The last night before we returned to Broome we camped at Windjana Gorge. We set up camp mid-afternoon and then drove another 20 km to a place called Tunnel Creek. The ‘attraction’ there is a kilometre long naturally formed cave tunnel through the rock to the other side of the mountain. I don’t do caves. Not at all. But I decided to poke my nose in and work my way along until it got too uncomfortable. We had to wade through a series of pools (sometimes waist deep) with only our head lamps to light the way. It was pretty creepy but I managed to make it through. The small dark space wasn’t as unnerving as the red eyes reflecting back at us from the edge of some of the pools that probably belonged to freshwater crocs. We found two aboriginal art sites in the area, the only ones we saw on the whole trip.
That night we watched a stunning sunset from our camp.
Next morning we walked into Windjana Gorge. The rock formations are a Devonian reef that was formed by coral over two kilometres in depth. Besides being a huge attraction to geologists world-wide, the gorge is also the best place in the Kimberleys to see freshwater crocs. And we did – lots of them.
We drove into Broome late in the afternoon having stopped at another aboriginal art coop gallery. The traditional art in this area is very different with the dominant image being a large white faced spirit with huge black eyes. We also went to check out the ‘prison’ boab tree. This tree is estimated to be over 1000 years old and was actually used to hold ‘prisoners’ that were in fact Aborigines that had been kidnapped from the interior to work as pearl divers when the industry first started up.
Our last night in Broome was spent camped at Cable Beach, a 22 kilometre strip of white sand so name because it was where the first telecommunications cable to Australia came on shore from Java in 1889. We grabbed some beers and the wine and headed out onto the beach to watch the sunset into the Indian Ocean.
Pictures from our last days....
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| Windjana and final to Broome |
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