Ellendale to Mary Pool

Day 133 - Ellendale to Mary Pool

Ellendale, Geikie Gorge National Park, Mary Pool

Friday, 31 May 2013
Up early, had breakfast and a walk. Talked to a couple of young women who are on a four week holiday from Darwin. Packed up and drove to Fitzroy Crossing.

The town is an odd place with no central shopping area. It has a supermarket and post office in one area, visitor centre and library in another area, hardware store in another area and the Crossing Inn further away. They are connected byroads and footpaths with nothing in between.

Drove 18km out of town to the Geikie Gorge National Park. Parked in the shade and provided food, water and ventilation for Tuka. Ten went and purchased a boat ride ticket at the open-air DEC office. The office was underwater in the 2011 flood which probably why it is not enclosed.

Twenty two of us were put on the open boat. In the peak season they have three or four boats joined together with up to a 180 people on one tour. We headed off towards the gorge and saw a freshwater crocodile swimming by the boat. During the trip we saw five small freshwater crocodiles only about 30 to 50cm long. Half-bottle wrens were busy flying around the walls. They make a mud nest on the cliff walls above the water level after the wet season. They make new nests each year by getting mud from sandbanks.

Limestone caves have been found behind the cliff walls that are kilometres long. The walls are a beautiful range of colours  and the change in colour on the wall  indicates the height of the average flood which was about 10 metres above our boat. During flood time the volume of water flowing through the Fitzroy River is enough to fill all of the water supply dams for Perth in ten minutes!

After the tour we drove 96km to the rest area at the Ngumban Cliff Lookout. It is on one few elevated parts of the road. It provided views over the area we had just driven across. As an indication how flat most of the area is that we have been driving through I was able to see this range 40km away.

Drove on another 90km to the rest area at Mary Pool on the Mary River in the middle of the afternoon. It was a pretty spot with water in the river and large trees providing shade in the campsite. First thing was to let Tuka have a long soak in a shallow waterhole in the river. I didn't see the crocodile warning signs but luckily the waterhole was isolated from the rest of the river (later told about the crocs by a camper that saw Tuka in the river).

Later talked to Naomi and Mark, campers that we had met previously. After a beer we talked to a few campers as we walked around the campsite. By late in the afternoon there were 30 caravans and motorhomes plus a few tents on the campsite. As the sun set Tuka and I sat outside and we were serenaded by hundreds of cockateels screeching as they flew overhead or roosted in the trees.

	Entrance to a limstone cave, Geikie Gorge [Map]		Geikie Gorge limestone wall [Map]
	More coloured walls [Map]		DEC Geikie Gorge office [Map]
	View from Ngumban Cliff lookout [Map]		Caravans and motorhomes at Mary Pool [Map]
	Our campsite at Mary Pool [Map]		Mary River [Map]

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