Day 4

It was a long day today- we really loved Cape Levique – but got up at sparrows ( after a breakfast of condensed milk coffee and Ouma se beskuit rusks – The early morning sun is lightly painting the landscape with a shale of yellow , we head for Broome and onto Fitzroys Crossing – 700k today. Halfway to Broome we find a young couple with a Mitsu L 300- engine has given up the ghost- not surprising on a road where the corrugations are twice the size of the speed bumps. Desire though keeps purring through the red sand , Marilu taking her first drive on an outback monster road. We pumped the tyres back up to 45 filled the tanks and hit the road.


We fixed up the youngsters , because out here you could be next. The indifference of city folk is unknown here. I stopped to point percy at a Boabab and as a road train went by the UHF crackled

“ every all right there buddy? “ all good mate I said. Even if it looks like you are might be stuck – everyone is concerned and helpful.

I guess it’s the wide open spaces that make you relax, you can drive for an hour and not see car. The wide blue sky reduces you to the right size in the universe, the right proportion. Some of it is unremarkable but what is interesting is the sudden change of landscapes , I mean really sudden, paper bark trees appear out of nowhere, then disappear, then a grove of mangroves, suddenly a regiment of Boabab soldiers, reaching for the sky. Dry and dusty and un-expectantly a huge billabong, teeming with life. – you feel free and liberated.

The sun is behind us shadows are stretching out – and Geike Gorge has its last boat ride at 3 – if we can make that today tomorrow is easy, just 300k and 4 gorges - a lazy day. I ask Desire can you do this baby ? she says sure sugar watch this as she pumps the reves up to 2500 and moves to 110 k , I am watching the heat guage but she is cool as a cucumber. 3 minutes to spare we make the boat trip at Geike Gorge. The Gorge is a steep narrowing in the middle of a river that runs for 700 kilometres.

You look at the cliffs of the gorge and the sheer and obvious age lets you know they have been here for millions of years before you and will be here for millions of years after you, in awe you feel like a temporary comma in a very long sentence.

Get this, this was once and open channel to the sea. The land mass closed up and left behind what ? That’s right freshwater sharks , they could not get out, so they changed , mutated. Just like the saltwater crocks, hard times me droogies , adapt or die , don’t just give up …. Jeez I am learning stuff out here so quickly , it would decades in the city. – But that’s not the big news mate here they have FRESH WATER SWORDFISH .

We meander down the river with a rainbow of colours reflected on the cliff, its great , the water is olive green , the banks are red, the colours swirl and enchant.

Tired we make our way to the Fitzroy River Lodge. A Room ( no camping tonight ) that makes Hannibal Lecters Cell look like a palace cost us $200 – its one thing we did not have the luxury of ; there are bargains but you have to find them, it takes serious trip planning and booking ahead. Still weary but content, we go for Barumundi at the restaurant, its expensive because they say it has been imported, why one asks the Geike Gorge is teeming with Barrumundi ?? See ya