2006/07 Australia trip - Gregory Tree |
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We needed to find another campground, one we could drive to, so we went back to the Victoria Highway, through the small town of Timber Creek, and on to the Big Horse Creek campground. This is at the junction of the creek with the Victoria River, now greatly enlarged by other tributaries and as large as the Twin Cities’ Mississippi. The campground was nearly full but we can fit in the smallest spots. We had time for a couple of beers before the sun set over the river.
Saturday July 1st
It amazes me how these people can sleep. We’re almost always the last camp site to turn out its lights, yet when I get up there’s
no sign of life. The reward that morning was a glowing sunrise.
We drove a short way to the Gregory Tree. This is an ancient boab on the south bank of the Victoria River, where Augustus Gregory’s expedition was based. Gregory was a rare commodity, a successful explorer. He sailed two ships from Brisbane up the Victoria, established a base camp on the river bank, and explored much of northern Australia, and even kept his men alive. He and his party carved the date and their names on the boab tree and the park now celebrates this historic act of vandalism and threatens to prosecute anyone who emulates the original act.
The scenery west of there is mainly flat, the flood plain of the Victoria River, with great cliffs on both horizons, giving a clue to how massive the river has been in the past.