OLD MORNINGTON CAMP - PAGE 8

Sir John Gorge and Dimond Gorge

As Mornington is 100 kms off the Gibb River Road it doesn't get swarms of tourists except during school holidays.  This was a definite attraction for us and we found that we pretty much had both gorges to ourselves.  There would have been 40 or so people camped at Mornington and the property is so huge that you can spend the whole day sightseeing or fishing without seeing another soul.  The Manager, Michael Curr, has lived in the outback all his life and is a positive mine of information and stories about this region of Australia and its people.
 

Sir John Gorge taken from where we had lunch under the trees.

 Thank goodness for good hiking boots!  The trek into Sir John Gorge was exhausting, at least it was for me because I've never been hiking before this holiday.  Lots of rock hopping, and they were big rocks at that, before we found this spot under some thick trees, where we had a picnic lunch.  There was only one other car in the car park when we arrived and the young couple walked past us on their way out while we were swimming.  We then had the entire Gorge all to ourselves.  The water was green and clear with a sandy bottom and quite irrisistible despite the odd couple of tracks made by freshwater crocodiles.   This photograph is a little deceptive because I used the zoom lens, in fact the gorge must be at least 600 metres wide at this point. 
We threw a couple of lines into this creek but didn't catch anything, although we did disturb a basking croc in the process.  The rock strewn banks of the creek give some indication of the volume and force of these waterways during the wet season.  Mornington has its own dirt airstrip and is only accessible by plane during the "wet".

One of the many creeks that criss cross Mornington.

Dimond Gorge from the outside

 All the gorges in the Kimberleys seem to rear up from otherwise flat plains.  This is the outside of Dimond Gorge, (yes it is actually spelt this way)  which we spent a day exploring.  This photograph doesn't do justice to the beautiful colours of the massive rock.
We spent a whole day kayaking up Dimond Gorge, a distance of nearly 4 kms.   Because the sides of the gorge are so steep all the way up it's necessary to use kayaks to get to the end.  As there are only 10 kayaks available for hire, it's never crowded at the end of the gorge. Dimond Gorge from the kayak