After a rather bad first night sleeping in the small Johnny Cash car we got up at 6:15am to be ready at the Derby Busservice Depot at 8am to be picked up for our day tour to the West Kimberleys.
We were quite shocked to see so many older people on the bus as this tour was advertised as being suitable for a moderate fitness level with rock climbing involved.
We had a two hour drive ahead of us where we got some information about the Kimberley region and its importance for the cattle industry.
This is the tour bus. Seriously cool, right? Well, for the rough unsealed roads of the Kimberleys (mainly the famous Gibb River Road) you really need a 4WD and high clearance.
We had some nice morning tea at the small airstrip where we waited for this little sports plane to arrive from Broome with six passengers, again quite some older aged people. What's going on? Did we misunderstood the leaflet?
It was time to get to Windjana Gorge where two Aborgines set a welcoming smoke and went with us on this walk through the ancient Devonian Reef.
I was not really prepared for this...
And then we saw them! Having a sunbath and lazily swimming around the little puddle of water that is left of the river during dry season. I counted about 30 crocodiles...
And spiders, of course. Everywhere with massive nets.
And even more crocodiles as we walked along the river bed. Pure EVILNESS!!!
That is the closest I would dare myself to get to the crocodiles and I was really scared! Sheez! What was I thinking getting THAT close???
The Aborigine (I forgot his name) was really friendly and told us a bit more about the region and traditions and stories of this land.
Then it was time for lunch after this nice leisurely stroll. Sure, it was quite warm by then but I was a bit shocked to see some of the older woman very stressed about this "long" walk. One woman (who looked like 70) had quite some difficulties to walk all the way.
During lunch (different cold salads, cold ham, toast) we saw a lot of little eagles and the Aborigine did some little art work on a nut. Very impressive.
After another 30 minute drive we got big torches and put on our boots, ready to get wet in Tunnel Creek. Ready Charlotte?
What you see in the next picture is by far the most difficult part of the whole walk: a bit of climbing over rocks in order to get to the entrance of Tunnel Creek. After climbing up Mount Bruce a few days before Charlotte and I found this way too easy.
Once you are in the tunnel it is basically walking over some rocks and sand and through water. The whole length is only 750 meters but it took us quite a while to get there as it was meant to be holidays, right? Not some sort of race.
We got told the story of Jarramandah, the Aborigine who got into prison for some minor crimes, became an important tracker for the police and finally their enemy for killing one of the police men. He hid in this creek for quite some time before he got shot.
Finally we reached the end of Tunnel Creek.
This is how it looks when you look back into it. After a short break we walked all the way back.
Seriously, when Charlotte and I reached the start again as one of the first I asked myself when we are going to do the real walk that is only suitable for people with moderate fitness. I didn't feel at all exhausted and Charlotte felt the same way. But for some of our way older travel companions for the day it was already up to their limits apparently.
Well, there was nothing more. We drove back to the airstrip for some afternoon tea with fruit cake (really nice) where we said Goodbye to the airborne passengers. We also tried some Boab nut before we drove back to Derby where we arrived at 6:45pm. It was a nice day out but in our opinion not worth the money we paid.
Anyway, we bought some mince in a supermarket and luckily got a place in the second caravan park of Derby for the night where we had some spaghetti bolognese before we cleaned our wet shoes and set out the plans for the next days. We got to bed in our car at 11pm.
Our next stop: the Bungle Bungles!
Yours crocodile-in-West-Kimberleys-admiring Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!