28 Aug 10 - Tunnel Creek

By Craig: Does your torch have good batteries? Ahh, no not really. What about your headlamp Louise, it’s LED and should be bright enough? It’s all we’ve got it will have to do after all it can’t be that dark!










Pitch ‘bloody’ black so we find out after entering the tunnel with a fading headlamp, Tunnel should have been a clue!
















Well it was light at both ends and for the middle section we just joined in with another couple with a brighter torch and made our way through the sometimes waist deep water, of course keeping in mind we were sharing this trip with fresh water crocs.













Half way through the tunnel opens up and a colony of flying foxes use this as an entry point.














On the section of Gibb River Road leading up to the gorge a photo opportunity presented itself: Queen Mary in profile, so the roadside sign suggested. The nose wasn’t hard to miss. The rest, well with a good imagination or a half a bottle of grog I could have seen Bo Derek.

















By Lou: Tunnel Creek is a 750 metre tunnel that runs under the Napier Range in Tunnel Creek National Park. Like so many other places it has been used by indigenous Australians for yonks but was only discovered by white man in the late 1800s. Aboriginal leader and outlaw Jandamarra had used the cave for years as a hideout but he ended up being killed in front of it, by police. It was quite eerie wading through cold thigh-deep water in the pitch black.









I’d read that freshwater crocodiles and olive pythons frequented the cave so was praying to high heaven there was a freshwater crocodile and olive python convention being held that very day over in some other national park. About halfway along, the roof had collapsed so daylight poured in and shone light on the resident bat population, and gave a reprieve to a potential claustrophobiac.




We shared the journey with a lovely couple from Kangaroo Island who in exchange for sharing their stronger torchlight, made us go first into the water to find the shallowest path across!