Everyone was up early as the sun rose over Windjana Gorge.

The gorge entrance was between 2 huge limestone cliff faces and as we walked through everyone felt dwarfed!

The volunteer camphost had told us there was over 140 freshwater crocodiles living in Windjana Gorge and due to the poor wet season there was not much water left – what was there was putrid so no swimming…. Also too many freshies..

We rounded the corner and came to the waters edge – it was like Bondi Beach for crocs – they were everywhere….

big ….

small…

ugly….

Sunning themselves on rocks….

in the mud….

in the water!!

The gorge itself was impressive in size – sheer limestone cliffs rising out of the sandy river bed…lined with green trees and beautiful plants…

some colourful flowers…

birdlife could be heard everywhere…we even spotted a bower bird nest….

The limestone cliffs were honeycombed with holes and small caves..

A fossilised nautilus specimen was clearly evident…apparently the whole area was part again of an early inland sea….or could it be the Flood??

The day was searingly hot so we walked for a while then turned back to camp for an early lunch.

Carole arrived from Broome on her guided tour – it was great to see her and Trev went back with her and the tour group into the gorge. After lunch we drove down to Tunnel Creek as did Carole’s tour group and did the Tunnel Creek walk.

Tunnel Creek was amazing – such a small entrance into the limestone cave/ creek system which is inhabited by bats, fish, crocs and crustaceans…

we were greeted inside the entrance by a freshie who appeared to be standing guard but was unmoved by all the tourist activity – and I was so busy concentrating on filming the entrance and the roof that I nearly trod on it – tragedy avoided by Kerry’s quick callout to me.

The creek flowing through has worn out the tunnel and limestone stalactites and formations hang from the ceiling. 

We waded through a couple of knee deep water crossings in the dark…

Water trickled in through small holes…

The aboriginal outlaw Jandamarra had hidden in this cave system from the troopers for 3 years in the late 1800s…eventually he was shot by another aboriginal tracker in the Tunnel Creek area. So much history in the area!

Glen and Annette had forged on early and we waited for Carole’s tour…we walked on through the cave system seeing small crocs red eyes gleaming at us in the dark, waded through the creek a couple of times and finally reached the other end where the creek flowed out into sunshine and a small billabong.

We caught up with Glen and Annette there and all sat down for a drink…

Some of the tour participants ventured into the billabong for a quick dip including Carole but we all held back having been spoilt by swimming in the pristine waters of Bell and Manning Gorges. The water in the billabong would have been polluted with crocodile poo and bat guano so we weren’t keen!!

After a short rest we made the return journey enjoying the cool of the cave as the outside was still scorching hot.

We drove back toward Windjana Gorge via the Lillimooloora Police Station ruins – incredible to think that in the 1800s this remote area had a police station!!

On our return we all hit the showers feeling pretty grotty after the tunnel walk – Rosie scrubbed her joggers in the washing up bucket on the food table much to Branch’s distress…the table needed a good scrub with all the washing powder still caked on it after the event!!

That night we had a visit from the local rescue kangaroo who the ranger had told us would not hesitate to come into camps looking for food – it was close to needing to be euthanised the ranger said as it was obese and so we were instructed not to feed it!

3 young German tourists set up camp right next to us – they were very friendly and wanted some advice as to what to see and do on the Gibb River Road so we used our new found knowledge to give them some tips and hints on an itinerary….