Half-lap Day 63 - Fitzroy Crossing

All back in our own beds we slept a lot better, although Caitlin still didn’t feel great in the morning. She was improved on the day before though, and her thumb was feeling slightly better too. Our plan had been to stay the one night and then keep moving towards Broome, possibly checking out Geikie Gorge on the way – but the kids really liked this caravan park, and they were all quite tired (travel days wear us all out more than very active exploring days) so we decided to stay a second night. Another factor was that the Fitzroy Rodeo was on this weekend ‘the most exciting weekend in Fitzroy’ and some of us were quite keen to check it out.

We’d managed to put the tent in the perfect spot so that our table and chairs were in morning shade until after 11. We had a very relaxing and fun morning at the tent, we had breakfast then the kids played with the boy from the tent near us – they played cricket and with some circus equipment he had. Tony and I chatted a bit to his Mum. After they left for to go and explore, Tony, Caitlin, LiAM and I played Euchre, which the kids loved and I didn’t find stressful for the first time ever I think. Millie had just bought a new game on the iPad so she played that or played with her stuffed toys around us.

Once the sun was on us we were ready for a swim. I took the kids over and Tony started organising things for us to go out. The water was cool but refreshing – when Caitlin got in she started shivering again and needed to sit in the sun for a while. She was able to ease back in and swim for a short while, then headed off for a shower. LiAM and Millie and I played tag for a while then got out ourselves. Back at the tent we finished getting ready and set off for Geikie Gorge.

We’d read that this was the most accessible gorge of the Kimberleys. The road out was unsealed for part of the way but easy to drive on. Along to our left we started to see amazing dark grey rocks, like they were in vertical layers but seemingly one piece. They were different to anything we’d seen so far. We had a picnic lunch in the information gazebo at the gorge, and the kids chatted to the ranger about crocodiles and other animals. He gave them a book on identifying Western Australian birds, which helped us identify the nest we’d seen at Big Horse Creek (a bower bird) and some other birds we’d seen around. There was lots of information in the gazebo – a big board listing all the types of fish in the area (interesting to see how some of them differ a bit from their Northern Territory versions), boards showing the history and geography of the area, and markers showing the flood levels of the Fitzroy river in various years. On 2 occasions the flood water had been 2m above the roof of the gazebo! (It was nearly 3m high itself).

We briefly considered doing the boat tour then decided to save our money. We set off on our walk along the gorge. There were more of the dark grey rocks next to us, and we discovered that they used to be part of a coral reef, when this area was a sea. So they were limestone and weathered differently from other rocks. Many of the formations we saw reminded me of things I’d seen in caves, which makes sense because they are usually limestone as well. The other striking feature about this gorge is that the bottom half of the rocks, and of the red cliff on the other side of the river, is white, because the sand carried along in the water during the wet grinds away at the limestone and makes it white.

The white shows the level that the water usually gets too during the wet.

The river flows along the base of that cliff. We were walking on the other side of the river, where there was a large sandy area between the cliffs on our side and the current water level

The first part of the walk was quite difficult as it was all on sand. Millie was tired and I piggy-backed her for a while. Caitlin wasn’t looking well and we considered turning back, but she wanted to keep going so we took it easy. I went ahead with the big kids and Tony and Millie came at a slower pace. There were lots of cool trees to look at and we got occasional glimpses of the river. LiAM was checking out the rocks and plants and got a large number of burrs on his clothes. They were sticking in to him quite painfully. I started to pull them out and had several pierce my skin quite deeply – these were the nastiest prickles I’ve come across, even worse than the ones we used to get in Griffith. These were smaller and softer, but like small porcupines, there was almost no way to grab them without getting spiked, and there was one very long needle like thorn on each one. Eventually we were both free of burrs, by which time Tony and Millie had caught up. We reached the end of the track and had a beautiful view of the river, it was lush and green at this point (although it’s possible that most of the green stuff was weed…).

We had a quick look around at different views of the water and the cliffs, then headed back. LiAM was so keen to check everything out that he got burrs a few more times, not so badly though. Caitlin was getting tired so we were a bit slower on the way back. It was cool to see the rocks and cliffs from a different angle and notice different formations. We also saw a very old boab tree, with lots of leaves still on it, some yellow and some green.

Back at the start of the walk we saw a kangaroo, bigger than any we’ve seen for a while, foraging in the long grass. The kids had an icy pole each from the ranger station, then we set off back into town, having to slow for cows a few times as they wandered across the road in front of us.

We went straight for the rodeo, worried that we’d left it too late and would miss everything. The lady at the gate said that they were nearly finished, just doing the bull riding finals, so we could go in and watch and didn’t need to pay. We wandered over towards the arena and could see kids running around in it so figured we’d missed everything. We went closer so that Caitlin could see the horses in the pens nearby, and heard the announcer still talking – the rodeo itself was still taking place in the next arena, this one was more like a warming up/warming down area, so we excitedly went over there.

The riders for the finals were drawing the names of the horses and bulls that they would ride. We found seats in the stands and soon one of the marshalls came over riding along the fence so that kids could pat his horse. Caitlin was straight over there, and the others followed. He had a tassel off one of the bull riders outfits and asked if anyone wanted it – Caitlin was very thrilled to have a souvenir of the rodeo!

We were there in time to see the saddle bronc finals and the bull riding finals -  2 of the most exciting events. One of the horses in the bronc finals was very hard to catch after he’d thrown his ride and almost ran into the fence right in front of us – very exciting. There were some good rides and some near misses, and the hard-to-catch horse had fallen and rolled over his rider – no serious injuries though (he stood up and ran out of the ring). One guy got stuck on his bull and injured his arm, which was a bit scary to watch. There was a great atmosphere and it was so great to be there for part of something that is so important in this part of Australia. Caitlin looked out for her trail-ride guides as they do rodeo, she thinks she might have spotted one of them from a distance.

Our neighbours from the campground were there so we chatted to them and walked back to our cars together. We looked at the pens of bulls and steers and horses, and had to give way to a 3 trailer road train full of cattle as it left. The kids and I wandered around a bit more to see some of the horses being settled down for the night, including a Shetland. We got very muddy feet getting back to the car.

Back to the campground, where Caitlin and I went to the laundry to wash everyone’s shoes, LiAM and Millie went to our neighbours to play with the boy, and Tony cooked dinner. The man on our other side gave us some cup-a-noodles and soup that he didn’t want anymore. The kids came back and we ate together, then sat outside for ages, LiAM and Millie on my lap while we watched Music.ly videos on Caitlin’s phone, and Tony browsed accommodation options for when we get to Broome. After a while we headed in to bed, feeling very happy that we’d stayed the second day, and read a couple of chapters of Inheritance.

Half-lap Day 56: Kununurra

Millie and I woke early when it was still dark and went over to the toilets. It was 4.50am, which to our body clocks was 6.20, so I didn’t bother trying to get back to sleep. Millie went back in the tent and played on the iPad, I had a cuppa and caught up on the blog.

The campground got busy as the sun rose and it was soon a warm, sunny morning. Tony cooked pancakes for breakfast and we ate them in the shade of the trees next to our tent. I had a shower – the best shower I’ve had for weeks, and the first since we left Darwin, so it was great to get all that dirt off my skin and out of my hair. Caitlin and Tony headed over to the pool for a swim, and the other kids joined them once they’d finished playing their game. I spent most of the morning sorting out washing and trying to get the red dirt, and paint spills, out of our clothes – it was also great to have the time to really give everything a good scrub. Once I’d finished the washing I had a quick swim as well, and we went back to the tent to have sandwiches for lunch and get ready to go out.

Without a 4WD we aren’t going to be able to do much of the Kimberleys or the Gibb River Road, which is slightly disappointing (although there is so much else to see, it doesn’t really matter). We had heard that the Gibb River Rd is sealed as far as Emma Gorge, so we decided to go out and check that out. We usually do our walks in the morning, but as the sunrise and sunset are so early at the moment, and the walk was an hour each way (with a swim in the middle) we figured it was better to walk in during the heat of the afternoon, have a swim, and walk out in the cool of the late afternoon. Working backwards from sunset we figured we needed to leave around 1pm – by the time we got going and got petrol and headed out of town it was probably closer to 1.30.

Driving out of town we crossed a bridge that we soon realised was a dam wall – the water was much higher on the left hand side than the right, and the edge of the bridge was lined with the operating machinery for the gates to control the water. It was pretty impressive looking.

The drive out to Emma Gorge was interesting, lots of hills and escarpments, very sparse vegetation. It was exciting to turn on to the Gibb River Rd, even though this is not the really exciting part of it. The road in to Emma Gorge was 2km of dirt, and quite manageable in our car. There was a creek crossing right near the end – as we approached it we saw a small car coming the other way and figured if he had got in we’d have no trouble, and it was fine, the water was shallow and the bottom firm. We packed our bag with everything we’d need for our walk, got our shoes on etc, bought a permit to enter the gorge, and set off at about 2.45. They don’t let people start the walk after 3pm because it gets too dark to get out safely, so we were just in time.

The walk started off along a rocky track next to the creek, then had an easy section of flat dirt track, then for most of the rest of the gorge it made its way over rocks. At first they were small and just like steps, with stepping stones over the creek a couple of times. As we went further in to the gorge the rocks became bigger, and there were a few sections where we had to use our hands as well as feet to clamber over the rocks. Tony went ahead with LiAM and Caitlin, and Millie and I made our way at her pace. The sun dropped over the western edge of the gorge not long into our walk, so we mainly walked in shade which made it much easier. The eastern gorge wall was still in sunlight and looked pretty amazing, very red and tall. Millie was tired and usually has a lot of rests when she walks, but because of the time of day we needed to keep walking. She did really well, and had bursts of energy from time to time and kept plodding along. She’s really good on the big rocks and can easily find the best way to move through them, so I followed her for a lot of the time. We walked near the creek for most of the time and there were some lovely little waterfalls and ponds, and great views of the gorge walls, interesting trees and plants, which got greener and more rainforesty the further we walked, and a fascinating walk all the way in.

We finally reached the end of the gorge where the others were already swimming. The gorge became very narrow at the end, and there was a pool maybe 20m in diameter, with the gorge walls sheer on one side and at the narrower end, and overhanging the water on the other side. The overhanging wall was covered with moss and ferns and water was dripping down from the rocks into the water. On the sheer side and at the very end of the gorge there was water falling in a straight stream from the top of the gorge – not a large waterfall, but a constant stream of water. It was so beautiful and lush looking, definitely worth the walk in to see it.

Millie and I got ready and went in the water – it was too cold for her so Tony got out and sat near the edge with her so I could have a swim. I wanted to go over to where the water was falling in from the rocks – Caitlin wanted to come with me but was nervous about the deep water and wanted to go to a bit near the edge that was still shallow, but that was way in the dark part of the overhang and I was nervous about going in there. We compromised and stayed in the shallow part until we could swim straight out to where the water was falling. LiAM came with us too and the 3 of us swam under the large falling droplets and were surprised at how warm the water was in that part of the pool. Lying on our backs looking up at the rocks and ferns and moss, and water drops, was incredible, like nothing else we’ve done so far. From there we swam to a large rock in the middle of the pool and sat on that for a while, looking at the fish swimming around it. There had been some boys climbing up near the waterfall on the side and jumping in – LiAM wanted to try it but I wasn’t sure how safe it was. He and I swam over there and I said he could try to climb to the first ledge (only 20cm or so out of the water). The rocks were wet and sheer and slippery and he wasn’t able to reach up to get a good enough handhold to climb, so he was happy just swimming under the waterfall. We swam back and under the water at the back of the pool then the 3 of us went back to the shore.

We had a snack and got ready to walk out. We were the 3^rd last group to leave, and one of the other groups passed us not long into the return walk. I stopped to take more photos on the way out as I had more idea of how much time we had available. Tony and LiAM went ahead, and the girls and I walked at Millie’s pace – again, she managed well on the big rocks, and I did too. Normally sloped rocks freak me out, and these were quite slippery, but I felt confident and walked fairly easily. My knees didn’t hurt either, even though there was a lot of stepping up and down off and on to rocks. I guess we’re all getting fitter and stronger the more walking and swimming we do.

We really enjoyed the walk out and it was still light all the way. As we left the end of the gorge the air temperature increased noticeably, it was amazing. It was dark by the time we got to the car but the walk had been done safely and with good vision (one couple we saw panicked a bit that we’d come out so late). We ate sandwiches and had a drink at the car, then drove back to Kununurra. We all loved our walk and our swim - LiAM and Millie had been reluctant but enjoyed what they saw and did, and for Caitlin it was her favourite place so far. Tony and I were thrilled that we'd been able to experience a little bit of what the Kimberleys are like, even if we can't do all of it.

Millie was asleep by the time we got back. We put her into bed, did the dishes and got ready for bed ourselves. Caitlin did some Episode writing/programming on the computer and LiAM played on the iPad until they were ready to go to bed, and everyone was asleep quite quickly.