Thursday, 14 October 2010

We got up early this morning ready for our big walking day. We quickly said goodbye to the Jordan’s as they were heading into Tom Price to pick up a spare tyre and then head off to Hamersley Gorge. We drove over to the Weano Day Use Area, about 40kms away from camp. The first gorge we walked was Hancock. It starts as steps down into the gorge, before a ladder takes you to the bottom. You then follow the gorge along climbing on the edges around water pools arriving at the Amphitheatre. Elokin and Hendrix had both walked all the way to this point by themselves with a little assistance from Nathan and I. Here Nathan put Hendrix in the carrier to go through Spider walk, a narrow section with water flowing in the centre. He took the kids and they slid down it like a slippery slide. I was carrying camera gear, so I walked like a spider along the edges. At the end we arrived at Kermit’s Pool. Nathan carried Hendrix around the rock wall, before taking off the carrier and leaving him in it to come back and get Elokin. She swam to the other side with him. Hendrix did end up getting out and going for a swim as well. After some photos, we climbed back through spider walk to the Amphitheatre to have a snack before retracing our steps back to the car park for lunch. Nathan carried Hendrix back as it was quicker, although Hendrix was unimpressed that he didn’t get to climb back up the ladder. Elokin walked in and out herself and put some older people to shame.

After a quick lunch stop and a photo upload to the laptop, we walked to Weano Gorge. Hendrix was in the carrier for the walk this time to make it a bit quicker and easier for us. Elokin walked the whole way again with just a bit of assistance. Again, this gorge starts out as steps down to the bottom. You then walk around the edges of some water pools again, or if you prefer walk through them and get a bit wet. After going through some narrow sections we arrived at the Handrail Pool, which is as it suggests, is a handrail that curves around and down to the edge of a pool. Once down there we all went swimming and waited for the pool to empty out before I took some more photos. We then retraced our steps back to the top and into the car. Hendrix fell asleep on the walk through the gorge and stayed asleep until we were almost back at camp. It didn’t take Elokin long to fall asleep as well, so when we stopped off at Joffre and Knox Gorge lookouts, Nathan and I took it in turns to go and have a look. Joffre would have a waterfall after rain and it would look so much better than it did today. Knox Gorge just looks like another gorge to us now; I think we are gorged out.

Back at camp we cooked dinner before everyone climbed into bed well before me. I stayed up to play around with photos and to do some organisation on the laptop.

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.