Swimming with Water Monitors.....Bell Gorge, the Kimberleys

The kids and Scott dipped into the beautiful Bell Gorge for their first Kimberley swim. I watched taking photo's as they made their way across to the other side. Next thing I see Scott looking at the head of something pop out of the water about a metre away from them. Just as he's saying "What's that?" it goes under, they all start picking up the pace and the 3 of them including the mystery creature beached on the same rock. Turns out it was a harmless water monitor Lizard. It had obviously just been fishing and proceeded to crunch on a crab right in front of them all.

The Silent Grove campground is the base to explore the much talked about Bell Gorge. The drive in was interesting with two deep water crossings up and over the running boards. We set up camp in the "Generator" area as opposed to the "Quiet" area as we've found often the generator areas are less crowded.  We drove right down the end and found a huge space with a fire pit and table, and had the whole section to ourselves....oh apart from the very large Monitor Lizard!

The campground is an 11km drive to the car park of the Bell Gorge walk.  The walk to the top of the falls only took about 20mins.  The first part down to the creek is exposed and pretty hot but then you enter the shade of the pandanus lined creek until you come out at the top of the falls.  This is a lovely spot with a small pool to swim in and some little rapids.


To get to the bottom of the falls we crossed over the top and up over the rocky hill and down the other side. 

When we finally saw the falls and the large inviting pool it was spectacular. We spent 3 hours  there the first day and  the whole day swimming, exploring the lower pools and jumping off the rock the next day. At one stage we had the whole place to ourselves.

dare devils

Ben with the water monitor and him and a friend spent hours catching frogs in the "frog hole" 

              Hannah and Scott going under the fall         

               Scott found a nice rock armchair                        There she goes again!!

                          at the top of the falls                                         Our Silent Grove Camps site

                                             Hannah and I making chicken skewers for dinner

                            Ben doing chores                                     Yummy camp oven Apple Crumble
Bell Gorge was great.  We feel so refreshed and clean after all our swimming.  Next stop Mornington Wilderness camp!