Sunshine, sandflies and celebrating sixty

We’ve spent the last five days in Derby and will be moving on to Broome on Thursday, which will bring us to the end of our sojourn in the Kimberley. Since leaving Kununurra temperatures have been consistently around 35-36 degrees, a bit warmer than we’d like, so we’ve spent the mornings sightseeing and the afternoons keeping cool. We drove out to the wharf on King Sound several times to witness the wide range of tide levels, which vary more than 11 metres; the highest we saw was 10.42m. For the second time Julie became the victim of biting sandflies amongst the mangroves, which caused a few very uncomfortable nights of itching.

Derby Wharf (Tide 10.42m)

On Monday evening we had dinner at the Wharf Cafe to celebrate Rod’s 60th birthday. We arrived in time to watch a spectacular sunset over the wharf and enjoyed a delicious meal of mango chicken breast and grilled barramundi with saffron rice.

Derby Wharf Sunset

Rod’s Birthday Dinner

We had planned to do an overnight camping trip to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek from Fitzroy Crossing, but after experiencing the rough roads in the Bungles we decided to do a day tour from Derby instead. We were picked up from the caravan park at 8.15 on Tuesday morning for our tour with Windjana Tours. The first 70km of the Gibb River Road was bitumen but once we hit the corrugated gravel road, which had been graded only two weeks before, we were pleased to have opted for the tour. We stopped briefly to view a 1500-year-old giant boab tree, and drove past hundreds more along the roadside. Some were bare of leaves but some still had a good green covering, which we assumed was due to the unusual dry season, but our driver told us the trees in leaf were the females.

Windjana Tours Gibb River Road

On arrival at Windjana Gorge we were greeted by our Aboriginal guide Dillon Andrews, who welcomed us with a smoking ceremony. We learned about the features of the exposed Devonian Reef and took a walk along the creek bed to see dozens of freshwater crocodiles basking in the shallow water and on the far creek bank.

Windjana Gorge

Throughout the tour Dillon told us the history of his people, and in particular the story of Jandamarra, who worked as a police tracker. When put in the situation of having to choose between the police and his own people he chose his people, and shot dead Police Constable William Richardson at Lillimilura Police Station outpost, where we had a brief stop to view the ruins.

At Tunnel Creek we clamoured over giant marble boulders to enter the tunnel and waded through knee-deep pools along its 750m length, lighting our way with torches. Dillon continued the story of Jandamarra and sang two songs accompanied by rhythm sticks.

Tunnel Creek

Bunuba Guide Dillon Andrews