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| Yep - seriously panicking right about now! |
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| Back into Windjana Gorge first thing |
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| He's going in! |
Headed for a quick morning stroll back into the
gorge, then back onto the road to Tunnel Creek National Park, where the main
attraction is a 750m long tunnel. We jumped into our swimmers and crocs (or
equivalents), put on the head torches then headed into the abyss. After only
about 50m, we passed some people on their
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| A slightly scared smile... |
way back who warned us of the real
crocodile in the last pool – not really what we needed to hear at that time!
Several hesitant steps later, and a bog incident, and we’d made it to the other
side with no crocodile sightings – on the way back was a different story when
all we saw were the eyes – that definitely sped up our exit!
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Fist pumping - before we realised
it was the first of 5 crossings... |
Back on the road we tried to bring our
heart-rates down to normal, but we’d barely taken 2 breaths before we came up
against a river crossing in the Beaut. Decided that caution was the only
option, and Annaliza walked through the ankle deep waters to determine the best
route to take. Safely across on the other side it was high fives all round
(i.e. between us), until we heard from the person crossing behind us that this
was the first of five. Shucks (and some other, worse, language). Followed the
same procedure through all 5, and on the fifth we both thought we were a goner,
but the Beaut coped amazingly.
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| No go, but then a tow! |
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the high
drama and once again our adrenaline levels were not given any chance to return
to normal – this time we hit something closer to a sand pit than a road. The
Beaut nearly made it, but got seriously dug in and Tony’s attempts to get back
out just made things worse. Fortune was once again on our side though – only 5
minutes later the first bit of traffic we’d seen coming the opposite way
stopped, and with incredible efficiency they gave us a tow and waved us on our
merry way. Legends.
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| Gekkie Gorge |
All this action, and it wasn’t even lunch! When
the Beaut finally got its wheels back on tarmacked road, we breathed a sigh of
relief. We got totally sunbaked on the Gekkie Gorge walk not much after, before
traversing the main section of the Kimberley on the Northern highway. What a
day…
Key Learnings:
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| The Kimberley, from the safety of tarmac! |
1.
It’s better to have torches stronger than our head torches when wading knee
deep in croc infested waters. Don’t get too impressed though – we were always
confident it was only a freshie!
2. The best way to drive on
sand is in a low gear (2nd), high revs, with a pace of about 40kms –
thanks again Sydney-siders!
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