And then there were four.

 

Sunday 13 June 2021 – And then there were four.

Another lazy lie in this morning.  Hendrik said he had been kept awake by fruit bats shaking their wings over head but they didn’t bother us.  H & M went off to church and us heathens stayed around camp and ate scrambled eggs made with the cream that needs eating up and then did some washing and cleaning etc. H & M were soon back and had done a quick shop at Coles so came home bearing fresh, crusty bread.  We decided to have early lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches then finished off the last couple of slices with butter and honey.  Yummo.

We set the back seat up in the Jeep for H & M and then headed off west towards Emma Gorge.  We were fortunate that our El Questro pass on the Jeep was still valid so we didn’t have to pay twice.  It was a much longer, hotter and rockier walk in to the gorge than Jenny had anticipated so it was probably about 3ish by the time we got to the pool and waterfall.  It really is spectacular and well worth the long clamber in.  Still early enough in the season for the water fall to be flowing as well as other minor falls of water through the lush green fernery that manages to claim a foothold on the sheer cliff edge.  The water was near freezing and it took a bit of bravery to get in.  The only reason I actually dived in was because my office soft feet couldn’t take one more step over the small, razor sharp rocks.  Some fast swimming strokes were required to stop the muscles cramping up and it certainly wasn’t the sort of temperature you would want to float around on a pool noodle so we were glad we hadn’t bothered lugging them all the way in. 

So after our hour long hike (we assume as none of us took note but that’s the guestimate) about 15 minutes at the pool was long enough and, as we had a dinner booking for 5pm at the PumpHouse, we figured we better start the long trek home.  As usual it was a shorter trip out – a combination of cooler, wet clothes and the feeling that it’s all down hill (plus the dinner booking looming) probably sped us up a bit.

Well we zoomed home and got back to the vans at about 4.40pm so it was a quick wipe down to get the worst of the mud and dust off and a change of clothes and then we made sure we earned our dinner by walking up to the PumpHouse (yes, yes it’s only about 300m away as the crow flies from our caravans but we had to walk all the way back to the caravan entrance first as there are no pedestrian gates this end of the park, so more like a 900m walk).  So we didn’t feel too guilty hoeing into garlic bread and Belgian fries (not very Belgian according to H) and drinkies whilst we watched the sun go down.  We then thought 2 pizzas between 4 would be sufficient but they were quite small so we were easily talked into 2 dessert pizzas afterwards.  These were particularly scrummy with an apple crumble type topping which the waiter then liberally drowned in brandy before setting light to them. 

It was a lovely setting and we were so glad we had booked there (and hence scored a water side table) but the bugs were industrious and even the restaurant turning off most of the lights didn’t deter them so we headed back to the caravans in the pitch dark and then were stunned to realise we were home by 6.30!

                                            

We sat around the van and had some more drinks but then L & J had to be a bit anti social as the Eagles were losing to Richmond but then, miraculously started to fight back and ended up winning the game and Kate, who had used our tickets to go to the game with Jordan started messaging “OMG”  “OMG MUM” “I SAID KICK IT TO ME JOSH AND HE DID!!” and the Eagles had won by 4 points so that was an excellent end to an excellent day.