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Friday, August 20, 2010

Week 34/52 - into the wilds of the Kimberley

Welcome everyone to week 34 of our 52 week tour Downunder Western Australia.

Tonight we leave Broome and its laid back lifestyle on the beach, and head east along the Great Northern Highway to the Kimberley - a land of the boab tree, amazing gorges and mountain ranges, diamonds and crocodiles.

Here we 180 kilometres from Broome - and what feels like the entrance to the Kimberley - with this majestic boab tree..


From Western Australia
Tonight we will camp at Camballin - on the banks of the Fitzroy River. It is a lovely free camping destination, off the main road, for those who know about it. My husband Rod, and son Mark go fishing while I take photos....

From Western Australia
And look out for crocodiles - not the best photo, it didn't let me get too close, this is a freshwater crocodile - the first we have ever seen in the wild - they say they don't attack people but would you test it out? Up here it is the salt water crocodiles you need to watch out for. Well...I'm pretty sure this is a freshie......

From Western Australia
Camballin is strictly bush camping, and we wanted to go for a swim to wash off the days grime, however after seeing a few crocodiles we just took a quick dip right at the edge of the river crossing where the water was running over.   But we did hear something walking around our tent that night.....a dingo or wild dog me thinks....we didn't get up to look.....

From Western Australia
After our overnight stop we left Camballin and arrive at the town of Fitzroy Crossing located on the banks of the Fitzroy River. This is where people stop while they visit Geikie Gorge National Park 21 kms north east.

Geikie Gorge is located where the Fitzroy River has cut a gorge through the limestone formations of the Geikie and Oscar Ranges, which are part of a fossilised 'Devonian' tropical reef. The average annual rainfall over the catchment area varies from 300mm to 700mm, giving the Fitzroy River a discharge rate of 29,000 cubic metres per second! During the Wet season the river rises in the gorge by approx 16.5 metres! You can see the high water line on the faces of the Gorge walls. The lower part is cleaned white by the action of flood water. The traditional landowners, the aboriginals, call this area Darngku.

We'll take a boat cruise so you can take a closer look....these walls here are about 30 metres in height.

From Western Australia

From Western Australia
Our tour around Fitzroy wouldn't be complete without some wildflowers - this is the Kimberley Silver Leaf Grevillia....

From Wildflowers
And a view at Ngumban just east of Fitzroy

From Western Australia

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Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this tour around Western Australia. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for taking the time to comment.