Array of kimberly on a map of Australia. Kimberley Coast Learning to study Kimberly Kassner

Kimberly's Story Kimberly performed an Essential State Exercise with a part that wanted to relate better to someone who, it seemed to her, intentionally hurt her. The story demonstrates how her beliefs about other people were changed as a result of her achievement.

Traveling Western Australia: Kununurra - Kimberley Region - Gibb River Road

Kanunurra - Kimberley Region, Western Australia

We wake up early in the morning to the noisy squealing of some local birds who just in a crazy amount occupied all the trees around the BIG4 caravan park, where we stayed for the night.

Arrived yesterday Cananarra (Kununurra)  late evening. It was already dark, the office was closed, but by prior arrangement, we phoned one of the office employees, he very kindly met us at the gates of the caravan park and then he supplied us with a detailed map kimberley Region.

We already know the network of BIG4 parks well and have stayed with them more than once. It’s like with McDonald’s: no matter what city or country you go to McDonald’s in, you always know in advance what you get there, so with BIG4 it’s an excellent network, it’s a little expensive, but for the most part there are no unfortunate surprises.

It was the same here in Kananarra: at least this time we reserved a place for a tent and slept in a car, and not as usual in a house, but otherwise everything in the park was up to standard. Clean and large shared showers and WC, for campers there are two kitchens under a canopy - they, however, were a little disappointing in the sense that when they turned on almost all the kitchen appliances immediately, the light went out in the kitchen. In general, we had dinner later in the dark, because laziness was dragging to the car for a flashlight.

We had a place for a car right on the lake, a meter away. This morning we’ve looked better at the park’s landscapes. Handsomely. Surprisingly a lot of travelers. All places for tents and campers were mostly occupied.

Ok, we didn't have time for ranting. Today we had to begin to get acquainted with the area, in essence for which we went by car from Melbourne on this long journey.

And in particular: kimberley Region, considered one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of Australia, and with it and with gorges hidden in its secluded corners with beautiful waterfalls and lakes, rivers and crocodiles, mountain ranges and partly very harsh and desert terrain.

Gibb River Roadit is a continuous gear-breaking off-road, on which you can drive only in certain months of the year, i.e. in the dry season.

In the wet season (from November to March) the road is usually closed, because because of the rains, all of its many small rivers (creeks) overflow banks from the banks and so that it becomes simply impossible to pass through them. The “Floodway” road sign - the most basic along the entire road Gibb River Road.

So, before starting the story of our adventures on this impassable road, I would first like to write a couple of lines about the area where we were brought.

I'll start with Cananarra (Kununurra)  Is a northern Australian city located in close proximity to kimberley Region37 kilometers from the border with the state of Northern Territory.

Kananarra is still quite a large community in Western Australia and lives mainly on agriculture, which only thrives here thanks to climatic conditions  and good water supply, as well as through tourism and mining.

By itself, this city is not much different from similar Australian provincial towns. Probably one of its advantages is the fact that here in this area conditions are very successfully combined and combined tropical climateAdequate water supply for irrigation of agricultural land and soil fertility. All this in aggregate has a positive effect on regular harvests, which include bananas and papaya and sugar cane, and much more is no less tasty.

Around Cananarra there are a lot of natural attractions that are definitely worth it to see them with your own eyes. These are waterfalls, and gorges, and national parks, and mountain ranges. Nature here is striking in its intactness and original harsh picturesqueness, so to speak.

There is also a river - the Ord River, which generously supplies water to this area, and Lake Argyle, and is located nearby and famous in Australia purnululu National Park / The Banglung Bangles (The Bungle Bungles / Purnululu National Park).There is also a park “Celebrity Tree Park”where famous celebrity people plant trees with their own hands.

By the way, scenes from all known the movie “Australia”  with the participation of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were shot in the immediate vicinity of Cananarra, so in many places in this town you can see posters with this film.

In addition to this, there is also a lot of information on the Internet that Nicole Kidman managed to get pregnant during the filming of this film due to the fact that she bathed in the Cananarra Lake, which is supposedly considered “mystical” in this regard.

Kimberley- One of nine counties in the state of Western Australia.

It is located in the north of Western Australia, in the west it borders with the Indian Ocean, in the north - with the Timor Sea, in the south - with the Big Sand desert  (Great Sandy) and the Tanami Deserts and in the east with the state of Northern Territory.

Kimberleyit is a vast region in the north-west of Australia and it is known for its untouched and preserved in its original form nature. The terrain is unique and partly inaccessible.

Explore all the beauties and attractions that the region is rich in Kimberly  can be on the Gibb River Road.

The presence of people here appeared much later than in other regions of Australia. This happened only in the late 1890s. Until the end of the 1960s, only herds of cattle moved in this section of the Kimberley region.

Today, on the red - or rather, even on the dark terracotta land of the Kimberley region along the Gibb River Road, you can find sacred places of the natives, insanely beautiful natural landscapes, with rivers, gorges and waterfalls.

Nature here is uniquely unique, original, insanely beautiful and at the same time seriously severe in relation to man. Until now, this part of Australia is considered inaccessible, which has a positive effect on the conservation of these natural resources.

During the planning of the transcontinental route (Great Northern Hwy), it was decided to build this highway bypassing the Kimberley region.

And this decision was made not without reason. In the wet season, i.e. in the rainy season, Kimberly turns figuratively speaking into a continuous whirlpool and many parts of the region are simply inaccessible and blocked.

Only one single road passes through the Kimberley region itself - it is the Gibb River Road, it crosses Kimberley from the South-West to the South-East and its off-road length is about 700 km.

Due to the regular flood seasons, this road is periodically closed. The rest of the time (in the dry season) it is strongly recommended to cross Kimberly on Gibb River Road only on off-road vehicles with high ground clearance.

Gibb River Road is not very friendly to its guests and meets them with its thick red dust, numerous potholes, which is typical for the primer, and the road a la crusty washboard - and so on for all seven hundred kilometers.

To leave for gibb River Roadwe first left Cananarra (Kununurra)  by victoria Highway (Victoria Hwy)  heading west, then turned left, leaving onto great Northern Hwy  and then driving along the highway quite a bit in the direction of the town of Wyndham we left on the Gibb River Road itself, which ends (or starts - depending on which side to leave) a few kilometers from the city Derby.

In preparation for this trip, we were told a lot about this road and about the Kimberley region, about their difficulties and at the same time insanely beautiful and unique natural pearls.

The Kimberley region is so ancient that it still remembers the times when streams of hot lava seethed here, and then streams of sea open spaces, there was ice, and hell, and various forms of life, and therefore, thanks to all this, the most diverse reliefs of nature formed here.

Here you can find the most diverse vegetation, which appears before the eyes either in the form of plains sparsely overgrown with low shrubs, often almost burnt out, then in the form of palm trees and baobabs, which are partly already at the age of several hundred years standing bare without leaves, stretching their bony branches weakly, hands to the sky, then in the form of eucalyptus thickets.

Surprisingly, once upon a time there was a sea, and with it the local barrier reeffilled with sea fish, corals and mollusks. His education took millions and millions of years.

Over time, the sea waters receded and, on the site of this barrier coral reef, rises and impresses with its beauty, shapes and sizes. windjana Gorgewhich is located in windjana Gorge National Park.

All these hidden gorges with waterfalls and small lakes attached to them, partly surrounded by cliffs of high terracotta color, green vegetation rapidly growing in these small prehistoric oases, blooming tender lilies, with something unknown constantly squealing and tweeting in the bush, with ancient dinosaurs in the form of freshwater crocodiles - all this is somewhat reminiscent of stories from the book of Arthur Conan Doyle “The Lost World” ( The lost  world).

Partly for the sake of these fabulous gorges, adventure lovers climb on gibb River Road. They can rightfully be called little wonders of the world:

Galvan’s Gorge, Manning Gorge, Adcock Gorge, Windjana Gorge, Lennard Gorge, Mt Barnett Gorge, Bell Gorge, Tunnel Creek  and much, much more, numerous, remote from human civilization, untouched by it and well preserved from the time when dinosaurs lived here.

The Gibb River Road leads with its many branches to many conservation zones with status national park: for example, some of them:

King Leopold Ranges, Conservation Park, Tunnel Creek National Park, Windjana Gorge National Park.

Walking around “just like that” in the Kimberley region can be very unsafe. There are many reservoirs in which crocodiles are found, as well as poisonous snakes.

As mentioned above, gibb River Roadit was once created for the distillation and transportation of livestock from distant pastoral farms through the Kimberley region, which in turn is still Australia's largest cattle-breeding region, huge in size so much that figuratively speaking it grazes on large and almost limitless wild pastures the cattle manages to run wild, and in order to distill it or collect it, one often has to resort to the help of helicopters, which is far from new to farmers in Australia.

Therefore, it is not surprising that on the way we often met whole herds of grazing cows and bulls, which, in turn, despite the fact that there is regular traffic on the Gibb River Road, were still very surprised that besides there is someone else here who is very different from them.

Gibb River Road  with its natural unique attractions is becoming more and more popular.

If, according to the stories of Tyomin’s colleague, ten or fifteen years ago, there were no other people there except for rare farmland with farming families or communities of local Aboriginal people, but today travelers who are adventurous regularly go there, which in turn affects what you can find places that are quite suitable for just spending the night, and for a multi-day outdoor camping holiday.

Tourists are brought there by whole off-road buses, there you can find a couple of service stations (for example, Mt Barnett Roadhouse, Mt Elizabeth Station  and others) with a gas station and a small shop where you can replenish your fuel supplies and provisions.

There are small and still few sections on the road that are covered with asphalt. They are few, but they are already there.

And periodically, in the dry season, an “engraver” passes along the road, which at least somehow smooths out the potholes and the brain-bearing crusher of the Gibb River Road.

That's exactly for all this we went on our next trip by car in Australia.

You will not see all this from the side of the plane. Only by car and only on the road. And everything he saw made a proper impression.

In our next notes we will tell you in more detail with photos and videos about the amazing natural sights we saw gibb River Road.

To be continued unambiguously. Follow the news.

Your restless travelers Nata and Tyoma

Below is our video  (made on a lap during the trip) is such a brief summary of our drive along the Gibb River Road in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Kimberley Plateau (English Kimberley) - beautiful creations of nature, located in the north-west of Australia. Both the plateau and the region as a whole were named in honor of John Woodhouse, the first Lord Kimberly, who served as Minister of the British Colonies from 1870 to 1874 and from 1880 to 1882.

The untouched beauty of local nature has been preserved thanks to centuries of isolation and the absence of the influence of a white man on the formation of the appearance of this region, unique on a global scale.

The plateau is composed of ancient crystalline rocks and sandstones, in the east - basalts, and in the south - limestones. It is divided by water and wind erosion into separate plateaus and ridges, many karst basins, funnels, wells and caves have formed here.

In the north-west, the Kimberley plateau abruptly breaks off to the ocean, the coast is indented with numerous bays and capes. The southern border of the plateau is the King Liopold Range, with the highest Mount Ord.

The climate is predominantly subequatorial.

The local rivers have a peculiarity: they don’t have a definite source, and they start where there will be more rain, for which they are nicknamed the Australian word walkabout - “wandering rivers”.

The largest river, originating on the Kimberley plateau, is the Ord (320 km). It houses the Argyll Reservoir, Australia's largest man-made lake in terms of water volume (about 4.5 km3). Here lives a large population of Australian narrow-crocodile (totals 25 thousand individuals). In general, there are a lot of fish in the plateau lakes, barramundi (white perch), southern saratoga, sprinklers and sleeping cod predominate.

Vegetation in the north of the plateau is represented by evergreen eucalyptus light forest, in the river valleys forests predominate, in the south - arid light forest, on the sandstone plateau - cereals and shrubs.

The Kimberley region is sparsely populated: only a few tens of thousands of Australians live here, and exactly a third of them are natives.

Near the Kimberley Plateau, there are several villages of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia. Their ancestors arrived here 40 thousand years ago, probably from the Sunda Islands. On the rocks in the vicinity of the villages there are many drawings of petroglyphs depicting hunting scenes and courtship ceremonies.

The natives of Kimberley continue to lead a lifestyle that is as close as possible to the nature and traditions of their ancestors. In particular, they worship spirits, and use boomerangs when hunting.

On the plateau in the Fitzroy River Valley, the Geiki-Gorj National Park was founded.

Purnululu is a famous plateau national park whose main attraction is the mountain formations of the Bangle-Bangle Range.
For 20 million years, they underwent erosion and began to resemble cones similar to giant hives. Striped cone-shaped rocks look as if someone had specially carefully wrapped them in thick orange material. And if you add to this large caves, deep grottoes, sandy beaches, then, looking at all this, you might think that we got into a Disney cartoon, because such landscapes are not found in nature. In 2003, the park was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The southern part of the Kimberley Plateau is one large national park along which the road runs. For tourists, tourist routes have been prepared through gorges, chasms and channels of dried up rivers.