Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

30^th May 2008

I got everyone up early so that we could get into the gorge around sunrise. The girls were fed on pikelets to keep them going and we all donned our warm gear – including beanies – because it must have been as low as around 10 degrees. Of course, once we set off we soon had to shed it all.

We walked up the gorge with increasing resistance (particularly from Holly) as we got further from our camp. I tried some biscuits to see if a sugar hit would help but it wasn’t much good. We followed some very loud screeching to see a tree full of fruit bats who didn’t seem to be getting much sleep – they were more interested in finding their spot and budging their mates out of the way. They had extremely cute faces and it was great to get such a close up look.

We crossed a big beachy area where the girls found many amazing rocks and stones – some which looked like they were made of grey glitter, others that were almost see-through – so that we walked on from there with laden pockets. We struggled on along a windy, vine infested path, jollying along the girls, in case there was a fantastic spot just around the corner that we wouldn’t want to miss but when we came across a 1.5m snake (we later decided it must have been an olive python) we decided it was time to turn back.

As we got closer to camp, of course, everyone started to cheer up and the girls picked up handfuls of white feathers from the noisy corellas. We also spotted some green tree ants – Katie’s description was of green ants with beautiful golden bottoms!

After lunch we set off to tackle Tunnel Creek but when we got there we found we’d forgotten the head torches and had only one torch between us. And we weren’t certain of its battery strength, either! We’d been warned that the first part had quite deep water to be negotiated – up to the top of our legs - but as we clambered over some big rocks to get in and then waded through a shallow part we wondered what they were on about. We kept waiting for a deep patch that never came. We were trying to conserve battery power so only put the torch on once it got too dark to see the rocks underfoot. Paul was having a lovely time because he’d chosen Crocs as his footwear on account of the wading we’d have to do but they don’t work so well for him when rock climbing!

We safely reached the part where the roof has fallen and the sunlight floods in and then met a party of tourists who lit our way for a little further but once they had passed on we were in pitch black. Paul walked at the back shining the torch forward and we successfully (if a little tetchily, since everyone relying on one torch doesn’t make for easy progress!) made it through to the other side.

Here there was a small pool and some rocks, the other side of which we found the aboriginal art which we duly photographed before venturing back into the tunnel. We didn’t see any ghost bats or the freshie that is supposed to be living there but we didn’t find the deep water, either. We decided that everyone else must have gone around the rocks that we had clambered over at the entrance.

We only encountered another tour group right at the very end so we’d been pretty lucky not to have to share our tunnel experience with hundreds of others.

I drove back to camp to keep up my driving hours (still only countable on one hand!) and, to Katie’s joy, we found the Stanley’s had taken up residence.

I cooked up a spag bol and then caught up with the others in the gorge. We found a freshie who was sitting on our shore and seemed unworried by the tourists who were coming within a couple of metres to get his photo. Tonight we had the torches so waited for the bats to come out – which they did, but it got too dark to see if the crocs were snapping at them. The girls spent the whole time making mud pies and getting themselves covered in the process!