Mornington Wildlife Conservancy, Gibb River Rd, Kimberley WA

Friday 1st June 2018
Well today we started with a little walk along Annie Creek trail before breakfast in hope of seeing some wildlife. We were a little late at about 7.30am but we managed to see a variety of birds.

Then after breakfast we headed on our way for today’s adventure.

First stop Blue Bush which is a lovely little waterhole, suitable for swimming. It was very pretty with a lot of birdlife.

Next stop the Termite Trail which was very informative. We learnt a lot bout termites and termite mounds. The queen termite lives up to 100 years and lays 3000 eggs a day. They have castes within the mound. The king and queen, workers, soldiers and winged termites who eventually leave and go and start their own family. Each mound is just one family of termites that have about 1 million termites working there.

Finally our last stop was Sir John Gorge. They have three canoes that can be hired by one couple and you follow the gorge from the start, drop it off, walk around the rocks, pick up the next one, paddle the gorge, drop it off, walk around the rocks, pick up the 3rd canoe and paddle as far as the next rapids, then paddle back. This makes for a great day and very special as you are the only one on the water in the gorge. Unfortunately this was fully booked for the days we were here. So we decided to walk the gorge instead.

After I had a quick swim when we arrived at Sir John Gorge, we then headed off to walk over the rocks as far as we could get along the gorge. After about 10 mins we helped a lady who hired the canoe get up the cliff face as she had slipped and hurt her wrist and couldn’t put any weight on it. After making a sling for her, we continued on our way. It was very beautiful in the gorge. We climbed rocks and walked for over an hour util we came to a stop, time to either get wet feet or turn back. We tried a few ays but to no avail. We had to take our shoes off and walk through he rapids. Once this was decided it was pretty easy and we were on our way again. We then got stuck on some steep sections but managed to climb down some tricky bits only to get stuck again. Oh well looks like it is time to turn around. We had managed about 2.5km along the gorge so that was a good adventure. We then headed back and had a swim before waiting for the sun to set. We et up with one of the families we did the 4WD tour at Kooljamon with, we had also seen them at Bell gorge a couple of nights ago. After watching a beautiful sunset we headed back to camp.

After dinner we listened to one of the staff and watched a slideshow about the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and how they are protecting endangered native animals and wildlife through their project. It was very interesting.

Anyway it has been a vey big day, we have walked over 8.5km and have a day in the canoes in one of the other gorges tomorrow. So nighty night.

: As we walked along Annie Creek Trail we saw many birds including this one, the Great Bowebird..

: ..and the male Crimson Finch..

: ..not sure of this one, we need to talk to a Bird Enthusiast to find out..

: ..this one also, there were so many different birds..

: ..and the Bar Shouldered Dove.

: This has been our longest creek crossing on our way to the gorge.

: The termite mounds colour usually reflects the colour of the soil. Some of the mounds here are over 100 years old.

: Blue Bush was a very pretty waterhole. Also with lots of birdlife…

: ..like the rainbow bee-eater..

: ..and this one we haven’t identified.

: Weeping paperbark tree as we look up the waterhole..

: Double Barred Finch

: Warning sign before we come to Roy Creek. So we get all prepared and then..

: ..we arrive at this piddly creek. It was funny, we both laughed and then realised it was over the other side where there was quite a distance of tricky rocks up a steep incline. That was the reason for low range not the water crossing. All ok.