There is a beautiful place up in the top end of western australia, called Winjana gorge.

You can only get there by 4 wheel drive, as the roads are too poor. I went there one day, at the end of the day, when the sun was setting.

The earth in that part of the country is a rich orange-red. red dust floats in the air. The sky is vast and blue, and you drive across the open red desert, covered with low green grey plants, to a huge, long cliff of red rock, very tall, very long..

after a long time following this rock, you come to a huge crevice, big enough to walk through. you enter into Winjana Gorge. Through the crevice you walk, and find an oasis - a silver slow river winding through the white sands, slender white young gum trees, with spring green leaves. the pink dust hanging in the air, and the rosy flush of pink across the horizon, colours the tree trunks a pale pink, and the air hangs with the golden sunshine and heat of the day.

and there, lying all along the riverside, sunning themselves in the sand, are dozens of johnson's river crocodiles, a tiny relatively harmless breed of crocodile only 3-4' long.

it is a peaceful, beautiful untouched spot which has probably been like that for hundreds of thousands of years.

freda