Cloncurry to Gregory Downs 31/8/12

The sun is pushing up past the pandanas and the paperbark trees, rising over Gregory Downs. Isolating sounds, I make out about a dozen or so different bird calls, the crow always the loudest and most dominating - early morning chorus with bass notes. But the sound under all other sounds is the river - about two metres from our camp. The Gregory River flows fast and constant - a lullaby for sleepers.

Willie Wagtail.

Double-barred finch

Restless flycatcher.

Peaceful dove.



I've woken early this morning to sit alone with my cup of tea and thoughts right by the water's edge. Other campers are stirring and I can hear road trains already on the main road above us. A little black fish lives in the embankment beside us and darts back and forth in a loop, feeding I suspect, carried someway down stream by the strong current, then swims his way back into the same spot each time.



As Michael joined me and sat drinking his coffee he looked up and saw a wallaby on the opposite bank who had come down for a morning drink.

Yesterday some local indigenous people came down the river with a wallaby they'd caught and asked the campers here how they liked their country. They said the river contained healing  waters and I doubt them not.

When we arrived yesterday we saw folk floating down stream at a steady pace and wasted no time donning our togs yo have a go. The water was not cold, and after a few floats down stream, we simply sat beside the river until it was time for dinner - just being beside the river is soothing in itself - so immersing ourselves in the water felt like a healing draft for the soul as well.



Healing waters.

Gregory River was to be an overnight stop on our way to Boodjamulla National Park (Lawn Hill Gorge) up here in north west Queensland, but we'll just sit here another day to float down stream and let the river work its magic on us.

We came up here from Cloncurry after spending two nights there where we caught up with my very dear friend Lee and her lovely fella Colin and their travelling mates, Chris and Rex. Colin and Lee live in a small town outside of Mackay called Nebo. Colin works in a local mine and is taking some long service leave to go gem fossicking for five months. They showed us handfuls of garnets, peridot and moonstones, and when they were leaving us were heading for the amethyst gem fields.

Seeing Leanne is always a blessing for me. You could say we are old campaigners. We've been true friends through some very dark days and have both inspired and counselled each other to look to our better selves as we've negotiated the rough passage of divorce and disappointment. When I speak of my woes, Leanne just knows, and has always had the right words to say when I've needed to hear them most.







We left the fellas and took off with water, fruit and our cameras. We had the most splificatious afternoon, laughing, talking, sitting, walking and taking photos. We waited for the shadows to lengthen and the sun to sink lower in the sky before we wandered back to camp. Then followed an evening with Col, Lee, Chris, Rex and Mike and I, sharing a few sherbs and conversation well into the night. I wish that they could have followed us here to this magic spot instead of digging in the dirt.

The sun is higher now, and the early morning shadows have moved, replaced by shade from the awning. Breakfast well passed and yoga finished, we decided to fish out our snorkeling gear and have a look for life beneath the surface. In a previous blog we talked about drift snorkeling at Ningaloo Reef, well this is similar except the river's current is much swifter than that of Turquoise Bay. We let the river take us and off we went. I spotted four or five different species of fish, striped, spotted and fish the colour of the river rock bed, mostly small and feeding on the river bank, but others long and skinny with a snout or plump and dark swimming against the current in the centre of the river...

...mid afternoon and a beer at the Gregory Downs Hotel later, we are in that beautiful river again and feeling pretty bloody terrific, let me tell you. This stopover has rejuvenated our bodies and spirits and just as well as tomorrow we head across 80ks of dirt road to Lawn Hill and a rigorous canoe up and down the Gorge.