Derby and the Gibb River Track

Gg:
After the luxury (if you dare say it was luxurious ... I think it’d be better if I describe it as niceness, actually) of the Boab Inn, we stayed in the Kimberly Entrance Caravan Park—still in Derby.

The rodeo was on that weekend (or week maybe), too, so we decided to have a look. We were just in time for the end of the controlled horses, the whole section of wild horses and the whole part of the bulls buck-jumping. The wild horses weren’t too crazy or anything (but they were still quite rowdy), but the bulls were stubborn and much angrier than the horses (or possibly the bulls were simply stronger). The first bull refused to leave the ring for quite some time, though in the end the cowboys brought in the cows to lure him. The only other thing that stood out significantly to me was when a cow escaped and ran around a bit ... but was soon herded back into the ring where it rested for quite a while.

After Derby we began the Gibb River Road, with people commenting that “you’ll be fine, we got across with a Nissan x-trail and a camper trailer, too” and also that “ooh, you won’t be able to stand the rocks with that thing”. So we set off to find out which comment was right.

The first night was stayed at Windjana NP—Windjana Gorge. We did the Windjana Gorge walk and the next day the Tunnel Creek walk (claustrophobic in there, much to my disliking).

On the second night we camped in Silent Grove, and walked Bell Gorge. The swimming spot was beautiful; the cool water was perfect for that day.

Our third and fourth nights were spent at Manning Gorge, where we met another family.

On the Manning Gorge walk (to Manning Falls) we walked with the family and swam with them, and had drinks later that night ... so the day was lovely (only one problem ... but that’s the other family’s story to tell).

In El Questro, which was our next stop, we had many walks: the El Questro Gorge walk, the Champagne Springs (no that does not mean the springs dribble champagne, much to mum and dad’s disappointment, I think) walk, and Zebedee Springs (warm water ... mm).

The next day of driving was mainly spent on REAL SEALED ROAD (hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!!!!!) and we drove through Wyndham to get to Digger’s Rest Station (where I fell in love with the kids ... no, no, no, the little young goats, those kids ... they sucked on your fingers since they thought they had milk).

Then the next day Noah and I had one hour horse rides and mum and dad had three hour ones ... but before those, have you ever heard of Hugh Jackman (Foxtel ads, X-men, The Prestige)????? Well for all of you who’ve heard of him, HE SAID, “HEY HOWZIT GOIN’” TO ME AND I REPLIED, “YEAH GOOD THANKS!!!” Because there’s a new movie named Australia they’re filming, and he’s in it with Nicole Kidman, and they were filming at Digger’s Rest, while we were there. If you see it, you’ll see a big boab tree (big at the bottom, then gets skinnier towards the top, with boab nuts) and I’ve touched it, as well as the Lucky Boab Nut (it’s really big, you can’t pick it, you’re not allowed).