Across the Kimberley Part 6 - The Drysdale River and Aboriginal Rock Art

I seem to have a gap in the photos stored on my laptop, both in their dates and context. According to my notes, after our last night at the Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge, we travelled through Kimberley cattle country to Galvans Gorge and Barnett River Gorge, then headed for the Drysdale River Station. It was great to stay on a working cattle station that was set up to cater for visitors. The staff and owners were most friendly, as Chappy  knew them well and had worked for them during a break to help set up the accommodation. In fact, after our tour he left APT for a full-time job at the station. A great gain for them but a huge loss for APT! I have met other APT tour guides since then -  none could measure up to our Chappy! I an not sure what happened to my photos of the station. They may be stored elsewhere. 

I believe that the photos of a river environment shown below are actually of the Drysdale River, as I remember how picturesque it was. 

The next day we drove on the Mitchell Plateau and visited some stunning Aboriginal Wandjina and Gwion Gwion rock art galleries. There are two very different styles of painting found in the Kimberley, which we also saw on the islands on our Kimberley cruise. Gwion Gwion rock art (also known as Bradshaw rock art after the pastoralist who first discovered the paintings) consists of images that are basically stick figures, which are shown wearing various accessories, such as pouches. Wandjina rock art looks more ghost-like, as it depicts various spirits or gods. They have no mouth, as it was believed that water would pour out from their mouth continuously if it was shown. 

It was just awe-inspiring standing there looking at the beautiful, yet simple images, left on such richly coloured rock tens of thousands of years ago. I tried to imagine the people gathered there with their ochre and white and yellow clay telling their stories, telling of what they could see or what they believed through the images they created, no doubt chatting away to each other as they did so. This was a most memorable, fascinating, moving experience. I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to see these ancient rock galleries.

I have included quite a few photos of the rock art and surrounding area. 

Looking through the crystal-clear water.

You can see our bus in the background. 

See the tree roots wending their way through the rocks.

Standing further back from some of the rocks. You can see the paintings on the lower parts.

Standing with my back to the rocks looking at a large termite mounds. These came in all kinds of shapes and sizes. 

A solitary tree and its roots.