A gorgeous day

 

Sunday 31 July 2022 -  A gorgeous day

It’s Sunday and so a sleep in followed by a cooked breakfast was in order.  It was then a short 4km drive back to Ormiston Gorge where we decided we were sufficiently bright eyed and bushy tailed to tackle the one and a half hour Ghost Gum loop trail.  This, similar to Trephina Gorge, involved a near vertical climb up the cliff face to the top of the gorge lookout before a long meandering walk down to the river and then a scramble along the river bed and sand back to the carpark.  We had seen the sign saying portion of the Pound Walk circuit was closed due to the recent flood and high water levels but didn’t realise that our Ghost Gum walk followed that same bit of loop that would be affected by water levels.  Consequently we did the hard yards up and over the cliff and down to the water’s edge (which took about an hour) only to discover the path ended up in the water once we got down into the gorge.  It looked a bit deep just to wade through and we weren’t really equipped for wetness with towels or quick dry clothing so there was nothing for it but to turn and retrace our steps up and up what had been a lovely meandering down path and then back down all of the steps to the carpark.  Consequently our one and half hour walk ended up being closer to two hours.  Lucky we had taken a backpack with water bottles etc with us.  It was a lovely walk though and not too hot so only a little bit of grumbling was required.

We made it back to the carpark, cafe, picnic area where we had a cuppa from our own thermos and decided not to buy the $10,000 aboriginal painting of the Larapinta trail even though it was quite nice but a) we haven’t actually hiked the trail and b) just a little out of our price range (and probably outside anyone’s who has actually hiked the trail).  There were cute Spinifex  pigeons darting under our picnic table but smaller and stripier – will have to Google what they are next time we have reception.

Back to the caravans for lunch and we cooked up some sausages I had defrosted a few days earlier that needed eating and Jenny had them with Larry’s least favourite thing – a tin of Heinz spaghetti  in cheesy tomato sauce.  Larry ate his plain!

We had decided to have a little siesta before heading off again and Jenny decided to update the blog before a nap but before she knew it, the hour was up and it was back in the car.  Having hunched over the keyboard for an hour J decided a little stroll into Redbank Gorge would probably suffice and was then convinced that an “easy 1km walk into the gorge’ was doable and so set off up the river bed. It quickly became apparent that the walk was anything but easy and involved trudging through river sand which slowly became rockier and rockier until even the best sure footed black footed rock wallaby would find it slow going.  Eventually deciding that going any further would probably result in having to defrost peas back at camp (see previous 2016 blogs), J&M found a couple of smooth rounded rocks for a sit down while L&H continued the last 100m or so up to the water at the end of the gorge.  From all reports it was no great loss as the water had the usual suspects of dead fish around the edge and at this gorge, they were particularly smelly and rotting.  So we were glad to have had a nice sit down in a non smelly part of the gorge and I can always watch Larry’s drone footage to see what I missed out on.

It was 5ish by the time we were driving back to camp (the one hour walk taking more like two) so it was a quick stop at Mt Sonder lookout which also overlooks our camp ground.  With the aid of the newly purchased binoculars we were able to spot our vans right up on the river bend and they looked so inviting it was time to head back there, relieve our feet of our trusty hiking boots and lighten the beer fridge a little further.

Bender dinner tonight of steak sandwiches and baked potatoes finished off in the coals of one of our best fires yet.  The evening was passed by Larry using the high powered torch to pick out the bats flying overhead.