Across the Kimberley begins! 27th June

After 2 nights in Broome and just enough time to get ready again before it was time to depart on the 9 day trip across the Kimberley from Broome to Darwin! There's 2 ways to make this journey, the fast highway or the long, mostly unsealed, so rather bumpy- but much more picturesque- Gibb river road. This road is closed during the wet season when the rivers flood the plains.

The Kimberley is romantically described as Australia's last frontier- it's a vast area including much Aboriginal land, some big gorges and occasional extensive cattle stations. And a lot of open space and big skies. (anyone reading a few of these entries will begin to notice a theme!) The Gibb river road was cut through the middle of it to transport cattle.

So, it was a customary early start and heading towards Derby. Here we stopped at the Boab prison tree. Boab trees are very distinctive trees of this region, they can't be easily aged as have no rings but some are thought to be thousands of years old and their closest relative lives in Africa- curious! This notorious tree was used as a prison in the 19th century for kidnapped indigenous people and is a very sinister and ugly example.

The Aboriginal dreamtime has many stories of why things are as they are and the story goes that the Boab was a very handsome and vain tree who drove everyone crazy so that, as punishment he was pulled out of the earth, turned upside down and pushed back in again, explaining why the bare branches in winter look like roots.

As we drive it's a landscape of spiniflex grass, boab trees, yellow flowering Wattles (a type of Acacia) and occasional cows or termite mounds.

We reached camp at Windjana gorge and visited Tunnel Creek, an eerie cavern.
Before heading to camp we gathered firewood- a daily chore to ensure a nice warm campfire. Whilst the females gathered the majority of the wood this was an opportunity for the males to play with axes.