We parked and were ready to start the walk by about 8.30. It was already feeling warm. It took about an hour to walk all the way into the gorge to the waterfall and swimming hole. The walk was a bit scrambly at times, over rocks a lot. It was not as pretty as El Questro Gorge walk, but the swimming hole at the end was lovely and made it worth the walk. There is a tall sheer cliff face which is in a semicircle shape around the waterhole. At this time of year the waterfall is only fairly small, but I can imagine it pouring down in the wet season. All of us except Michael went for a swim (too cold for Michael). Lauren and Sam swam to under the waterfall (it was very deep here) and said the droplets of water were like pinpricks, they were falling so fast. As we were getting out of the main swimming area, a lovely older couple said to us “We can see your kids are having such a great time, so we just wanted to tell you about a nice ‘spa’ area tucked away behind those rocks – its nice and warm over there”. We thanked them and went to discover the thermal area – we found it and enjoyed sitting there for a while. We then warmed up in the sun and changed back into our walking gear ready for the walk out. A couple of stops along the way for drinks and lollies/biscuits helped everyone get back OK (although Bethany needed a piggy back just for the last 5 mins – she had done magnificently well to do what she did). It was about 12noon when we got back to the car, and we were glad to be in the air-conditioning.
We ate our sandwiches for lunch as we drove towards Wyndham. We had to continue backtracking along the Gibb River Road back to the Great Northern Hwy and then turn left to head north towards Wyndham. It was about a 30min drive then. Everyone was still a bit hungry and we had decided we would find a cafe at Wyndham to have a milkshake and maybe a muffin or something.
We drove into Wyndham about 1pm. There was a big croc at the entrance to the town. The main thing we wanted to do here was see the Five Rivers Lookout, but thought there may be some other things to do also. We found the information centre and I went in to get a map and find out some information on things to do. The port area was a little further north than the main part of the town. We decided to drive there and see if we could find a cafe there. We walked down the main road of the port area and found a shop that sold souvenirs – we asked them if there was a cafe, but were informed “No sorry – there is only the pub”. There was a small museum at the port area, which could have been interesting, but the kids weren’t keen, so I thought it best we just head back to the main area and find a cafe. We were told there was the Five Rivers Cafe on the main road which should be open until 3pm. We found this cafe just after 2pm and it had just closed! And this was a week day. It was a sign of how small and isolated the town was and how it did not benefit from tourists passing through – only those who wanted to make the trek to the end of the road. We continued our search for a place to buy a drink and we eventually found ‘Lu- Lu’s Asian restaurant’ – it only had hot food but at least it had some takeaway milkshakes. We enjoyed these and got some muffins out of the freezer from the caravan to eat.
We then drove to the base of the hill where the lookout was. We had been told we couldn’t take the caravan up the hill because it was quite steep and had some tight corners. But there was a large area were we could leave it. This we did and then drove up the hill. It was a great view from the top, looking out over the Cambridge Gulf. This is a deep gulf that comes south from the Timor Sea and where 5 rivers start. Those 5 rivers are the Ord heading south-east, the Durack heading north-west, the ? heading west, the Pentecost and ? heading south-west.
We were all fairly tired so decided just to head straight back to Kununurra, rather than taking the 50km detour to see the prison boab tree. There is another one near Derby which we might try to see.
So we drove the hour back to Kununurra and went back to the Kimberleyland Van Park. We asked if there was a site close to the pool, and we were fortunate to get a spot close to the pool, the playground and the amenities. It was great. The kids were keen for a swim, so I took them over to the pool while Michael set up the caravan and started to get dinner ready. We had showers, then dinner and then were all ready for an early night again.