Oh dear, we are all a little off as this will be our last place of interest on the Gibb River Road. But excited because we have been given a tip to go to Windjana Gorge at dusk and watch the freshwater crocs feeding on bats. As we drove the scenery changed so much, this really is a fascinating drive. There were rock named things like ‘Grumpy old man’ and ‘Queen Victoria’ and I have to say as you are driving towards them they certainly do take on these shapes.
We arrived at our free camp, nothing special just a big open space but only 1k from the turn off to Windjana Gorge. We had time to have a rest before heading out to the Gorge, Trevor was not up to it so said he would have the dogs and we could all go in one car. Whilst I was resting I looked up and saw this on my bathroom door, on inspection as to where the light was coming from etc we could not explain it, very strange!!! Yeh okay quite a few hairs did go up on the back of my neck.
When we arrived at the Gorge we were all getting out of the car and saying, “wow” it was just so impressive, this 350 million year old reef. The walk through was fascinating and we soon realised everyone else was aware of the bat frenzy.
It took a while to walk the small walk to the water because there was so much to take in, we were all just in awe of the whole thing. Everyone was full of chatter and excitement, some had seen it all before and were excited for us to see it. As soon as we saw the water we saw freshies, they were all facing the same way and lined up some late comers slowly got into formation and we found our spot to watch the show.
As we waited it got darker and darker so unfortunately we could not get photos of the spectacular, it was like something from a David Attenborough documentary absolutely fantastic. We heard the bats coming and then we could see them, thousands upon thousands circling above the pool. So many that we could hear the wind in all their wings like a rushing wind sound. They started to dive down for water a few at a time, we could hear them hitting the water for a drink and could hear the crocs snapping their jaws trying to get a feed. A couple of crocs were definitely lucky and got their dinner. When it was over everyone just stood there trying to take in what they had just witnessed. Absolutely fantastic we were all on a high, which was just as well because we now had to walk out in the dark!
We would not usually drive these roads at night but it was a case of having to so Michelle took it easy. We came across cattle on the road, we had a bird fly and almost hit the screen and a couple of Kangaroos hopping up the road. We had a fair bit of laughing on the way back to camp and all still on a high. We had decided that although Trevor would not see the crocs jumping for their food he really had to take a drive out tomorrow morning. Around the fire that night we did nothing but chat about the Gorge and what we had seen. Trevor decided he had better go see it himself in the morning before we leave.
Douglas's Downunder 