Just a quick note to let you know I’ve settled down in Fitzroy Crossing for the night. Not a bad little camp site with lots of space, shade, grass, and an icy cold refreshing pool next to the Fitzroy River. Actually, its not much of a river this time of year (during the winter “dry” period). It is awfully warm up in these parts this time of year. I hate to think what it’s like up here in the summer!
Fitzroy Crossing isn’t a bad little place. I had to make a point of stopping here and checking it out because this is the town my friend Penny moved to on her first Australian school teaching assignment — directly from living on Park Avenue in New York City. I always thought it sounded like it would have made a good movie. I remember the letters she used to send me about how rotten her students were here.
I do have one tale to tell about my arrival here. I’ve lived in Australia long enough to know never to pass a gas/petrol station in the country with less than half a tank without filling up. So I left Derby early yesterday morning with — a tank, fully expecting to find a cheaper (than Derby) petrol station on the way to Fitzroy Crossing. Well after about +150 km or driving without anything in site, I realized that I wasn-t going to see a petrol/gas station before I rolled into Fitzroy Crossing 150 km down the road. My fuel gauge was dropping fast. With just a — of a tank of fuel left I thought “What would Jimmy Carter do in a situation like this?” Actually, in all fairness I should probably credit Gerald Ford — but I decided that it would be best to cut my speed as much as possible. Instead of cruising at 110 kph, I opted for 80 kph. It was slow going for the distance involved, and it allowed me to examine the road kill in great detail as I rolled by — even having time to recite their Latin names, but my little scheme paid off and I was able to roll into a roadhouse in Fitzroy Crossing un-assisted with my fuel light on. Running on fumes, I suppose. Phew! That was close. I decided to fill up that jerry can after all…
So far, I haven’t seen any crocs. Crickey, I’m a bit disappointed — but I am keeping my eyes open. You’ve got your “freshies” (freshwater crocs) and your “salties” (saltwater crocs). The saltwater crocs are definitely bad news and worth steering clear of. The freshwater crocs, on the other hand, are smaller and generally not interested in humans unless provoked. I’ve had my opportunities to see both, but so far I’ve come up empty.
There were warning signs about “salties” at the dock in Derby (where I camped last night), but I couldn’t find any. On the other hand, some fisherman claimed to have seen a huge shark there. They have 12 meter tides in Derby and it’s the only talk of the town.
This afternoon I spent several hours hiking around Geike Gorge National Park here where there were supposed to be freshies, but I couldn’t find any. The caravan park director told me last night that the saltwater crocs “were just as scared of us as we are of them.”
About the saddest thing I’ve seen so far on this trip is the “Prison Boab Tree” outside of Derby. Boab trees are these really cool trees with big fat trunks (sort of egg shaped with branches) that you find around The Kimberley area. They have a hard time gauging their ages, but some are believed to be thousands of years old. Anyway, one huge one that is still living south of Derby has long been big and hollow enough to keep captives. It was used as part of that Aboriginal slave trade I told you about earlier when they were rounding up workers for the pearling trade in Broome. You hear about these things when you’ve living in a place like Perth, but the reality of the situation really hits you when you’re in the actual preserved environment where it happened and can easily take yourself back in time to imagine what it was really like.
That’s it from me today… Tomorrow I’m hoping to get into the Bungle Bungles if the road is good enough. Otherwise I may aim for Wyndham (Big Croc Country, according to Lonely Planet) or Kununurra. Of course, it all depends on what I see along the way. Could be a long day of driving. There is tons to see up here (meteor craters, gorges, etc), but unfortunately very little of it is accessible by my little 2 wheel drive.
