Wednesday, 27 May 2026
In the planning phase for this trip, we decided to take a side trip from the Gibb River Road to Fitzroy Crossing, so that we could visit Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek on the way. Then we added a night to Fitzroy Crossing so that we could visit Geike Gorge … perhaps overestimating the time needed to explore it?
We set out after breakfast to drive the short distance to the gorge. The SatNav told us to turn left out of the driveway and then left onto Yurabi Road. And … when we reached the river, the road was closed! Syri not very up-to-date on this occasion because it looks like this river crossing has been out of action for some time.
Bernie turned the truck around, Syri told him to return to the route, before eventually deciding to calculate a new route to Geike Gorge. On our second attempt, we drove over the new bridge near the Fitzroy River Lodge. In January 2023, ex-tropical cyclone Ellie caused record-breaking rainfall, exceeding the amount that fell over the preceding 20 years combined. Floodwaters peaked at over 15 metres severely damaging the bridge and leaving Fitzroy Crossing without a permanent crossing over the Fitzroy River for 288 days.
While temporary crossings were put in place, Main Roads Western Australia committed to an ambitious program to re-establish permanent connectivity between East and West Kimberley in the shortest possible time-frame. The New Fitzroy River Bridge, which is six times stronger than the old bridge, with twice the number of steel and concrete piles, driven twice as deep into the riverbed, officially opened to traffic on the 10th of December 2023. It is a substantial piece of engineering that was completed in less than 10 months, six months ahead of schedule.
On the other side of the river, Syri successfully directed us to Danggu (Geike) Gorge National Park. Although the internet says that a walking trail and boat tour are offered through the scenic gorge in this rugged national park, we knew that this was probably not going to be the case. When we arrived, the newly installed interpretative boards confirmed that the heavy rainfall in late December 2022 and early January 2023, associated with ex-tropical cyclone Ellie, resulted in record flooding of the Fitzroy catchment and major impacts in Danggu National Park.
What the park has to offer at the moment is a series of boards providing information about the geology and bush tucker plants along a short walk to a view across the river to the cliffs. The cliffs have a tide-mark that shows the level that the floodwaters reached during the 2022/23 wet season. On a glorious sunny day, with calm blue waters sparkling below us, it was hard to imagine the river raging through the gorge at the level indicated by the tide-mark. Unfortunately, the boat cruise through the gorge is yet to be reinstated as work continues to heal the cultural sites and heritage of the Bunuba people and restore visitor infrastructure.
From the gorge we drove back into town to buy some servo sandwiches and refuel the truck ready for the drive to Derby tomorrow. We bought the sandwiches at the BP, but they didn’t have a squeegee to clean the windscreen, so we drove over the highway to the Shell. While Bernie topped up at $2.56/litre, I washed the front and rear windscreens and the headlights.
After eating our sangas in our room, we hopped into the truck again to drive out to the Mimbi Caves. When Bernie was checking information about Geike Gorge a couple of days ago he became more and more convinced that there was going to be little to explore in the park at the moment. However, he found a tour that we could do inside the Mimbi Caves to fill in our afternoon.
The caves form part of the same 350 million year old Devonian Great Barrier Reef that runs from Windjana Gorge, through Tunnel Creek to the Mimbi Caves. The site is owned and operated by the Gooniyandi people. Our guides, Harrison and his nephew, Joe, took us on a fascinating journey through two caves, explaining the cave paintings and the ways in which the cave system was used by their people.
That was the good part. The bad part was all the other annoying people on the tour. First there was the bus group that failed to turn up by the 2.00pm start time. Harrison was reluctant to start without them, but eventually had us form up in a convoy behind his vehicle to drive out to the cave. Once there, we waited a bit more for the bus. When it was a still a no-show by 2.30pm, he left Joe to wait for them and took us in. We all cast a stone into the pool of water at the cave mouth so that the rainbow serpent would recognize our scent and look after us.
We walked through the cave in the dark. Where were our head torches? In the car! There were no instructions about taking a torch on the tour, but we certainly should have. Fortunately we were both able to use the torch function on our phones. We arrived at the cave art and Harrison explained more of his tribe’s creation story involving the rainbow serpent and the blue tongued lizard. He also showed us images of an emu, a goanna, an evil spirt and the rain man. Of course while we were in this narrow part of the cave, Joe arrived with the missing bus party. Oh, but we thought we were 15 minutes early for a 3.00pm tour. Um, no, you’re 45 minutes late for a 2.00pm tour!
Harrison, sent the 17 of us not on the bus with Joe to explore the second cave, while he explained the rock art to the tour group. We were making our way through the big cave and there was a family just clogging everything up. We were at a beautiful pool in the cave when Joe slipped into a narrow passage to continue the tour. We were stuck behind mum and son, who were obsessed with the bats in the ceiling, while Joe was getting further and further ahead of us. Then she turned her head torch right in my face.
When we caught up to the rest of the group, we had to take a short cut between tunnels because they had already been further into the cave and were now returning on the other side. Eye roll. We entered another chamber and we said there was one more person behind us. Joe went off looking for her, eventually finding her back outside where the camp chairs were set up for afternoon tea. What? Who does that on a cave tour without letting the tour leader know?? What were the rest of her group doing not keeping an eye out for her? When in that sort of environment I try to be aware of where Bernie is and he keeps an eye out for me too. Bernie, me and Joe were way more concerned about this woman’s whereabouts than her actual travelling companions!!
We all made it back out to the campfire, albeit in a rather shambolic fashion. While we had damper and tea/coffee for afternoon tea, Harrison told us more stories about the use of the cave. I swear tour guides have to have the patience of a saint. He literally just finished telling us that the women’s birthing cave hasn’t been used since the 1930s when a man who hadn’t been paying attention asked – ‘do they still use the birthing cave?’ No, Harrison said, we go to the hospital. Another gem was – ‘what does goanna taste like?’ Goanna, said Harrison. He had a very droll delivery style.
Afternoon tea concluded, we started the walk back to our vehicles. The bus group were long gone because they were on the one hour tour rather than the two hour tour which includes afternoon tea. I’m not sure how much tour they actually got since they were 45 minutes late?? As we walked out, Harrison pointed out more plants traditionally used for food and medicine. He pointed out another section of the caves that was occupied by German fossil hunters in the 1980s. It is thought they were there for about 18 months, before Harrison’s uncle found them one day and chased them away with a big stick. Harrison told us they left something surprising behind and invited us to walk in to the cave entrance to have a look. At the cave entrance was a chess board and pieces carved from rock.
With our fascinating tour concluded, we climbed back into the truck for the drive back to Fitzroy Crossing. Unfortunately it was now after 4.00pm so it was an uncomfortable (mainly) westwards drive into the setting sun. We saw some macropods by the roadside in the twilight, but none in front of our vehicle thank goodness.
We went back to the bar for dinner. Last night there was hardly anyone in the bar eating meals. Tonight we set foot in the bar and it was packed. Oh, yes, the State of Origin game was on the television, so there were heaps of locals in to watch the game. It was half time when we arrived with the score 6-20 Queensland’s way. The second half was very exciting with NSW scoring a try and missing a conversion and then having not one, but two, tries overturned on review. In the dying minutes of the game NSW scored a try to draw level with Queensland and a conversion in the last few seconds saw NSW win 22-20. And the crowd went wild … with joy or despair, depending on who they were backing. Very entertaining with no vested interest in the game!
Steps: 6,658 (4.24kms)
