The Ranger told us about a Bower Bird that is nesting on the campsite. We wandered over to the nesting site (which looks a bit like two Broome heads side by side with bristles facing upwards) and could see the Male bird busy dropping white objects in and around the site. A closer look revealed that some of the objects were man-made – bottle tops seemed to be the preferred article of this particular bird. Apparently the bird had nicked a little girl’s plastic tea set a few weeks earlier, and they are quite partial to jewellery, coloured glass, coins and even empty bullet casings. The Male does all this petty pilfering to attract a female (clearly the females are happy to live of immoral gains).
Bower Bird, Windjana campground. You can see that this one likes bottle tops.
Chatted to an Australian woman who once lived in Croydon, UK. She wouldn’t go back. Although Windjana Gorge is inhabited by crocodiles, large snakes and numerous biting and stinging insects, she thought Croydon was much more dangerous. “There are strange people in the parks, and there are Rottweilers roaming the streets!”.
After breakfast we drove to Tunnel Creek (30 kms away). On the way we came across a cattle round up. The cattle were being driven down the road ahead of us; it looked like the sort of scene you’d see in National Geographic:
Cattle Round Up on the way to Tunnel Creek
Hot and Dusty Work
Tunnel Creek is the oldest cave system in Australia. The tunnel is 750 metres long and was cut by the Leonard River and is further along the same Barrier Reef that Windjana Gorge passes through. Although there are Freshwater Crocodiles in the tunnel entrance they are said to be small and harmless (well that’s alright then!).
So we set off into the darkness armed with head torches, water bottles, and a bag of mixed nuts. Oh, and Oliver had a Light Sabre (large stick). Emily and Oliver immediately took up the job of scanning the surface of the water with their torches, looking for the red eyes of crocs (queue the Jaws music).
After several false alarms (“there’s one!”) we settled down and waded through to a sandy beach under a large opening in the roof. We stood for a while marvelling at the plants and wildlife that had made this their home, we saw St Andrews spider hanging in its web on a rock, colourful birds swooped overhead and, inside the cave we could hear the screeching of Fruit Bats up on the cave ceiling.
We continued on through the next section of the tunnel and emerged into a tree-lined creek with a couple of mucky pools. We climbed onto the bank and followed a rough path up to a cave with some Aboriginal rock art. We also saw a Monitor lizard basking on the bank.
We retraced our steps through the tunnel then drove back to Windjana Gorge, stopping for a few minutes at the ruined Police Station alongside the road. Next to the ruins there was an information board which tells the story of Jandamarra, an Aboriginal who fought a Guerrilla-style war against the Settlers. After three years of being hunted he was eventually tracked down to his hideout in Tunnel Creek and shot in the entrance to the cave.
Close up to a Freshwater Crocodile in Windjana Gorge.
Back at Windjana we prepared for tomorrow’s drive to Silent Grove then took another walk into the Gorge to look at the Crocs before having dinner:
Emily isn’t too keen to swim!