August 2 ... Fitzroy Crossing

We enjoyed a lovely lazy day today. First thing this morning we walked to the long, single lane road bridge that crosses the Fitzroy River to have a good look at the water and spot crocodiles, but none were on view again today. Then we went into town to do a few jobs and we visited the Sawfish Glass Gallery. I have seen a lot of decorative glass before but this work was stunning and really different. It was expensive but I settled on some beautiful blue glass earrings... for only $60 !

Nice Earrings!

From here we drove out and had a look at The Crossing Inn, the oldest pub in the Kimberly. It is situated out of town near the original crossing over the river. It was very well kept with green park areas, but it seemed to be a meeting place for many of the local indigenous people, and it was way too early for a drink anyway, so we continued on to the gorge.

Geike Gorge

The start of the gorge

Geike Gorge is about 20kms out of town on a sealed road. At first we were a little disappointed because the walking tracks were pretty unexciting, it was really hot, and we had to trudge through soft deep sand. There were no proper views of the gorge and so we waited for the 3pm tour, as did 125 other people, but it was not a problem as we were all comfortably accommodated in the barges. We felt that our $28 was very well spent. The river was calm and wide, there were dozens of Johnson crocodiles along its bank, and the gorge itself was spectacular.

The gorge cliff face

The mighty Fitzroy River

Geike Gorge has been created by the Fitzroy River during its many floods over countless years. The rocks are part of an old reef essentially made from algae that built up during the Devonian Period, way before reptiles and mammals. This reef was more than 2kms thick in places before it was eroded to what we see today. The white line is actually the flood high water mark, but in recent years the water has gone much higher than this.

Crocodylus Johnstoni

Geiki Cliffs

The last massive flood here was in March 2011. In the wet season, the Fitzroy can be as wide as 30kms, but this year it seemed to spread out across the whole landscape. The town of Fitzroy Crossing was completely isolated for many weeks. While the photos look exciting, I think it would have been quite a challenging time.

We were a bit surprised by our first encounter with crocodiles on this trip as they were so small. Most were around 1metre but a few were bigger. At least they are just fresh water crocs and not the nasty ones. These seemed quite shy and people were asked not to swim so as not to upset them!

Freshwater Croc

Johnson Crocodile

Following our cruise we were driving back into town when I spotted two huge blue/grey brolgas. They looked beautiful but, by the time we had decreased speed and turned around, they had wandered further away and into the longer grass. But what a great end to a very pleasant day.

Brolga