Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, Geike Gorge,

Left: all the garbage bins are painted in Halls Creek. The people are pretty friendly too. Tried filling the gas bottle, but it's ten years out of date, so ended up buying another one.

We'd seen enough so pushed on to Halls Creek etc. We really should have seen Wolf Creek Crater and the the caves along the way, but next time.

Right: downtown Halls Creek. The supermarket is pretty big. The cafe here was good, but kinda pricey.

Stayed at Fitzroy Crossing. Ended up going on the Geike Gorge cruise. The ranger was very knowledgeable and enthralled us with many facts. This is part of a Devonian Reef that has since petrified and fossilised. The limestone is 2km thick ie deep in the earth - that's a lot of time to lay down limestone from the reef. It has weathered down, but is now visible.

It dates from the Devonian era - about 360 million years ago, the rock was being formed by the creatures and the reef.

It gets the watery look by being hit by sand storms and wind weathering. The plants up the top must send roots down to the water. He showed us what looked like a horses tail, as the roots from a tiny tree above reached down to the water, growing down through the rock gaps.

The ranger told us a lot of amazing stuff, eg about the Painkiller tree: you rub a paste of it into wound. It's 5x as good as morphine. Good for catfish spike wounds.

Crocs eat bats, fish. They also eat rocks to help digest and to help dive in water. They lay eggs at 33degC. If it's 31 degrees, the egg becomes male or if 34 female or vice versa. The eggs are left for 3 months. Baby crocs cry out when ready then any female passing will raise the young for 4 (I think?) months.

We saw a sea eagle, fresh water crocodile. Cane toads are culling goannas, snakes and crocs down. The next season is not looking good with regards the spread of cane toads and the impact on wildlife.

There is a bird that nests just above the wet season water line, and seems to get it right in advance, so it seems this year is not looking good either, after last years's dry wet season: only a tenth of the normal rainfall. The weather and eco systems are being disrupted. This is very bad news, as is the cane toads, foxes, cats, dogs, and other introduced pests.