Day 70 - Canoeing at Mornington with the Huxtables

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Canoeing at Mornington was offered so we jumped at the chance and booked the Dimond Gorge. We picked up the paddles and bouyancy vests from reception and travelled to the gorge (approximately one hours drive). We parked the cruiser at the top of the hill and grabbed our gear and lunch and set off to find the canoes.

When we arrived there seemed to be a family who had returned from their trip and were having a swim. Actually, their canoe had capsized taking their lunch to the bottom of the river!

We were a little surprised that the girls (Alexandria, Amelia and Freya) were not upset (or even crying) after such a horrible surprise. Mum (Felicity) and Dad (Dan) handled it beautifully and the girls were now taking the capsize in their stride looking for the remains of their lunch and having a joke.

By this stage, we had launched our canoe and were having a little practice upstream. When we came back to the canoe launching area, the Huxtables were almost ready to relaunch (2 adults and 3 children) in one canoe. It made sense for us to offer to take one of the children.

So we offered and Alexandria (Ally) came and joined our crew. We set off down the gorge and the wind was quite strong allowing us to paddle at quite a speed. We checked out the scenery on the sides of the gorge and asked Ally about her family and school etc. You might notice that Ally wears a Fremantle Dockers cap - she was pretty happy at the time. Freo had not been beaten! After some rests, we reached the end of the gorge where we stopped for lunch. There was just enough food for all of us but some ants wanted to share!

After lunch and some exploring of the area, it was time to pack up and set off home. We had a stiff headwind to contend with and progress was quite slow (especially if we got a little off course and the wind pushed us sideways). Soon we could see a pile of rocks that we had to navigate through. We took a shortcut (shortcut Ally we called it) which allowed us to draw level with the Huxtables canoe and, instantly, a race was on! WA v Tasmania in the Kimberley Olympics

We all paddled flat out but was Ally paddling backwards? I think the race was a dead heat (possibly because Gorgi yelled out that we had a hostage child on board!). We were very hot so we cooled off with a swim while the Huxtables packed up their gear.

We hope the Huxtables enjoyed their day - we certainly did. Thanks Ally :-)

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Photos

Ally Huxtable
Ally did a fabulous job looking after the camera (when it wasn't being used)

Rapids at end of the canoe trip
This was our lunch stop

Lenny and Georgi cool off
in the Fitzroy River at Dimond Gorge

Sunset on the King Leopold Range
On the way back to camp

Comments

[Felicity and Dan Huxtable]

Thank you
Hi Lenny and Georgi We love your blog. Thanks for sharing it with us. It was fabulous to read about our day with you- which was fantastic and about all your other days at Mornington. It really is a very special place:) You are lovely people and very fast canoers! We look forward to following more of your adventures on the blog. Cheers Felicity, Dan, Ally, Amelia and Freya

[LennyGeorgi]

Canoeing with the Huxs
Hi Huxs, We really enjoyed our day canoeing with you guys. It was a big highlight of our travels on the GRR. Would love to see you again one day. Cheers, Lenny and Georgi