Derby to Lennard Gorge

Entry to Tunnel Creek

2nd June 2012 12141 kilometres to date

And so our Gibb River Road adventure begins. A big fuel up and last minute groceries and we were on our way. There is a lot of bitumen between Derby and the Fairfield- Leopold Downs Road turn off which made the driving pretty easy. We left our camper trailer at Windjana Gorge and continues onto to Tunnel Creek. We figure if it is one road in and out, there is no need to subject the trailer to unnecessary potential tyre killers and corrugations, so you may as well leave the camper trailer at the beginning of the road. Tunnel Creek was good fun. It is a creek that travels one kilometer underground. You need torches as you walk through the water in the complete darkness. A cave in halfway along lets a little light in. There was a cool little tunnel off to the left hand side a few hundred metres into the tunnel, in which with a bit of tight squeeze presented a sparkling display of stalactites and stalacmites. If some friendly fellow travellers hadn't told us of this extra little cave, we would never have known it was there. A bit further along past the cave in, there is a cool waterfall. The kids enjoyed a swim at the end of our walk in the small rock pools at the beginning of the Tunnel Creek walk.

Tunnel Creek

Tunnel creek

Tunnel creek

Tunnel Creek

Tunnel creek

Tunnel Creek

Tunnel creek

Tunnel Creek

Swimming at the tunnel creek entrance

 Back in the car again, and back up the road to Windjana Gorge. An easy walk down into the gorge with a big sandbar to play around on next to all the sun baking fresh water crocodiles. Windjana Gorge is a very wide gorge in comparison to others, but still has the towering cliffs that make you say wow at the power of erosion. We hooked up the camper trailer and it was back onto the Gibb. We made it to a place where you are not supposed to camp and set up for a quiet night.

Windjana Gorge

A Windjana Gorge local