Day 25 - Fitzroy Crossing to Broome
15-8-13
We woke up to an incredible cacophony of bird sounds. It all started before the sun came out. Which was a plus as we have a long way still to go to get to Broome.
 |
| In the morning, ready to go once again. |
 |
| All setup. In front the Fitzroy Crossing Lodge. The new setup of the bike, with the bags on the side, gave Mary some surprisingly comfortable armrests |
 |
| How about that? I 4-wheel drive school bus. This has to tell you something about the roads in this area. |
The trip continued with nothing much on the way, just a lot of spinifex (the grass that grows everywhere in inland Australia). Most of the time, there was nothing to see. However every now and then there were trees and animals. My God the animals! They were everywhere and mostly just on the edge of the road; wild horses (yes, there are wild horses in Australia), goats, sheep, camels, cows, bulls, foxes, emus, kangaroos, you name it! they were there. Apparently what happens is that during the night the road surface gets wet with the cold night air and because of the camber, it drains tot he side of the road. As a consequence, the grass at the side of the road is the softest and the fattest. You can see that, the grass next to the road is soft and green whereas if we move away from the road, just a couple of meters, the grass is hard and spiky. No wonder the creatures like it!
 |
| Grass, grass, grass...sorry! I mean... Spinifex, spinifex, spinifex, everywhere |
 |
| The termite mounds are different here. It's incredible how as we travel the mounds change, as if the termites had different cultures, |
What makes the animals next to the road such a big risk is the way they move, they get easily startled, sometimes they don;t realise you were near them until you are just a few meters, then they jump start running. The problem is that sometimes they run in front of you. Can you imagine hitting a 1 Ton horse or bull with a motorbike? More like hitting a wall, I imagine. Not fun.
 |
| There you go! Wild horses. they are called 'brumbies' in Australia. Basically many, many moons ago, with the advent of the tractor and other farming machines, the horses were not needed any more, so they were set free. These are their great great great great grandsons and great great great great granddaughters |
 |
| Again, a different type of termite mound, this one with a little cone on the tip. |
 |
| Hey! something different. These funny looking hills are called 'jumps' by the local aborigines. They say that the land jumped there, which amazingly, in geological terms it's exactly what happened |
 |
| Another one travelling in style. A very cool chrome Harley Davidson Tricycle. |
 |
| This tree was in one of the rest areas, just look at it! It's huge! |
We found a fabulous Baobab tree on one of the rests. It was absolutely huge. It also looked really, really old. We then learned that the estimated age of this tree is between 1500 to 2000 years old! Can you believe it! This trees was alive during the Roman Empire. this tree is probably older that some of the Egyptian pyramids! Gosh! you have to respect something like that. however, what we saw was a plethora of graffiti carved on the trunk. yes, I know...sad.
In a nearby town called Derby there is another tree like this, they say that it is bigger than this one and it was used as a jail. Yes, you read right, a jail. They just put some bars on the entry and put convicts on it. there is no way out.
 |
| We couldn't believe our luck. We found a perfect watermelon next to the tree. We had a feast. |
 |
| This tree has a opening on the side. |
 |
| Easy to get in. |
 |
| It's like a room inside, you could easily live inside one of these things, it's at least 10 degrees cooler in here. |
 |
| It feels really strange to be inside a tree |
 |
| Of course Mary had the obligatory beauty pose |
 |
| Hot, hot, hot...but very dry, so you don;t feel it as much. But you do need to drink a lot of water, we were going through about 7 titres each a day. |
 |
| Last fuel before Broome. |
The last stop before Broome was a forgettable place, nice burgers, though. Not much to do or see, so we rested and got ready for the fast bit. We have been driving now for 2.5 days to get to Broome and can't wait to get there, I hope it's worth it.
 |
| More brumbies. |
 |
| Isn't this a beautiful palm tree! It grows in a spiral |
