13 Days Adventuring Through the Kimberley

"An ancient landscape covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, the Kimberley is one of the world's most precious wilderness regions.

Three times larger than England and with a population of less than 40,000, the Kimberley region – spread over Australia's entire north-western corner – is one of the world's last wilderness frontiers. Here you'll find prolific wildlife, majestic canyons, freshwater swimming holes and several outback stations, as well as one of Australia's greatest 4WD road trips."

I got the description of the Kimberley above from the Australia.com travel website and now that I've adventured through this remote wilderness, I completely grok what they're talking about...Many of my Aussie mates have told me about their adventures in this remote and pristine wilderness - the fact that it's difficult to access makes it that much more appealing as it really pares down how many people wander out there...During my 13 days in the Kimberley Outback, I hiked and swam in numerous gorges - many of them with freshwater crocodiles visible (what can I say? I'm becoming more and more Aussie every day and going through some sort of desensitization process to things that can harm you!), survived the 660km rough, corrugated Gibb River road, marveled at bizarre sandstone formations at Purnululu National Park, flew in a helicopter for the first time, viewed epic stars every night, enjoyed several campfires, celebrated another birthday with a "doughnut tower," and slept in tents for ten of the twelve nights on the road.

Because Vinnie isn't a high clearance 4WD, I opted to join an organized tour through Intrepid Travel. There were 16 of us on the tour with 13 Aussies, 1 Kiwi, 1 Canadian, and me. We had two tour guides: Stacey (another Aussie) and Nina (from Germany). I'm an independent traveler and rarely join organized tours as I like the freedom to choose what I want to do vs. being hemmed in by a specific itinerary...

Here's an outline of what we did each day....

Day 1 - 6:45am pickup from Broome where I had just spent a week exploring, watching epic sunsets, saying "hi" to the camels every time they went by, heading out on two different boat trips to spot wildlife as well as watch the sunset, meeting new camp friends, etc. We stopped about 165km down the road at the Willare Roadhouse for morning tea and to get acquainted as a group. We then moved on to the Derby area where we visited the "Prison Tree" which is a large boab tree where indigenous people were unjustly held captive by white settlers. We then had a brief stop for fuel and then went to the Norval Gallery where I could easily have spent at least one more hour it was so cool...I bought a carved boab tree nut with a wandjina spirit on one side and a boab tree on the other side. Here's more about the wandjina from Google:

"The Wandjina are powerful rain spirit beings, creators of the land and law for the Worrora, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbal people of the Kimberley region in Western Australia. They are depicted in ancient rock art as figures with large, dark eyes, no mouths, and halo-like headdresses, often surrounded by dots representing rain or blood. The Wandjina are deeply connected to the land, controlling the weather, and are seen as ancestors who will return in the form of rain clouds."

I'm still on the look out for a cool small painting with a wandjina on it...Our last stop in Derby was the town jetty for a picnic lunch.

Then more driving to reach Windjana Gorge where we camped for the night and took a short sunset hike where we spotted some freshies (freshwater crocodiles). We were meant to camp here two nights but found out that the 8km hike that was listed in the itinerary had been closed for 2+ years due to being damaged by a storm so we found out we would only be camping here one night.

Several of us made a big campfire with the wood we collected at the side of the road earlier in the day thanks to Stacey planning ahead! We had barramundi with salad and potatoes for dinner with VB (Victoria Bitter) to wash it all down!

Day 2 - Our daily breakfast consisted of cereals, yogurt, and coffee. We packed up the campsite (a little challenging as the tents are hard to stuff back into the bag!) and headed to a place called Tunnel Creek. Here's more about Tunnel Creek from the national parks website:

"At Dimalurru (Tunnel Creek) water has carved a large tunnel through the limestone of the Napier Range. The tunnel is up to 20m high and 15m wide in some parts! 350 million years ago this was part of an ocean reef system.

There is a Kimberley feel all-around. Sunlight arcs onto the cathedral-like cavern with a sense of mystery. Adding to the spectacle, large stalactite rock formations hang from the walls.

A deep history, as well as beauty exists here. It was used as a hideout late last century by the Aboriginal leader Jandamarra who was killed outside its entrance in 1897.

Take a walk through the 750m tunnel which takes you from one side of the Napier Range to the other. Keep your eye out for the many bat species and freshwater crocodiles that live in the cave. The roof has collapsed through to the top of the range near the centre of the tunnel. Take a torch, wear sneakers and be prepared to get wet and possibly cold and always let someone know where you are."

Let me draw your attention to the bit above where they talk about freshies (freshwater crocodiles) living in the cave...I was a little freaked out the night before when we were told there would be freshies around on this walk and that we would be passing through water where they live...Stacey was great at reassuring me that all would be well ("she'll be right, mate!") but I was still wary...The hike involved scrambling over large boulders and wading through deep water up to your chest but was worth it! I don't have any photos because we were told not to bring anything we didn't want to get wet and I didn't have my waterproof camera yet. One other person on the trip had her camera so I'm including some of the photos she took of this experience. I didn't actually see any freshies on this 2km hike and feel like I accomplished something facing my fear...And it's true...I'm evolving into an Aussie by becoming more and more desensitized to everything that can hurt me...

After the hike we had morning tea (which is like a mid morning snack - more tea and some type of nibble) and then drove to our next camping spot at Silent Grove. After setting up camp, we drove to the trailhead for Bells Gorge and hiked out to the waterfall for a swim. There are a lot of gorges along the Gibb River road and you'll see that this becomes a pattern for us of exploring, hiking, and swimming several gorges throughout the area.

We built another big campfire and listened to a podcast Nina had called "Murder in the Kimberley" that retells the story of a number of murders in the area around 20 years ago. Dinner was pasta with campfire brownies for dessert.

Day 3 - Breakfast and pack up camp. After breakfast each day we would head off adventuring somewhere either driving to another destination or heading out to hike / swim in some groovy natural setting. Today we stopped at the Imintji Roadhouse to fuel up the truck and we got to roam around looking at souvenirs for a few minutes.

We stopped at two gorges today; the first one was Adcock Gorge where we saw another freshie sun-baking and the other gorge was Galvans gorge where we saw some wandjina rock art and a snake slithering up the side of the rock. Check out the map below to get an idea of how we're progressing down the Gibb River Road.

We arrived at Mt. Barnett Station late in the afternoon and stayed in the permanent campsite Intrepid has at this location. I didn't swim today so decided I was ready for a shower although it was a very chilly shower! Everyone was excited that we didn't have to set-up camp tonight and that we would be staying here for two nights!

Day 4 - Today was one of my favourite hikes of the entire Kimberley trip! We were up early and walked to the trailhead of Manning Gorge from our campsite. This hike begins by placing your gear in a plastic half cut barrel to float it across the river and then swimming across the river. How very Indiana Jones!

After crossing the river, this 5.6km return hike passes over broken rocky terrain with some climbing and scrambling at the end. By the time you reach the end of the trail, you're hot and sweaty and ready to swim in the massive and gorgeous waterfall fed pool. I had a grand time jumping into the water multiple times as well as swimming behind and through the waterfalls - marvelous!

On the hike to and fro, I also had the chance to learn more about the plants of the area and take a lot more photos of boabs which are just so unique and fascinating looking. Their different shapes and sizes and quirky things remind me of people with their own little personalities...

Once we returned to camp, we had the afternoon open to do whatever we wanted so I chose to read and nap. Tonight was our last campfire as the rest of the trip we were camped in places where campfires weren't allowed.

Day 5 - Today was a long day of driving along the Gibb River Road. We stopped in the morning to view some aboriginal rock art and again at the Ellenbrae Homestead for homemade scones. The rest of the day was driving (have I mentioned that Australia is B--I--G--??) until reaching El Questro where we would camp for the next three nights.

Day 6 - Today was one of my favourite gorge hikes of the entire trip! The Emma Gorge hike is a 3.2 km (return) trail located in El Questro Wilderness Park. It's considered a challenging, moderately difficult walk with a trail featuring varying terrain, including flat sections, steep parts, loose rocks, and some rock scrambling, especially towards the end. Everyone raves about the rock pool and waterfall at the end of the hike at Emma Gorge but I thought a smaller pool about 400m before the end of the trail was much more stunning and a lot less crowded! I chose to spend my time swimming at the smaller waterhole and had a grand time...You'll note from the following photos that I'm quite taken with the terrain and plant life on each of these gorge hikes...Enjoy!

After Emma Gorge, we had a picnic lunch which was the same every day...You make a wrap with a tortilla and whatever fillings we chose (I might never be ready to eat another falafal again in my life!! But the sauces they provided were pretty good!). And I scored a couple of cool souvenir magnets and a t-shirt. Then we moved on to another hike at Amalia Gorge, also located in El Questro.

Day 7 - Today was an early start leaving camp at 6am to hit Zebede Springs which is a naturally occurring hot springs in El Questro. Stacey, one of our tour leaders, is a genius and knew we needed to get there early as Zebede fills up pretty quickly as it's only open until 12pm to the public and then they close the gates and it's only available to those staying in the luxury accommodations onsite.

The walk to the springs is beautiful and filled with livistonia palms - we soaked for about 30 minutes and then moved on to our second hike of the day at El Questro Gorge where we had another opportunity to get wet! Most of these gorge hikes included hiking over creek beds with largish rocks that wobbled around as you walked through them...Stuff I definitely wouldn't have been able to do without my bionic knees!

We had the afternoon to ourselves so I did some laundry and hung out in my tent. I'm also including pics of the types of tents we slept in and the magnificent star-filled skies (Southern Cross!!!) we enjoyed every night out in the wilderness!

Day 8 - Today was our last day driving the Gibb River Road...We were headed to Kununurra for two nights. We stopped at Parry's Lagoon to see a bunch of waterbirds and an old telegraph station. The birds were great but pretty far away so I didn't get any good photos of them. The most interesting part of the old telegraph station was that the boab trees that "took back over" once humans abandoned the site...Check out the photos and you'll see what I mean...

We had lunch at Mirima National Park which is 2km from Kununurra and would be where I returned the next day on my birthday to do a rock art hike.

We had two nights at the Lily Lagoon Resort and I didn't opt for the single supplement so I was sharing a room with Leanne from Western Australia. The entire group went out to dinner at a place called the Pumphouse which used to actually be a pumphouse and I enjoyed a "Croc Bite" cocktail!

Day 8 - Today is my birthday! Most of the rest of the group went out on a boat tour that lasted the entire day but I opted to return to Mirima National Park to do a longer rock art hike. Three others from the larger group opted out of the boat tour as well and we all went back to Mirima. But first I had a big breakfast at the hotel - scrambled eggs, haloumi cheese, mushrooms, toast, etc. It was very good and very filling...

Stacey and Nina dropped us off at Mirima on their way into town...It was nice to return to the national park in the cooler temperature of the morning and have "softer" light on the red rocks...Mirima is often referred to as the "mini Bungle Bungles" (Purnululu) and now that I've been to Purnululu I understand why with the carved sandstone formations and red-striated rocks...I hiked with Michelle and we did the Yoorrnging Geranyem Banan Trail which is 3.5km trail featuring aboriginal rock art and rated Class 5 due to having ladders, stairs, uneven rock surfaces and short climbs and descents. I honestly would rate it more like a Class 3 as it was an easy hike compared to some of the gorges I did at Karijini! There wasn't very much rock art but the views were great and it felt like we had the entire park to ourselves...

Stacey and Nina offered the rest of the group a ride back to the hotel and I walked into town to wander through aboriginal art galleries. I spent quite a while at Artlandish art gallery and fell in love with several wandjina paintings by a famous artist who is now 106 years old - Lily Karadada - who is considered an expert on wandjina paintings. My favourite painting of hers was $8,000AUD (about $5,220USD) so was out of my price range....

By lunchtime I wasn't that hungry because of my large breakfast but decided to drop into the aboriginal owned cafe I had found online - Blak Tapas - for a mango smoothie and really good rosemary fries with native pepperberry tomato sauce. I walked back to the hotel after this and was pretty hot so I enjoyed the A/C in my room for about 30 minutes until a group of us caught a taxi out to a local distillery called The Hoochery and had some beverages there.

Back to the hotel around 4pm and had a shower and a little cat nap before another group dinner at the hotel which concluded with the whole group singing me happy birthday and being presented with a "doughnut tower" as a birthday cake - Stacey and Nina are the best! What a grand day!

Day 9 - We left the luxury of hotel living behind as we headed west to Purnululu National Park today! We stopped at the Warmun Roadhouse for morning tea and then tackled the 55km of rough, corrugated track into Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) National Park which took a couple of hours to drive. Apparently, this dirt track only gets graded once a season and our guides shared that it's usually a couple of weeks before the end of the season so it's not that useful...

Purnululu National Park was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003 and the park was inscribed as follows:

"...[is a] remote area managed as wilderness. It includes the Bungle Bungle Range, a spectacularly incised landscape of sculptured rocks which contains superlative examples of beehive-shaped karst sandstone rising 250 metres above the surrounding semi-arid savannah grasslands. Unique depositional processes and weathering have given these towers their spectacular black and orange banded appearance, formed by biological processes of cyanobacteria (single cell photosynthetic organisms) which serve to stabilise and protect the ancient sandstone formations. These outstanding examples of cone karst that have eroded over a period of 20 million years are of great beauty and exceptional geological interest."

— Brief synthesis of Purnululu National Park as inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre to have a picnic lunch and browse the souvenirs before stopping and walking to the Kungkalayani scenic lookout to give us our first glimpses of the national park. Then we headed to the group campsite area to pitch our tents. One of the things we all laughed about while we were staying in the hotel was missing the "symphony of zippers" when we were camping as every tent had a zipper as well as everyone's bags, backpacks, etc. When we were camping there were often parts of the day where all you could hear were a lot of zippers being zipped and unzipped thus the "symphony of zippers" returned.

Once the tents were up, we drove a few km down the track to watch the sun go down and enjoy some nibbles and adult beverages and then back to camp for dinner and an early night before beginning to explore the park tomorrow. And another night of epic star gazing!

Day 10 - Today started with a helicopter ride over Purnululu!!! I wasn't sure I was going to opt in for this experience as I do have a fear of heights and there aren't any doors on the helicopters but I heard a few other people describe their experience doing this and decided this was too epic to miss!

I opted for the longest ride they offer - 42 minutes for $629AUD ($410US). You're actually in the air for about 32-35 minutes; the rest of the time is powering up and powering down the helicopter. And I naively thought they would have super turbo seatbelts like the ones they strap you down with on gnarly rollercoasters but they were standard car seatbelts and felt kind of flimsy! There are four in a helicopter; three passengers and the pilot. They warn you about a lot of things including not to get your hands too close to the door opening with your camera as the wind will take it right out of your hands...A passenger a week before had this happen and wanted to go back and "look for it." Yeah, naaaaaaaaaaa! For the first 5-10 minutes of the ride I was running on pure adrenalin and fear; then I got a handle on myself and started taking pictures and some video of the experience...I was really careful with my phone though and leaned way back into the helicopter while taking the pics...I tried putting my hands near the door without my phone and they were right; the wind just blasted them!

After the epic helicopter ride, we got started exploring the national park on foot; we did three hikes today: Mini Palms, Echidna Chasm (my favorite), and the Osmand Lookout Trail. Here's what AllTrails has to say about the first two hikes and Google has to say about the last hike:

Mini Palms Gorge (2.2km)

This walk takes you into the gorge and is one of the best ways to see the scale of the Bungle Bungles and see the northern area of the park which has distant landscapes compared to the more frequented southern parts. The trail starts out near Bloodwood Lookout which has views over the area, especially the arid landscapes around the gorge before heading to the boulder-strewn gorge filled with Livistona Palms. There are steps for the steeper sections which means there are no tricky or slippery climbs or descents.

Echidna Chasm (2.1km)

This is a stunning walk through red coloured gorge walls that can tower up to 200m in height. The gorge can become as narrow as 1m, so the light struggles to reach the gorge bottom for most of the day. For the best photographs, you'll want to be in the gorge at midday when the light penetrates and fills the space with golden hues and tangible rays of light. It can be very hot here, even in winter, so bring plenty of water even for this short hike.

Osmand Lookout Trail (1km)

Offers panoramic views of the Osmand Range and the Bungle Bungle Range. The Osmand Range is geologically significant, being much older than the Bungle Bungles.

We were very tired by the end of the day and really excited when Stacey served up chili for dinner! Everyone hit their tents between 7-8pm as we had a 5:30am start the next morning!

Day 12 - We were up and on the road at 5:30am this morning to meet our aboriginal guide Beck. She led us through the Beehive Domes & Cathedral Gorge located in the southern end of the park. The experience began with a welcome to country where Beck laid her hand on each of our heads in turn and saying a few words to welcome each of us to the land and ensure safe passage. Here are more details of what "welcome to country" looks like and means:

"A "Welcome to Country" ceremony is a traditional Indigenous Australian practice where Traditional Owners of the land formally welcome visitors to their ancestral territory. It's a way of acknowledging their connection to the land and ensuring safe passage for those present. These ceremonies are typically conducted by an Elder or recognized representative of the Traditional Owners" (obtained for a Google AI search).

We walked through the Beehive Domes first and stopped occasionally to learn more about indigenous ways of life - fishing, birthing, collecting bush tucker, etc. Beck was an absolute delight with her knowledge, story-telling, and wry sense of humour! We ended our time together at Cathedral Gorge where Beck sang a song using her clapping sticks. It was a powerful and quiet ceremony celebrating the power of nature.

I didn't want to leave but we had to get back to camp to pack up and hit the road. We stopped on the main highway for lunch after renegotiating the 55km rough track back out of Purnululu. The rest of the day was driving with a two hour stop in Halls Creek which was completely out of diesel...We waited for two hours in a queue and they ran out with about 6 six cars ahead of us. Our guides were able to get the station we stayed at to agree to refuel us. We had a late arrival into Larrawa Station and went straight to dinner that they had prepared. The station had fabulous hot showers and I was in bed by 9pm.

So today we got to watch the sun rise as well as the sun set from the window of the truck.

Day 13 - Our last day of the trip! Today was entirely devoted to driving to return to Broome. We stopped and had a picnic lunch (just say no to falafel!) at Willare Roadhouse (the same place we stopped to get acquainted on Day #1) and rolled into Broome around 3pm which was great as I was one of the first ones to be dropped off and it allowed me to run a bunch of errands.

The Kimberley is a wild, rugged, remote place of exceptional beauty and just has a really good vibe to it. During the trip I heard that the government is planning to seal (pave) the Gibb River Road by 2030 which I think will be a big mistake if they do it as it will make it too easy to get out there and will soon be overrun with huge buses, etc. and will lose it's wild, rugged vibe.

I love the Kimberley! Next time, I'll make sure I make it up to the Mitchell Falls!