Four days across the outback
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2008
1
68
104
Trip End
Feb 26, 2010
Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia, Australia
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The towns we stopped at on our way, Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing were true outback, mostly aboriginal towns, with only a roadhouse, shop, campsite and a few houses
Geikie Gorge
. The towns appeared to have many indigenous people who were sitting around not doing much. Both towns have strict alcohol restrictions in place due to the frequent drink related crime and violence and Stuart was dismayed to find the only beer we could get was horrendously expensive and low alcohol! As we travelled through, we also observed evidence of arson in the form of burnt out buildings and cars. Sadly, we weren’t really surprised by this given the lack of opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Many people we met seemed to have their own opinion on both why the problems in these communities exist and how we should go about solving them, ranging from the insightful to the ignorant. We can’t really draw any conclusions yet as we don’t feel we know enough about the people or their situation.Changing the subject, we had planned to take a detour just before Halls Creek to find some quiet swimming holes but the road quickly became corrugated and for Horace’s sake we abandoned it in favour of a campsite with a pool. The star attraction at Fitzroy Crossing was the magnificent Geikie Gorge, amusingly named after an English geologist who never visited Australia. To see it, we took a boat tour with one of the park rangers. The ranger in question described (at roughly a thousand words a minute) everything about the local wildlife and how the gorge had formed which was really interesting although Rachel drifted off a couple of times – could have been the 46 degree heat and lack of shade though
The most popular spot in Fitzroy Crossing
! In summary, the gorge is made from ancient coral from the time when the Kimberley was an inland sea hosting the Devonian Reef, leaving a steep sided gorge through which a river runs, flooding every year in the Wet.Wanting to see more of this ancient reef system, we decided we would also visit Windjana Gorge, 80Km to the north of Fitzroy Crossing. It emerged during our interrogation of the tourist office that the short-cut track was only passable by four wheel drive and that to see the Gorge, we would have to make a 300Km loop first North on the highway to Derby, then East along the hallowed (and mostly unsealed) Gibb River Road. So drive to Derby we did (and waved hello to Lucy while we were there). We stocked up in case of an emergency and set out down the Gibb River Road. It was actually pretty plain sailing for the most part (even the unsealed sections were well graded and could be taken at speed), the only trouble appearing once we had turned off for the Gorge. Here the road was the textbook definition of corrugation and we endured a painfully slow (we averaged 20Km/Hr) and bumpy ride all the way to the campsite, worrying all the time that the doors would fall off and being ridiculed by the drivers of rented four by fours hooning past us.
Once there, of course, we realised it had all been worth it
A quick stop in the middle of nowhere
. The campsite was stunning and secluded with the Gorge as a backdrop. We went for a walk through the Gorge, which took us through the winding gorge and each turn revealed a different aspect of the rocks which were fascinating. It should have been peaceful were it not for the crowds of cockatoos and arguing bats. We couldn’t get in the water either as it was full of crocs (freshies by the look of them). As we started to think about turning back, we heard thunder and a few spots of rain started to fall around (exciting as this was the first rain we’d seen since Darwin) and we legged it back to our van expecting a monsoonal downpour. The storm passed as quickly as it had appeared, however, with no real downpour. We celebrated with a few games of Frisbee and the last of our beer supply as we watched the bats circle around our pitch.The next morning we set off down the gorge again. This time we successfully made it a bit further, although Stuart was pooed upon by the bats (retaliation for his comment about them being mammals pretending to be birds no doubt). The bats smelt really bad and swooped at us as we ran under their trees – they are now officially Rachel’s least favourite animal which says a lot in this country of crocs, sharks, jellyfish etc! We took some nice pictures and set off soon after returning, thanking the van when it managed to get us back to Derby in one piece!
