Harsh beauty of the Kimberley

Recently I participated in co-hosting my first Twitter chat for #weekendwanderlust and the topic was #Australia.  It was interesting to hear other people’s perspective of our beautiful country but not one mention of the beautiful Kimberley. We have so much to offer, but unfortunately this stunning area of Western Australia often gets overlooked due to the distance to travel.

I have written several posts about what Perth has to offer and a little about the Margaret River area.  Whilst our southwest is an area I have much familiarity with, I have never had much exposure to the North.   I’ve been to Geraldton, Exmouth and Coral Bay. But if I were to venture further, the west has so much more to offer.

Two billion years in the making, the northern region of the state is known for its beauty, rugged ranges, dramatic gorges and isolated coastal sections.

This part of Western Australia’s outback is known as the Kimberley and is larger than 75% of the world’s countries. Leading to Windjana Gorge National Park is Gibb River Road, 660km of unsealed road, which runs through the heart of the Kimberley.

This takes you deep in the Kimberley wilderness and home to some ancient mountain ranges, towering limestone cliffs and pools which are home to freshwater crocodiles.

The legendary Gibb takes you through spectacular landscape of intensely coloured steep ridges, dramatic gorges, lush rock pools and spectacular waterfalls.

These gorges and swimming holes are what the Kimberley is famous for and the main reason travellers are happy to endure the red sandy soil, the varied landscape, the dust, sharp rocks and deeply corrugated roadsides of legendary proportions to experience them.

One of the most fascinating and beautiful attractions in the Kimberley is the huge expanse of turquoise waters of Lake Argyle. Each year thousands of visitors travel to visit Western Australia’s largest freshwater man made reservoir.  Part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme located near Kununurra, Lake Argyle covers an area 18 times the size of Sydney harbour.

The Kimberley is sparsely settled, with large bands of wilderness, rugged roads, outback desert, countless remote gorges, big tidal rivers, and many smaller streams and creeks. Immerse yourself in cooling waterfalls and shady swimming holes, taking in the spectacular views of the steep sided mountain ranges and find yourself between dense coastline and unforgiving deserts. You can swim, bushwalk, 4WD and camp with a backdrop of red ochre cliffs dotted with boab studded spinifex plains.

Covering a huge 423,000 square kilometres, or about 3 times the size of England, this ancient region is remote. To put that into perspective, the region has fewer people per square kilometre than any other place on earth. The Kimberley’s population of about 35,000 is mostly distributed between three towns of Broome, Derby and Kununurra. The harsh beauty of the Kimberley area is combined with hellish temperatures, one of the hottest parts of Australia,  the area frequently reaches above 37 °C or 99 °F.

I hope you enjoyed these stunning photos highlighting the Kimberley rugged beauty and peaceful paradise taken by and used with permission of my friend Landi Bradshaw who has lived in this beautiful area for several years.

Have you been to this remote area? Is this part of Australia that you’d like to visit? Are you planning an outback challenge?

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