There were plenty of local fig trees by the Ord. They don’t have to work so hard to get their water.
And also plenty of bird and bat life.
These bats seemed pretty happy in their home, unlike their counterparts in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney.
The further upstream we went, the more rockier the landscape became – all beautiful red sandstone.
It inspired my picture of the day.
We explored the Ord River that morning on a cruise. It was a luxury to be the only cruise boat along its length, so that we could all appreciate the river and the early morning reflections.
These scenes reminded me of those I saw in the Top End of the Northern Territory. Except at Kakadu we were sharing the lagoon with many cruise boats, while on the Ord we were practically the only ones on the river. On the way, the cruise guide pointed out the wildlife and told us about the history of the region. So pretty!
We flew south over the hills, and the further south we went, the smaller and more pronounced the do mes became. These are where the ‘money shots’ of the Bungle Bungles are taken.
And there are more domes to be seen up toward the horizon. The Bungle Bungles are more extensive than the iconic rocks of Central Australia, and so much more rewarding to see from the air.
The sun soon dipped, and all too quickly we were back to where we started.
But that’s not the end of the Bungle Bungles – we will soon see it on foot.
After around ten minutes, the striped hills of the Bungle Bungles appeared. The domes and stripes are all due to the movement of water through the sandstone, eroding it into domes, and leaching some layers of sediment more than others.
We had a great view of the domes, and peered down into deep canyons to see palms and water holes.
The pilot even showed us recent signs of lightning strikes – the build-up and wet seasons are particularly violent in the Kimberley.
One of the most iconic sights in the Kimberley has to be the boab tree. They’re in many (although not all) areas of the north-west – and only the north-west it seems – and look like nothing else. Aboriginal dreaming stories tell of a too-proud tree that was taught a lesson by being forced to grow with its roots up, and with many trees bare, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’re dead. This is one of the biggest specimens we saw – more than ten metres in circumference.
But despite their looks, boabs are full of life. Their roots hold water and can be eaten, their barks are medicinal, and their nuts, although seemingly bland, are full of vitamin C. I don’t think the indigenous people of the north-west would ever suffer from scurvy!
Early on in the tour, we were introduced to the boab nut and had a go of eating it. They’re as dry as toast at first, but the longer you leave it in your mouth, the more flavoursome it becomes. The taste I think is a little bit like tamarind! It can even be incorporated into jams and chutneys. Perhaps this is another bush food that might take off?
The next day we started our 14-day Kimberley Camping Safari with Outback Spirit. As we travelled the long road to Fitzroy Crossing, it soon became obvious that the Kimberley was a vast place.
In the late afternoon we arrived at Geikie Gorge. It’s where the mighty Fitzroy River winds its way through the Oscar Ranges – remnants of a Devonian reef that formed 375 million years ago – in an age where land had not yet been colonised by animals, and where giant fish where the most complex life forms in the ocean. Nowadays it’s above water and lovely to cruise along in the late afternoon.
The white rock has been bleached by water during consecutive wet seasons. The red rock is the part of the reef that has oxidised (rusted) in the harsh climate. You can see that the water has carved some interesting shapes.
These pandanus palms can survive whatever the season, dry or wet.
Soon the sun sets, and that’s when the rocks really show off their colours.
I’m back from a blog break and holidays to start a brand-new series – our recent trip to the Kimberleys. It’s somewhere I have wanted to go to for a long time, and I was given a chance to go this year as part of the Sydney Grammar School science tour.
We started and ended the trip in Broome. It was a shock flying out of 5C Sydney into 32C Broome, but I bore it somehow. Our hotel was a walk away from Cable Beach, which we got to in time to watch the sunset.
The beach is much wider than most East Coast beaches, and pretty busy for WA. It’s the Broome dry season – a season of hot days, mild nights, and generally no rain at all. In fact, we saw clear skies for most of the trip.
It got much busier as the sun sunk lower. The 4WD’ers were out in force on the northern half of the beach, eager to get the best seat in the house. It was a bit like Sydney traffic at times.
Eventually the sun made its final farewell – the end of our first day.
After a light lunch on-board, we arrived at the waterside hamlet of Marlow, on the northern side of the Hawkesbury.
Once again, it’s a community with boat-only access – which means no town water or sewerage, although they do have power and garbage collection. Unlike Dangar Island though, it takes a bit more effort to reach this place, the nearest road access being via a track from the M1.
Nevertheless, there are some nice houses – some look quite historic.
There’s mail to be delivered and collected here, and the local dog to treat. Boots the dog (named because of his white paws) expects a biscuit every day.
And all too soon we are cruising back downstream to Brooklyn. A nice way to discover the Hawkesbury.
Further upstream, we pass under the Pacific Highway/M1 bridges. Not so exciting as the railway bridge, but important bridges nonetheless since Sydney would be very cut off northwards if they were to go down.
Then it was cruising into the great Australian bush.
The Hawkesbury sandstone has been sculpted by the elements into all sorts of shapes here.
From Dangar Island, we cruised to the Hawkesbury River railway bridge.
When Sydneysiders think of bridges important bridges, they automatically think of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but this bridge is actually on-par with the Harbour Bridge as it links Sydney by rail to not just the Central Coast and Newcastle, but to the rest of Australia.
Before the bridge, passengers (and goods) had to get on a steamer at Brooklyn and travel 3 hours across Broken Bay and Brisbane Waters to Gosford, hence it was important that a bridge was built, and built to last.
Unfortunately the first bridge constructed didn’t turn out that way. It was first opened way back in 1889, and at the time it broke all sorts of construction records, including the deepest bridge foundations in the world (at 49m below the water) and 4th largest bridge in the world. But by 1938 the bridge needed to be replaced due to severe cracks in the pier, among other things. The current bridge was constructed during WWII as a replacement and opened in 1946. The old bridge was taken apart, and nothing remains except for its sandstone piers and tunnel (now used as storage).
The new bridge hasn’t had as many problems as the old bridge (I guess they learned from the old bridge). It’s also good to see they’re still taking care of it in the 21st Century, since it’s still a very important part of Sydney’s transport system.
Static and Silence 