Apparently very important people came to El Questro today.
We were notified at 6am by a light aircraft flying over the camp grounds. After
the unwelcome wake up call, I got out of bed, to find mum and Larry in the van,
fiddling away on their electronics, apparently awoken by it too.
After eating a brief, and not very exciting breakfast
(toast), we headed off, toward Zebedee Thermal Spring. It was Larry's turn this
time to play the role of the martyr, as before we left, he searched through the
entire caravan for his Rash-vest, before deciding that someone must've stolen
said rash-vest. For the entire drive to the spring, Larry and mum 'discussed'
the whereabouts of Larry's piece of missing apparel. With mum deciding that it
must be in the back of the car, and Larry deciding that another man now owned a rash-vest.
Arriving at Zebedee Spring, Larry opened the back of the car
to practically have his rash-vest fall onto him (to mum's internal [but
incredibly visible] 'I told you so'). Making our ways to the thermal springs
was a short walk compared to what we have come to expect. It was made much more
accessible to the general public, by wooden bridges that flexed over small
creeks that may make your shoes a bit muddy. The thermal springs were
incredibly popular, as we already knew, but we now knew the reason as to why it
is so popular. The warm water, scenic views (there's huge cliffs surrounding
you), and variety of palms and ferns, made for much different scenery than we have seen
before. Although popular, we managed to find a small spot for us to sit in,
with only a small family who came to share the spot (although neither Larry nor
mum seemed to mind, as the other family were willing to talk about caravans).
After spending around an hour at Zebedee Springs, we headed
off for our next location, El Questro gorge. It was decided that with a wounded
party member, we wouldn't do the entire hike (a good 6km worth), and instead
just walk to the 'Halfway' pool. Packing our bags, we headed off, with Larry
and mum wearing their reef-shoes and hiking boots, and me, wearing thongs.
After around 500 metres, I came to the conclusion that said
thongs (that now had torn around the front plug, enough for the thong to no
longer stay on the foot), that I would do what I could bare-foot, and do the
rest in my thongs, being careful to not have my foot slide out, and for me to
fall into the water.
I got several comments on how 'brave' I was doing it in
thongs, by a group of APT hikers (complete in their water proof shoes, gaiters,
non-tear fabric pants, Kakadu hike shirts, wide brim sun-hats, tinted cycling
glasses, and hiking poles). Personally, I found that I was much more
comfortable doing it underdressed, rather than looking like I just came from
the latest Kakadu catalogue.
I finally got to the halfway pool, and I realised this had
been the first hike without hearing a single complaint from Larry, and EVEN
mum!!! This had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I had sped off,
leaving them to do their own things (I just wanted to get to the halfway point,
and wade a bit). With them finally catching up, we draped our towels over a
rock (claiming possession of said rock [for the duration of our stay]), and got
wading. It was an interesting little location, with a small pond formed by
flowing water, that was surprisingly deep. There was a giant boulder at the
opposite side from where we had came from, and that I decided I wanted to get
on top of.
On either side of the boulder were small waterfalls, and to
get up on the boulder, you needed to climb through the waterfall. The hardest
part about this, was that I decided I was going to wear glasses that day, and
suffered the consequence of getting a whole lot of water on my glasses, as I
lifted myself up the waterfall. Once at the top, I was somewhat disappointed
with the lack of view, and decided that it wasn't worth my time staying up here
(especially with the hint that my sandwiches were possibly being consumed by
Larry). Slowly, and as carefully as I could manage, I slid myself down the
somewhat smooth side of the boulder. Slipping, I found myself sliding directly
toward a little girls back. Doing what I could to avoid the little girl, I
tried my hardest to slide as far left as I possibly could. To the shock of the
little girl, I splashed around a metre away from her, quickly surfacing,
apologising, grabbing my glasses before I lost them, and swimming away from the
boulder (and toward food).
After eating my food, I had one last swim, dried myself,
helped a mother who was carrying one too many pairs of shoes to navigate the
rocks, before setting off. The journey
was much the same (not helped by the fact I was going the same route in
reverse), although this time there was slightly less polite APT people walking
past. When one man, dressed to the teeth in designer camping wear commented on
how nice my boots were (I was barefoot at this moment), I quickly responded
with "thanks, my mum gave them to me". Silently proud of myself, I continued on,
listening to the sound of carrying laughter, as his other group members enjoyed
the exchange.
Getting to a relatively smooth area, I decided that I would
try out my mended thongs (As one of the plugs was slipping through the rubber,
I decided that I would knot a used sandwich bag around the plug, so as to
increase the diameter of the plug [think of it like a pea may fall through a
cut in a bag, but a basketball wont]). The sandwich bag did the trick, and my
thongs stayed on my feet for the remainder of the trip. Waiting for mum and
Larry to catch up, Larry soon joined up, with news that mum had managed to stub
her toe again (the bruised one from yesterday), and that she was in a fantastic
mood about it. Larry parked the car as close as he could to the exit, and
waited. The storm arrived, bringing with it thoughts of my sister after a tough
hockey game. Like a repeat of yesterday, we waited out the storm, and it was
soon calm again. We came back to the campsite, defrosted the peas again, and relaxed.
After relaxing for a while, we decided that ice creams would
be nice, and so would a bit of ELQ merchandise. Waking Larry from his slumber,
we headed down to the store, and bought 3 ice creams, a key ring, and a stubby
holder for me. Eating our ice creams,
mum and Larry madly checked sports, politics and the weather, while I checked
to see how many notifications, before deciding that I didn't really care too
much (I can always drain the internet at night), and just sat and watched the
kitchen staff madly dashing about.
Once done with our ice creams, we soon headed off toward
Chamberlain gorge, to watch the sunset, and for Larry to do some fishing (this
time with a reel). We arrived there, quickly deciding that the view was rather
underwhelming, although we stayed. Larry moo'd as a tightly packed boat, full
of a tour group arrived, looking similar to a cattle truck (hence the mooing)
The arrival of the group meant that they
had likely scared off all the fish that may have previously been
swimming around us. The arrival of a second boat, this time only holding 3 people
(who we assume consisted of a couple from the resort and their guide). Said
couple from the resort made polite conversation with us, as their guide tied up
the boat. once secured, the trio said their farewells, and soon left us alone,
so we could enjoy the sunset. The sunset was rather pretty, although not as
drastic as other ones we have seen (due mainly to the fact that the light
couldn't change the colour of the rock face, as there was another rock-face
blocking the light).
Once done there, we headed back to camp, and had spaghetti
Bolognese (that had been cooked last month [and frozen]). After dinner, we
watched a movie on the Television, that I had set up previously, and went to
bed soon after.
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