All this I have been stressing over the famous Gibb River Road, but it's practically a highway now. To compensate for the lack of adventure on the Gibb, we found a few extra tracks to try - Karunjie and Munja! The former just a walk in the park compared to the latter but both extremely enjoyable (I can say that only now that I'm safely off both).
Karunjie starts from just outside of Wyndham and is an old stock route that runs between the Cockburn Ranges and the Pentecost River. The last update gave the details on that beautiful track and days along the river. This entry is dedicated to the Munja Track and the highlights of the Gibb River Road. The Munja runs from outside Mt Elizabeth Station to the Walcott Inlet and got some recent fame when a 4wd show came to film some footage along its varied course. Without my usual research on the track (due to lack of internet reception) and the fact that it was an in & out track, I fought Matt on taking it but to no use, he was fixated.
When they say "rough" track, they mean it! But we had bush camps by river sides all to ourselves and the pure beauty of the Kimberleys we had been missing. Matt has loaded a few videos on Facebook and you'll
notice I walked many of those extreme bits including the return on Magpie's Jump Up. We even managed to bust (temporarily) another of our camper legs on one of the steep river crossings but the group behind us, had to winch their mate's vehicle out. Finding a waterfall all to ourselves with some amazing Aboriginal artwork and I quickly forgot about the stress of the track. I did do a deep creek crossing and jump out of my own to better understand Albert's capabilities - he was built to do this kind of travel.
After four days exploring the Munja, we were back on the busy Gibb but still managed a couple solo bush camps along the way before staying at both the Silent Grove and Windjana National Parks in the King Leopold Conservation Park. Bell Gorge from Silent Grove NP was an awe inspiring gorge with a beautiful swimming hole after a hike down the boulder rock ledge. The cliffs were typical Kimberley with strata layers of
block red rock. Then Windjana was such a different gorge cliff with black drip castle type rock formations made from when the area was an old reef system. Add in the hundreds of fresh water crocs that are trapped for the season, and you DON'T have a waterhole to swim in.
In all, the Gibb experience did give us what we were looking
for in this area - beauty that will not soon be forgotten and is already missed now that we a back on the straight road to Broome.
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