Wednesday 10 July 2013
Manning Gorge
Up at 6am although for some reason I had to get up 3 times
during the night to relieve the bladder. Both boys had a good sleep. Again the
night was very warm with little if any wind. Breakfast was a treat with toasted
hamburger buns and baked beans. Housekeeping done with all pitching in. We still have concerns with our low battery
power – given our limited generator times and continued usage by the fridge we
cannot fully charge the battery.
We decided to stay another night and Paul paid the $36 – the
cost being reduced for a second night of $12 pp. We decided to hike to Manning
Gorge – it was a good 2 km across the river over fairly open ground. The
descent into the gorge was steep but relatively short. The scenery in and
around the gorge was beautiful and there was plenty of water in the falls. We
decided to go for a swim – several people were in the pool enjoying themselves
and given that we were hot after our hike we quickly jumped in. The water was
extremely cold but so refreshing. After 30 seconds the body adjusts and you
start to enjoy it. We swam out to the waterfall and then through it where we found
a ledge and just sat there taking in the amazing views. Given that we could not
take our cameras we all visualised the site for later recollection.
We hiked back to camp before lunch and enjoyed boiled eggs
and salad. We decided to do some exploration of other gorges in the area along
the Gibb so we backtracked 30km and then a further 5km off the Gibb to Adcock
Gorge. The track in was ok except for the last 200m. We had to engage 4wd high
range as a long water crossing was required. Rob walked through the water to
check on depth – I’m sure he had his eyes out for crocs. Only one other 4 WD
was in location with several young blokes swimming in the gorge. The gorge to
me was a little disappointing as the waterfall was no longer flowing. We had a
quick look as we were a little concerned that the boys who had returned to
their car were just hanging around – I did not trust them as the back of the
Nissan cannot be secured – it just has a tonneau cover. Anyway nothing
eventuated.
We then drove back to the Gibb and proceeded to Galvans
Gorge which was located only about 5km from Mt Barnett. The walk into the gorge
was about 1km so we parked the car on the side of the Gibb and walked in. The
gorge is on the itinerary for tour operators as there were a heap in the gorge
swimming. We did not swim but we took several photos as the site was very
picturesque. We decided to have a swim at our campsite but before this we
stopped off at Mt Barnett for a resupply. We also phoned our wives – all
successful with making contact. We also had a cold drink of Lemon softdrink –
it has never tasted better. We purchased eggs, sausages, biscuits, coke (for
the scotch) with only cans available. ($50 for the lot).
I commenced cooking chile con carne when we returned. It
proved to be a hit and was enjoyed by all. We had a few scotch and cokes and
finished off the cask of red. It was a 4 litre cask of Debortoli Cab Merlot and
I must say for a cask from Dan Murphys it proved to be a real hit. In our
cleanup we found that 4 containers of long life milk had been contaminated with
air entry so these had to be tossed out. There must have been too much movement
in the containers. We decided to stay another night and not to visit Mt
Elizabeth – from the travel manuals there did not appear to be too much other
than tours and an upmarket accommodation at the station. We also decided to see
if anybody was checking the site so we did not pay the caretaker after our
decision to stay.
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