It has been very difficult to decide which of Fogg's 300 or so photos of this trip to use for this blog. So we have decided to give you a snapshot of a range of images to try to give a flavour of this extraordinary place - twice the size of England with a population of about 30,000!! Many of the locals are of course indigenous Aborigines and we have had the privilege to meet a few including these 3; TJ, Angus and Sarnold. The floods in the wet season here have caused chaos and many parts of the Kimberley are still closed to visitors. These boys were called in to replace a washed out visit and they were wonderful. They live in a community called Jarimadangah Burr and we spent most of the day with them. We climbed up onto a hill to get an overview of the area, one of many climbs that we would make, looked at rock art, learned about bush tucker, crime and punishment and had camp tea and damper and jam at the end of a wonderful day.
TJ, the head of the team had a good education and was very confident, funny and quietly and gently told us about his life and that of his community.
One of the most iconic images in the K is the boab tree, this one is very old and like a number large and hollow and used in the past as a prison.
On our second day we visited this beautiful gorge - Winnjana where we walked along the water's edge keeping a lookout for freshwater crocs!! Several seen here and at other locations, not as dangerous as the salties.
Tunnel Creek is approached in a swimming costume as the water comes above the waist at various spots along the walk! Quite scary as it was also pitch dark and we only had small torches. But every now and then as this shot shows there was a hole in the roof and light flooded through.
At the end we were greeted by this glorious Disneyesque scene, half expected fairies to fly by and then we had to turn round and walk all the way back!!!
We stayed in a variety of accomodation but one of our favourites were the Wilderness Camps where we had tents with ensuite bathrooms (and resident insects). The staff at these camps were brilliant conjuring up excellent meals and stoking the campfires to keep us warm at night!
One of the highlights was swimming in pools fed by waterfalls, this one is Adcock's. There was usually a fairly difficult walk/scramble to get to them but the reward was a freezing swim in crystal clear water with only water monitors for company!
We took 2 flights, this one in a 12 seater over the Mitchell Plateau to look at the Mitchell Falls. The flight gave us a clearer picture of the size and emptiness of this area as well as a wonderful view of totally inaccessible country.
We saw some quirky things on this journey including the phone box at Drysdale Station - it is a proper phone housed in an old fridge!
We stayed on a number of stations, this one is Home Valley, a working cattle station complete with cowboys.
Most of the roads that we travelled on were unsealed gravel roads and the rains had flooded many of them. Our driver/guide Vaughan had to stop at each floodway to check the depth for the best route through.
We enjoyed a number of sunsets usually watched with a glass of wine and a canape!!
Also cruises through gorges, this one Chamberlain on the El Questro Station. Commentary by Buddy a bow legged ex rodeo champion with a good patter and a box of chilled wine for us to enjoy.
What can we say about the Bungle Bungles? They are the most awesome rock formations which we saw from the air - 5 seater helicopter with no doors - and on foot. They could almost have a blog of their own. Mind you that goes for each day but we thought 13 blogs would be too much!!!
Just a beautiful picture taken on the Ord River where we had a 5hr cruise and learned about the flooding of the river to form the Argyll Lake which provides irrigation for the local community at Kununarra where Sandlewood trees form an important part of the economy.
We will leave you with this beautiful rock painting of turtles and spirits. The latter travelled with us and gave us such an amazing experience. We hope that this snapshot will give you pleasure and also a taste of some of the things that we have seen and done.
With love
Phileas and Fogg
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