Fitzroy River Lodge

Before checking in we have to stock up on dinner and other supplies. We were told that Fitzroy is reasonably big and you can get most stuff there. Umm, no!

Walking into the “mall” (it contains IGA supermarket, post office, Corrections, Centrelink, Renal treatment) a lot of aboriginal locals were hanging around outside. They do not speak to you, or even acknowledge you, but it feels wrong. I cannot explain it, seeing them all sitting outside, on street corners, under trees. Nowhere to go, nothing to do.

Staff at the lodge and the supermarket are all white, and mostly foreign travellers, I don’t know what to think about that. So I will leave it there.

There is one supermarket, IGA, the bread is all pre frozen “for our convenience”. Most of you know I am a bread snob, bread can only be made into toast after it has been frozen. We needed lunch bread. I asked the lovely Spanish girl at the counter if there was a bakery in the area. She laughed, actually snorted and laughed. I took that as a no.

There was a selection of everything, so that was great. But no alcohol. This is a dry community, no alcohol sold anywhere – of course I was prepared and we were well stocked up, so it was not an issue for us.

Alcohol is such an issue for many communities that you cannot buy it at any outlets in the area, with the exception of tourist resorts etc.

We took our supplies and headed to Fitzroy River Lodge – our accommodation for the night J It is huge, there is a restaurant, bar (not so dry after all), and their own petrol pumps!

Our spot is very nice, shaded and close to the toilet. Because this lady is old and needs to go to the toilet in the middle of night, sad but true. We have a few neighbours around us and the camp ground is quite busy.

About 100 meters away is the cliff down to the mighty Fitzroy River, it is not very mighty at the moment. Even for this time of year the locals are telling us how dry the wet season was, so they are not off to a good start.

Despite the river being right at our doorstop, we did not see any crocodiles lazing about. We did see loads of wallabies though, not fussed about the people or the cars, just hanging out and eating. Very cute. This is what we expect from Australia. Cute wallabies, kangaroos, and koalas!

We set up in record time, and sit down for cheese, crackers, and a cold beverage (there is a trend forming here). Jason whips up a beautiful meal on the small cooker – damn pleased I locked that man into a contract when I had the chance. We continue to watch the world go by and enjoy the warm evening.

Occasionally the police drive past, doing regular patrols, we have been told not to leave anything out at night, so we pack up early and into bed. Probably too early. I was awake by 330am! Even after few toilet stops and midnight wallaby spotting J

Packing up the next day was super easy, we really have the hang of this now. Good thing really as we had it all packed up when we realised the key for the truck was still in the tent. SIGH.

That only delayed us by 20 minutes, but felt a little silly. Still time for a cooked breakfast though – priorities people!

Geikie Gorge

We had a river cruise booked first thing in the morning. Danggu Geikie Gorge has been carved by the Fitzroy River through part of an ancient limestone barrier reef which snakes across the west Kimberley. All linking back to the Devonian times that I mentioned before, all popped up around some 350 million years ago.

It’s my turn to drive, so now I am in charge, and get to take the reigns of Keem for the first time. Needless to say we got along famously.

So, the Geikie Gorge is part of the Fitzroy River, during the wet season the river can rise up to 13 metres and flow at 30.000 cubic metres per second. That is just nuts!

The Fitzroy in full flood is one of the largest rivers in the world. Hard to believe when you see it as dry as we did.

Thankfully today, it is quite calm and not a cloud in the sky.

The tour was very quiet too, with only 9 passengers, plenty of room and we all got an excellent view. We travelled up river whilst our guide talked about the history and the rock formations.

In 2011 the gorge flooded to its highest level and you can see where trees and other debris were stuck in places that trees would not normally be. At the meeting point they put signs on the walls and ceiling to give an indication of how far underwater we would have been. The ceiling was 4 meters above Jason and the water was four meters above the ceiling.

As we toured along the river we were all on the lookout for crocodiles, first sighting turned out to be a kangaroo, guess they can’t swim, oops…

The second sighting was the less commonly talked about but more frequently found logadile. That got everyone excited for a bit, it was quite convincing.

Third time’s the charm, we found our crocodile sun baking on a rock. Looking very relaxed and not very large. Success! Lots of photos were taken but he didn’t seem to give a damn.

We also saw quite a few agile wallabies. They have black stripes that go from their nose to their eyes, kind of like war paint J very cute, there was also a little bit of bird life, which always makes Jason’s day.

The tour lasted an hour, when we got back to the jetty we decided we would do the walk, it was only 5km return and an opportunity to see the same things from a different angle, and also work off some of the booze and cheese we have consumed over our journey so far.

The track was predominantly sand, did not count on that, bloody horrible stuff to walk on! That slowed us down a little, and the sun was baking us. When we got to the end of the trail I made the call to walk back along river edge, apparently you can see more crocodiles and other wildlife that way.

I know, what could go wrong!

We saw the Rainbow Bee Eater which was very cool and we got to see the logadile up close. Other than that, quiet, hot, sandy and we made it back to Keem in one piece. It was not even midday but this stage, we had loads of time before our next tour which was only 90kms away.

Back to Fitzroy River Lodge to have lunch and do our washing – no matter how far and how fast you drive, washing and dishes still catch up with ya. Bastards.