Kimberleys Day 1

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Hostel pickup for Kimberleys trip is 6am all our excess luggage is sent on the Greyhound, by the look of the organisation they'll never be seen again hehe!

Everyone in the group is cool, there's 9 of us Richie & Jo, Gemma & Nikki, Anne, Nicole, Laura, Dave & me plus Dan the tour guide. We all hit it off straight away and have a lotta fun, which is great cos we spending 9 days knocking knees!

In Derby pronounced (Durby) we visit the Prison Boab Tree which is a naturally hollowed out tree with a small crack in one side which was used to imprison aborigines on route to Darwin prison. Derby itself is surrounded by tidal mud flats so looks like sunny hunny...brown! The wooden jetty was built in 1894 to export cattle but is now used for zinc & lead... yawn yes its a dull place hehe!

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Back on the road heading for the Gibb River Road (4x4 often flooded out road accross Kimberleys) Before we get to the offroad bit we have two blowouts, thats 2 spare tyres used & only 1 left... not a good start! The road was constructed to move cattle from Derby to Wyndham, its very rough & corrugated .

 We have lunch overlooking   Lennard river where an old trashed looking van belonging to some local aborigines is parked up. After lunch we go into Windjana gorge, its a nice walk through a wood, down to the river, theres lots of freshwater crocodiles basking in the sun on top of the water. It reminds me a lot of Zion national park here with the aqua water & tall gorge walls towering above. Its a very nice place.

Next is Tunnel Creek, a 750m long cave/tunnel passing under the Napier range. We wade through cold water upto our bums & need torches to guide us through. I can hear the bats squeaking onthe cave roof ahead & they look pretty big when I shine my torch up there. The cave floor is very rocky & sharp, I very much wish I hadn't come in barefoot... ouchy! At the end we all go for a swim in the pool which is shallow & cold as the sun is setting. We head back out through the cave ouch ouch ouch back to the truck.

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Dan decides to go offroading through tall grass to find a bushcamp for the night, after about quarter hour we give up & head back to Windjana campsite for the night. We cook dinner on the campfire, lemon chicken with  veg then chat for a while till a small snake slithers over Laura's foot towards the fire, after a big debate over what it was Dan thinks its def a baby King Brown 2nd deadliest snake in the world, he takes it over to the Western Exposure camp who confirm that it is one. Then Jim, the old fella comes back & says its a baby blind snake. Not dangerous at all, big relief for swag sleeping, we leave the snake in there camp anyway.. just to be safe hehe!

All the swags are rolled out & I sleep like a baby under the stars - its heaven!