2006/07 Australia trip - Geikie Gorge |
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The main road west goes through very little but flat desert. There is one burst of scenery at Ngumban Cliff where the desert drops a few hundred feet, but that’s about it. With the fields of yellow grass it resembles the North American prairie, until you seen the termite mounds. In some areas these are the tallest features to be seen, even though they too are different in this area: rounded blobs about six feet high.
Fitzroy Crossing is, as you might guess, where the road crosses the Fitzroy River, a very large waterway, but now almost dry, with just a couple of channels with running water. We stayed at Fitzroy River Lodge, a combined motel, bar, and campground. As this was the final day of the local rodeo and the beginning of Western Australia’s winter school holidays, the place was humming, our first really busy spot since Katherine.
The evening was warmer than the last few, but the night was cold, as is usual in desert areas.
Monday July 10th
West of the Fitzroy River, the scenery is dominated by the Devonian Reef, a gigantic limestone formation created millions of years ago and now standing proud of the desert. There are a number of parks along the reef: Geikie Gorge, Tunnel Creek, and Windjana Gorge. Our reason for stopping at Fitzroy Crossing was the nearby Geikie Gorge national park. The park is quite small, just protecting the gorge, and it has no campground. It was a short drive to the park. The Fitzroy River flows through the gorge in the wet season, and in the dry season a downstream sandbar keeps water in the gorge even after the Fitzroy has stopped flowing.
We walked as far as we could along the river bank between the cliffs of Geike Gorge. The rock is limestoneand like the rock in Gregory it has been eroded by rain into rillenkarren, strange pointed shapes and caves and fissures. It was a pretty walk, but tough going plodding through sand in the heat.
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Geikie Gorge walk (1.19) |
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I tried to get down to the sandbar but was defeated by great piles of trees and some very dense vegetation. The ranger told us later that most of that vegetation had come from South America. It is hard to get rid of as none of the local animals eat it. Despite this, the forest is home to colourful Australian bugs, and I’ve pictured some of these in the composite to the left.
We took the boat trip up the gorge in the afternoon, much easier on the feet! The trip was much better than
we’d expected. As well as telling us about the gorge and its limestone and its history dating back to the Devonian Reef, the ranger took us in close to look at the birds and crocodiles. These crocs were “freshies”, ferocious looking, but mostly harmless to humans. If you see a picture of dozens of wild crocs in closeproximity they are almost certainly freshies. They aren’t territorial like the salties, so they won’t attack just because you are in their territory, and humans are too big for them to eat, so they leave us alone. However, 
anyone swimming in the river needs to watch out for bull sharks and sting rays. These come up river during the wet season and then get stuck in the gorge until the next Wet.
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Geikie Gorge boat (8.44) |
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The boat took us into the gorge, past the point where our hike ended. The gorge walls are colourful and deeply eroded into ravines and caves. The still water gave us some exquisite and dazzling reflections. We also saw this darter zooming along the gorge, just above the water.
The resort has an Internet connection and we picked up some photos of Graeme and Evan sent by Stewart. All seemed to be going well there if life was a little hectic!
Tuesday July 11th
Fitzroy Crossing was a lot quieter now that the rodeo was over. It was actually not a bad place to stay, and we appreciated the 
showers and the chance to fill all our water containers and tanks with good tasty water. The expanse of grass and the river area brought dozens of birds in to visit: peewees and ibis on the grass, gangs of corellas and galahs and black cockatoos in the trees, and as always, the kites (hawks) gliding overhead looking for dead tourists.
Next.