Page 184 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien 2

Next we wanted to drive a little of the legendary and notorious Gibb river road, because of the adventure, you
understand? But with so many things, they are not what they seem at first. On the East entry the road is mostly
sealed or at least well graded to a smooth country highway, same at the West End. Remains the piece in the middle
which supposedly still was wild, but that was too far for a day trip. We did not want to pull our poor caravan over that.

After all, we had some more destinations so see in the Kimberleys, the Windjana Gorge and the Tunnel Creek out
of Fitzroy Crossing. You know the routine, getting up at 4 am, start the long drive 100 km over corrugated roads to
our destination. The high steep rock walls of Windjana Gorge early in the morning gave wonderful shade. We
walked along the riverbank way up into the gorge. Bizarre rock formations surprised us. The gorge is part of a
million years old reef, called the Devonian Reef. Where the sea at the time was flowing far into the Australian
continent, we can now admire prehistoric fossilised sea creatures in the ancient sandstone. Soon we spy the first
Freshwater Crocodiles which are sunning themselves at the other shore of the river. Willy Wagtails, nervous little
fantails, hover around us in order to get the insects which we stir from the ground. We are lucky, that colony of fruit
bats is also on the other side of the river, because they make a terrible racket and we can smell them even from afar.

Our second destination for the day, Tunnel Creek is a subterranean river, which has eaten through the reef and now
flows in a large tunnel, through which we intend to walk. Over 100 years ago an Aborigine tracker was shot here. He
was a fugitive and lived for 3 years in the tunnel. Originally he was an excellent stockman and even better marksman
and worked many years as tracker for the police. Settlers had started bringing their cattle into his clan’s lands and
took away the food sources for many of the animals the aborigines hunted. When pressed for hunger, they shot
some of the cattle of the settlers. When loyalty of the tracker to his clan was tested, he chose the clan and shot a
policeman in order to free his clan’s chefs.

We knew, that there was some water in the tunnel and that it is pitch dark, so we took our spotlighting flash light. In
the parking ground we met a Swiss couple, which just came back from the tunnel and they told us, that the water
came up over their knees. No problem we decided to don our bathing suits, we always carry them in the car. Even
though.... Australia is surrounded by water, but you can hardly ever swim in it. Either It is too cold, the surf is too
high, the cliffs too steep, or the water is not deep enough and murky, full of sharks, Crocs or stingers and sea lice.
If this is not enough, there are some beaches which were closed because of e.coli bacteria, last seen in Darwin. For
days there were speculations about how this could have happened and people were told to really clean up after their
dogs on the beach. Until a very pragmatic gentlemen reminded everyone that large portions of Darwin’s sewage
was still flowing into the sea untreated. That’s the way it goes... Enough of that, we started off with bathers, bathing
shoes, torch, camera, knapsack and sunhat to conquer tunnel creek. The entry to the tunnel was blocked by huge
rocks and boulders. Up and down these rocks did not pose a problem for long legged people. Since I am rather
vertically challenged it was a bit more tedious, all the more since the rocks were burning hot from the glaring sun. I
had to wiggle and waggle and really watch out, that my derriere did not get fried on them. Almost at the entry, we had
one last huge boulder to surmount. Beat, as the true explorer that he is, manly took the lead and climbed to the left
of the boulder and into the dark, wet abyss. He disappeared up to his chest in cold, dark water. Uttering a few
obscenities, he held the camera and the knapsack above his head and did another step. He sank another 30 cm,
but after a few more steps, the water got shallower and he reached a sandbank. For me, there was nothing else, but
to jump right in and swim.

On the sandbank I looked back and saw, that, should we had chosen to pass the boulder on the right side, we would
have only had to brave ankle deep water. We heroically warned a family with a small kid who came after us, to not
do the same mistake and then went on into the pitch dark tunnel. We had to wade through some more water, but
none as deep as the first. In the shine of the torch, we saw and stalactites hanging from cathedral high vaulted
ceilings. The tunnel was interrupted by a cave in which allowed some light and thousands of bats into the tunnel.
They hung from the ceiling and were rather restless. Then, again dark as Hades. At the end f the tunnel we came to
a little idyllic sun flooded wooded where we met some tourists who had gone ahead of us. They asked us: “Have you
seen the crocodiles?” I thought they made a joke. On the way back we saw two fresh Croc tracks in the light of the
torch which led to one of the pools we had to cross. Beat shone the light over the water and lo and behold, we saw
4 orange spots gleaming in the dark and then disappearing under water. We crossed the pools with mixed feelings,
even though we knew, that Freshies are evading human contact, if they can.... Well, I could not resist to go swimming
one last time in the last of the pools before braving the heat of the afternoon outside. It was very refreshing.
Swimming with Crocodiles is now crossed off the bucket list.