Outback Day 5: Mooooore Gorges!

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Mooooooore Gorges

The day started in the wee hours of the morning when I felt some raindrops though our tent (made mostly of mesh). It was only sprinkling but it felt like it would rain more so I decided to get our fly on. I heard our friend the cow freaking out as I decided to climb out to find the fly. After Sam and I got a fly, that we’ve never seen before, on and in a good position, I looked across all the tents in our camping area and saw a black shape moving. I reached out my arm and grabbed Sam. “Look I think it’s the cow” The black object was moving around the edge of the tents towards us. As it came around one of the tents on the end it started to look weird. It had spindly legs and a really wide area above that. Oh an emu! I thought. But then it kept coming closer. As it reached the troopie, about 20 ft from where I was standing, I burst out laughing. It was Cam carrying his sleeping bag on his shoulders to the troopie because of the rain. Hahahahahahahahah!!!

After breakfast while we were cleaning up/packing up/loading the troopies, the most beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky. It stretched from end to end directly over and around our campsite.

We packed up in the troopies and headed for Ormiston Gorge for our first long hike. (This was the place that we were going to hike in and camp overnight but the Park Wardens advised against it because of the amount of water we would require.) Speaking of water ours, from the last place we filled up, tasted like saliva and no one liked it. So we got rationed a tiny bit of Gatorade powder to try and mask the taste but it wasn’t perfect.

Our hike was approximately 7.1 k (4hrs) with some breaks included. We saw some of the most gorgeous scenery. We walked around a ridge, through a pound, and down a gorge to the most refreshing watering hole. I spent a lot of my time on the hike directly behind Lyndon having informative conversations and enjoying being able to keep up with the pack. ( I found that when I was even several people back I walked slower and felt more tired than when I was directly behind the guide at the front of the pack). We saw a lizard that Lyndon tried to catch but he was showing off because he let me get so close to take a picture. The water hole was very refreshing after such a long hike.

For lunch we had “Bucket Lunch” It consisted of stirring - chips, dorritos, beans, cream, lemon, taco seasoning, and avocado into a pot and putting it on mountain bread or leftover regular bread. It was surprisingly good despite it’s appearance.

After lunch we stopped back at Glen Helen gorge gift shop and everyone bought water so they didn’t have to drink poo (saliva tasting) water. They also got ice cream. I broke down and got a frozen yogurt cup. Yummy and refreshing.

Then we headed down a dirt road about 25k to Redbank gorge. We had a 20min hike to another watering hole. When you swam across this one you could climb/swim/climb/swim/climb through a set of pools through a gorge. It was spectacular and very slippery. We took a great picture of almost all of us clinging to the rock for dear life. We would have gone further but the water got very “manky.” Then we drove a little back in the park to our campsite. Our leaders cooked us pasta for dinner so I entertained myself by trying to make a bow and spindle to start a fire. Ricky and Hazi helped me make the tools. I saw burned wood and smelled it but it was dinner time and dark before I could try enough to succeed. I will though.

Lyndon’s question tonight was “My favorite watering hole was…and why…”

I said Redbank because I like how we helped and supported each other to survive on the slippery rocks.

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Photos

Rainbow @ Desert Camp
Here is the rainbow over our desert camp by the Finke river in the morning.

The view
Here is the view from one of the lookouts at Ormiston Gorge.

My Lizard friend
Here is my Lizard friend. It is one amazing photo because he let me get about 12 inches from him.

Ormiston Water Hole
Here is where the water hole was most refreshing at the end of our 4hr hike around Ormiston Gorge!

Redbank Water hole
After we climbed back through the gorge we all stopped to take a photo on the rocks.