GIBB RIVER ROAD-THE KIMBERLEY

KIMBERLEY ADVENTURE-GIBB RIVER ROAD.
WINDJANA GORGE-TUNNEL CREEK.
Sat. 9th July, 2011. After packing up in Derby and heading down to the Jetty Rest. to have a last espresso coffee we hit the Gibb River Road at 10.45a.m. 120klms. along the GRR then onto the Fairfield Leopold Downs Rd for 20klms. to Windjana Gorge National Park.
The first 69klms of G.R.R. was bitumen, then it all changed, gravel, corrugated and very dusty. We thought we were going to be alone and isolated, but how very wrong we were. It is so busy it was like driving in a fog sometimes when vehicles were coming from the opposite direction.
A brief history of this wilderness trek. The 665klm G.R.R. is mostly unsealed and has to be prepared each year after the wet and open to the public late April to November. Built to transport cattle to the Derby abattoirs in the late 1960’s & gradually extended through to Wyndham at the eastern end. The Kalumbaru Rd was surveyed in 1955, which is on the north side of G.R.R., and helped to establish links to the Mitchell Plateau & Kalumbaru which had been settled in 1922 by Fathers of the Coastal Mission of Pago further north.
Due to late damaging rains in March the roads were unable to be opened until around June, which put a lot of travellers’ plans behind and made for lots of traffic. State & interstate school holidays contributed to the tourism traffic.
On our arrival at Windjana there is a self-registration station where you have to fill out details and put your camp fees in an envelope to cover your stay. The ranger comes around the camp grounds each afternoon. For us it was $16 P/N and we stayed for 3 nights. We were very surprised to see that flush toilets and hot/cold showers and plenty of water were available. There is no free camping along the G.R.R. to protect the environment and only camp in designated areas like N.P., Wilderness Reserves or working cattle stations which have better facilities, some even had washing machines.
The scenery through Windjana Gorge is beautiful, even though there are resident freshwater crocodiles. Our nights were spent around the camp fire, cooking, drinking and meeting lovely people like Bob, Trish and their family. Bob was putting his camp oven cooking to the test with his bread and doing a good job too. He gave us some to try as well as Trish doing an apple crumble which was also very yummy. Thanks guys. Lovely. As you can see we were doing it tough from the start.!!!!!!!!!!
A day trip 35klms. took us to Tunnel Creek. This 750m walk through water and small sand islands was an ancient reef created 350million years ago during the Devonian Period. The entire area was under water and formed part of a giant reef. The water gradually receded to form the watercourse that carved out the tunnel. Fresh water flows through it all year round. It was a little scary in places as it was so dark, of course you had to have a torch and the water was very refreshing and only came up above my waist in one section. I didn’t know it at the time; just as well because I might not have gone through it, fresh water crocodiles have been spotted in the water flow you walk through. Tunnel Creek was once a hideout for Jandamarra, an aborigine who fought a running battle with police back in the late 19th century. A police tracker turned rebel, Jandamarra took the lives of several policemen and settlers, but managed to evade capture until he was killed near the rear entrance by a police tracker in 1897.
G.R.R. CONT.....