Journey in a Journey

Today is Michael's birthday so it is fitting that we start the day with the Mini Palms Gorge.  This is a beautiful walk squeezing through huge rocks and ending in a natural amphitheatre.  Another amazing walk.  We then did a small walk called Stonehenge which showcased pants used by aboriginals and what they use them for from medicinal to food and hunting. It was a very interesting walk.  Just before midday we went to the Echidna Chasm.  We timed this so we could see the light shine in the chasm which was happening at 11.30.   This was Michaels favourite walk.  He has over 100 photos to show you when we get home.  The walk begins meandering through a beautiful gorge lined with palms and is just stunning.  You then enter the chasm which is very narrow and long winding its way into the range.  It is very interesting to see the light turning the narrow chasm from dark to light and the rock walls light up when the sun reached the righ...

We arrived at the Purnululu about midday so we decided to explore one side of the range and leave the other side for tomorrow morning.  We chose to start with the southern side.  We started with the dome walk meandering through the unique domes.  What an amazing trail. It is cooler today and the walk is so much easier than the walks on the Gibb so we are loving it.  We then went to the Cathedral and skipped some rocks on the small water pond inside the cathedral and then continued along the Picaninny Creek and stopped at the window.  This place is amazing and well worth the 59 km 4wd track you need to negotiate to get here.

The bus picked us up at 8am for our flight to the Horizontal Falls.  The flight in the sea plane was great.  There was 11 people on our plane and 3 planes left Derby this morning going to the Horizontal Falls.  What a great day.  It is amazing to see the Kimberleys from the air and to experience landing on the water.  We did several passes through the Horizontal Falls at different times throughout the day and has a beautiful barramudi lunch.  It was amazing to see the different tides at different times of the day and we got to sit up the front of the boat for the last trip which was fantastic.

We had a great day today in Broome.  It was interesting to see how much it has changed since we were here last time.  The shopping precinct has been landscaped and looks great and has plenty of shade.  Cable Beach looks the same although the road and parking area has had an overhaul, even the nude fisherman is still there.  The planes were coming in to land over the main shopping village instead of over the beach but they are still so low you feel you could reach up and touch them  We did a lap of the town, drove on Cable Beach and did some shopping.  It was a really nice dirt and dust free day.

We spent the last night at Windjana Gorge campground and were up early as normal so we had done the gorge walk by mid morning.  The gorge walk is really lovely and was one of the easiest walks that we have done.  We saw lots of freshwater crocodiles, bats and a few kangaroos. I am gorged out now and so sick of the dust so we headed for civilisation ending up in Derby.   Derby is pretty small.  We had lunch at a cafe on the jetty and it was lovely to be eating at a clean table with no dust and it also felt cooler which was a nice relief.  We toured the town saw the Prison Boab tree and with little else to do we decided to head to Broome. When we arrived in Broome we found out that today is the night to view the staircase to the moon.  We managed to get a site at a caravan park right on the foreshore of Broome town beach so we are can see the moon and go to the market without having to get back in the car.  We did pay top dollar for ...

First thing this morning we headed to Bell Gorge. The gorge and waterfall is beautiful and the water was lovely to swim in.  We then decided to continue on and we stopped at Lennard Gorge. The walk to this gorge was challenging and the waterfall had stopped flowing. It was a really hard walk for not much reward. Our last stop for the day was at Tunnel Creek.  This was the highlight of our day.  It was so cool entering the cave and so unique walking through the cave and through the water.   

We are up really early every morning in the swag.  It is so hot at night we sleep with only the netting closed therefore as soon as the sun is up so are we.  Also not having our van we find we are going to bed really early.  Anyway so another early start so before midday we were at Manning Gorge.  Manning Gorge has two swimming holes.  One at the beginning that you can swim in and it also has a tinny on a rope pulley system so you can get across without getting wet. The walk to the Upper Manning Gorge is a challenging goat track especially in the heat of midday but the Gorge was lovely and the swim was sensational. It was still fairly early so we decided to continue on stopping at a couple of other small waterholes and we are now camping at Imintji Campground.  It is sensational here we have had nice hot showers and we have phone reception.  The campground is beautiful I am even using the solar charging station to charge the laptop.