Day 61. Fitzroy Crossing - Geikie Gorge National Park. 11/07/2015

Sunny start to the morning after a couple of days that have been cloudy. A relaxing morning after farewelling our fellow travellers as they left a day earlier than us for Derby. I was fascinated to find Sue working on her hobby which is Lace Making. She has been doing it for about 20 years and I must say her work is amazing.  It is a dying craft although there has been a resurgence in interest in the past few years and her club is expanding with new, younger members so that is good.

Early afternoon saw us leave camp to drive to the old Fitzroy  River Crossing which is a concrete bridge that was built in 1935 and was part of the old township but now the township and the bridge have been replaced. As instructed by our dear friend Chris, we took a photo and a video of us crossing the causeway but the water was not flowing over because it is the dry season. It would be a very interesting area in the wet season when the river can rise up some 13 meters above the level we saw it today.   

We then continued on to the Geikie National Park to book our seats for the 4 p.m. cruise up the Geikie Gorge. We cruised on a flat bottomed barge that seated about 80 people. The cruise was lovely, lasted for an hour, and we saw quite different scenery to all the other Gorges we have seen. The limestone escarpments were multi coloured with interesting shapes and textures but were not the towering cliffs we have seen before. The vegetation was a mixture of mangroves, pandanus palms, wild passionfruit bushes, some paperbark gums and other plants and trees. We did spot several small freshwater crocs sunning themselves at the waters edge, a couple of wallabies coming down off the surrounding river flats to drink, but sadly not much birdlife, only some Fairy Martins, that are obviously in the Swallow family.

John washed the car on our return and did some packing for our trip to Derby.

An historic old outback Road.

In second gear down the bank.

Built in 1935 and still standing.

Water was not too far from the roadway.

Historical importance to the Aboriginals.

80 grey nomads on the barge.

Sue and Wendy had front row seats.

The cliffs in full sunlight.

The high watermark clearly shows on the washed limestone cliffs.

A beautiful and peaceful place.

Some interesting outcrops.

These were very interesting areas of worn limestone.

Sunset ia approaching and the colours change.