“There’s nothing between Broome and Darwin mate.” So we were advised by a fellow traveller just outside the Broome visitor information centre. We immediately paused. Was this it? Was the best of our holiday behind us, to be replaced by desert landscapes repeated over and over across our future days?
Thankfully, having just completed the first third of our trip to Darwin, we’ve learnt some lessons about advice from fellow travellers. Advice from other travellers can be incredibly helpful. You can learn of road conditions, sights off the beaten track; little nooks to stay at, places that are safe to swim, And towns to give little more than a cursory glance to.
This advice is however also subjective. A fellow traveller can only give you advice on their own experience, on the choices that they have made. Generally a review of a caravan park is compared against caravan parks in other towns, not against caravan parks in the same town. Advice on things to see can only be given based on things a person has seen. And someone who has rushed from one destination to another will have seen nothing of the journey in between
There’s more between Broome and Darwin than we can possibly see. Without a 4WD, we’ve determined that Wolfe’s Creek meteorite crater, the second largest visible crater in the world, and the Bungle Bungles, a layered and visually spectacular mountain range, will form part of another holiday. Our days were were still full, with driving only a minor part of what we’ve experienced.
The first stop After Broome was Derby, which we made last week. Derby, From there we headed on to Fitzroy Crossing, a town straddling the Fitzroy River. In the wet season, the Fitzroy River is second in volume only to the Amazon; this town sprung up around the only crossing in the region. After three wet seasons without a proper monsoon, the Fitzroy River was a shadow of what it has been, but was still, unlike most of the other creeks and rivers in the region, still flowing.
We headed North of town to Danggu Geikie Gorge, to walk along the riverbed into more gorges, and potentially see our first crocodile.
Despite having seen a multitude of gorges across our adventure, these were unlike any we had seen before. The gorges were up to 200 metres across, the charcoal, white, and orange of the cliff-face’s describing where the river has flooded to. The limestone rocks were originally formed from a 400 million year old Devonian reef, which at that time was 2km below the sea’s surface. A quick dip in a billabong to rest after our exploration (pre-advised from the information centre as ’most likely crocodile free, and only freshies anyway’), we headed onwards.
In Halls Creek we were caught out by the strict alcohol control laws in the NorthWest Australia, which limit sales of alcohol to individuals, to particular days of the week, and in this town, meant no taking it away from the pub. We did however luck in to a day when their free public pool was open. As the temperature hit 34 degrees we ventured in, the first to arrive following its midday opening.
After an hour of frolicking, riding inflatable toys, and swimming laps, we still had exclusive use of the pool and the grounds only with the lifeguard. Emerging from the pool back into the 34 degree heat, on our way out, we asked whether anyone from the area ever used the pool. “Yeah,” he responded “there were a hundred kids here a few weeks ago. The weather’s too cold now”.
Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Canberra any more.
Reflecting on the ability of the human body to acclimatise, we set off for Wyndham. Our first detour was to The Grotto, a literal grotto in the middle of the desert landscape. We descended 150 steps into a pool estimated as more than 100 metres deep. The shade of the cliff-faces and a conveniently placed rope to swing from provided the morning’s entertainment. The site was ok for swimming according to information available for tourists online.
From there it was up to five rivers lookout, which overlooks where five rivers of the northwest all meet up. The land around the lookout is expansive and flat with smallish trees stretching out across to the mountains in the distance, not dissimilar to an African Savannah. Both at high tide and sunset the sight beckoned for us to stay a little longer in the small town of Wyndham. Our decision paid off, sighting a green tree frog within minutes of checking in to the caravan park, and sampling crocodile pie from the impressive local bakery.
We also resumed our search for crocodiles in Wyndham, heading to the West Arm of the Scambridge Gulf. No crocs in sight, we amused ourselves at the local museum, before emerging to check the banks for a lazy croc sunning themselves. No luck, we vowed to ride back at sunset.
Sunset did not reveal any crocodiles either. The closest we came to crocodiles in Wyndham was advice from the museum volunteer that a girl had been bitten by a freshie at The Grotto last year. Turns out advice on where to swim to avoid crocodiles may not always be correct.
As a quick aside, there are two types of crocodiles. Freshwater crocodiles, ‘Freshies’, are smaller, growing to around 3 metres in length. Their jaws are not large enough to eat you, just give you a nasty puncture wound. Typically they are lazy and eat only a fish a week to sustain themselves, and generally only attack if provoked or cornered. Saltwater crocodiles, ‘Salties’, grow somewhere up to 6 metres long. They typically live in saltwater, but can also be found in freshwater, just to keep you on your toes. These crocodiles have jaws that can crush you and have been known to take and eat people; in Wyndham they resolved one missing person’s case from the 80s on finding the man’s wedding ring inside a caught crocodile.
Skipping The Grotto for a second swim on departure, we headed along the east end of the Gibb River Road, which is sealed for around 40km. This was enough to take us 2km down gravel road from the Emma Gorge resort, where we could go and see another Gorge. We were told we would be able to get the motorhome down the gravel road, and that there were only two little puddles that wouldn’t cause us any hassle. As we paused before the first puddle, steeling our nerves, a 4WD swung around us, overtook, and promptly submerged to the tops of its tyres as it crossed. Turns out this advice, about ‘puddles’, was about as good as the rest of the advice we had received this week.
Having come this far, we pulled to the side, waded through the ‘puddles’, and headed into the Gorge. At the end of an extensive, rocky trek, we came upon a glorious, if very cold pool. The pool had echoes of Karijini in its marvel, though nothing could quite compete with those sights. Enjoying a swim, we were delighted to discover a warm spring to the right of the pool, and admired the water droplets trickling from the cliffs high above, creating miniature rainbows.
It wasn’t until much later that we caught up with a colleague from Canberra, who showed us a photo of a freshie cavorting in Emma Gorge. Our emotions were a mix of jealousy (we still hadn’t seen a crocodile) and concern that we wouldn’t trust any advice ever again.
From our unknown risk taking adventures we ventured on to Kunanurra. Tempted by reasonable rates and a pool to again escape the heat, we spent four days riding around the town and the neighbouring national park affectionately referred to as the ‘mini Bungle Bungles’, looking out over the water to the Sleeping Buddha, climbing to the highest mountain in the area to watch a Sunset from Kelly’s Knob lookout, and detouring out to Ivanhoe crossing to watch 4WD’s brave the rapidly flowing water. We enjoyed a dinner at the remodelled pump house, known for its catfish that play around the pump house, and the freshie that comes by each evening for a catfish snack.
Except the evening that we were there. Our crocodile count remains resolutely at 0.
Great post! The contrast between the colours and tones of the landscape you’re travelling through and where we are- the Alps – is amazing. I hope you get to see a croc, from a distance.