The Geeks of Geike Gorge and Dan's Croc Encounter

Hello dear blogsters. After a night road-side camping out of phone range - time to bring you up to date with the latest happenings.

When last I wrote, we were camped at Fitzroy Crossing. Well, we had a good night's sleep and got up early to have a quick breaky, pack up and be ready to go on a tour at 6.45 am. This was a big challenge for Danni (have I mentioned how HARD it is for her to get up before afternoon???)

Anyway we met our bus driver (a bloke called Chris Farmer- who grew up in Dorrigo.) and then set off for a tour of Fitzroy Crossing. The town is a largely aboriginal settlement - with some surrounding stations and the government workers who seem to be found in every little town. We were stunned at the money which has been spent here - for a little town of about 1500 people - they have a new gas generated power plant (which cost about 70 million dollars to build), a brand new hospital and the most amazing learning centre (which comprises kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and TAFE). The new learning centre is not yet complete - but was architect designed, is huge and includes a swimming pool, sports centre and playing fields. Fantastic facilities for such a small town.

We went on out to Geike Gorge (about 18 km from town). The rocky landscape was formed when this area was covered by sea - the rocky outcrops are actually the remains of coral reefs. We boarded a boat for a tour of the gorge, in the warm, morning sun.

A word to Kerry here.... you know how you said, "Oh Danni'll eat whatever you eat".... I took that to heart and have introduced Danni to the delights of the Whizz Fizz..... I'm really sorry but she loved it! I think the sugar detox thing will be REALLY good for her when she gets back.

Back to our tour of the Gorge - the scenery was stunning - limestone cliffs towering over a quietly flowing river. The rock formations were magnificent!

Paddy really enjoyed the gorge - he seems to just love going out on boat trips.... especially now that I have made him a cool new pirate bandanna to wear!

The wildlife was beautiful - we saw a jabiru, some beautiful paradise bee catchers and even our first crocodiles (the freshwater ones which aren't too dangerous). The photo below shows a crocodile - but you have to look carefully on the left hand side of the picture - just above the water line to see him.After our boat trip we went to the old Fitzroy Crossing and crossed the river. Up until about 20 years ago, this was the only crossing of the river and huge road trains used to cross here.We also stopped to have a look at the Crossing Inn - the quite famous pub. The murals on the wall have been painted by local children - and were selected in a national competition to be used as part of the Olympic Games promotions - a source of pride for this little community.We continued on after our tour - heading for Mary Pool - a roadside camp stop which Mum, Dad and Uncle John had stayed at 10 years ago. We had been told not to be late as this is a popular spot - we arrived in reasonable time - and by later at night I reckon there were over 60 vans and trailers pulled in to camp.

We set up camp - our swags looking out over the river. Then Danni and I spent some time reading Romeo and Juliet together (part of her school work).

After this Danni and I went down to the river for a walk. We saw some lovely birds sitting on a dead tree on the opposite side of the river so went closer to get a photo. We were quite entranced by the birds and crept even closer so I could get a good photo. The next thing I knew, Danni had shot backwards about 10 metres and was saying "oh my god, oh my god, Nerrida, oh my god." It took about 10 seconds for her to get the word "crocodile" out. We had been so focussed on the birds, Danni had almost stood on the tail of a crocodile sunning itself on the bank! Now don't panic Kerry - it's ok - it was a freshwater crocodile and they are not the nasty ones.It has rather a nice smile don't you think? Anyway, Danni decided that it was better to stand back and look through binoculars from a distance.Mum didn't seem too comfortable too close either!Anyway, we continued our walk (watching where we were going this time) - and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the waterside.The blokes cooked really scrumptious jaffles for us for tea and we sat around under the stars enjoying the evening. Then, just before bed, Mum and Dad got their new camp shower out and christened it. Pretty swish really - gas heated water and all!
As is often the way with camping - we were into bed fairly early so that we will be up with the sun tomorrow morning.