​Judbara National Park - 6 July 2017

We took a side trip into Limestone Gorge but turned around when the road became a river/creek bed - way too rough and we had many hours of rough driving ahead. The cliffs were a sight to be seen. Awesome towering patterned age-blackened limestone

Before arriving at Kununurra couple days ago, we spent a few days around Judbarra/Gregory National Park. Spectacular scenery! One of the highlights, apart from the river trip, was a day trip through the park. The loop we took followed the Binns track for a fraction of its 2000 odd km route - one end of the track is at Timber Creek and the other in the Simpson desert near the SA border.

We've seen many huge Boab trees - Lindsay is my measuring stick in this one. The pith of the fruit is high in vitamin C which I mentioned before. The explorer Gregory used it successfully to treat scurvy among his party back in the late 1800s. The aborigines are the seeds raw or roasted and pounded the white pith to make a drink. So many plants we know so little about. It's humbling. This tree was at the old Bullita Homestead.

We travelled the Bullita Access road to the old Homestead and then took a wild and rugged track, the Tuwakam 'wheel-rut' track, through to the Buchanan Hwy - all dirt, limestone rock etc of course! The 20k track links the eastern and western sections of the Judbarra NP - it took close to 3 hours that's just to do the link track!That's not just us, it's the nature of the track. Quite a challenge but the driver and 'car' were mighty! No pix of the interesting bits of the track as I was hanging on for dear life.
We were surrounded by bush all day apart from a few cattle and our visit to the Homestead plus a couple of donkeys.

These are believed to be descendants of a team of donkeys which were part of one of Bradshaws expeditions taking his cattle south. Cute things and as curious of us as we were of them

The crocodile tree! That's the common name for this Nutwood tree - you can see why. The bark is so distinctive so the trees can be spotted a way off. The leaves are tear-drop shape - crocodile tears!

This you will not be surprised to know is called the Elephant Ear wattle. It grows in a relatively tiny spot in the NW.

I spent time with my 'camera' up close and personal with trees and flowers and then with my head in my book trying to identify the species. Many of the species I actually identified are endemic to the far north and north-west makes you wonder about dispersion etc.

Another spectacular flower. This is the Brachychiton spectacular- of course! It grows only around Victoria river crossing to Jasper Gorge.

This is the seed pod of the Brachychiton. Looks like a giant star anise!

I finally found kapok fruit after weeks and weeks of looking. I never imagined they'd be so big. It is it was a calendar plant for the aboriginals of the region. The flowers indicate when the fresh water crocs are laying their eggs and the fruit tell them when it's time to collect the eggs.

The inside of the kapok fruit. The fluffy stuff was once used by local aboriginals as body decoration for ceremonies. And some of us will remember those lumpy kapok mattresses and pillows. Ugh

We ended a wonderful and challenging day was a drive to Jasper Gorge on the Buchanan Hwy.

This is a Bauhinia. I first saw this at Tomato Island month ago but didn't know it's name. I discovered that it is also the tree on which I photographed the mistletoe back near the Lawn NP. They are everywhere up here! Keep looking and eventually you find out what things are - sometimes!

Isn't this astonishing! The flower of the Bauhinia in fact of the species cunninghamii for those interested. I just love it and spent ages photographing it at Jasper Gorge. It's gorgeous and quite intriguing in its design.

Jasper Gorge on the Buchanan Hwy. The cliffs were almost ablaze in the rays of late afternoon sun - rather jasper coloured I would say!

These I simply couldn't resist. A lump of jasper from near the Victoria river crossing - it is satin smooth and the colours - well I'll leave you to zoom in and have a closer look. And I believe in the smaller rocks there's some amethyst. I need a geologist to take a peak. Talking of gorgeous rocks, we are in zebra rock country. I'll be taking a look.