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  • Dolerite Gorge and the Barker River

    August 2, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Today was a quieter day as we have a long way to go tomorrow. This morning we went to a gorge close to the Mount Hart homestead for a cooling swim. It has been fantastic weather so far with days getting up to about 30 degrees and cooling at night but not getting cold.

    Today’s gorge is called the Dolerite Gorge because it formed in a dolerite plug. The mostly sandstone structure of the Kimberley has a number of these dolerite plugs where molten lava pushed up between cracking and faults in the sandstone. The results are patches of black dolerite rock dotting the landscape where little vegetation grows as the black rock makes it too hot for most plants. The dolerite is harder than the sandstone so it is left behind when the other rock erodes away.

    The gorge has a few swimming pools and you can walk quite a way up to its source. All up a good morning’s activity.

    After lunch we then went a couple of kilometres in the other direction from the homestead to the Barker River for a very refreshing swim. They tell us there may be a couple of freshwater crocks in the Barker but they are harmless (hope they know that!). Anyway we didn’t see any so no dramas.

    The evening’s dinner was very special. Our tour guide Phil was banging on all day about us going out for dinner and that we had to get dressed up - dunno how we were going to go anywhere it is 50kms over very rough road just to get to the front gate of the homestead. Anyway we hopped on the bus and it took us to the top of a nearby hill where they had a table with lanterns and a bbq. The chef here is excellent and it was a really nice dinner and desert as the sun went down. A very memorable evening.
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