Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

THE KIMBERLEY: A FAR-FLUNG WILDERNESS 479
The road starts on the Great Northern Highway, 53km (33 miles) west of
Kununurra. El Questro Station (see “Where to Stay” in the Kununurra section
above) is the first stop, 33km (21 miles) along. It finishes in Derby, a small coastal
town 221km (138 miles) northeast of Broome. The Great Northern Highway
connects Derby with Broome. Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek National
Parks (described in this chapter) are accessed off the road.
To drive the road in a rented 4WD, you will need written permission from
your rental-car company. Carry cash (forget about ATMs out here, and traveler’s
checks are not always accepted), spare fuel, enough drinking water and food to
last 3 or 4 days longer than you think you’ll need, a tool kit, a tire puncture
repair kit and a high lift jack, a spare tire, radiator hoses, a spare fan belt, and a
first aid kit. Your rental-car company should provide all of this, except your supplies.
If you want to stay in rooms rather than in the campground, book ahead.
Even so, carry camping gear in case tire punctures, swollen creeks, or some other
circumstance holds you up between homesteads. Some homesteads are private
farms not open to the public, and their owners take a dim view of poorly prepared
tourists begging them for water, fuel, or food. Swim only where the locals
tell you, on account of crocodiles.
Before setting off, obtain a copy of the A$3 (US$1.95) Gibb River And
Kalumburu Road Travellers Guide, published by the Derby Tourist Bureau and
updated every year, that lists accommodations, the very few fuel stops, and other
facilities along the way. It is available from the tourist bureaus in Kununurra and
Broome, or you can order it in advance from the bureau (& 08/9191 1426; derbytb@comswest.net.au).
Plenty of 4WD safari tours operate on the road between Broome and
Kununurra, and even from Darwin, taking between 5 and 10 days. See “Exploring
the Kimberley” earlier in this chapter for companies to contact.
TUNNEL CREEK & WINDJANA GORGE NATIONAL PARKS
Windjana Gorge National Park is 240km (150 miles) east of Broome, 21km (13
miles) off the Gibb River Road. The 350 million-year-old walls of the gorge,
which shoot straight up as high as 100m (328 ft.) above the sandy desert floor,
are an old limestone barrier reef. A picturesque 7km (4-mile) round-trip trail
winds through the gorge, revealing fossilized marine creatures from the Devonian
period. This reef is part of a much larger barrier reef—comprising hundreds
of coral patches, some a couple of kilometers across, other hundreds of kilometers
wide—created when this part of Australia was an ocean floor. As the ocean
subsided, those coral-building creatures kept on building their reefs higher.
When the ocean floor pushed up above sea level, the reefs were left high and dry
and became the Napier Ranges. The Lennard River, which carved Windjana
Gorge, only flows in the Wet, but freshwater crocodiles, fruit bats, and birds are
common year-round in and around the residual pools.
Thirty kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Windjana Gorge is Tunnel Creek
National Park, where you can explore a cave tunneled by the river through the
ancient limestone reef system. To reach it, you wade through the creek for 750m
(about half a mile) in the dark. Before you leave Broome, ask your hotel to lend
you a torch (flashlight) to reveal the tunnel’s stalactites, fish, five bat species
including rare ghost bats, and even the odd freshwater croc (the “friendly” sort).
Wear shoes you can get wet, and expect the water to be cold!
GETTING THERE & GETTING AROUND You can include Windjana
and Tunnel Creek on a Gibb River Road safari, or visit from Broome. Take the