R
Australia and the Pacific Islands



Young adventurers from the northern hemisphere tackle
the Kimberley, one of the southern continent of
Australia's most remote corners.

By Julie Koppel



The Kimberley, that rugged region between Broome and Darwin in the far northwest corner of Australia, is considered to be the most remote place in Australia. It is an area twice the size of Switzerland with a scant population of few more than 20,000 souls. The land was inhabited by Aboriginals thousands of years before Captain Cook ever saw this massive continent. The Aboriginals still live in the most remote parts of this land and increasingly inhabit the two cities on either end, Broome and Darwin.

Before the journey through the Kimberley even begins, travelers must get themselves to Broome, which is approximately two-thirds of the way up the west coast of Australia. Broome can be reached by flying into a small airport from any of the major Australian cities, but the cheapest way to get there is by bus. There are also masses of backpackers that congregate in Perth and share rides up the coast. Despite the stereotype Broome has of being filled with impoverished Aboriginals, it is highly recommended for adventurers to arrive in Broome a few days before venturing out into the Kimberley to see for themselves that the stereotype of the natives is completely false, that the locals are very accommodating, and that this booming town made up of most of the 20,000 inhabitants of the area has much to offer.



Broome is most renowned for Cable Beach, voted the second best beach in the world, where it's possible to enjoy a camelback ride at sunset to get a taste of the wondrous natural beauty Western Australia has to offer or to take advantage of local tour companies and go diving for pearls and whale-shark sightseeing. There is also the night market at Town Beach to explore, filled with didgeridoo and djembe players, dancers, jewelers, and artists. The best time to visit Broome is between March and October, during the dry season to see the Stairway to the Moon, a natural optical illusion that occurs when a rising full moon reflects on the mudflats at Roebuck Bay.



After a short stay in Broome, adventurers depart on an eight-day, 4WD Adventure Tour and get into the country right from the start. A recent tour included a group of twenty-two world travelers from everywhere. Roaming through this great mass of desert on a 4WD Adventure Tour vehicle were a collection of adventurers from Oslo to Norway to Tokyo to Westlake Village, California led by Debden, a fun-loving, soft-spoken, passionate Maori tour-guide and his girlfriend Julia, a laid-back nurse from Germany.



The trip's first stop was to walk around the Boab Prison Tree where Aboriginal prisoners used to be kept inside the five-foot space, prisoners in their own land. Next, the group crossed the Fitzroy River, which cuts through the great desert and then continued on through the vast nothingness until they got to the Wyndjara Gorge, a Devonian reef which just kind of pops up out of nowhere after its long, 360-million-year sleep under the sea.



The first leg of the hike through the gorge proved to be an average trek through the Outback with sightings of two freshwater crocodile, two sand monitors (the biggest lizards ever), countless spider webs and Golden Orbs eating wild figs and bush tucker passion fruit, each Golden Orb spider the size of a human hand (the females--the males are much smaller). Then Debden, the group's Maori guide and himself a foreigner to this strange Aboriginal homeland, explained that he'd never been able to come this far on the trail before, but offered to take anyone who wanted to continue on with him to see what might develop. Eight members of the group verbally signed their lives away as the others headed back.



So there they were, an ambitious and adventurous Maori guide and his lady friend, Thomas and Susan, a couple of Germans enjoying a luxurious vacation, Suzanne, a Norwegian nurse who never tired of explaining why socialism is the only form of government that works, three Japanese who spoke amongst themselves and occasionally made gestures and nodded towards the others, Alex, an English university student who somehow had a keen awareness of what was shortly in store for all of them, and Julie, a young California girl who had just graduated from college and was heading off into the unknown to see the world. All went well until the first creek crossing where a giant green snake slithered between Alex and Julie, leading to an explosion of girlish shrieks echoing around the walls of the gorge.

The next obstacle was the spinifex grass. Think of stinging nettle and multiply the pain by ten. Up the rocks they went, ouching and scurrying about until they found a break in the grass, turned around, and before them stretched an untouched jungle that one can only compare to African savannah with giraffes and assorted wildlife romping about.



The group moved on as the sun crept beyond the distant hills, the needle-pointed spinifex growing worse, and the eclectic group no closer to the camp than they had been four hours earlier. They wound their way back down the inside of the gorge only to find they had traveled in a circle to where they had been a couple hours before. Luckily, they were walking on a dry creek-bed with reflective white rock, giving them some visibility, but once they found the dirt trail again, it was completely pitch black and the moon still hours away from rising.

There were nine of them and only three tiny flashlights, with one beam slowly fading. So Debden began ripping off paper bark from a tree, tying it with grass, and sparking it up. The troop reached a sandbank and Debeden shone the flaming bark torch around, searching for the fresh water crocs they had seen earlier. Debden, always the optimistic guide, kept announcing that there were only 800 meters left to their destination for the night, and fifteen minutes later, again says only 800 meters left.

After having walked in the dark for over three hours, they finally came out the opening of the gorge and gathered together for a group chorus of, "Wahoos!", never having been so relieved. As they came out of the final enclosure, they passed a ranger on his way in, who was just about to send a search party out to look for them.
They ran back to camp, pushed back the welcoming hugs and smiles from Kamila, an English medical student, and Nicole, Thomas' girlfriend, and the others, guzzled water straight from the tap, cracked open beers, and elaborated on their stories until it was time to lie down in their SWAGs (Aussie for camping bedrolls) and fall asleep under the seemingly endless Outback sky.



Rising with the sun, they continued northeast on the Gibb River Road, the path that marks the way through the Kimberley. No watches, no alarms, no pavement out there, officially, only dirt and Kimberley-time. They moved on to Tunnel Creek to see Aboriginal paintings and learn a bit of local lore about the Aboriginal man who led a local uprising against white settlers. They wandered through the water-filled cave, where Aboriginals lived merely thirty years ago, having now moved to nearby communities or off to cities like Broome and Darwin. Continuing on to Bells Gorge, the adventurers hiked to the bottom of a waterfall, swam in a waterhole and explored the leech-filled water to a thirty-meter drop-off waterfall.

At the end of the third day, after an infinite amount of dirt, swimming in another waterhole, and much fun swinging Tarzan-and-Jane-style off hanging ropes into the water, it grew dark, and they sat around the fire discussing Harry Potter and other weighty subjects. Debden freestyled on his guitar, singing about the trip and survival thus far.



By the time they were ready to go to bed, Alex and Julie were the last two survivors in the open, wrapped in their SWAGs, as the others escaped into tents, hurrying to escape hungry mosquitoes. As young girls will do, the two spent the night chatting away under a sky filled with stars, pausing every few minutes to swat away disrespectful insects and to point out shooting stars shimmering across the nighttime heavens. They are so bright out there that the sky holds their flight pattern long after they've died out.

With temperatures soaring well into triple digits, even though it was almost winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and twenty-two people crammed into one 4WD vehicle and only two pseudo-showers in eight days, the group was happy for daily salvation in whatever waterholes could be found. They spent most days hiking, swimming, and driving. At night, they sat around the campfire playing cards and getting eaten up by mosquitoes.



Next sunrise it was time to start all over again. With only a couple of days left in the trip, they arrived at Purnululu, the Kija Aboriginal name for the Bungle Bungles, famous for its giant bee-hive shaped sandstone domes that sprout up and tower around the landscape. As described by the Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management of Western Australia, "The Bungle Bungle Range, in Purnululu National Park, is one of the most fascinating geological landmarks in Western Australia. The orange and black stripes across the beehive-like mounds reveal a hidden world of gorges and pools with fan palms clinging precariously to walls and crevices in the rocks."

With plans to build a better road out there in a few years, the Bungle Bungles is still a pristine gem that still is not as overrun by tourists as is Uluru. And that really is the best thing about this place: its sense of secrecy. As new friends and fellow travelers crouched down in a small pool of water amidst the domes, despite seeing others around and knowing all the tour groups come through here, there was something about this place that made them feel as though together they had shared a visit to one of the Earth's unique natural wonders.

They spent the last day wandering around a small Aboriginal community for a short visit. The locals took them into a building and proudly showed them the artwork done by all the children. The scene outside included Aboriginal women sitting in rocking chairs with their babies and chatting away, the kids running around entertaining themselves with made-up games, and men busying themselves with the work that needs to be done that day. The accents were different, but the activities could have been taking place on a pleasant warm evening almost anywhere in the world.

The travelers continued on until they came to a massive man-made lake, that, according to Debden, could provide the water source for all of Western Australia for many years to come if the Australians were able to figure out how to do it. Assured that they were safe from saltwater crocs, some of the group swam out in the lake, their guide included. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until Julie noted Debden's eyes get really big and his urgent gesture for them to head back to shore. About twenty feet directly in front of them was a freshwater croc about two or three meters in length. Even though smaller crocs are not expected try to eat a full-grown human alive, they will take a good chunk out of the unwary. No one stayed in the water much longer.

By the last day, the new-comers To Australia's Western Outback had crossed over 3,000 kilometers of desert and passed through two towns and only a handful of roadhouses. With the uneven terrain, lurking dangers, and vast remoteness, the Kimberley makes Outback trips through the red center of the country seem like luxury.



The group arrived in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, dirty, weary, but exhilarated from the trip. After showering at their hostels, the group rendezvoused at the local market along the beach to watch the sunset, eat some BBQ, and relish in all they had just experienced. Eventually, the sun set and the group separated for the final time. After that, for most of the group it was hostel beds to be indulged in, the sixth-largest city in Australia to be explored, and Sweetheart, the sixteen-foot stuffed saltwater crocodile who lives at the Darwin Museum, to be visited.



If you decide to go:

Anyone can go on this 8-day, 4WD Broome to Darwin Safari by Adventure Tours Australia. Tours only run from April-November. If interested, go to the website www.adventuretours.com.au/ or email them at: reservations@adventuretours.com.au.


Julie Koppel is originally from Westlake Village, California. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in Psychology, and recently finished a 10-month stint in Charleston, South Carolina, serving as a member of AmeriCorps NCCC. Her future plans include pursuing a Master's Degree in Anthropology and continuing her travels. Ms. Koppel's book, "Say What You Will, A Traveler's Declaration" is available through the bryceexplorations@hotmail.com website. A favorite quotation of hers is, "It is important from time to time to just slow down, go away by yourself, and simply be"


Photo Credits: Photos by Julie Koppel;

Special Golden Orb Spider Photo by Permission of: Steven Clark, http://spiders.zacharoo.com


© 2005 ROMAR TRAVEL GUIDES