Monday, 30 June 2014

There can be a lot of changes in forty-five years!

Fitzroy Crossing today is vastly different to the old town I knew in 1969 ..... which is probably a good thing. The town is 2 kms. to the south of where the old settlement was. I get lost here now. I couldn't find the Old Crossing of the river today, but John found it eventually. There were numerous disasters here, as the road trains with over 200 head of cattle on board had to hurtle down one side of the Crossing trying to keep up enough momentum to get up the other side.                                                                                                  

Prior to reaching the Crossing, they blew their horns for 2 kms to get everyone off the causeway and out of the way! Those were the days .........

They cross quite sedately today on this bridge.

Saturday, 28 June 2014

NOSTALGIA REVISTED ... for Lyn ... a new JOURNEY FOR JOHN

At last! Blog up and running. You don't want to hear all the challenges of I.T., my old laptop, my new laptop with Windows8.1 [which I've found impossible], of no signal where we have been, lost passwords .... and lot's more.

Now we are in Fitzroy Crossing. Been here for a week. No-one else spends a week here, but tomorrow we link up with friends who've just trekked up the Canning Stock Route ... everyone in their tag-along team had to fit new shock-absorbers when they reached Hall's Creek.

John has a job .... today he's IN CHARGE of shifting the sprinklers in the caravan park where we've been camped. You don't need to complete a two-day course to be qualified for that work.

Our return to FOSSIL DOWNS cattle station has been a highlight. That impressive homestead compound is now even more impressive than when I worked there in 1969/70. That such an oasis exists amid the millions of acres of dry-looking plains, so close to Fitzroy, is a mystery to many. It still operates as a cattle station -- they recently trucked out 2000 head to be shipped from Broome. You can read more of their place in Australia's history when I finish the book I'm writing about it!!! Don't hold your breath waiting, though.

Other highlights so far: Five Rivers Bastion Point at Wyndham
Bungle Bungle -- Cathedral Cove, Echidna Chasm, Sunset Ridge
Edith Falls near Katherine -- walking [climbing, jumping, sliding] the Grade 3 walk to the Falls
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