The town of Derby is located on the tidal mud flats on the edge of the King Sound. It has the highest tidal range of any port in Australia. The boab tree is a major feature of Derby and they have a famous Boab Prison Tree which is just out of town. Along with Myall’s Bore and cattle trough, which can apparently water 500 cattle at one time. The Boab tree is believed to believed to be about 1,500 years old and was used as a staging point for prisoners during the walk to Derby.
We used Derby as our base when we went off roading along the Gibb River and Windjana gorge road to visit Windjana gorge and Tunnel Creek. We did the walks at both spots. Windjana gorge reaches 100 meters high in some places but we got to walk along the river bed and banks. As we walked along looking at the fantastic scenery James glimpsed out of the corner of his eye a crocodile, not thinking much of it we carried on only to see about 10 of them lazing about on a sand bar in the centre of the river. Due to the rain fall a few days ago up stream; we were lucky enough to hear the rain water running into the river. By the time we made it back to the sand bar it had disappeared and the crocs were by the waters edge catching fish that were suffocating from the debris being sweep down river. From the sand bank you could actually see the water rising as it creep slowly over the sand. It was quick enough that I wouldn’t go no where near it, just in case the croc mistook my feet for fish.
At tunnel creek you have to walk through a cave (tunnel) to the other side. We entered the cave armed with an assortment of torches and an expectation of getting our feet wet as we had read the cave contains several small pools that we would have to walk through. As we entered the darkness of the cave the first pool we came across made us realise that we were going to get much more than just our feet wet as after 2 steps, it was up to our knees. At this point James decided it would be a good time to inform me about the sign he read before entering the cave about freshwater crocodiles maybe being present. So as James swung the biggest torch round, we caught a glimpse of those red eyes reflecting in the torch light just before they slowly sank into the dark pool of water. By this point we were almost walking on water, we moved that fast!
As mentioned before The way into the national park was off the Gibb River Road and due to some recent rainfall left big puddles and a creek crossing. The sight of these obviously turn James into a bigger kid than normal as he made sure that we hit every puddle in sight. Each time the Patrol made a splash into a paddle causing a wave of mud and water to cover the car, James would look over with a massive grin and say “Best day ever!!!”.
The Patrol was so dirty it warranted a new nickname “Dirty Moo!”
We only stayed one night in Fitzroy Crossing Inn as we wanted to visit Geikie Gorge.
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 Kimberley region. The Inn has welcomed travellers and locals since its establishment on 5th July 1897 by Joseph Blythe. Originally a "shanty inn and trade store" that served prospectors, bullock team drivers, cattle drovers and locals, it has operated on the same site ever since... although floodwaters have meant continual rebuilding over the years. Floodwaters through the bars at the Inn are measured by bricks up the wall, and in 1993 this was recorded at 9 bricks high.
Geikie Gorge is where the mighty Fitzroy River has carved a 30 metre deep gorge into the remains of the ancient limestone barrier reef that existed here in the Devonian period. This was also where we picked up our first tyre puncture (see pervious Blog)
Halls Creek
So our first port of call when we got to Halls Creek was as always the tourist info, mainly to find out where we could get the tyre fix. With the tyre dropped off and checked in to the campsite (only one in town it’s that small) we decided to spend the afternoon by the pool and writing the last blog. The next day with the tyre fixed we went to see the local sights, luckily they were all on one road. We started with the expectation of doing the closest first so by the time the weather heated up we would be at Sawpit Gorge and able to cool off in the water. Our expectations were not met, we only got half way before another puncture stoped us in our tracks. We did however get to see the China wall, this is a sub-vertical quartz vein protruding up to 6m from the surrounding surface. This quartz substance is hard and remains resistant to weathering. The China Wall lines the surrounding hills and meets at the tranquil river valley. Its length is a mystery; the formation is visible from Halls Creek to the Bungle Bungle ranges. We also got to Caroline Pool this was once the main recreational spot for the folk of the pioneering era. During the wet season it is ideal for swimming, however, in to the dry it is more of a picnic area with a pool to paddle in. It was still very pretty.
So it was changing the tyre again and back to town to drop the tyre of with the same guy as yesterday and back to the pool for us. Unfortunately this time it was that bad that a new tyre was needed.
We decided that we would go see the meteorite crater at Wolfe Creek (yes for those of you that have seen the film we made it back out again). This meteorite crater measures 850 metres across, is the second largest in the world from which fragments of a meteorite have been collected.The Wolfe Creek crater formed about 300,000 years ago when an iron meteorite weighing thousands of tonnes crashed to earth. It was not until 1947 that Europeans recognised the crater when it was observed by geologists during an aerial survey. The walls of the crater stand up to 35 metres high and the crater floor is more than 50 metres below the rim. The crater is thought to have been up to 120 metres deep, but wind blown sands have slowly filled the crater floor so that is now only 20 metres below the level of the surrounding plain. We walked to the rim and James being him had to climb down to the centre, I wasn’t going to be left alone so had to go with him. It is a strange sight and feeling standing in the middle off a meteorite crater, both amazing and spooky.
When we arrived back at the campsite our drama continued with the realisation that our fridge had broken. We had planed on going into the Bungle Bungle range for a couple of days to do some walks and swim in some natural pools but with no fridge and 40 degree heat we decided against it and headed straight to Kununurra to see if we could get it fixed.
Drama, Drama, Drama!!!
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