Fitzroy Crossing /Geike Gorge

From Mary's Pool was another fairly smooth bitumen road to Fitzroy Crossing. We spotted a lone dingo on the side of the road. We were camping at Fitzroy Crossing Lodge as there is a large camping area provided on the expansive lawns. 

There is a tennis court and a pool attached to their motel area which all campers could use. It was all a bit flash and all buildings/rooms are elevated due to the floods. The pool was refreshing and the girls could pretend we were staying in a "holiday house" for a brief time.Sprinklers are always on so water is not a problem. It was not overly busy but the the night before was booked out with over 600 people due to a "Sh.t box rally"

The amenities and laundry are very clean. We did some washing to had sparkling (sort of) clothes once again. The red dust certainly sets in the clothes and when Olive and Ruby like to play in the dirt, add a bit of water and hand wiping on clothes- they did look pretty filthy but had fun doing it too.

At the beginning of the trip we were a bit precious but now that water is such a commodity we find that wearing clothes (not undies) 2 days in a row, just the norm.

We found out via forums such as "Myswag" and word of mouth that Singapore ants are a bit of a problem in Fitzroy Crossing and love to eat canvas and even the wiring out of your cars so we stocked up on talcum powder, ant sand and surface spray. We put a little trail of powder and sand around the tyres, stabilisers and jockey wheel as well as the car and used a full can of spray just to be sure. Needless to say we didn't have a problem with ants and we never leave any food/scraps outside overnight.

In June DEC run 4 boat tours on the Geike Gorge so we drove out to the national Park about 20min drive. It's a 1 hour cruise along the Gorge and the girls saw their first ever croc. They were freshies so it was a good intro to see these beauties as I'm sure they will be swimming with them at some point on our trip. Whether we tell them that, is another thing.

The cruise was great and very informative. The limestone cliffs were "gorge...ous" and the stillness was beautiful. We saw Pied cormorants and corellas. Although the Ranger said that in recent days they had spotted Nankeen Kestrels and Rainbow Bee Eaters.

Little crocs will hide in these native reeds until they are about 2years old to protect themselves from White Bellied Sea Eagles and other larger crocs.

Rubes was interested and was listening to the Ranger but Olive thought it was just fun and was happy to keep applying her lip balm. Olive also at one stage wanted to lean out of the boat and she was quickly pulled back.

We wanted to have a drink after the cruise at the heritage Crossing Inn but there wasn't much history inside, which more resembled a cage. It did look pretty nice on the outside, but we settled for a beer back on the Lodge verandah. All the surrounding Boabs had smiley faces on them. We were smiling too.