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Published: August 24th 2017
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Corrugations on Wolfe Creek Road Wolfe Creek Crater National Park - Fitzroy Crossing - Geikie Gorge National Park - Tunnel Creek - Windjana Gorge - Derby From Wolfe Creek Crater we backtracked to Halls Creek to top up with fuel before continuing on to Fitzroy Crossing. Along the Tanami Road there are wrecks of a few cars that didn't make it and Kevin thought he may be able to scrounge a bolt for the camper - he got two.
Fitzroy Crossing is a strange place, but it is also the best place to be based for a visit to Geikie Gorge. We have stayed here before so were aware of the local issues, but were warned when we checked into the caravan park to lock up our valuables - and especially any alcohol. We stayed for two nights to allow us to do the walks early in the morning and the cruise later in the afternoon (recommended as the best time). During the morning walks we spotted a few crocodiles in the river (freshies) and there were a lot of Kangaroos, wallabies and birds to look at. The afternoon cruise was cool too - the limestone cliffs are very different to the sandstone formations
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Scrounging for a bolt that we have been seeing, and they look awesome in the afternoon sun. We saw a lot of crocodiles and birds. The little Fairy Martins are very cute - they migrate here for the winter arriving in May and returning south in October, and they build little mud nests on the underside of the rocks. Apparently they can have two or three lots of babies before they return south.
From Fitzroy Crossing we headed towards the Gibb River Road, stopping at Tunnel Creek for a look and spending the night at Windjana Gorge so we could do the walk early the next morning (again, before it gets too hot). The road north from the Great Northern Highway is dirt again - but it isn't too bad - only a few rough spots but much better than we've had before, and only one creek crossing. At Tunnel Creek we met a group of bikies (Coffin Cheaters) - I couldn't believe they rode their Harleys (as most of them were) on this road. We only did a short walk at Tunnel Creek as I don't do caves.
We then continued on towards Windjana, stopping at Lillimilura ruins where we met
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Great Northern Highway - on the way to Fitzroy Crossing more of the Coffin Cheaters - there were about 100 of them! We warned them about the water crossing, because it was fairly long with about 18 inches of water and large river stones. I can imagine how bad that could be on a Harley... Kevin had time to do some more work on the electricals, running a new wire for the DC:DC charger - fingers crossed that this works and the camper battery will charge properly now.
The next morning we were up early to do the Windjana Gorge walk then back to the campground to pack up. As we were doing our regular pre-departure checks Kevin noticed that one of the shock absorbers on the camper was hanging down - another casualty of the rough roads. He removed the broken shocky and we decided to head to Broome, instead of Bell Gorge as planned, to try and find a replacement. We would also be more likely to get a bolt to replace the makeshift one scrounged from the wrecked car a couple of days ago. Along the way to Broome we called into Derby for breakfast and then had a quick stop at the Prison Tree.
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