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We won't make our destination today, sunset is at 5.30 and there is no fun in driving around here at night. Too many roos on the road. We have an hour to get as far as we can and then we can continue on early tomorrow.
We got as far as the Boab Rest Area about 154 klms from Fitzroy Crossing. Have I told you about the rest areas around here? Back in Victoria where you can reach any part of the state in one day, rest areas are usually a small area, maybe large enough for 5 to 6 cars with a toilet and one or two picnic tables.
In Western Australia (and South Australia) rest areas are huge and usually always crowded with at least 30 cars and caravans, 99% of which are grey nomads (retirees who sell up and spend several years travelling the country in big arsed, state of the art vans) The down side for us is we never get a good position in the areas because we normally pulled in around dusk. The grey nomads have been there since 1pm ...... and they don't leave until 10am the next morning. Yep, that leaves a whole 3 hours per day travelling to the next rest stop and catching any sights along the way. The upside of spending the night with the over 70's is they are all snuggled up in their vans by 6pm so it's peaceful.
Boab Rest area was no different, actually it was probably more crowded than the other stops we had spent the night. The one thing I really don't like about the rest areas are the toilets. You would think I'd be happy not having to dig a hole but you would be wrong. The toilets here are the ones where they build a little hill, dig a hole right down the middle, put a tin shed on top with a thunderbox covering the hole. Yuk.....
It's about now I could say they scare the shit out of me but no ..... they scare me so much nothing comes out :) Anything could be down that hole, I don't know what sort of creature would want to live in such a hole and I don't really want to know, do you? My imagination runs overtime when it comes to these dunnies. Whatever lives down there is slimey, slithers, bites, sucks blood and has huge hands. No siree ..... I'll dig my own hole thank you.
We pulled in around 7pm, didn't even bother to eat dinner, just climbed into bed and fell straight to sleep and woke 10 minutes later at 5am. (it felt like 10 minutes)
Fitzroy Crossing is a nice place. It is primarily an Aboriginal settlement and is larger than most due to the tourist trade. It is situated on the sealed road taken from Northern Territory to Broome and sits on the banks of the Fitzroy River (hence the name) Once upon a time not so long ago there was no bridge and crossing the river was a seasonal thing but not anymore.
We stayed in town for 2 hours and never left the information centre. The staff were lovely ladies who were up for a chat. One in particular, Jolene, was Aboriginal and she spent over an hour talking about her life and beliefs. She was so open we sat fascinated and could have stayed longer.
The original crossing is still intact so we checked it out as well as visiting Mr Sawfish, a glass blower. Really beautiful work and a man who also likes a chat.
We left Fitzroy Crossing an hour later and around $400 poorer. We were heading for an Aboriginal guided tour of Geiki Gorge and totally excited at the prospect of learning more of the Aboriginal culture.
Have you ever experience anything so bad that it's actually really good? Geiki Gorge itself is amazing. Nature at it's finest with majestic orange and white cliffs and calm crystal blue water, it was our guide who failed us in every way possible. Firstly, we doubted he was Aboriginal at all, he certainly didn't have the look or the voice but hey, who are we to question his heritage? (we discovered later, courtesy of Mart's sister, that he was married to an Aboriginal woman and he was as anglo-saxon as I am)
His attitude was wonderfully unique, a tourist guide who was obnoxious, rude and downright nasty. There were 6 of us in the group and within minutes we were all looking at each other with bewildered faces and wondering which of us will be voted to be the one who drives a knife through this guy's heart. We were all comfortable with the silent knowledge that whoever did the deed he would have the protection of the rest of the group.
He gave us a 15 minute lecture about Aboriginal marriages, before we walked down to the water to board the boat. He also pointed out that he had told the people at the information centre that he had the flu and he was not in the mood to take a tour out but they never listen to him ........ great, only 1 hour, 45 minutes to go.
Because he had a cold or flu or ebola or whatever he spent the whole trip there and back making that horrible noise men make when they want to spit ..... and then spitting into the river. Lovely. This is where the whole 'its so bad, it's good' kicked in. After about the 10th spit I started to giggle. Martin started to chuckle. The others in the group started to snicker and before we knew it we were actually enjoying ourselves. When he made snide remarks there would be secret looks amoungst ourselves and secret smiles.
We weren't allowed to ask questions, He would snap "I'll get to that!" or "well, if you wait a minute" and each time Mart would respond cheerily "I'm sorry!"......
More secret giggles.
Our guide took us to his private camp area for "real" bush tucker. Lipton tea boiled in a rusty billy and stale Arnotts biscuits. Witchety grubs sounded more appetizing. I didn't partake. Infact I had tuned this guy out 15 minutes ago and I couldn't tell you what he said or did for the rest of the tour. I just enjoyed the view. The Kimberly's never stops surprising you. When you think you have seen the most beautiful landscape ever, like never ever in the history of the world has there been a more wondrous sight, you turn a corner and BAM you find something even more beautiful.
Geiki Gorge is one of these places.
We made it back to the set off point without throwing the guide overboard and set off to our next destination. Tunnel Creek.
The road was one of the worst we had traveled so far. But we had two new tyres and a gold encrusted air compressor so we just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
Tunnel Creek is hmmmmmmm..... not for the faint hearted like me. Had I known what was in store I would have stayed in my car, so I'm glad I didn't know what was in store because it was fun. Scary, but fun.
The walk is through a cave, so it's dark, like total blackness. It's also filled with water. Can you see me walking through a black cave in thigh deep water? Yeah, no, me either. But I did it. Freshwater Crocs are known to be found in the cave but I was so freaked out by the whole blackness I didn't have enough freaked out left to worry about crocs.
Half way through the tunnel the roof has broken away in places and allows light through. Just stunning.
And when we emerged at the other end we were stunned at how large the cave is.
Another must see in the Kimberlys. Just remember to bring a good strong torch.
