Bungle Bungle Range

As our canoe slides through the cool green waters of the Fitzroy River, I look up at the contorted sandstone walls of Dimond Gorge. The exposed rock here is 1.8 billion years old in places, among the oldest sedimentary deposits on our vast ancient continent.

I stop paddling and my two small daughters fall quiet, seemingly in awe of the slanting red cliffs of the King Leopold ranges overshadowing us. For a moment the only sound is the wash of water around the bow of the canoe.

It’s 20 years since I first drove the Gibb River Road, a backpacker on his first four-wheel-drive trip travelling, unwisely, in searing November heat. It’s not too strong to say I fell in love with the Kimberley’s miraculous gorges, waterfalls and expressive boab trees back then.

Since then the region and particularly exotic Broome have charmed their way onto many people’s bucket list of destinations to visit before they die.

Returning with my young family during the July school holidays I hold fears that it might therefore be overrun with visitors. But this moment on Dimond Gorge, at the edge of the Mornington Wilderness Camp, a 322,000-hectare wildlife sanctuary two-hour’ drive south of the Gibb River Road, relieves my fears.

It’s a humbling reminder that however much we discover and explore the Kimberley, it remains an untamed frontier. Already, as we’ve headed east from Broome, joining the 660-kilometre Gibb River Road after two hours on the Great Northern Highway, nature’s work has been much in evidence.

We stop first at Windjana Gorge, where the Lennard River collects in a series of calm pools stretching out for 3.5 kilometres beneath 100m-high limestone walls. It’s a spellbinding place, where freshwater crocodiles loll open-mouthed on sandbanks, the fossils of primordial fish are embedded in the cliffs and boulders are infused with spiritual significance for the local Bunuba Aboriginal people.

My six- and four-year-old daughters are even more taken with nearby Tunnel Creek, Western Australia’s oldest cave system, burrowed 750m through the 350-million-year-old Napier  Range. It’s not just splashing through the underground pools by torchlight that they love but the story of the Aboriginal leader Jandamarra, who used the tunnel as a hideout from police in the late 19th century (before being gunned down outside).

But for drama it’s hard to beat Bell Gorge, further east along the Gibb River Road. Reached via a rugged 30-kilometre access road and a short walk along Bell Creek, the track emerges on a broad rock plateau. Beneath it tiered waterfalls drop down around 100m into a deep green pool, the gorge walls enfolding it on three sides. We follow a trail up and over one cliff and descend to some flat rocks, from which we launch ourselves into the waterhole for one of the swims of our lives. We float on our backs in the cooling pool looking up at an infinite blue Kimberley sky overhead, framed by a semi-circle of ancient red rock.

Boab tree, Cockburn Range

As we journey the Gibb River Road across dusty savannah plains it is hard to believe that gorges brimming with freshwater lie hidden within the nearby hills. The landscape unfolds in a series of big country panoramas, as escarpments soar from the Kimberley plateau and ranges rise, dip and intersect with each other. The road is a much less demanding drive than it was 20 years ago, with grading carried out regularly during the  tourist season. It now also has stretches of bitumen at both ends.

It’s nonetheless definitely still four-wheel drive territory – especially on the offshoot 267km Kalumburu Road that leads to Mitchell Falls and the coast. There can be long drives between gorges, particularly around the Gibb River Road’s middle section, during which we’re grateful for the DVD player entertaining the kids, and punctures are always a possibility, as we find out when blowing a tyre on our rented Toyota Prado one evening, near Home Valley Station.

On our trip we mix up accommodation between comfortable tented cabins at locations like the APT Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge, where breakfast and a three-course dinner are part of the tariff, camping at Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary and Drysdale River Station, and a luxurious, creekside Grass Castle at Home Valley Station, near the eastern end. We carry plenty of water but bring only basic provisions and snacks, taking advantage of on-site restaurants at our accommodation.

Daniel Scott and daughter at Sir John Gorge

Of all the places we stay, Mornington Wilderness Lodge stands out for its remoteness, uncrowded gorges and its important work protecting native animals. Apart from the morning when we canoe alone along the Fitzroy, we have Sir John Gorge to ourselves, at sunset. It’s a special time when the river comes alive with detailed reflections of the surrounding escarpment and we toast our trip with champagne.

Although we don’t do the long drive to Mitchell Falls, we do get to see them, on a scenic flight from Drysdale River Station. The flight also takes in the Kimberley coast including King Cascade, crashing down into the Prince Regent River, and Mount Trafalgar, a fl at-topped mesa rearing from the plateau. Then, at Home Valley Station, we go horse-riding in an epic landscape backed by the Cockburn Ranges, where the movie Australia was filmed.

The gorges along the route come in every shape and size, from the deep, narrow Lennard and theatrical Bell canyons in the west to the small palm-ringed waterhole of Galvans, in the middle, to Emma with its shallow pool beneath tall dark cliffs, in the east.

Emma Gorge is reached by a lovely 1.6km creekside walk and is situated in the one-million-acre El Questro Wilderness Park, near the eastern end of the Gibb River Road. El Questro encompasses an array of landscapes, including intimate Zebedee Springs, a natural jacuzzi surrounded by tropical rainforest. El Questro also has a variety of accommodation including the super-luxurious homestead overlooking Chamberlain Gorge, airconditioned bungalows beside the Pentecost River and 60 tented cabins at Emma Gorge.

Crossing the broad sweep of the Pentecost provides one last four-wheel-driving challenge before we rejoin the bitumen Great Northern Highway, near Kununurra. Cars and campervans queue on either side, awaiting their turn to splash across it.

Anticipation builds as I rev the engine waiting for a gap. Then off we go, forging into the river. As the water reaches half-way up the Prado, the girls squeal and I grip the steering wheel tight, and after 30 thrilling seconds we reach the other bank.

Pentecost River crossing Gibb River Road

It’s taken us 10 days to reach the end of the Gibb River Road and we have only three more in which to return to Broome along the Great Northern Highway. So, to see the World Heritage-listed Purnululu, 300km south of Kununurra, we opt to take a scenic flight. From the air, the 360-million-year-old sandstone domes, striped like bees’ torsos and rising from the plains in a giant huddle are an unforgettable sight.

Bell Gorge

For our last three nights we stay in the quintessential Kimberley outback towns of Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing, settlements often left isolated during wet season fl oods. From Halls Creek, on the northern fringe of the Great Sandy Desert, we visit the China Wall, formed entirely of glinting white quartz, and drive up to the Moola Bulla lookout to watch another intensely-coloured Kimberley sunset.

Canoeing on Dimond Gorge, near Mornington Wilderness Camp

In Fitzroy Crossing we visit the Mangkaja Arts Centre to meet Aboriginal artists and buy some of their wares, then spend an afternoon attempting to catch barramundi from the banks of the Fitzroy, the river that we canoed along so serenely what now seems like months ago.

On our final morning we are back on a boat on the same mighty waterway, this time on a cruise through Geikie Gorge National Park. The cultural tour, which passes beneath 20m tall  limestone cliffs, sculpted by the river is led by a guide from the Bunuba people, whose connection with the Kimberley goes back 40,000 years.

In truth, travelling along the Gibb River Road, a sense of extraordinary physical energy and spirituality is palpable throughout, connecting us to one of the planet’s few remaining untamed frontiers, and leaving us with unforgettable memories of a distant, incandescently beautiful corner of our continent.

Category: Destinations
Written: Sun 01 Feb 2015
Printed: January, 2015
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