Tuesday 25th June 2013 – Fitzroy Crossing

Set off the Geikie Gorge for the first tour of the day at 8am.  We figured it would be cooler and their might be more birds around.  The tour (operated by DEC – Department of Environment and Conservation) was in a 60 seat flat bottomed boat and took about an hour.  The guide/driver was very good, giving us lots of information about the river, animals etc without being too scientific.  Interesting that the Fitzroy River while being not the longest river in Australia at 700km, carries the greatest volume of water.  If you drained Sydney Harbour and connected the Fitzroy it would fill it in 8 to 10 hours.  Presumably this is when it has lots of water in it in the wet.  It’s a pretty slow old river today.  Amazing rock once again.  Geikie Gorge, along with Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek are part of a Devonian Great Barrier Reef resulting in Limestone outcrops of all manner of shape and colour.  Saw our first freshwater crocodile of the trip along with a night heron and various other water birds. 

Drove back to camp via the old crossing on the Fitzroy River.  Any sort of flood would have cut the road when this was the only crossing on the river.  A late breakfast of bacon and eggs and coffee then spent most of the day writing postcards, catching up on the blog, reading etc.  Went to town to post the postcards and fuel up.  Then back to the Lodge for afternoon drinks at the bar.

For dinner we’d planned sausages on the park’s barbecue (with potatoes and salad).  We put in our dollar but nothing happened so out came the fry pans on the camp stoves.  Lucas, who we’d met at Karijini, came along for a chat while we were playing cards.  He’s travelling in the same direction with his wife and three boys in a huge van.  May see him again along the way.