We left Broome with a head of steam, headed east. First stop was the Roebuck Roadhouse about 39km out, for a top of fuel, before venturing towards Fitzroy Crossing. We fuelled Puma and left, but not before the lady behind the counter at the service station mentioned to Genevieve that she had been admiring the Defender. Smart girl.
The highway was busier than we remember it. Being school holidays that was explainable, however the caravan traffic was unrelenting. Mostly it was headed west, being a good thing for us, allowing Puma to hum along unhindered at her happy pace.
We had our moments of ‘I can’t believe you are so bloody stupid’, with Jayco Jockies taking on four trailer road trains on single lane bridges. Other than that the journey did not rock the news charts.
As we closed in on Fitzroy Crossing we encountered a very special lunch spot at Hiddenofftheroad Lake. Being a billabong full of stunning clear water lined by gum trees, it was indeed out of place, yet beautiful at the same time. We scoffed our left-over pizza and continued on.
Not long after lunch we had taken all the moving pics of ant hills and marvelled at the trees with red flowers. As we entered the town of Fitzroy Crossing we reminded ourselves why we had not taken advantage of the property boom and purchased some waterfront acreage here. It was as we recalled. Enough said. The town was incredibly busy for Sunday was the rodeo. All of the station people were in town for the four B’s. Beers, Bulls, Bums and Boobs.
The afternoon was spent having a yarn to others at the caravan park. The girls headed up to the bar of the restaurant come everything else, before downing a good number of gin and other things. They commented it was not often you get breath tested before you go into the bar! Indicative of some social problems in the area maybe.
The local tow truck driver had chat to Trevor and Peter, letting them know that there was a concert at Gieke Gorge later on and it should be a good night. Apparently the band was ‘The John Butler Trio’ out of Freemantle; supposedly good. Transport to the concert was by bus only. Not for us on this occasion.
We ate heartily, knocking back more than many lamb cutlets, followed by chocolate for dessert. The day was complete. Tomorrow we hit the dirt.