Crossing the Australian Outback 2011: Day 51

We just exited the Gibb River Rd from the western end, right outside the gate of Derby, Western Australia.

While the eastern Kimberleys between Kununurra and Wyndham, can be characterised as semi arid, hot dry country, the central part along Gibb River Rd is full of rivers gorges, which comes with very pristine and secluded swimmable waterholes, without the fear of salt water crocs. We are now starting to explore the coastal Kimberleys, and its near coast marine features.

The western end of Gibb River Rd.

Derby has a Woolworth supermarket ( no, I do not own any Woolworth shares!), that says a lot about it, the first since Kununurra near the Norther Territories border, 2500 Km ago on this trip. And it also boasts a fat boab tree, its hollow has room for 9, prisoners, I mean.

It was used in the 1890s for holding aborigine prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing. Ghastly, in the heat ! But Derby also offers sea planes to fly out and put you on a speed boat, to see and cut through the "Horizontal Waterfalls". About a 100 Km north, there are two inland seas, connected to each other, as well as to the outer ocean through 2 narrow gaps.

The "waterfall" is formed by the rushing of the tide through these two narrow gaps, it is especially interesting during the king tides of August. The height differences can be as high as 6 meters in late August '05, shown here by two pictures taken then,

The biggest reward was when the speedboat took us through the gap during the rush, but watch out for those crocs lurking underneath, waiting for their dinner if anything went wrong.

Anyhow, when I checked into the local camping park, they manager actually found my record of being there in '05 from their computer. Being 2nd time there, he recommended another spot for sunset this time, not the usual "baby boomer" spot by the marina. And he was right, the pictures says for itself, we had a most rewarding sunset over the ocean, behind the beautiful silhouette of a giant boab tree, wonderful. I promise him a third time visit, wonder what he is going to come up with the next time. Good man, he is!

After stocking up at Woolies, we continue westwards, north west really, through some very narrow bush tracks, pinstripping the car's body as we brushed pass, towards Cape Leveque, the coastal wonderland of the Kimberleys.

Cape Leveque has plenty of distinguishable red cliffs along its coasts and beaches, and we had a most wonderful time walking about with the sun setting over the Indian Ocean, which brings out the best of the red colours.

We toured a marine hatchery when coral, star fishes, sea urchins and various shell fishes etc. are kept. It was interesting to understand their foodchain dynamics, It seems that sea urchins and star fishes do not like each other, when they found out one morning, a big fat star fish ate the sea urchin for dinner ( or vv, sorry, bad memory! ).

Pearling is a big business in this part of the world, the industry started when the Japanese came here over 150 years ago, and an important industry too. But now, it is done on an industrial scale, forget about the fancy Japanese lady pearlers. With the pristine conditions, the quality of the pearls are exquisite. The biggest round white pearl of the World is found here, proudly displayed in the show room of Cygnet Bay Pearls in Broome. About half the size of a golf ball, it is not for sale. No, we don't have the budget for it, may be next financial year!

On the way to Broome, we spent some time exploring the yet-to-be-developed James Price Point, where controversy had been boiling over many years about Woodside the big Australian gas explorer wanting to develop a large scale gas plant, exploiting a large gas found way out on the ocean. We visited the "permanent" protest camps, but more importantly, trying to under the natural and cultural treasures of the area. I certainly see the point of the campaigners against the development. This is very topical today, after the announcement of the shelving of the project by Woodside last Friday. Well, it'll still be relatively untouched for the foreseeable future. It is certainly good news.

The pristine James Price Point - not to be exploited for the time being.

Our journey through this remote region came to an end in Broome, the gateway to the Kimberleys. Our last ritual is to visit the must-see Cable Beach, to witness the sunset Camel trains... and we were not disappointed, nor were the camel riding tourists. It was the most touristy part the Kimberley, many just fly in and out of Broome, thinking that they have seen the Kimberley. But the Kimberley must be explored and the rewards are unparalleled.

The next part of our trip led us down the Indian Ocean coasts of Western Australia, to explore the great Pilbara Iron Ore mines, the busy shipping ports of Port Hedland and Dampier, where huge wealth are generated by train load after train load of the red earth, iron ore.