Today is the first day on the second part of our tour as we bid farewell to Broome and begin our journey up to Darwin. I managed to wake up and be ready an hour earlier than everyone else due to thinking next doors alarm was our alarm. Clearly my brain doesn’t work too well in the morning!! I definitely will not miss the open dorm room styles of Broome!
It never fails to amaze me what a huge country this is and yet I have a friend joining our trip completely by chance!! As the bus came to pick us up Emma, from my previous outback (Alice springs to Darwin) trip, was sat at the very front waiting to say hello! Such a small world at the same time as being so huge!
First up we headed to the Boab tree prison. The Boab tree is hollow inside and this particular tree has cracked open leaving a rather large door style entrance. It reminded me a little more of Winnie the Pooh however it is said that back in the day it was used as a prison to hold indigenous slaves who had been captured for their strength and diving ability to be utilised for the pearling industry. It is unknown how much the tree was used to contain them or if they were just shackled together but either way it is another sad story to see. I will never be able to understand how one race/country or even person thinks they have the right to treat another person as if they own them. We watched Django unchained on one of the previous journeys and it got me thinking the same at the time! The human race really does disappoint me sometimes, I know we’ve come a long way from those days but we still have a very long way to go for equality!
After a thoughtful morning we headed over to Windjana Gorge to see over 60 freshwater crocodiles. Luckily these aren’t the deadly ones so we could stand and watch them (still from a distance) at ease! It always fascinates me to learn that the temperature surrounding an egg determines whether it will be a male or female born. Crocodiles aim for 6 females to ever make and they will choose their nests accordingly. Unfortunately the survival rate in the wild is crazy low – something around 1/2%!!
We took some time to have a look at the rock formations here before heading back on the road after lunch.
After lunch we headed over to Tunnel Creek for a walk through the pitch black tunnel with our aboriginal guide. He told us some of the stories of his ancestors and how the tunnel was created in their opinion by a large Python (well that was what I understood) – although I don’t think the geologists in our group agreed!
Tonight is our first swag night on the trip and already I’m missing the luxuries of the previous ‘glamping’ nights!
eyes abroad 