Day 58 – 16th July – Mt Hart Wilderness Camp

We have spent an awesome day in paradise… Hands down the BEST SPOT on the Gibb River Road so far.  Admittedly we’ve been on the Gibb for a total of 4 days now so our opinion may be subject to change in the near future…

Here’s how my day started… coffee with a view.  

It was a slow start to the day while we waited for it to warm up enough for a swim.  Out came the binoculars and we spent a good amount of time sitting here at the camper watching birds flying amongst the trees surrounding us.  On the patch of ground directly in front of us we had crimson finches foraging for ages, there were wrens drinking at the waterhole just in front of us, and I now know what a white-bellied cuckoo-shrike is…

When we finally roused ourselves from the bird-watching we headed up the track to explore some water holes.  The first spot we stopped was called Annie Creek.  There was a teeny-tiny water hole that barely managed to reach 5m wide.  Even though it was small, the crystal clear water made it enticing enough for a quick dip…

Further up the track from Annie Creek is a boab tree that is unique as it has a strangling fig growing through the centre of it.  However, we had heard there is a deep creek crossing to get to it…  We decided to drive to the creek and check it out… Here’s Dave wading through the crossing…   he was the only thing to go across because there was no way we were taking the car through that… 

Our next stop was the highlight of the day… Mt Matthew Gorge.  The Barker River flows along the entire length of the gorge and the cliffs of the gorge are a black rock called dolerite.  From the spot where we parked the car we had to hike for about 1km along a dry creek bed.  The only indication we were heading in the right direction was a series of cairns we were following.

Looking at this photo, the dry creek bed we were following was to Aiden’s left.  The river to the right. 

Our initial hike bought us to this awesome spot where there is a little waterfall… yes, in terms of waterfalls in the Kimberley this is rather pitiful in size… but it was pretty nonetheless… 

Looking downstream from the waterfall 

We continued past the waterfall, still trekking along the creek bed. 

Dave spotted this rock wallaby amongst the rocks.  They have a real bushy tail that reminds me of a possum’s tail.  It is phenomenal to watch these guys bound so easily over the rocks… 

This is a great photo for showing the river in contrast to the black dolerite walls of the gorge.  

More prettiness… 

After at least another 1km we finally hit the end of the gorge… we couldn’t go any further…  Notice the boab trees up behind Dave..

At this point we turned around and headed back to the waterfall for a swim. 

Dave and the kids swim just about anywhere there is water.  I am a little more fussy about the temperature before I get in… and so demand photographic proof that I actually braved the cold too… 

Continuing my series of foot photos… 

We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in Mt Matthew gorge… it was a truly magnificent spot…

Along our trek I managed to snap a couple of photos of some interesting plants I have seen in the region.  These trees have no leaves at all, just branches and a whole lot of flowers… weird?  The yellow ones can have just a single branch that ends in a bunch of flowers… I have no idea what flowers/plant these are… 

On our drive back to camp we ducked in to check out the “Secret Fishing Hole” which turned out to be a part of the river much the same as the river in front of our camp… but the sign was amusing… 

The kids were stoked to score these lilos from a family who had been staying here.  So even after a day of trekking and swimming the kids still had energy for fun and games back at camp… not surprisingly, my bird watching came to a halt with the noise of these two jumping and splashing in the river…