Terrific Tunnel Creek

We made our way to a caravan park with power at Fitzroy Crossing as our base for the area. Many people do Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge on the Gibb River Road from Derby, but we had no interest in doing the GRR so decided to go in from the other side at FC. We stayed at the Fitzroy River Lodge and they had HUGE sites especially for buses. On our last day, there were 3 buses in there! The kids checked out the pool and I did some washing and we were all set for a big day the next day. We were up early and drove ‘straight’ to Tunnel Creek, which is a hike through a cave that runs through a mountain. It was a 4WD only track and we even had our first water crossing. It was more of a large permanent puddle, than a creek or river, but Baby Bertha still got wet! The road didn’t appear on the GPS, so we were relying on the map and ‘navigation’ of wikicamps. It only shows current location and distance in ‘crows flight terms’ so the constant turns and wiggles in the road made the trip longer than expected. As did the many corrugations. We eventually made it to the entrance and were relieved to see a sign showing the effects of a croc bite – cuts and bruises only as they are ‘freshies’. Lexie was a little concerned about crocs after our croc visit in Broome, so we were glad to see the information in the sign.

Tunnel Creek was another ‘class 4’ hike and boy was it GREAT! We all loved it. The entrance was rather a scramble around, over and under very large rocks and boulders, but once into the cave, it was amazing! We spent a good 2 hours walking through, eating lunch and walking back again. The water was ankle deep most of the way, though there were 2 parts where it went over my knees. Halfway through the cave there is a ‘cave in’ which lets the light in, so you only need the torches for 2 fairly short sections. But BOY is it dark for them!

We stopped for lunch on the other side. I always try to pack a healthy lunch and we take our backpack (which is usually carried by Dunc, though we do take turns) when we do these sorts of hikes. It means we can stop and appreciate where we are. I see so many people who get there, stand and look around for all of 3 or 4 minutes and turn around and go back again. Why?!? What’s the rush people?! While we were eating, there was the hauntingly beautiful sound of a didgeridoo echoing out from the tunnel. There was a famous Aboriginal named Jandamurra who hid out in the tunnel for THREE years to escape police in the 1800s, and there must have been a tour group going through the tunnel during our lunch. The tours got music and lunch provided, and we got to enjoy their music over our lunch! Lovely.

Dour Disapproving Derby

Most people we’ve met stay at Derby and do the Gibb River Road or Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek from there, but we decided to make it a flyby on our way to Fitzroy Crossing. We are so glad we did, as it seems to be rather ant-children in Derby.

We left Broome and stopped at the Willaire Roadhouse to buy the Yeeba meat that everyone around here raves about. We just grabbed a family meat pie, as the freezer was already rather full. It was then a short drive to the highlights of Derby – the Prison Boab Tree and the longest trough in Australia. The boab tree has a rather awful history. White settlers used to round up aboriginals and force them to dive for pearls in Broome. On their way to the boats to Broome, they used the enormous boab tree and its secure chamber to rest in overnight, before departing from Derby by boat. What a horrific way the ‘White Australians’ have treated the indigenous population.

The longest trough was built because Derby was a departure point for the cattle that were bred anywhere near here. Cattle would be rounded up and driven to Derby. They would rest in this field, take water and then be loaded on boats. The water was drawn into the trough by the windmill at the end.

We also had to get a photo of the longest bus by the longest trough!

We then headed into the town of Derby itself, via the Visitors Information Centre, which had a sign clearly stating that children were not welcome unless closely supervised by a parent. Sheesh. There are 2 caravan parks in town, one of which also doesn’t welcome children. Apparently they “don’t have the facilities for children”. I’m not sure what facilities they mean… power and water now and then is all our kids need! Finding the information centre closed (at 3pm on a weekend) we went straight to the famous jetty to check it out. Derby has enormous tides (which go up to 12m!) and a jetty which curves around in an arc. Usually you can drive along it, but we had our usual bad luck and a section was closed for renovations the day before. We had to content ourselves with a walk and a look over the side to see the water rushing by.

Having found such a loving welcome for our children in Derby, we didn’t find it difficult to shoot through and find a free camp along the road to Fitzroy Crossing! We stayed at a camp listed as “Big Boab Tree” and BOY was it big! Waaaaaay bigger than the prison tree we had seen earlier that day. After a play and a climb, we sat down to the most delicious meat pie we’ve ever tasted. Yum!!

Our ‘last’ few days in Broome

After we left Nana, Auntie Marj and Uncle Kevin at the airport, we hung around Broome just a bit longer. We had enjoyed it so much. We were supposed to leave on the same day they did, but we had moved Bertha to one of the ‘overflow’ caravan parks and were staying on. In fact, due to Bertha’s size, we were in the overflow of the overflow – a large paddock behind the PCYC carpark overflow. We had no power or water, but after a week of being plugged in, that wasn’t an issue.

We saw some more of Broome’s sights and caught up with our friends again. We checked out the Crocodile Sanctuary, and the kids saw a movie (How to Train your Dragon 2) while Dunc and I went out for dinner for the second night in a few days. (Nana had babysat for us so we could have a ‘date night’. It was WONDERFUL!)

Dunc did some inventing and made a groovy little self-supporting fridge shade. He’d finally changed the wheel seal a couple of days earlier so Bertha was feeling loved.

Lexie got a birthday package at the post office, and my beautiful sister-in-law included something for Angus too.

Of COURSE we went back to Matsos and Dunc had another tasting paddle – this time with lots of friends which makes it taste all the more delicious!

We spent some more time in town and checked out the pearl luggers in Chinatown. Dunc seemed to have the most fun of all!

We also checked out the dinosaur footprints. Broome has lots, but they are only visible at the very low tide, and they are not signposted at all. There’s enough information about them, and a cast at the top of the cliff where they are located, but they do not encourage people to actively seek them out. They had some footprints stolen (a horrible person actually cut out and took away the rock they were in!) and now there’s information about it but you kind of have to find them yourself.

  

We had originally intended to see them with Nana and I am SOOOOO glad that didn’t happen. It’s a class 5 hike to get down the cliff to see them, and then a scramble over and around rocks that were covered with algae and wet with sea water and the light rain that had fallen overnight. We chose Friday to see them as low tide was at the reasonable hour of 8.30am as opposed to the earlier days when it was as early as 6am. I was horrified to see two tour buses full of older travellers and any number of retirees making their way down in their white shorts and socks and sandles. I cant believe that the tour operators include that in their itinerary. They are implying that it is an okay activity to attempt and I was worried for our kids – let alone all those obviously less able tourists! There were people carrying handbags, coffee cups, loose handheld cameras and a few with canes! Crazy.

We made our way down safely, even though Lexie and I were in thongs. In the end that was the most sensible footwear as we just took them off and shoved them in pockets. Barefoot was best as we could feel the ‘slipperyness’ of the rocks that way. We even had a couple of people tell us we were in the best ‘shoes’.

We finished off our time in Broome with a farewell with our friends once more. It was Jordyn’s birthday, so I whipped up a cake and dug out the decorations again. Afternoon tea turned into dinner, and Dunc got out his clippers to give Isaac a well overdue trim. Our farewell was interesting as we were going different ways and not sure when we would catch up again. As it happens, that was sooner rather than later!