8TH JUNE 2013 – KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Two nights out from Derby spent in freebies again, the first very large & had about 50 vans there, all parked on lovely hard surfaces. The second right on top of cliffs & what a beautiful view we all had, overlooking a small valley & out to the distant ranges blue in the distance. It was a little breezy which was a distinct advantage as we are now back in to higher temperatures & don’t expect them to go down from here on in. Between the two we visited Fitzroy Crossing, a small town with a population of about 1500, mostly aboriginal, & situated on the Fitzroy River. It has a visitors’ centre (not open because it was Sunday) which also contains the shire offices & the library, & also a supermarket, a caravan park, a Post Office, an Inn (1897), a police station, & a roadhouse. The supermarket, Roadhouse & Inn are run by the Aboriginal Community. The average temperature is 35.7C with a minimum of 19.2. The Fitzroy Valley contains some of the best cattle lands in the Kimberley.

Geikie Gorge

  20kms out of the town is the Geikie Gorge which we visit & take a one hour boat excursion on the Fitzroy River. The cliffs are magnificent & are what was once a Devonian reef so it is possible to find marine fossils in the rock faces which are full of colours & textures. Freshwater crocs inhabit the river & although we saw quite a lot of very small ones, I am sure some of the mamas & papas were around somewhere. A very wellspoken & well educated young Aboriginal woman was both pilot of our boat & commentator & we were all very impressed. Our tour started at 9.30am & it was delightful being out on the water but we were glad not to be doing a later tour as the temperature was rising quite quickly.

Spot the Croc

 

Colourul Cliffs

 

The third night & another very large freebie at Mary Pool, over a causeway to a lovely treeshaded area beside the Mary River. We were lucky to be there early & gain a possie looking over the water. It wasn’t long before it all became quite busy & we met up with people from previous stops. We are all so much ‘on the same page’ with our ages & situations in common so it isn’t hard to find a topic of conversation. In conversation with a nice couple we mentioned that we were intending to sell our van before returning to NZ, & much to our surprise they showed an interest. Later in the day they came to inspect it & seemed quite impressed, & as we are heading to the same place next we will have further contact with them. They went away armed with information about it so here’s hoping, though naturally we are not getting too excited yet. Between conversations our time was spent reading in the shade, or in my case chasing small birds trying to get photos in order to identify them. Some of them are so small it’s almost impossible. When driving we see quite large flocks of tiny ones & they are too quick to identify but I would guess they may be finches as I know they have quite a few of those in this area.

Red Dragonfly

 

 

Heading on now we reach Halls Creek, larger than Fitzroy Crossing & again a large population of aborigines.  Temperature was 27deg at 8.30am.  It's a pleasant enough place & we laughed about the large IGA store there was very well stocked & owned by Asians - just like NZ.  Fuel is now $1.84.

Further along the landscape was really nice, with orangy coloured grasses by the road & lots of trees & distant ranges & intermittent rock formations.  By 10am temperature rose to 30deg .  After a two hour drive from Hall's Creek we find our next overnighter called Spring Creek & we were lucky to get there early enough to get shade.  We meet up again with the couple interested in the van & sadly they had realised it wouldn't fit in the space back home.  We all agreed to drive out to the Bungle Bungles next day & leave our vans behind in the care of other vanners as the road out there is far too rough for towing.