Timber Creek
As you probably guessed, the Internet connection we thought we had ended up not working after an initial success. The whole town had phone connection problems which meant we couldn't even use the paid connection at our accommodation hence no BLOG till now!
We left Katherine and headed west to Kununurra this morning via Victoria River and Timber Creek. We had read about some spectacular scenery and interesting geological features in Gregory National Park
so wanted to check them out along the way. We stopped at Victoria River Roadhouse for morning coffee and the views of the red rock face from there were pretty spectacular. We continued on to see what we could see once we got further on and tried to find a place to enter the park that might provide some interesting views since it is 13,000 km square it was hard to know where would give us the best chance of seeing some lovely parts of the gorge or aboriginal culture which is also present in various places. We didn’t want to spend a long time hiking in to wherever the particular feature is due to being in transit to Kununnura as well. The park is divided into two sectors – the Victoria River sector in the east and the Gregory sector in the west.
At the Timber Creek Roadhouse we found one of those Information boards with a map on it which showed us that we had come too far for one of the places we wanted to try to see but the signage wasn’t that good and the book we were taking the ideas from was a bit vague as well. The Visitors Guide for the Katherine Region was fairly scant on details as well so we were up against it really. However,
we found there was an access road we had seen not far back and wouldn’t take long to get to especially when you can travel at high speed as you can Territory. We went back to it and headed down there but it was an unmade road and took about an hour each way. Fin had to really concentrate on some bits because there were quite a lot of dips, some of which were not sign posted and they come up rather suddenly so if you are going too fast you could find yourself in trouble. The final bit has a kind of concrete slab/bridge bit that we had to take quite slowly but it was probably easier in a 4WD with more clearance. It was not listed as a 4WD track and led to Limestone Gorge camping ground but it said no caravans down that track and we could see why! The car was covered in red dust by the time we got into the place we were heading to and there was a sign early on the first road saying that the camping ground was closed at the moment due to flood damage but when we got there it said you could walk in if you wanted. We didn’t. What we did do was the Calcite Flow Walk which went up a hill with information boards on the way describing and explaining what we were seeing. The sharp grey rock was the same as at 
Chillagoe which we found out is called Rillenkarren which is rock that’s softer parts have been worn away by a kind of acid rain. It is very striking in appearance and it was good to read a proper explanation for the way it looks. As we went up higher we could see across the gorge, the calcite flow which looks a bit like white water running down the hill but is actually caused when calcium carbonate rich water flows rapidly down the hill and the rapid flow forces carbon dioxide out of the water which causes a chemical reaction which releases a solid calcium carbonate from the water. This calcium carbonate builds up on anything solid that if flows over. Over time it builds up creating the calcite flow that we saw. How’s that for a chemistry lesson?
So, after we had a look at the gorge and calcite flow and took photos etc
we drove our dirty little car back down the track to the access road and then the actual highway and headed on our way to Western Australia. We had some dried fruit that we were given by Fin’s cousin Chris and she said she thought we might be allowed to take them into WA but unfortunately they say no fruit that has not been commercially dried so we had to give it up. We had tried to eat a lot of it along the way but couldn’t manage to finish it. How sad.
So, we are in Kununurra and tomorrow we go on a flight over the Bungle Bungles and stay overnight at a bush camp. We are lucky that we just arrived here and our internal clocks are still an hour and a half behind the time here because we are being picked up at 5.30 am in the morning! (WA is 1 ½ hours behind NT so now we are 2 hrs behind Melbourne time)
so wanted to check them out along the way. We stopped at Victoria River Roadhouse for morning coffee and the views of the red rock face from there were pretty spectacular. We continued on to see what we could see once we got further on and tried to find a place to enter the park that might provide some interesting views since it is 13,000 km square it was hard to know where would give us the best chance of seeing some lovely parts of the gorge or aboriginal culture which is also present in various places. We didn’t want to spend a long time hiking in to wherever the particular feature is due to being in transit to Kununnura as well. The park is divided into two sectors – the Victoria River sector in the east and the Gregory sector in the west.At the Timber Creek Roadhouse we found one of those Information boards with a map on it which showed us that we had come too far for one of the places we wanted to try to see but the signage wasn’t that good and the book we were taking the ideas from was a bit vague as well. The Visitors Guide for the Katherine Region was fairly scant on details as well so we were up against it really. However,
we found there was an access road we had seen not far back and wouldn’t take long to get to especially when you can travel at high speed as you can Territory. We went back to it and headed down there but it was an unmade road and took about an hour each way. Fin had to really concentrate on some bits because there were quite a lot of dips, some of which were not sign posted and they come up rather suddenly so if you are going too fast you could find yourself in trouble. The final bit has a kind of concrete slab/bridge bit that we had to take quite slowly but it was probably easier in a 4WD with more clearance. It was not listed as a 4WD track and led to Limestone Gorge camping ground but it said no caravans down that track and we could see why! The car was covered in red dust by the time we got into the place we were heading to and there was a sign early on the first road saying that the camping ground was closed at the moment due to flood damage but when we got there it said you could walk in if you wanted. We didn’t. What we did do was the Calcite Flow Walk which went up a hill with information boards on the way describing and explaining what we were seeing. The sharp grey rock was the same as at 
Chillagoe which we found out is called Rillenkarren which is rock that’s softer parts have been worn away by a kind of acid rain. It is very striking in appearance and it was good to read a proper explanation for the way it looks. As we went up higher we could see across the gorge, the calcite flow which looks a bit like white water running down the hill but is actually caused when calcium carbonate rich water flows rapidly down the hill and the rapid flow forces carbon dioxide out of the water which causes a chemical reaction which releases a solid calcium carbonate from the water. This calcium carbonate builds up on anything solid that if flows over. Over time it builds up creating the calcite flow that we saw. How’s that for a chemistry lesson?So, after we had a look at the gorge and calcite flow and took photos etc
we drove our dirty little car back down the track to the access road and then the actual highway and headed on our way to Western Australia. We had some dried fruit that we were given by Fin’s cousin Chris and she said she thought we might be allowed to take them into WA but unfortunately they say no fruit that has not been commercially dried so we had to give it up. We had tried to eat a lot of it along the way but couldn’t manage to finish it. How sad.So, we are in Kununurra and tomorrow we go on a flight over the Bungle Bungles and stay overnight at a bush camp. We are lucky that we just arrived here and our internal clocks are still an hour and a half behind the time here because we are being picked up at 5.30 am in the morning! (WA is 1 ½ hours behind NT so now we are 2 hrs behind Melbourne time)
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