Brisbane Trip Day 28: Newcastle

Once again I was up first and went for a walk to the beach. The water was clearer today, less seaweed and no muck. It was sunny and beautiful in a different way to yesterday. There was one surfer in the water and I decided to go in - the undertow was strong and the waves were breaking fairly close to shore. I thought about going past the break but didn't feel confident given that I was there on my own. I stood in waist deep water for a while and it was lovely, then hopped out and kept walking. I walked to the end of the beach and all the way out to the end of the break wall. There was a big swell coming into the channel - it was really cool to see the waves from behind as they rolled past me. There were some good splashes on the edge of the break wall but nothing really breaking over onto the path.

I chatted for a while with a couple and their dog (the dog didn't want me to come too close to it's humans, until we started talking and then it came over to me for a pat and was quite happy), then wandered back home. I had a shower and some breakfast and chatted to the kids as they woke up.

At 10 an old friend from BHP came to visit, we sat out the back and talked for a couple of hours, it was fantastic to spend some time with him. After he left I tidied up a bit, talked to a friend from home on the phone, then we had lunch and got ready to go out to see another friend (Caitlin's godfather).

We drove down to his house in Wyee and had a lovely afternoon chatting, looking at his garden and the work he's done in the yard, talking politics and lots of other topics. The kids played with his girls and came in and out of our conversation. They played Uno and hide and seek and read books and played with stuffed toys, then Amelie and his girls watched TV until we left. Just as we were getting ready to go his wife came home from work, I'm so glad we got to see her as well.

Back home and the cousins were out at the beach so we relaxed for a while, when they came home the kids played on the trampoline and chatted. The youngest cousin was here and she and Amelie danced to Moana again. My BIL set up a fire in the backyard and the kids sat around that and ate their dinner, some went inside afterwards to watch tv together, some stayed outside. I chatted to the other adults and it was a lovely quiet evening. After the little one and her mum and brother had left, the kids all stayed inside and my BIL sat outside near the fire until quite late, talking about lots of deep topics. I had thought about packing some of our stuff tonight, then decided the conversation was more important.

Half Lap Day 100: Karlgarin -> Esperance

The sun was out when we got up in the morning and the whole area was quite pretty, lots of wattle trees with their blossoms shining in the early morning sun. It was also very very cold, with a layer of ice over the car and the tent, and frozen pools of water on top of our trailer cover. Tony got another fire going, and the kids gradually emerged out into the cold and sat around the fire before having breakfast. The kids rescued a little skink from the fire and played around the campground. Millie was keen to leave, she didn’t like the place at all. I’d hoped to get up and going early, we were all moving pretty slowly though and it was 10.30 by the time we had everything ready to go.

On our way to Wave Rock (only another 30km) we saw a pig farm, with lots of big pigs and a group of very cute little piglets. There had been a war memorial at our campground and as we drove I noticed that many of the road names were the same as the names on the war memorial – I guess they would have been farmers around this area, and I don’t know if the roads were named after the family who lived there, or in memory of the men who fought in the war. We got petrol in Hyden, which had cool decorations around the town. The old railway platform was covered in iron sculptures of people and seats and equipment – as if they were all waiting for the train to come.

Wave Rock is somewhere that I’ve wanted to go since I was a kid, and I didn’t think we’d be able to fit it in to this trip. When we looked at the best way to get home though, it worked quite nicely as a stopover on our way to Esperance (if we are willing to skip Kalgoorlie. I would have liked to see it too, but Wave Rock and Esperance seemed more exciting). We paid our entry fee and when the lady gave me all the information about the area I briefly wished we’d stayed at the rock instead of where we did, so we could spend more time there – then figured it wasn’t worth worrying about what we could have done if we’d had more information, and just to enjoy what we did do.

We rugged up, there was a wind blowing and it was pretty cold. We walked around to the Wave and it was very very cool. So weird to see a rock curving out like that, and it was high and long and quite impressive, well worth the drive out to see it. The kids climbed up the slope as far as they could, and slid down again, We wandered along it’s length, reading about how it was formed and the geography of this area – it’s a very rocky part of the world, and Wave Rock is the most famous of a great number of cool rock formations around here. I wasn’t expecting the colours on the rock, lots of vertical stripes of black and orange and yellowy colours, caused by water and lichen and cyanobacteria, which made it look even cooler.

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Past the end of the wave we were able to walk along the side of Hyden Rock (the larger rock that Wave Rock is a part of, and start to climb up behind the wave. There was a dam here, they had built a dam wall to catch the runoff from Hyden Rock, and that supplies the town of Hyden with its water. So cool to see sensible usage of rain water. Walking along the rock up above the wave was pretty cool, Hyden Rock rose up a lot higher behind it, and there were rock pools, wildflowers, trees and boulders scattered across the rock. There was a concrete wall built along the length of the wave, 20m or so from the edge, to stop people going to the top of it. We decided to do the short walk across Hyden Rock, which took us the length of the wave – then we had to climb over the concrete wall and walk down the sloping rock to the ground. It seemed a bit ludicrous, but that’s the way the trail went, and the climb down was fine. Cool to see yet another view of the wave (from the side as we sloped down next to it).

Back at the car we got some lunch ready, then finally headed off around 12.30. The countryside was beautiful as we drove south east. Lots of crops, green and yellow, lots of sheep and occasionally cattle. Wildflowers here and there, hills in the distance. The land was undulating, with areas of flat ground as well. There were lots of low lying areas that obviously filled with water when it rained – many of them were full now – with dead trees throughout them. As we’ve been driving around Australia we’ve seen lots of cleared paths running from the road into the trees or bush to the side, then suddenly stopping, and we couldn’t figure out what they were for. Here, those cleared areas were full of water, so it looks like they are drainage channels to help keep the water off the road when it rains.

The little towns we past through all looked interesting. Lots of them had done interesting things with their now out-of-use railway stations. One town (Lake King I think) had a tractor museum (a large open shed full of tractors).  We stopped in Ravensthorpe to go to the toilet, then drove mainly east from there – eyeing off the black clouds to the south and hoping we’d get to Esperance in time to set up before that rain rolled in from the ocean.

With a forecast for gales and lots of rain, we decided to stay at a caravan park that wasn’t right on the beach. I’d found the one that claimed to be the cheapest, and when I went to book in the girl said it would be $60 for unpowered – the kids were $10 each! That’s the 2^nd highest amount we’ve paid ANYWHERE, and by far the most for unpowered. I went back out to the car to discuss with Tony – the wind was picking up and it was feeling more urgent to get a spot and get the tent up, but we’re also still needing to be careful of our spending. I rang another caravan park and while they were giving me a price (which was even higher!) the girl came out and said that seeing as we had 3 kids, she’d only charge $5 each. So that made it affordable and we were happy to stay. She also said that there wasn’t much demand for the unpowered sites at the moment, no one else was game enough. She said we could pick either of the corner sites, whichever we thought would give us more protection from the wind.

When we got to the unpowered area, we were the only people using it. There was a fence surrounding most of the area, on 3 sides, so we were able to set up in a corner with a fence on 2 sides of us, and were mainly protected from the wind. We got the tent up as quickly as we could, and managed it before the rain started. I set up the beds while Tony and the kids went to the camp kitchen to start getting dinner ready.

The rain was quite steady throughout the evening, easing off occasionally, when we could make quick dashes over to the car or tent if we needed anything. We watched the Olympics and some ABC3 shows, ate a fantastic butter chicken dinner, filled in our Census form and hung out in the (slightly warmer – there was still a breeze coming through above the windows, its really just an enclosed shed) kitchen area for the rest of the evening. Tony, Caitlin and LiAM went and had a shower before bed, Millie was asleep before they came back and we snuggled into our beds – it was warmer than last night but the rain made it feel less comfortable.

Half-lap Day 87: Cape Range National Park

The wind became very strong through the night, the strongest night time wind we’ve had on the trip. Tony and I were awake several times, and for a long time each occasion. Tony got up 3 times and went out to tie down things that were flapping or knocking, and to make sure that everything that might blow away was put away. The wind was slamming into the tent behind our head and slapping the canvas against the pole, I felt like it was a constant punching right behind me and it really wore me out. The kids each woke up, worried, once or twice, but we reassured them and they went back to sleep, and the tent and all our stuff survived the night without any damage or loss.

We eventually fell back to sleep at some point in the early morning, then I woke up around 6.30, as it was getting light. We had to be up and out early today to go on a glass-bottomed boat tour, so I decided not to go back to sleep despite feeling exhausted, and went up to the beach instead. I sat at the tables and drank my cup of tea and watched the waves and the whales, and the sun coming over the ranges and slowly lighting up the ocean. It was windy up there too and my travel mug got blown off the table, so I lost half of my cuppa.

Back to the tent and I woke the others up around 7.30 – we wanted to leave at 8 so we could call in and see our friends at Neds, they were packing up today and I wanted to see them before they left. The kids got out of bed fairly quickly, and had some breakfast. I made sure we had swimmers and snorkels and food for the day, so that we didn’t have to come back to camp until we were ready, and we were in the car by about 8.10, one of our quickest getaways on the trip.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, although still quite windy. The swell didn’t look very big though, so we hoped the wind wouldn’t impact on our boat tour. We got to Neds and walked up to see our friends, who were happy to see us. The girls played in the car and we caught up on our news of the past few days. They’d gone to Oyster Stacks on the day we did Turquoise Bay, so we’d missed them there. It was great to see them again and to share our plans for the next few days to see if we could catch up again somewhere soon. I mentioned that we couldn’t find Millie’s thongs (missing since Karajini – they could be in the car somewhere, or they could be with Tony’s missing hat and sunglasses…) and my friend said someone had given her a pair that they thought were her daughters (same pattern) but were a size too small – they just fit Millie, so she has thongs again, that look exactly the same as her friend’s thongs. Perfect.

We had about 15 minutes there, and then headed back to the car and drove to the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp. We got there just as the boat driver was reading off the names to make sure everyone had arrived. He introduced himself, Alec, the owner of the company, then we headed out along the jetty to the boat. He suggested that kids go in last as there is more room at that end of the boat, so we let everyone else get on and then we climbed in and sat on the bench seat to the left. The boat had a bench seat along either side, then 4 glass panels covering the entire middle section of the boat – so everyone was sitting facing the glass and could look down and see whatever was underneath. There was another family across from us – a young couple with a 2yo boy.

Sitting at the jetty, LiAM and the girls spotted a sting ray on the sand under the boat – a very exciting start to our tour. We motored out to the Tantabiddi Sanctuary Zone, a rectangular area of the reef where this tour operates. Alec told us about himself and his company and the boat, and made lots of jokes, he was fun to listen to. He then asked where each of us was from, and I was surprised that everyone on the boat was Australian. There was another couple from Melbourne, and he said ‘ooh, you’re not Collingwood supporters are you?’ – they said no, but when he got to us, Tony’s Collingwood hat gave him away. Alec offered to throw him overboard for a free snorkel…

On the way out to the reef some people saw a turtle – it was under our side of the boat and we missed it. Once we got to the reef, we saw amazing amounts of coral and fish, and it was great having a commentary about what each thing was, and interesting facts about behavior, diet, fragility and so on. We saw staghorn coral with blue tips – they looked like fairy lights (so we call it fairy light coral now) and large rock like coral formations which are called bommies. All the fish that we’d been seeing over the last few days were here, and we learnt more names. A very long, thin yellow fish that Millie and I had seen was a Spanish flutemouth, then LiAM spotted a silver one that looked the same – he pointed it out to Alec who said it was also a flutemouth. The most exciting thing was seeing a green turtle, feeding on the bottom. Alec turned the boat around 5 times so we could all see it properly. Very exciting and what I’d been hoping to see on this tour. We also saw a crayfish, and a large reef shark. I managed to get a fair few decent photos, as long as I remembered to hold the camera very close to the glass, and not on an angle. The 2 yo boy was so excited about seeing all the fish, it was very cool to listen to him talk about them.

Staghorn, or Fairy Light, coral

More coral

Green turtle

As we headed back to shore Alec handed out a DVD to each couple or family, filled with underwater photos of the reef that he has taken when diving or snorkeling here himself. I love going on tours when the operator is so passionate and knowledgeable about the area we are seeing, we always learn so much.

Once we were back at the car we looked at the map for a while to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our day (it was only 10.30 at this stage). We decided to drive all the way down to the southern end to check out Yardie Creek and the gorge there. We drove down then had a bit of a snack, then set out for the short walk along the creek. It was quite pretty, and we could see the gorge walls up ahead, the permanent water of the creek next to us, low scrubby land in either direction, and the ocean and reef behind us. The walk to the lookout at the start of the gorge was very quick and easy, so we continued up along the gorge walk, which was slightly more difficult but not hard. We saw some tenacious little yellow flowers growing out of holes in the rock, there was much less vegetation up here. We walked to the first lookout, where we could see down into the gorge. We watched some people float past on what I said were kayaks, but were actually stand up paddle boards. One guy was doing yoga on his, head stands and chimneys and so on – fairly impressive. The view was great in all directions from here, seeing the gorge, the ranges, the creek, the ocean and the land between the shore and the range. We could see whales way out in the distance. We walked back down, looking at the tough trees that live here – all bent over quite significantly, with very hardy looking branches and leaves.

Yardie Gorge

Yardie Creek

I wanted to snorkel at North Mandu (our original campsite) at high tide, which was just after 3pm today. We drove back up there, arriving a little after 1.30. Everyone was exhausted after our disruptive night’s sleep, and we considered just going back to the tent for a nap. The wind was still quite strong and was also wearing us out. We decided to stay though and just have a quick try at a snorkel once the water was high enough, then go back and rest. The kids and I wandered down to the beach, and walked towards the creek bed. We sat on the side of the creek bed and watched the ospreys – one was sitting on a dead branch on the other side of the creek bed, the other was in the nest. When seagulls started swooping the nest again, the osprey returned to the nest to help its mate scare them off. We didn’t ever go close to the nest so don’t know if they had eggs or chicks in there, but both adult birds kept looking down into the nest, so we’re sure that the nest was occupied by something. LiAM and Millie made rock cairns out of some of the flatter rocks, and we looked at shells and all the other things on the beach. There were huge white clam shells here, and more of the pink and brown shells, bits of coral, lots of driftwood, and rocks of a whole range of colours. Mainly white, pink and brown, and some were stripey. More whales were going past and I finally got some photos of one breaching – and all the kids saw it too, they have mainly only been breaching a long way out so it’s hard to show people, but these whales were just beyond the reef and one whale went up 4 times in a row, incredible to watch. We wandered back to Tony and sat at the table in the middle of the campground and had some lunch. By the time we’d finished eating it was after 2.30 and a good enough time to go in the water.

Humpback Whale

I went in first with LiAM and Millie. We went in pretty much from the end of the path to the beach, over the rocks and then into the deeper water (it’s not very deep here anyway). I wore my reef shoes so that it was easier to walk on the rocky shore and then over the rocks into the water. The swell was higher than we’d snorkeled in before, and the current seemed to be running strongly to the south, so I tried to go straight out then swim a bit north then head back in. We saw lots of fish again, and it was quite beautiful once we got out past the rocks. Millie coped well with the swell, and both kids could swim easily out there as long as they were holding my hand. Heading back in to shore I was really missing my flippers as I had to do all the work with my legs.

Tony decided to walk further north along the beach and go in at a less rocky part, then drift back down towards us. We walked along the beach near the shore, and saw a little reef shark darting in and out. He kept swimming quite close to us, then shooting back into the water. We followed him along the shore for ages, and later found out that juvenile reef sharks are very inquisitive and often come up to check people out and will swim near them along the shoreline. Tony swam way out and back towards the point, he saw a fair bit of coral and fish and said it was a good way to do it. At one point he was out pretty far and directly in the sunlight and I couldn’t see him – I was starting to wonder what I should do if he’d disappeared when I saw his orange snorkel come out of the shiny sun reflections – a big relief. I went and got my flippers and headed back in with LiAM. We were debating how far out we should walk before submerging, when Caitlin (still on the shore getting ready) shouted ‘Oh my God!’ and pointed in front of us – there was a turtle, right in front of us, only about 10m away. We both dived into the water and shot straight out there, Caitlin was not far behind us – but it had disappeared by the time we got there. We swam out beyond the rocks, and LiAM and I saw a blue-spotted ray hiding in under a ledge (my first ray of the trip, I was very excited). Back along the coral towards where Tony was on the shore, and saw lots more – every time we go out it’s as good as the last time, there’s so much going on under the water, fish eating and chasing each other and swimming around, interacting at times or going about their own business as if no one else was there. It was much easier swimming with my flippers, even though the blisters hurt a fair bit when I put them on. Once I was in the water though I didn’t notice them at all.

Millie came in for one more quick snorkel, then I took the others out again for a lap, and then we’d all had enough. Feeling very happy that we’d seen lots of cool things again, we headed back to the car. We stopped off at Bloodwood Creek on the way back to camp and walked up to the small lookout there. There was a bit of water in the creek although it wasn’t flowing, and there were a few birds around. We walked over to the beach and the kids and I decided to walk back, our beach was really not far. So Tony drove the car and the rest of us wandered back along the beach and rocks. The shoreline here was a series of low rocky outcrops, with small crescents of white sandy beaches in between. There were lotts more of the moss covered rocks on the edge of the larger rocks, interesting rockpools and holes in the rocks that we walked over, beautiful white sand with shells and fascinating driftwood in between each rocky part. The dunes to our left were covered in low bushes – great for LiAM to hide behind when he ran ahead, then jump out of as we came past.

Back at camp Tony was using up some leftovers for dinner – bread and eggs and bacon and maple syrup for some delicious French Toast. Caitlin and Millie went and talked to the guy with the guitar again, and they offered the girls a Harry Potter book that they didn’t want (The Deathly Hallows). Millie eagerly accepted it and then sat looking at the words while we ate our tea, she was very excited to have her own copy of a Harry Potter book. We finished eating then grabbed our drinks again and headed up to the tables for sunset. The sunset itself wasn’t as spectacular tonight, but the company was great once again. Caitlin took my camera up and asked the camp hosts about our nocturnal visitor from the night before – it was a Western Antichenus – I’ve always wanted to see one in the wild so was very pleased that it had chosen to visit us. We chatted with the camp hosts and some of the other couples, then with the other homeschooling family again. All the kids played on the beach again, having races and exploring the rocks until it was dark. The wind had died down by now and it was quite pleasant. We weren’t the only ones who had had a disturbed night, everyone was commenting on the wind and the lack of sleep that had resulted.

We gradually drifted back down to our sites and we got ready for bed. The stars were amazing again and I got my tripod out and took some photos – more successfully than last time I tried (at Devils Marbles) – I still need more practice though. Millie and I went to bed first and started reading her Harry Potter book, she asked me to show her where I was reading and she read the words that she knows (that’s how Caitlin started reading too, with the first Harry Potter book). We did that for a while, then the others came in and we read Inheritance for a short while before everyone crashed.

Half-lap Day 78: Karajini

LiAM woke up a few times, freezing, because his blankets kept sliding off and he’d just be in his sleeping bag. He still wasn’t feeling well and was a bit miserable. It was a gorgeous morning when I got up a little after sunrise – still cold, but clear and fresh.

Once everyone was up we had breakfast and Caitlin rode her bike around the campsite and the other loops in the campground. Millie and LiAM played hide and seek with the 4 year old they’d met yesterday, then the girls got Millie’s toys out again and played on the picnic rug until the other girl had to go.  I played with Millie for a while, I was the mother to all the toys and was giving them names.

We’d been looking at the maps and slowly working out what we wanted to do for the day, and eventually packed food and swimmers and put hats and sunscreen on and set off. We walked through our camping loop and the next one, and then to a look out over the Circular Pool. On the way we saw several (very cute) little lizards sunning themselves on rocks. I’d heard that the gorges suddenly appear in front of you as you walk, and that was true. Suddenly up ahead we could see a large gap in the ground, and as we got closer to the lookout the depth became more apparent, and all we could say was ‘Woah!’. Even Tony felt some vertigo as he came close to the edge, it dropped straight down about a hundred metres, and the gorge wasn’t very wide before it climbed sheerly up the other side. We could see the Circular Pool from here and it looked gorgeous, surrounded by moss and ferns. People were swimming in it and walking around and we were keen to get down there. We walked to the next lookout which looked out over a junction in the gorge – it was called Three Ways Lookout and we could see the 3 directions that the gorge took from that point. We could also see the path down to the bottom of the gorge – it didn’t look as steep as I was worried it would be (it was marked on the map as very difficult).

A vertigo inducing view of the Circular Pool

We started down the path, it was rocky and windy but not hard. People coming up seemed to be struggling a little and I was glad that we’d chosen to go down here and come up at the other end. At the bottom of the gorge we walked in towards Circular Pool, and the track did get a fair bit harder – the rocks here were like slabs laid on top of each other, and most of the track was walking up and down natural steps in these rocks, to get along to the end of the gorge. We had to cross the water at one stage, it was very shallow here, just flowing over the flat rocks, and there were stepping stones so we didn’t need to get wet.

Walking along the bottom of the gorge

 We reached the end and it was just as beautiful as it had looked from the top. A deep green pool surrounded by the end of the gorge, with ferns and moss along one side, where water was running into the pool. We’d heard it was very cold, but were all keen to swim anyway. Tony went in first and swore as he came up the first time. Caitlin went in next, she’s pretty good with cold water but said this was really cold. They swam over to the waterfall and said the water there was a bit warmer, they sat on the rocks with the water running over them and felt a bit more comfortable. Millie and I tried to go in, I lifted her over the edge of the water (it was quite rocky) and put her on a flatter part of the bottom – she said it was too cold and asked me to take her straight out. She went and got changed and sat in the sun talking to some ladies who had just got out of the water.

Looking up from the Circular Pool

I went the rest of the way in and it was seriously cold. I swam over to the waterfalls and the water was slightly less cold as it ran over the rocks. I let it flow over my head, while Tony and Caitlin sat up on the rocks. LiAM walked the long way around the edge of the pool and reached the ledge above where we were, and went into the waterfall water that way. There was a ledge he could stand on and have the water fall right over his body. He climbed down to the waters edge after a while, and Caitlin climbed up to the ledge. I’d helped her climb up and then was treading water near the rocks, I helped LiAM get down and then my muscles started to burn, all over my body, so I swam back to the edge and got out. The others stayed in a bit longer then eventually made their way out of the water as well. I was changed and in the sun and feeling much warmer.

After the others got out, Millie decided she would like to have a swim. She got changed, and then some people that we’d met at De Grey (and then seen again at Port Hedland – siblings from England who have been working their way around Australia, they have a dog that the kids loved), arrived at the pool. We chatted to them for a while, and Millie tried to get in the water. Another family arrived and got in as well, then Caitlin started chatting to the kids and got back in with them. Tony went back in and helped Millie get over to the waterfall, and Caitlin and the other girl swam over. The boy wanted to get to the waterfall as well and Tony came back and helped him over. The kids climbed on the rocks and sat or stood under the water for a while, then everyone got out and quickly got dressed and sat in the sun while we had a snack. We talked to the other family for a while, about places to stay on the West Coast and places we’d liked around Kununurra, then we headed back down the gorge.

Millie was cold and hungry and wanted to go back to the tent. She had a bit of fun jumping off some of the higher rocks on our way out, and ate some biscuits which helped a bit. We continued along the bottom of the gorge rather than climbing back up the top, and once Millie put her long pants back on she felt better again. A lollipop made things much happier as well. She and I walked at a slower pace at the others, playing alphabet games and chatting about what we could see. The first part of the gorge was pretty easy, then we crossed the water on stepping stones, and the next part was much harder. The path was very narrow, between the cliff face and the water. At times the only way along was to step from stone to stone through the water, next to the cliff, as the path disappeared entirely. A couple of steps were too long for Millie’s legs, I would stand on one stone with her then lift her across to the next one, then she could usually grab the cliff and step back on to the path from there. It was difficult but not dangerous – the water was shallow (only a couple of centimetres at most) so if we missed a step we’d get wet feet but not be harmed. There was a seam of blue asbestos at about head height at one point, which we carefully avoided.

Jumping off the rocks

At times the path widened out or we walked on large flat stones surrounded by water. It was beautiful all the way, lots of paperbark gums, tall red cliffs on either side, and fresh water trickling past, looking green from the reflections of all the trees. The rocks were still slab like, so the cliffs were very craggy as different levels had broken off at different points. We reached Fortescue Falls – the path led across the water at the base of the pool below the falls. It gave us a big range of views of the falls as we had to walk around half of the pool. We climbed up the terraced cliff on the side of the pool and found a flatish area to eat lunch, watching the waterfall. A few people went swimming and we considered it but the water didn’t look as nice, and the temperature was much lower than earlier in the day (it had become quite cloudy by now). After we’d eaten we decided to continue on to Fern Pool. I went via the falls and got some great close up photos, I was able to stand on some rocks looking straight in at the water falling above me, it was very cool.

Fortescue Falls

The walk in to Fern Pool was easier, along a dirt trail, past some huge trees. There were also trees growing in the cliff with all their roots exposed and hanging down, they looked very cool. The pool itself was lovely, so green and inviting looking, with a small waterfall on the other side. Caitlin got in quite quickly, and confirmed what we’d been told – it was cold, but not as cold as the Circular Pool (this pool would get sunlight on it for part of the day, the other pool probably gets none at all). I went in as well and it felt great, refreshing and so nice to be a large pool surrounded by all these cliffs. I could see fish under the platform as I climbed down the ladder. This pool was quite deep and surrounded by trees, very different to the other one. Caitlin came back in and we swam over to the waterfall – it was about 60m and Caitlin was a bit nervous in the deep water, but she made it easily. It was a little harder as we approached the falls because of the current. We climbed up on the rocks, and Caitlin went straight in to the ledge behind the waterfall. I sat at the base of the fall for a while, then very inelegantly clambered up to where Caitlin was and we sat comfortably for a while looking out through the falling water, it was very very cool. We climbed back down the rocks and swam back as fast as we could (Caitlin didn’t want to linger).

Millie was thinking of coming in now and LiAM had been in and out and now wanted to come to the falls with me. I was happy to help either of them but was getting cold so encouraged them to hurry up and decide who was going first. I was standing on the ladder and a fish bit my toe and I yelled, which amused everyone who was standing on the platform. LiAM came in and we swam back across to the falls. He was very nervous, it’s the furthest he’s swum without help (and I knew I couldn’t do it with him on my back) and there was weed in the water which was freaking him out (it was a bit spiky). Towards the end I swam side stroke and had one hand under his arm which helped him a bit, he felt much more secure if I was touching him. We reached the falls and he climbed up behind them and loved it there. I sat below the falls again and let them wash over me, while the fish nibbled at the dead skin and the sand fly bites on my skin.

Fern Pool

While we were sitting there we noticed the others talking to some people on the platform – it was our friends from Kings Canyon again! This gave LiAM the motivation to get back in the water, and I helped swim back across. I was doing most of the work with my legs this time and towards the end my left leg started to cramp just above the knee. I thought I was still going to take Millie into the water, but she was happy now playing with her friend and didn’t want to swim anymore.

I got out and stretched out the cramp and we caught up on each other’s news since Broome. We got dry and changed and walked back together, this time taking the stairs straight up from Fortescue Falls. The girls were having a fantastic time playing together and exploring the trail.  The mum offered to give Millie a lift back to our tent, and the son walked with us, everyone was happy with this arrangement. When we got to the tent we all sat down and had a wine and shared some chips and dip, and the girls played with Millie’s toys (they play in such a similar way, this worked much better than the games Millie had been trying to play with the other girl earlier in the day). They decided to have a picnic shop, so got some biscuits and nutella and drinks to snack on and sell to their animals at the shop.

We all sat and chatted for over an hour and had a lovely evening. Tony cooked dinner while we were talking, and once it was ready they headed back to their van to get their own dinner. We made tentative plans to do some walks together tomorrow, possibly with our oldest 2 going with them to do a harder walk and then meeting up later to do some more.

We ate and then got ready for bed. I walked the girls over to the toilet and on the way back Caitlin spotted an owl in a tree, very cool. My muscles were all aching by now after swimming so much in the cold, and the long long walk with lots of ups and downs for my knees. As I walked back into camp I thought I was stabbed by spinifex, but the pain just kept getting worse. I got Caitlin to shine the torch on my ankle and there was a HUGE ant with both its pincers and its stinger stuck fast into my skin, through my sock. Caitlin flicked it off with her torch and sprayed it for me with aloe vera, and found a cold wine bottle to hold against it. The pain receded after a while and I was able to continue getting ready for bed. Millie decided to sleep with us (she didn’t like the blanket wall that was still up in the tent I think) and we snuggled in and read Inheritance until everyone was very sleepy.