Geikie Gorge

Thursday, after a drizzly night, we spent the day at Geikie Gorge. It is the only gorge on our itinerary with a sealed road into it, so we are in the right place at the right time. All of the unsealed roads in the Kimberleys are closed due to the unseasonal rain. We just heard on the ABC, that 140 guests are stuck at El Questro due to the road closure. It was very fortunate that we did the Gibb River Road during the week it was so dry. We're picturing what those people at El Questro are doing. If you were at our private site "Wren", you couldn't leave it - there are two river crossings just to get back to the resort. To walk the gorges themselves require river crossings which would be impassable on the access tracks, and impossible to cross on the walking trails.

Today was overcast and cool, a refreshing change, and it did not rain, answering our prayers. We hope the rain has gone away altogether. This arvo, there are patches of blue sky showing. The locals are complaining about how cold it is - Kununurra radio this morning said it is like a Russian winter!

The gorge is 18km out of Fitzroy Crossing and was really beautiful, different to all the other gorges we have seen. We did a barge trip on the river, the Fitzroy, and then had a walk along its bank. The gorge is flanked by a reef from the Devonian Period when this was a seashore, and runs 1000km to the sea. On the bank we found shells and fresh water mussels, it was just like a beach. We saw some fresh water crocs, some rock wallabies, lots of birds, and were delighted to see 6 brolgas on the drive in and out, which elicited a chorus of "out on the plains the brolgas are dancing".

We have given up hope of being able to drive into the Bungle Bungles (would have been day after tomorrow). The river crossing on the road in is reported to be really difficult at the best of times and it will now be impossible. Anyway, the road is officially closed. Probably people are stuck in there too, although that hasn't been on the news.

Tonight, we are in the no frills caravan park again, but it is the most grassy under foot of all we have stayed at, which is nice in this damp weather. The town of Fitzroy Crossing is making us despair, we saw 10 children this morning going into the shop to buy sweets. They should have been in school.