Day 64 Tunnel Creek

 We enjoyed another slow morning and packed up and headed down the rough road to Tunnel Creek. It was another bumpy and noisy ride. We waited for Brenda, David, Elise and Simon to arrive, before embarking on this walk. This was the location that the infamous Indigenous fellow Jandamurra had hidden himself from those trying to find him. It was a short walk to the limestone cave, and you had to clamber and climb over large boulders of pink and white quartz to get into the cave. (This cave walk came with many warnings that included that you would need torches, that bats and olive pythons lived in the cave, and often freshwater crocs may inhabit the water, that maybe deeper than your height. 😳 )

The cave had smaller rocks and pebbles and water to walk through to reach the granular sandy beach. The next pool of water required you to walk through (you couldn’t see the bottom of the cloudy water), and Matt went first, straight through the middle, and after a few steps of gradually deepening water, he stepped out  and managed to go almost completely under the water. Classic case of  the bottom gradually getting deeper, then next step not being there at all. Of course it was bloody freezing as well. Some times the purpose of your life is to act as a warning unto others…It was kind of comical really and the rest of us decided to try the edge of the pool, and found it to be shallower, but the water still reached the middle of my belly. You had to tread carefully and feel your way each step, as there were logs and rocks below the water. The water was freezing, but luckily the cave wasn’t too cold. The next section was a sandy beach with a few rocks. We marvelled at the stalactites and stalagmites and other typical features of a limestone cave. Some sections of the cave were 20-30 metres high , and some you could reach quite easily in the middle of the cave. We had been able to hear bats but not see them at the entrance to the cave. Sections of the cave had collapsed in the middle and let in some light but you did need the torches to see your way through a lot of the cave. The sandy beach led to another pool of shallower water and then past more rocks, and then more water and limestone cave features and a dark section. Round the bend the light from the exit lit up the cave enough for us to see and find our way to the end. We took a photo here, as this was as far as you could go, and there was more creek and bush beyond the cave. Here there was also a limestone shawl hanging from the ceiling but it was too high to get a good photo of.

On the return trip we turned off our torches to get a feel of how dark the cave was in sections. This time as we neared the end and the deepest pool, Matt made sure he walked by the edge and not through the middle. As I was a lot drier again by this stage. We hadn’t spotted any crocs or pythons, nor trod on any. We clambered back out over the big boulders and into the warm sunshine and headed back to Bridget. I felt proud of me for overcoming any fears (there were small children attempting to do the cave walk in their floaties and with pool noodles mind you, and if these little guys can do it!!) and for being able to do the walk and keep my upper chest dry and so be able to enjoy the adventure and the beauty of the cave. Then we spent the next hour or so on the very rough and bumpy road. You do see some people being idiots, and at one point as Matt rounded a bend, he saw this huge triple trailered road train coming the other way and then out of the dust from the road train, a car towing a caravan was overtaking the truck in its dust, making it almost impossible to see. Matt had to come to a stop, to allow this idiot to complete this unsafe manoeuvre. So did the road train.  The Truckie and I just exchanged bewildered gestures and carried on.Despite warnings and advice at every roadhouse and information  signposts about how to drive safely on the dusty road, people still take potentially fatal risks.😬😡

This road , Fairfield leopold downs road, is the worst road off the Gibb river road for me . It’s like an assault to all your senses , worse than walking into rooty hill RSL. I wanted to take a video of it but didn’t have my phone on me at the time and I couldn’t stop as every time I got below 40kmh the rear of the bus would start to bounce sideways and try to get in front of me. I’ll try to describe it. Imagine a four lane road like the m4.  Then make it dirt. Then corrugate it with 15cm deep corrugations in sand and dirt spaced 30cms apart , like rungs of a ladder .  Then eliminate the middle two lanes by making them wet and driving 14 mud ripping 4WD & caravans, and just tear up the middle of the road with 30cm deep trenches, leaving a single track down each side of the road that is passable. The mud ripped up section has dried out but the ruts are so deep that you could still get stuck in them , especially cause they are all over the place like a mad woman’s breakfast , as my dad says. So I had to stay at 55-60kmh to stop the windows falling out, and any faster the ruts would threaten to bottom out the suspension and the bus was very drifty and floaty on the rough surface. But all credit to Bridget, she battled though it and is still in one rattly piece.

We finally made it to the end of this terrible road and back on the Gibb River Road, heading to Derby. The road was now asphalt to Derby 🎉🎊. We feel like we can say ‘we survived the Gibb!’ We enjoyed the smoother drive and our ears were appreciative of less rattles and noise. We turned off about 20km short of Derby, to our location for the next couple of nights at Birdwood Downs Station, a cattle property. We checked in and as I walked into the office, the attendant said ‘you must be Sarah Smith, is that your impressive bus out there?’ Turns out Meredith had just called them to book in for tomorrow night and warned them of our imminent arrival. The managers are keen to take photos of the 3 Clippers when they are back together tomorrow. We enjoyed a most spectacular sunset, which was made to be so colourful because of a few wispy clouds and a hint of smoke. The Bakers arrived a while later and we were setting up and  enjoying dinner together before long and chatting about our day. We are all proud that despite the couple of issues for Trailways, all 3 Clippers made it down the Gibb River Road independently (not on the back of a truck!) I second that, most people we met were dubious about these 70 year old vehicles getting through the countless creeks and rivers we’ve had to cross, and the rough roads, but everyone was happy to see them wherever they went. Then they’d proceed to tell us all the places we’ve been spotted by them…

At lake argyle , Ian had a German couple camped next to the three of us, and people would be walking back to their vans past us, and then the German couples van beyond us . They told him that they had noticed that everyone who walked past the busses were smiling, like the busses made them happy. And they do.