Geike Gorge - Fitzroy River

Crocodile lessons: Freshies are shy, timid, eat frogs and insects and avoid humans, growing up to 3m in length. Unfortunately Salties look similar but eat nothing but people. But you cant tell them apart till one comes to eat you.

Got a late start to a paddle after dropping by the Crossing Inn Markets for their Sunday trade. Enjoyed a lovely hotdog and checked out the local arts and crafts and also some great aboriginal painters travelling around Australia who were currently running the Crossing Inn Art Exhibition. They do cold lunches with tea and coffee, Monday – Friday for $17, if you’re passing…

Arrived at Geike Gorge at 12:30pm to find that public boat (and kayak) access through the “tourist zone” is only till 1pm, and then you’re not allowed back in till after 4pm, but as the park shut at 6:30pm and its dark by 5:30pm, we would have only had 1.5 hours of kayaking, we spent 15 minutes trying to find the ranger to ask further questions, but to no avail, so decided to make a break for it.

We got back at 4pm after several hours out on the water, with Steve having to explore every bat cave and crevice between here and the end of the gorges! It was 2 hours before we saw our first boat, and we managed to sneak past before they returned from a walk. The second boat we spied must have dobbed us in with the ranger who gave us a polite but firm talking to on our arrival back at the boat ramp.

We spotted an Azure Kingfisher, see not so good pic – look closely and see its huge beak. Completely out of proportion to its squat little body but its just so bright and cute. We also saw schools of Longtoms. The batcave was absolutely disgusting, and I’m sure the smell permiated our nostrils for the rest of the afternoon. Midget would have wet herself had she got a whiff of that!

So short pathetic history in Geike Gorge. Its part of a previously submerged Devonian reef. 2km thick and 350 million years old! It extends from Fitzroy Crossing out to the ocean above Kulumbaru and back down to Kununurra. Most is still submerged except for a few parts like Geiki and Kununurra.

I think this last picture sums up the size of the place most impressively. You can see how Steve is just dwafed by the sheer size of the rock wall. Bear in mind our kayaks are quite long at just under 5.5m long!

our end of the river, just outside of the National Park boundary. We had the park all to ourselves and had a lovely quiet and peaceful night.

This place is magic! :-)