Day 202 | near Gregory’s Boab turnoff: camping on a small track 300m off the main road

85 km | Heading west total: 9,092 km

These boab’s are an enigma to me.

They are introduced to Australia from Africa but not that recently: there’s a 1500 year old one near Wyndham. This particular one is down a dirt road adjacent to the Victoria River.

Augustus Charles Gregory was the leader of an exploration party who spent 9 months based near this particular specimen when he camped here in 1855-6. Once he had found out there were fertile plains in the region but no evidence from his further forays into the Kimberleys that there was any inland sea he hiked it back to Brisbane. His ship had given up on him and departed back to civilisation.

It’s one of the great forgotten stories of Australian exploration.