Devonian reef:



Note 'The Phantom' at the rear



After a tour of the first part of the caves

we were treated to tea and damper and entertained by our guide who also turned out to be  a singer/songwriter:

Into the second section of the caves we went, where we saw some fossilized coral:

and rock art (among other things):

A short drive away, the women rangers took women from the tour group into the birthing cave (more wading through water)

while the men waited outside

My pretensions to nimble-footedness turned out to be merely delusional.  The rangers were less than impressed with my supposed agility and insisted on lending a helping hand.  At least I didn't fall over, which is what a doctor who was with the group managed to do.

BUNGLE BUNGLES AND HALLS CREEK

Scenery on the road from Kununurra to Warmun (Turkey Creek) was quite spectacular - better, we thought, or at least as good, as the bit of the Gibb River Road that we saw;  fantastic hills/mountains of red rock weathered, contorted and eroded into all sorts of shapes, and close to the highway.  With the morning sun shining on the rock, the colours were quite wonderful.  Didn't get any photos, we just kept driving down the road.

Warmun is a closed aboriginal community although they run the roadhouse to cater for tourists and, presumably, bring in some income..  Evidently, there is a back road from Warmun in to Purnululu and certain areas of the National Park are reserved for exclusive indigenous use.

Just after lunch, we set up camp at the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park, a new park opened last season by Mabel Downs Station.  The park is only one kilometre off the highway at the entrance to Purnululu National Park.  Only unpowered sites were available and night time temperatures dropped to nearly zero.  I managed to stay snug with the aid of lots of clothes, two sleeping bags and the doona.  As well, we used a gas heater briefly, just to take the chill out of the van.

The blustery wind we'd had in the morning had dropped by the afternoon, so we took the opportunity to have a helicopter ride over the Bungles - our first ever chopper ride, though with no doors on the craft the wind was so strong I had trouble holding on to the camera, let alone focussing.  Still, it was amazing seeing those shapes from the air and it gave us a good idea of the extent of them.

Next day we set off at 7 am on a small four-wheel drive bus for an all day tour of Purnulu.  Although it's only something like 50 kms from the caravan park to the entrance to the National Park, it took about two hours to cover that distance.  We visited both ends of the park, walked Cathedral Gorge and the Dome Trail at the southern end, then Echidna Chasm at the northern end after lunch.  We got back to the caravan park about 5:15,and dinner in the big camp tent was provided (soup and beef stew with rice), as well as a roaring camp fire. A great advantage of doing a tour like this is saving wear and tear on the car and the driver.  A great disadvantage is being part of a captive audience for the political spin of vested interests, a practice that seems common in the tourism industry. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic day and a half at the Bungles.  They were very high on my list of 'must sees' for this trip and were well worth it all.

The trail into Echidna Chasm was along a creek bed (again!) but by now I'm able to leap gazelle-like along the rocks - at least I think it's a gazelle I'm thinking of.



Echidna Chasm



End of the chasm



Eric asked me to stand under the rock

After the Bungles, we drove about 100 kms along the highway to Halls Creek and booked into the local caravan park, which was fine.  We'd heard tales about 'Hells Creek' but on Saturday morning all we saw were people shopping and going about their business in a perfectly ordinary fashion.

In the afternoon we drove south to check out Old Halls Creek, the site of the first gold discovery in WA.  There's nothing left there but a few plaques on ruins, but I reckon the achievement of the men commemorated below was pretty extraordinary:



Caroline Pool, south of Halls Creek



Roadside wildflowers and spear grass

China Wall, a quartz outcrop

The road south of Halls Creek, the Buntine Highway, loops around in a sort of U shape back into the Northern Territory and up towards Victoria River Roadhouse and Timber Creek.  En route, it passes through what was formerly Wave Hill Station.  People of a certain age will remember the Wave Hill strike by aboriginal stockmen against the Vestey Group.  Those who are younger probably know the Paul Kelly song, From Little Things Big Things Grow which tells the story of this struggle and the ultimate victory of the Gurindji people, many years later, when Gough Whitlam poured sand through Vincent Lingiari's hand.

Currently we're camped at Fitzroy Crossing.  From here we'll explore some Devonian reefs and gorges