Derby

A very laid back quiet town that has a very relaxed feel to it, with a great wharf and beautiful sunsets.

Beautiful Sunset off the wharf

 

The Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park was a good find, run by 2 lovely, very helpful couples. A nice quiet park on the edge of town with lots of shade trees and more importantly - no mozzies.

Derby is a town with a distinctive character, once a port for miners making their way to Western Australia's first gold rush at Halls creek.

Derby along with Broome and Kununurra is one of only three towns in the Kimberley to have a population of over 2,000.  At the last census, Derby had a population of 5093, with about 60% of Aboriginal descent.

Derby has the highest tides in Australia, with the peak differential between low and high tide reaching 11.8 metres. 

The rising tide, you can see the high tide marks on the poles

With this in mind, once we had set up we headed right down to the jetty to check it out.  We bought some fish and chips and sat on the rocks and watched the tide come in - unfortunately for us it is a Neap  tide right now, and that occurs when the difference between high and low tide is the least; the
lowest level of high tide for the month.  So we will have to wait till we get to Broome to see these
amazing Western Australian tides.

This is a lazy time for us just hanging around reading, the boys are golfing.

Funny sign  says beware of galloping horses

Is this Tiger?

Or is this Tiger?

We are staying in Derby for a few more days as we couldn't get onto our tour until Tuesday.

For our tour to Winjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek we were picked up early in the morning at the caravan park in a large 4wd bus for the 500km+ round trip, most of which was on unsealed red dirt
roads via the Gibb River Road.

Our tour bus

We were now at the opposite end of the Gibb River Road to where we were days ago at the El
Questro sign. The first 100 or so kms of the road was sealed and then it deteriorated fairly quickly to
a very poor state, even worse than what we experienced at the other end, but fortunately we weren't
driving this time and we were in this giant 4wd bus.

Windjana Gorge -  carved out of the 350 million year old Devonian Reef.

We were told this was the best place in the Kimberley to see fresh water crocodiles, and boy was it, they were out in force here.

You could really close to the crocs

This was a walking tour of one of the Kimberley's most stunning gorges with water streaked walls
that rise majestically to heights of  over 100 metres.  The Lennard River runs through the gorge in the wet season and forms pools around trees and shrubs in the dry season.

The beautiful gorge

The 3.5 km gorge cuts through the Napier Range; part of an ancient Devonian limestone reef which can also be seen at Geiki Gorge and Tunnel Creek.  The Napier Range is reputed to be one of the best
exposed fossil reef complexes in the world.  There were many examples of marine life forms
fossilised in the towering cliff walls.

Laurie found a fossil

Crocodiles were basking in the sun in the many pools, while fruit bats and corellas roost in the trees.

All those little marks in the water are crocs

 

The gorge is steeped in culture and history; this is where we first heard the legend of the Aboriginal freedom fighter, Jandamarra, who hid from the authorities around this gorge for almost 3 years before he was killed.

The Windjana Gorge is a highly spiritual place to the Banuba people, and the Windjana are the powerful creation spirits who reside here. Hence the name Windjana Gorge.

We were met by two members of the Banuba people, Kenneth (known as KY) and Claude who were to be our guides for the day.  KY told stories of the 40,000 year old Banuba people and explained
their connections to Windjana Gorge and its spiritual importance to them.

KY telling us some stories

Before entering the gorge KY and Claude performed a smoking ceremony to welcome us to their
country and to let Windjana, the creation spirits, know that we mean them no harm.


The smoking ceremony



We then entered the gorge by descending through a dark narrow crevice between the cliff face down a steep rocky slope to emerge the other side onto a sandy beach with many small pools spread out in front of us.

Entering the gorge

We were very surprised to see how many crocodiles were in the pools just floating, basking in the
sun keeping theirs eyes on us, as we walked carefully along the sandy banks keeping our eyes on
them. I am not sure who was most wary of whom.

Eyeing each other off

We enjoyed this beautiful walk along the sandy banks getting so close up to these amazing fresh water crocodiles. KY informed us that they are not aggressive and will do us no harm as long as we
do not disturb them.

Just cruising

We spent an hour or more walking in the gorge before going back to the bus for a well earned lunch before our next stop at Tunnel Creek.


Crocs on the banks of one of the pools

The towering walls of the gorge

Tunnel Creek National Park is about 30km south of Windjana Gorge, so we jolted along the road for 30 minutes or so to arrive at yet another amazing place.

Tunnel Creek

The main feature of this national park is the 750 metre tunnel that a creek has worn through the
Napier Range.

The tunnel is the oldest cave system in Western Australia. It became famous in the late 1880's when
Jandamarra, a Banuba tribesman torn between two cultures, was at different times a prisoner of the white settlers, then one of their most trusted trackers and finally becoming their enemy after becoming a freedom fighter, on behalf of his fellow tribesmen who had become enslaved to the white settlers, after he killed a police constable.

During the 1890's he used his knowledge of the caves and gorges to evade capture, leading the police on a merry chase that only made his legend grow.

Jandamarra was shot and killed by another Aboriginal tracker at the entrance to Tunnel Creek cave.

A short path takes you to the entrance to the cave, and even this short walk is quite impressive. The wall of the Napier Range is towering above you and you have to climb over and squeeze between big
boulders just to get into the cave.

Entering Tunnel Creek

KY informed us that up until 10 years ago the entrance to the tunnel was in a quite a different place
which us now inaccessible. The original entrance is now sealed with an enormous boulder.

Climbing In

KY told us that on the day that the traditional land owner of this area died, the huge boulder fell from the cliffs and sealed the entrance to the cave.

Once you enter, the opening to the cave is like a big hallway and from then on the tunnel starts. If you are one of those people who don't like tight spaces or the dark, or are a little claustrophobic then
you don't want to be here.

It was soooooooooooo dark

These are a few of the reasons Jude stayed behind, it was just us three musketeers who tackled this tour. Jude was saving herself for another tour that is coming up in few days.

Our tour guides had a large torch for each of us, they handed them around and in we went. We had
our good walking shoes on as there were several permanent pools we had to wade through as well as several rocky slopes to scramble across.

The tunnel component of Tunnel Creek is approximately 750metres long, the cave has a maximum height of 12 metres and a maximum width of 15 metres. The cave was once known as 'the Cave of Bats' with more than 5 species of bats in residence.

There are large pools of water to wade through, in the dark, and there was at least one fresh water crocodile that we saw. There are little waterfalls coming over the side of ledges and there are huge stalactites dangling from the ceiling.

As we approached one of the larger pools,  KY asked each of us to pick up a pebble from the sandy floor, put it under our armpit for a few seconds and then throw it into the water. This he said was as a sign of respect to the spirits and to let them know that we mean them no harm.

About a third or half of the way in the ceiling has caved in so you get a break and there is daylight. The Banuba people believe that the Rainbow Serpent left the cave at this point and went up through the break in the ceiling to reach the Milky Way, which is where he now rests.

Then it is back into the dark to continue this amazing journey.

Once you reach the end of the tunnel you emerge into an oasis, it is like in the film "Journey to the centre of the earth " there is a lovely cool rock pool surrounded by swaying palms in the glorious sunshine. There were little children swimming here, and others like us just enjoying this magical place.

The oasis at the end of the tunnel

Then we turned around to do it all again in reverse.  We found the walk to be much shorter and easier than expected. As well as more fun and much more exciting than expected.

What a fabulous trip, ready to do it all again in reverse

It was an absolutely unforgettable experience. On leaving the tunnel/cave we were approached by two Banuba Women who wanted to know how much we enjoyed their spiritual place. We thought this was a wonderful end to the most amazing day.

KY (Kenneth)

This was my dream to visit Tunnel Creek, the dream was fulfilled and the experience was a bit surreal   I don't think words can describe everything we did and saw today.

We arrived back at the caravan park quite late for our last night in Derby.