Because we’re getting so close to the end of our trip, we decided that we would bypass the WHOLE top end. That means the Kimberley’s were out and,… Darwin and Kakadu is out. To really do the top end justice, it would take about 3 months to see it all, so we opted to do the whole top end on another trip.
So with that thought in mind, we found a tour that would cover a couple of places like Winjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. And I’m so glad we did. Both of these places were awesome.
Looking like one of the trees from a Harry Potter movie, this Boab tree is around 2000 years old. Yep, that’s right, two thousand years old. It’s one of the oldest trees in the world.
And after stopping at the Boab tree, we headed off road to the Winjana Gorge.
And looking like most gorges as you walk in to it, the surprise beyond this short tunnel is evident in the “aw’s and ..ooh’s” as people walk through. Because on the other side of this is a beautiful river bed and valley.
The river still flows through here. The water is clear enough to see the sandy bottom in some spots.
This area was an ancient seabed millions of years ago as evidence of seashells are imbedded in the limestone walls. The cliff face extends up to nearly 130 metres high as you walk through the gorge.
And this little guy reminds you that you’re in the tropics now. This crocodile is a freshwater croc. They’re much smaller than their saltwater brothers and a bit more placid.
And while watching the tourists come and go, they sunbake on the warm sandy beaches in the river.
They’re so still that they almost look like rubber toys that somebody has scattered around the river. We did watch some swimming around, but most of them were trying to get as much winter sun as they could.
Looking back to where we came in, the river extends out of the gorge on to the floodplains.
And behind me, the river meanders back up through this rocky area where fish are abundant.
Even in the shadows, the water ebbed around this croc, whose tail was close to the edge of the sand. And for some reason, everybody kept saying “Kathy, you just grab his tail, and we’ll take a picture”..”Yeah!..RIGHT!!”.
And as we made our way across the sandy beach inside the gorge, it started warming up. It was time for lunch, so we headed back to the bus where lunch was served under a shady tree.
And while we had lunch, we discussed the merits of using one of THESE types of vehicles as a motorhome to get across Australia with. It’s like a caravan, 4WD, and motorhome, all in in one. We did find out later that it was a bit too expensive and WAAAY out of our league.
Well, after lunch, next stop was Tunnel Creek, 40 minutes away. Chris and I had expectations that it was going to be more of chasm with water running through it. But no….it wasn’t.
It was a cave with water running through it. In the ‘wet’ season, the water fills this cave as it rushes through. But in the last flood, that large boulder fell down and blocked the opening, so the flow is more controlled now.
Curving it’s way around like an “S” shape, we followed the water around to the middle where an opening lit up the cave. This cave also came complete with frogs, bats, and even a freshwater croc.
This middle section of the cave had fallen in many years ago. You can see the roots of a tree stretching down to the bottom of the riverbed.
We made our way out through the back of the cave as the bats squeaked their protest at the noise we were making.
The serenity of the place was invaded by the 30 people from our bus group. But the picture was worth a thousand words.
As we made our way back to the main road, we stopped into this ruin of a little colonial homestead.
The end of the day was fast approaching, so we headed home. All up we did close to four hundred kilometres. It’s been a big day out. The bush fires that are burning created another beautiful sunset, but unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of that one.
Tomorrow we head up to the Horizontal Waterfalls. Another big day touring.
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