uncomplicated & unrefined: September 2011

Only days after passing through Port Hedland on the way home from our recent trip, the oldest evidence of life on Earth was discovered a short distance from the town of 15,000 people. As scientists from around the globe were chipping away to uncover 3.4 billion year old fossils, I was checking my phone for the first evidence of mobile reception in over five hours.

Signs of life from Earth’s younger years are hardly unusual in this part of country. In the Kimberly an 80km area called Dinosaur Trackway is the home to thousands of fossilized footprints left by at least a dozen species of dinosaurs which lived 115 to 120 million years ago - representing the largest number of footprints, the greatest diversity of dinosaur types and the best footprint preservation ever found. When you live in a state the size of Western Europe and with only 2 million inhabitants, things tend to pretty much stay the same. This can sometimes be a bad thing. But when it comes to revealing Mother Earth’s secrets, it’s a good thing.

While we didn’t go chasing dinosaur footprints in the Kimberly, we did get in touch with primitive life in Windjana Gorge. Windjana Gorge sits along Australia’s famous Gibb River Road – an unpaved stretch of road through the Kimberly that is only accessible during the dry season.

Following four days in Broome we spent two nights at Windjana Gorge National Park, about 4.5 hours southeast of Broome and 1.5 hours southeast of Derby where the Gibb River Road begins.

Windjana Gorge was once a 375 million year old Devonian Reef from when this part of the world was under water. The 100 meter high walls of the 3.5km long gorge, which shoot up abruptly from the land, are an impressive site. The Lennard River carves its way through the reef which today is known as the Napier Range.

There’s something quite peaceful and romantic about swimming in an ancient gorge, and I’m sure the freshwater crocodiles that call it home would agree. When hiking the 7km return trail through the gorge you will see dozens of crocodiles basking in the sun along the banks. “Freshies” are the smaller, somewhat harmless relative of the saltwater crocodile but visitors are still advised not to swim in the gorge. Shane, along with another male group of tourists, succumbed to the heat and swam with the crocodiles but I cooled off with a shower back at the camp site. Freshwater showers and flushing toilettes are available at Windjana Gorge but we had to bring a generator to power our camping fridge.

An hour further down the Gibb River Road is Tunnel Creek, Western Australia’s oldest cave system. Visitors can walk through the 750 meter cave if willing to wade through water which at some points comes up to your knees. We came rather unprepared. Shane left his running shoes back at the camp site and had to navigate through the cave in flip flops and our headlamp had a flat battery which left us with only a small handheld torch (flashlight that is). When you’re Ill-equipped, wading through water in a dark cave filled with bats and snakes is a bit daunting so we only made it half way through the 750 meters.

Windjana Gorge was definitely worth driving 140km on an unpaved road, but after two days without the option of picking up an ice cream or even bottled water from the store, we were ready to move along to our next destination – Cape Leveque on the Dampier Peninsula.