The sun setting over the Wyndham Jetty.

This is the area for the original town of Wyndham. It is bounded by the sea, tidal mudflats and steep hills. Because of this the majority of the town was moved further down the road. The court house and police station are both still at the old port.

This little fellow was also enjoying the sunset.

Wyndham also has its Boab Prison Tree.

Clifford at the Prison Tree.

While the billabong looked pretty shallow and dry there were still a lot of water birds at Marlgu Billabong in the Parry Lagoons Nature Conserve

El Questro Campground

Well that's it the Gibb River Road done and dusted.

No flat tyres - We did see a lot of shredded tyres on and beside the road though. Good luck or tough tyres?

One CB aerial broken.

Yep the last 100ks are rough and consistently rough. Large corrugations, rocks that have come up through the road base. There is just no let up.  Several times I couldn't find a speed to smooth them out, we sat at 15 to 20 km per hour for awhile.

ElQuestro is quite expensive. Similar to National Parks there is a $25 vehicle entry fee. $20 per person to camp. Then a $20 premium for power. So $85 first night and $60 subsequent nights for a powered site. We opted for an unpowered site - the air conditioner isn't working anyway.

Having complained about cost there are lots of really nice places to see, even if the walking and vehicle tracks are a bit tough. This is in ElQuestro Gorge. To get there you have to go through a crossing that is signed caution deep crossing. I watched someone else come through and thought that's not too bad. We did make it without a drama but if I had walked it first I wouldn't have driven it. The walking track is also not formed and involves some rock hopping. From this point you need to swim to the rock and then climb over it. I didn't go any further than this.

Zebedee Springs are only open to we peasants in the morning. After 12 noon the gates are locked presumably to allow for more exclusive use.

There are really a lot of small springs over a large area that pool and cascade down a slope to form a small creek. The water is about 30 degrees all year round.

This is another spot I wouldn't like to visit in the peak of the season. It was hard to find a pool that wasn't occupied. Ann did manage to soak her feet for awhile though.

Emma Gorge, another great spot and well worth the walk in. Again this gorge was only open until midday.

We didn't see half of what is on offer at ElQuestro.

So while it is expensive, and a bit snobby, the campers are second class to the guests staying in the resort accommodation, there is a lot to see and do.

On the Gibb River Rd. there really wasn't that much to see between Mt Barnett and ElQuestro. It would be possible to miss the bad section of the Gibb by visiting ElQuestro then taking the bitumen through Fitzroy  Crossing and heading back up the first bit of the Gibb to visit the National Parks.

We had decided not to try and get up to the the Mitchell River Plateau. We did however head up the road for a bit to this unmarked art site.

We were lucky to find this impressive art. Is that a crocodile? Are there crocodiles in the nearby Gibb River? Was the crocodile involved in the the dreaming of this landscape? Is that a Wadjina with it? Hopefully some of the local aboriginals still know the stories and significance of this art and it hasn't been lost for ever (trampled over by our culture).

The next camp spot was Mt. Barnett - Manning Gorge.

The camp is right on the banks of the Manning Creek with a nice water hole for swimming. To get to the Gorge you need to cross the creek and take the 2.5 km walk.

This shot is as close as I got to the Gorge. It was with some trepidation that I found my way through the creek balancing my backpack with camera on my head. Then set off to see how far I could get without walking back in the dark.

While not certain I don't think there was any water coming over the falls anyway.

On the way back to camp. Did I cut it too fine? Nah.

We took a 80km detour off the Gibb River Road into the Mornington Wilderness Camp for a couple of days.

No we didn't find any Gouldian Finches. Did see a few of these Crimson Finches though.

The first afternoon we found the Fitzroy River - that name sounds familiar 🙂 and had a refreshing dip.

The next day we hired the paddles and life jackets for a paddle through the Dimond Gorge. The canoe was already at the Gorge a 24km gravel road/track away from reception.

Stole the photo from Ann. I was paddling.

This Boab is at the start of the other Gorge at Mornington (Sir John Gorge). There are not enough hours to do both gorges in the one day.

Spent a couple of nights at the Silent Grove campground. Primarily to check out the nearby Bell Gorge.

Did stop at Lennard Gorge on the way in. I walked up and over the hill and the rocks to find that there was no water flowing over the falls.

There was still water flowing at Bell Gorge.

We had our own little infinity pool to cool off in.

We didn't bother with the walk down to the larger pool and "crowds" at the bottom of the falls.

The entrance to Windjana Gorge.  This entrance pool is home to at least a dozen fresh water crocodiles.

While there is water in pools this gorge is characterised by its dry sandy creek bed.

The gorge has its own resident flying fox colony.

From Derby we headed along the Gibb River Rd.

We stopped at the Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre which is only just along the road. It was good particularly the short film which explained a bit about the local art and the Wadjina and why Wadjina appear in a lot of Kimberly aboriginal art.

Our first overnight stop was at the Windjana Gorge campground from which we explored Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorges.

Tunnel creek is pretty cool as you walk beside and sometimes through the creek as it flows under the limestone hill.

This is a section where the roof has collapsed.

It was pretty dark inside, but with our head torches we managed to spot this limestone flow. Lucky I had dragged my tripod and camera bag with flash in with us and was able to get this shot.