Kimberleys Trip 13 June 2019

The walk down Winjana Gorge was one of the best we've seen. There were lots of birds, including waterbirds, lovely limestone cliffs. 

Speargrass seeds

These cliffs were wonderful with a fossil of a cephalopod, and perhaps some shells. 

Cephalopod fossil

A bask of freshwater crocodiles...some lazily sunning on the bank and others having a little territorial dispute. 

Click above to see the croc aggression

Further up in the gorge was a huge set of stalactites on the wall, and a couple of flying fox colonies, one beside a pool and all the crocs were lined up towards it expectantly. 

A dead bat was against one cliff and being attacked by bullants. The drive east along the Gibb River Road took us through the Napier Range, and to a feature called Queen Victoria's Head, and I must say it really did look like her profile. 

We arrived at Bell Gorge, which was supposed to be one of the most stunning, and did the short walk in to the falls. People had gone around and were swimming below the falls, but I wasn't really interested so we cooled off in a pool above. 

Quinine berries

There were lots of little rainbow fish, and a couple of bigger fish we couldn't identify. I found a small crab carapace, so they must have been there somewhere, and there were tiny little reddish shrimp-like things on my feet. Darryl got some nice photos of a small goanna on the rocks and we looked for the 'freshwater mangrove' but couldn't identify anything that might have been it. There were some type of sundew. We hadn't decided if we were staying the night at Silent Grove, but after a longish soak in the creek decided to stop as there were hot showers and flushing toilets. We were able to have a fire as someone had left some wood, and had a delightful evening. It was pretty warm all night, so we had the windows open. This meant we could see the stars from inside, and Darryl had his best night's sleep and I had my worst. In the early morning we heard dingoes howling.