Outback Australia
24th May – Tunnel Creek
Another beautiful day and we took a brief walk back to Windjana Gorge to look at the 'freshies' (freshwater crocodiles). The 'freshies' were obliging, apparently they are not dangerous according to Dave's brother, they 'just bite'. The gorge is less colourful in the morning than last night so clearly the evening is the optimal time.The road from Windjana to Tunnel Creek is only rough in parts but otherwise pretty good and we have our first encounter with fords with actual water in them. Expect more of this.
Tunnel Creek is very spectacular being a stream, not really flowing at the moment through a 1.7km tunnel gouged by the force of the water. High on the roof there is an aboriginal art work, I don't like to think how they got there to do it.
This is a country of great extremes, huge rainfalls, colossal temperatures (we are in winter and it's hot). The topography of the land is quite fantastic and once again the camera fails to capture it properly.Our next stop is back on the main road at Fitzroy Junction. This is as you might expect a 'blink and you missed' it sort of town. It does boast a pub which is a very sorry affair, apparently owned by the indigent(?) people it caters to them also. Being a Sunday there would have been maybe 15 Aboriginals there plus some tourists like ourselves.
Although a sign says no 'humbugging, spiting or swearing' we are humbugged (accosted) by Percy and anther chap, the latter with some rather old but pretty funny jokes. Dave declines to give Percy a 'fiver' but he takes it in good spirit.
The barmaid is Kellie, a white Australian from Adelaide on a one year contract. She says it is pretty well paid ($10k more than at home) but it really would need to be, the place is a dump pretty remote and none too attractive. The campsite next door to the pub has little appeal and being sunday everything except the pub is shut.The pub is on the banks of the Fitzroy river which at this point is a trickle in the largest river bed I have ever seen. There are some photographs of the place when it was flooded and Percy tells us of the time the water was in the bar and a big 'saltie' (salt water crocodile, very dangerous) was in the bar.
Leaving town we retrace our steps by 60km to the old RAAF Boab Quarry which boasts free camping and the quarry has filled with clear fresh water. Quickly setting up camp we went for a swim and the water was just perfect.
The big surprise was that once we had finished dinner (bbq lamb chops which were excellent) it was only 7:15. Something of an early night.