2006/07 Australia trip - Windjana Gorge hike |
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Wednesday July 12th
We had a lazy start as, for once, we didn’t have to do any driving; the gorge was just a few minutes walk from the campground. We were going to walk all the way through the gorge and back, about five miles total.
Our first encounter in the gorge was with a very large python, about as thick around the middle as my leg, and about twice Sandie’s height. I can’t be more precise than that as she wouldn’t lie down next to it. It wasn’t interested in us, but was looking around the crevices at the foot of the cliff, presumably for something small and easy to eat. The picture looks a bit odd as the top left hand corner was originally in deep shade, inside the cave, and I had to do some manipulation to show all of this beautiful snake. I did ask Sandie to lure it out into the sun, but …
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Windjana Gorge python (3.04) |
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Then we took a stroll amongst the crocs, much as I’d done the previous evening, only this time they were easier to see.
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Windjana Gorge crocodiles (7.45) |
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The younger ones can be wary, but the older ones just ignore us tourists. Most of the time.
Windjana park really has a bit of everything. The cliffs are dark grey and orange on either side. There are crocodiles underfoot and hundreds of corellas wheeling around in the sky. Then three brolga (cranes) came sailing overhead like 747s landing. What else could there be? Bats. We wandered into a bat colony, black flying foxes with dull blue eyes. Usually you get a cricked neck looking up at the bats, but here we were at the same height as they were in trees overhanging the river. They are quarrelsome, always jostling their neig
hbours for a better spot on the tree.
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Windjana Gorge bee eaters (5.13) |
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Nearby we found a “bower”. These are donut-shaped nests built by the bower bird, complete with its cacheof shiny stones to attract females. Bower birds are notorious for stealing jewelry and any small shiny objects to add to their bowers. The bird to the right is a rainbow bee-eater, one of dozens in the gorge. A little further on Sandie encountered a small brown snake. These are definitely not good to be around so we moved on quickly.
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Winjana
brolgas & bats (10.10) |
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The gorge’s cliffs provided a weirdly colourful backdrop to all this wildlife. In some places, there were stalactites growing from the clifftop. We’d thought they only grew in caves, but there must be enough overhang there for the cliffs to be cave-like. The trail ended at the other end of the gorge, where the river emerges from the ancient limestone reef. The other side of the reef is just as sheer, and suddenly we were back in the dry savannah again.
As we plodded back along the trail, the sky was gradually getting more cloudy and darker, with spots of rain. When we got back to the beginning of the gorge, there was a heavy rain storm, a very unusual happening in the Dry Season.
Back at the camper, lots of things were wet as we’d left the chairs outside and the air vents open. It continued to rain through the evening.
Thursday July 13th
The morning was much cooler after the rain. I took an early morning trip back to the gorge and there were only a handful of crocs to be seen: the rest were staying under water until things warmed up.