The Gibb River Road.

There are many stories of this road. In 1978 it was all gravel and considered a bit of an adventure. It rained so we took the main road through Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek.

It became a road in the 1960's. Prior to that it was probably rough station tracks.

Not having looked too closely at the map the first surprise was its mostly sealed for the first 100km. Roadworks in progress to seal some more.

The graders were through here a few weeks ago, after the end of the wet season.

A short evening walk to admire the limestone cliffs that stretch either side of Windjana gorge.

The gorge was a sea passage through these cliffs.

A bit of an absence of bedding planes. And the characteristic vertical erosion of fine grained limestone that has been rained on.

Its a small remnant of a much larger reef. Geike Gorge, which I visited in 1978, about 110 km south east, is part of the same reef.

In a huge loop, way out to the north, we possibly flew over part of it, the other end of the crescent is near Kununurra, about 450 km east-north-east.

guarding the cliffs from we know not what.

Boabs are "deciduous", lose their leaves in the dry season. Odd for a tropical climate.

Underneath the veneer the limestone is white.

we try hard to walk in the sand of the creek bed,

trying to catch the early morning sun on the cliffs

The dropped one has lost the ability to focus with no zoom (really wide angle), and occasionally says "turn off camera and turn on again".

It is usable for now, but I suspect quite likely it will steadily deteriorate until unusable.

We are getting used to the old camera, again.

Bedding planes in the cliffs of the gorge.

Some fossils have been found in river gravel 40m up the cliff.

The limestone is an old (Devonian) reef. Not as old as the Pilbara by a long stretch.

If I managed to set the times on both cameras to be the same, this is about 5 minutes later.

The sun has moved quite a bit.

Now I remember why we bought a new camera .....

Faster flowing, less braided, rivers.

Fresh water.

Totally harmless, except when they bite.

We've watched Ibis in our garden pecking at insects and grubs in the grass.

Intrigued as this one adopted the side to side beak movement characteristic of water birds to presumably find grubs under water.

The gorge carried on a bit further, but the end was about visible.

This is beginning our return.

Much, much, younger than those we have previously seen.

Look for a fossilised nautiloid it said.

Also look for stromatoporoids - but we forgot to read the earlier sign that showed us what they looked like. We imagine something like branching tube worms, without the worm.

This is another type of fossil. It may be a cross-section through the top of a nautiloid. Or it may be a brachyopod. Either way, its fossilised.

They've emerged from wherever they spend the night to bask in the sun.

Looking back at the entrance.

Standing room throughout.

The floor is coarse sand, with pools of water in some places.

An exception is a continuous flow of water from the side that's created this flowstone.

We heard it before we saw it.

About as far as we went. The next pool was a bit deeper than knees. And Ali's knees are lower than mine.

Its possible to walk all the way through the reef (about 1km).

At some stage the cave has been active, some very dusty looking stalactites near the entrance.

Of course we mentioned three toed dinosaurs ... but really, a different era.

Built of limestone blocks.

Of course.

The floor is 50mm slabs of limestone.

Through the King Leopold Ranges.

We are uncertain what connection a Belgian King with a dubious reputation in Belgian colonies of Africa has with mountains in the tropical north of Australia.

There's a lot of fine grained granite. And then a lot of sandstone.

Among others were a flock of Double-Barred Finches.

We are slowly seeing different finch varieties.

Strangely (we think) finches are easier to spot in this part of the world than wrens.