FITZROY CROSSING: Sunday 4 August 2013

Today was a beautiful riding experience, with temperature topping 28 degrees. The scenery changed subtly with different shades of green, and some of the trees blooming with flowers. We arrived in the little town of Fitzroy Crossing at 1.30pm, having stopped halfway there for fuel and a bite to eat at the very tidy and organised Willare Roadhouse. Here we had been the centre of attention for a busload of elderly tourists calling themselves the Young at Heart Tour. They were from Victoria, and you could tell they were on a nice clean air conditioned bus because they weren't covered in fine red dust, as we were. We stayed at a lovely oasis, so unexpected in this part of the outback Kimberley. The Fitzroy Lodge, with an excellent camp kitchen and very nice ablutions. We met so many tourists from around the world at the camp kitchen, mostly Germans, Italians, and some from the Netherlands. And this oasis was so much cheaper than staying in Broome.

We booked ourselves in for a $60 each tour of Geikie Gorge, soon to be renamed "Darnghu" (Darn-goo) as this is the local Aboriginal name for this sacred place. The tour lasted for 3 hours, and we were driven around various sites of Fitzroy Crossing area, then down to a pontoon on the mighty Fitzroy River, where we tourists were all packed like sardines onto the little pontoon. I hadn't realised that this is an area of ancient inland sea which used to be like the present Great Barrier Reef. Geikie Gorge is now lined with ancient limestone cliffs called Devonian reefs, which continue for almost 200km, I think. Lots of cute little freshwater crocodiles were sunning themselves on the banks of the river, or swimming near the shore. Birds looked at us as we chugged along, and we saw one turtle, plus two water goannas.

A local Indigenous woman from the Bunuba people was the pontoon driver and commentator; she told us great stories, some of them joking but then we got the truth. If she said "True story!" we believed her! The bus tour around the town site of Fitzroy was interesting; as there are very new looking homes built and well looked after by the locals. The school is modern looking and there is a no alcohol policy between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. You cannot buy any takeaway alcohol. Luckily we had 2 bottles of red wine to share over the 2 nights we were there.

This evening we packed up so we could be ready for an early start to Halls Creek tomorrow.

Mrs Intrepid.