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The First day on the Gibb River road we went to Winjana Gorge. A beautiful gorge with crocodile infested waters! nice one! They were only fresh water ones so wouldnt hert you. We all had our picture taken with a local Croc we named Frank. He was sat quite happily on the sandy bank of the Gorge sunning himself when us tourist came over to have thier photo taken with him. He was kind enough to let up get withing 2 mtrs of him without taking a snap at us though. We carried on walking into the gorge and found a tree full of thousend of fruit bats make one hell of a noise. We then headed back to the car as it was getting dark to try and find a place to set up camp for the evening. We set up camp at the Winjana Gorge camp site had a few drinking games called spoons and then went to sleep.
The Next day, again up early, we headed out of Winjana back onto the Gibb River Road off to the next destination of Tunnel Creek. The entrance to the gorge is very small and you have to climb over lots of rubble and boulders to get into it. once in there it is very dark and wet. After what seemed like ages for us all to get into the bloody gorge, all trying not to get wet, a couple come wading through the water and say "I shouldnt worry about trying to stay dry or you may aswell turn round and go back" so with that I just jumped in the water and stared wading too. Once in there you need a touch as it is pitch black with lots of drops and streams to wade through. Once at the end you turn round and come back again. This was probably one of the better gorges that we saw just purly for the fact you feel like Indiana Jones running about in dark caves!
With this completed we headed off to Mt Barnett Road House where Manning Gorge lies. We arrived at dusk so set up camp and myself and Rico went looking for fire wood (as your not aloud to use any wood from within the National Park) we emptied the boot and left Rach to set up home for the night and start the dinner.We found enough wood for the evening although I did have to rain Rico in on bringing a whole tree stump back (thought that was abit excessive!) The following day we took the 1.7km hike (in bikinis and flip flops! Not Rico though obviously, that would be wrong, but more on that later) To get to the hiking trail you first have to cross the gorge itself by swimming across. We put out cameras and clothes etc in polystyrine boxes and swam to the other side (after having abit of a play about in the water) we gather our stuff up and set off on our hike. I hadnt put by flip flops back on at the point and was poncing around behind everyone when I stood on something sharp, I looked down only to realise it wasnt a sharp stone or piece of twig as I first thought but a bloody black horrible looking spider with its fangs inbeded in my foot, surprisingly I quite calmly picked it off with my hand and carried on. Im still alive to tell the tale to presume it wasnt poisoness?!. We carried on with our walk over rocks and up and down rocky hill sides and eventually came to what I can only decribe asthe waterall from The Beach That Leonardo Dicaprio has to cross to get to the secret village. It was beautiful. We went for a swim and stayed there for an hr or so before heading back to the camp site for another night before we headed off in the morning.
Early in the morning we set off for the 500km to Kununarra throught rivers and over extreamly rough road. This rough road finally took its toll on the vehicle as we had a blow out 50kms south of Kununarra and then again 30km south of Kununarra. So with no more spare tyres left we had to do a very slow limp into Kununarra, on the way seeing Australias most deadlist snake on the road, a Brown Snake. We stopped to take and photo and before we could get our cameras out some idiot came along and squashed it, me and Rach were heart broken!
After a night in Kununarra the next morning we got 2 new tyres and set off to Wolfe Creek via Halls Creek 600km south of the Great Northern highway. We set off at 9am and come 4:30pm we were 20kms north of Wolfe Creek. It didnt take much to decide that we would brave Wolfe Creek at sunset and decided to pitch up our tents on the side of the road there. Rach & myself were slightly concerned about the close proximity to which we were to Wolfe Creek but surprisingly had a good nights sleep. Rach woke me up with a shap poke in the ribs about 5am to say that she could hear drums being hit in the distence. It was bloody cold (as it gets to about 2oc in the desert at night) but we hopped out to have a listen. I didnt hear them but we can only assume it was an Aboriginal Community somewhere nearby, and it was possible as we were in such a remote part of where WA meets NT.
After we watched the sun rise over the desert we set off to do the last few kms to Wolfe Creek. Wolfe Creek is the second largest meteor crater in the southern hemisphere. It is absolutly huge. The area leading up to the crater is nothing like in the film and there is no proper road leading to it (as in the film) It is on dirt, bumpy track. We met some journalists there who where driving around Australia in the new Landrover (dont know what type), going to various different locations. After Wolfe Creek we headed back up the Purnululu National Park, Home of the Bungle Bungles (Hugh Bee Hive looking mountains) The road to get into the National Park and up to the Bungles themselves was the worst we had come across yet. It was very mountainous, rocky, bumpy, wet and generally a crap road. After travelling along this road for 3 hrs we eventually reach the Bungles, having seen them getting ever closer as we drive this horrendous road. On arrival at the Bungles Rico in a totally innocent German Fashion says " So are these the Bungle Bungles" Pointing directly to one. To which we all fell about laughing. Having walked around these huge formations for a good couple of hours we set off back to kununarra a good 800kms away to which it was already getting dark.
We finally arrived back in Kununarra and set up camp for the night before heading off to Katherine the following day.
Another early start for us all took us straight through to Katherine in good time. We arrived around 4pm which meant there was just enough time left to go to Katherine Hotsprings for a dip and cool down after the long, hot days drive. There were so warm it was like stepping into a bath! With a natural waterfall and warm water this meant we stayed in there until after dark. We eventually dragged ourselves away to go and find somewhere to sleep for the night. We found a camp ground and set up camp ready for our last night camping together before we got to Darwin.
On arrival into Darwin on the 15th Aug @ 5:30pm (the day before we flew out to Singapore) Rachel and I ran about washing our clothes and sorting our bags ready for the flight, whilst also eating dinner and getting ready in time to go out for a few last drinks at 8pm! We made it out in time and had a few large cocktails then headed to bed for around midnight.
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