Thursday 1 July 2021 – Snakes Alive!
We were very cosy with the extra layer of sleeping bag sleeping much better and only being disturbed by distant dingo howls once again. It was cold enough to warrant porridge for breakfast and cool enough for us to decide that the day should involve hiking only in the morning and any potential swimming/wetting ourselves in pools could wait til the day got warmer.
We headed off in the Jeep up to the Circular Pool lookout and confirmed that the walk down into the gorge was indeed closed due to recent rockfalls. Indeed as you stood at the lookout and look at the surrounding vertical cliff faces it was abundantly clear where bits had given way. We were happy just to do the Gorge Rim walk which takes you along the gorge rim (ha, funny that) between Circular Pool and Fortescue Falls with various lookout points along the way. Hendrik alarmed Miranda numerous times by hovering way too close to the edge for Miranda’s comfort and at one point (where there is the hidden ‘staircase’ down to Circular Pool) completely startled both Miranda and Jenny but appearing to leap over the edge (but obviously only onto the first step of the staircase which we couldn’t see). Nerves only slightly frayed we reached the Fortescue Falls lookout and headed back the way we came.
All went well for the first half of the walk back until Jenny, who had somehow made it to the front of the line and was negotiating a rocky climb through a gully suddenly decided to look up a little way up the path instead of just at the next step and saw a huge snake about two steps away. With only a small shriek and a giant leap backwards into Larry’s arms (who failed to catch her and let her fall on the rocks) the danger of squishing the snake was averted. Our expert snake handler who was with us (Larry) declared it to only be a black headed python and hence not lethal but the bloody thing was over two metres long and hence a wide and cautionary path was beaten around it. It slowly slithered off the path but not before some photographic evidence was taken.
Back to the car and we headed back to the caravans for morning tea which then turned into lunch as we pottered around camp. Now that we are starting to run out of supplies and there is not so much stuff in the freezer, Jenny found the other container of frozen khaki soup (vegetable soup but the green veg in it makes it a particularly unappealing shade of khaki) so that was defrosted for lunch as it is cool enough in the Pilbara where the idea of soup for lunch can be contemplated.
A little snooze after lunch and then we all reconvened at 2pm to tackle the hike into Fortescue Falls and a swim as we figured this was as warm as they day was going to get (about 24 degrees C). They have built a pretty sturdy set of steps down into the gorge but to reach the water from the bottom of the staircase takes a bit of clambering down the rock face but as this has natural steps it’s not too onerous although the number of wet spots makes you go carefully. There were a few people in the water so we knew we wouldn’t actually die of hypothermia but it was still pretty bracing and it took a bit of bravery to get in. We swam across to the falls and back again and felt that was pretty much as much cold water as we needed to immerse ourselves in and got out again. That took a bit of doing as the rocks by the edge were very slippery – getting in had been an easy slide in on them – getting back up smooth slippery rocks was a bit more of a challenge!
When we eventually regathered and dried off we climbed back up the rocks to the bottom of the staircase and then discovered the off-shoot path to Fern Pool. This was a relatively easy 300m path further upstream. At one point we all sniffed and thought it smelt a bit like being at the zoo and then looked up to see hundreds of flying foxes up in the trees just hanging out and enjoying the sunshine. Onwards to Fern Pool and there was a little jetty and steps down into a very lovely pool with a gently flowing waterfall. As we were already wet and everyone assured us this pool was warmer than Fortescue Falls we all had another swim and although still cool, it was definitely warmer than our first swim. Portion of the pool was even in the sun so we had a much more leisurely swim and enjoyed the beautiful surrounds (for Miranda and Jenny this meant the ferns and the waterfall; for the boys it meant the English girl in the itsy-bitsy bikini).
Now was the part Jenny had been dreading – the climb back up the metal staircase to the carpark. I was surprised to negotiate the first 100 steps without any trouble at all. The next 100 were a little more difficult and I was happy to stop at the couple of platforms along the way to take photos and have a little breather. The last 87 to 88 steps (not sure exactly, although I was counting the lactic acid had started to build up and my heart beat was thumping in my head) were a bit harder. Happy to reach the top and admire the view one last time before we headed back to the car and back to camp.
A nice hot shower and into some warm clothes and then L&J cooked dinner. Rather than juggle things on and off the marine cooker we decided we would finally christen the oven in the van and cook the beef brisket in that. After the cold night last night we had no issues with heating up the van a little bit during the evening! It took a little while for the hot, new metal smell to be overtaken by the smell of brisket but eventually dinner smelt appetising and we cooked up potato wedges and freshly shucked corn outside, made a salad with the rest of the salad veggies and a very nice dinner was had (the brisket came in a box from Woolies with a barbeque bourbon sauce – highly recommend).
I had left the camembert on top of the kitchen counter so it was nice and runny to have with crackers for dessert. It didn’t seem quite as cold tonight – maybe because we were doing the cooking – but we were still glad to have the double layer on when we went to bed.
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