Sunday 19 August - Up at around six this morning – we’re getting worse!  But we broke all records and left the park just before 8 o’clock!!!  Again the trip was fairly uneventful – which of course is good.  However I did miss out on getting some really good photo/camcorder shots of eagles eating from the road.  One only took off a few seconds before we were on top of it and I would have got a great shot if I had been ready.

We stopped for a cuppa at about 11 o’clock at one of the roadside stops which are very frequent here in W.A. and very well signposted.  In some cases they are only 5 – 10 km apart, and the ones where you are welcome to spend the night are marked ’24 hour parking’.  As today’s drive was only about 289 km we were here by midday and set up in good time.  We had some lunch then sat and relaxed for a bit before going on a drive around Fitzroy Crossing.  It only has half a dozen streets and I got lost!!

We then drove the twenty km to Geike Gorge where we did a 4.4 km walk through the gorge, returning via the banks of the Fitzroy River.  It is a beautiful river, lovely and wide, and must be a sight to see in the ‘wet’ when the flow is so great.  The walk was pretty flat, but as a good two-thirds of it was in deep sand, it was hard going.  The cliffs of the gorge are partially sandstone, so while the gorge is not as high as some, therefore not as spectacular, the colours in the rocks were really lovely, especially one area of really orange rock.

Once we had done the walk we headed back into town, taking a turn off a few kilometres before we reached the metropolis of Fitzroy Crossing to check out the old site of the town and the original Fitzroy Crossing – a low level concrete road across the river.  The few houses in the old town were very evidently aborigines homes, and an information billboard there revealed that they were part of a project to provide housing for the indigenous community.

We were no sooner back at the van, and Grant had gone across to the toilet when I heard “Hello” at the door.  Now when we arrived at the camp at midday, we noticed an elderly aboriginal man sitting up near the camp kitchen, and he appeared to be carving something.  Well there he was at the door, offering to sell me his piece of work.  He had carved a design on a boab nut (almost as big as an emu egg) showing kangaroos, etc.  He told me he had done it at lunchtime.  It wasn’t too bad, but I really didn’t want it, and by now Grant had come back, so I passed the decision making buck to him, and he politely declined.

So now tea is over, the night is still very warm, and I think I’ll have an early night as my eyes are a bit tired tonight.  Tomorrow we will move on to Derby where Grant can have his blood checked, and we will probably have a couple of days there.