On top of the world

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DAY 182


Despite our promises of an early night last night inadvertently turned out to be a late one, a young woman who was parked next to us got chatting, Andy offered her a cup of tea as after some chatting we found out that Liz had no means of cooking or even boiling water for a cup of tea.

We were sitting around chatting (actually I was less chatty as I was finishing the blog off ready to publish), a while later Kirsty and Andrew joined us and it was another round of tea’s and Andy’s jokes seem to keep Kirsty laughing, I think a new found audience is good for Andy as all of his old jokes can get laughed at again.

So we did not get into bed until around 11.00 but thankfully there was no alcohol involved to make getting up in the morning harder.

We both had a restless night, the wind was strong, the tent kept billowing and we kept hearing noises as things clattered around outside.

The alarm went off at 6.00am (oh no, it felt far too early and it was still dark!), I jumped out of bed, and got the kettle on, our Camelbak had been made up, the additional drinks, first aid kit and bits and pieces were already packed ready to go.

We were off to walk the loop this morning, which is in situated in Kalbarri National Park, and as we wanted to get a good start on the day, we needed to be away fairly sharpish.

Yesterday, we went to reccy the walk and it was most probably mid to late 30’s in temperature at around 11.00 in the morning, it is usually 10 degree’s hotter in the gorge so we needed to be prepared and get most of the walk done before it got too hot.

Leaving the camp site at 7.00 am we were off the bitumen at 7.15 with a 30 kilometre corrugated sand road all the way up to the start of the walk. The morning was looking beautiful though it was still windy, the sun was fairly low in the sky and was blinding as we negotiated the roads.

In Kalbarri National Park there is no camping allowed or the rangers hand out instant fines if they “catch you”, however when we pulled in there were two cars who had made no attempt to disguise the fact that they had stayed the night there. In other words if they were smart about it then they would have been up early and made it look as if they had just arrived for an early walk.

Parking the truck, we put on our hiking boots, our hats and rucksacks and set off noting that it was exactly 8.01am.

After “Natures Window” we pick up the white markers that will direct us to the ridge, but before we get onto the ridge a Caution sign is obvious and states that you should turn back now if: you are not confident with heights, you are not cautious, you don’t have enough water (3 litres minimum each), if you are not reasonably fit, if you have not got the correct footwear (i.e. closed in hiking boots). We were ok with all of this so on we hiked.

“The loop”, is a class 4 walk and starts and ends at “Natures Window” running along the top of the rocky ridge giving an excellent perspective of the Murchison river below. The views from the top were truly stunning, we found the going fairly good.

We were hoping to see a Thorny Devil today as apparently they are in abundance in the National Park, but early on we see a Nanny Goat and her Kid, once we were further in along the ridge we see a Kangaroo and its Joey. They know we are there they watch us as much as we watch them, when they get bored they hop off into the bush.

Eventually the walk takes us down the cliffs and we descend on to one of the beaches, this view is just beautiful, we are in the gorge on sand where some red gums offer shade from the already hot sun. We walked along the beach until it ran out and we picked up the rocky overhang, which does overhang the water the white markers tell you roughly which way to go, however the signage does say it is not a defined path so you do have to work some bits out for yourself.

We sit down under one of the overhangs (for shade), for a short breather a biscuit and something to drink. When it is time to move on we find that we are at an impass where the only thing we could do was to scale about 4ft of rock.

Hmm, this could pose a problem and we pondered if it was a point where we should turn back or can we get over this rock? Andy looked to see if we could crawl underneath an overhang, the bit Andy crawled along was itself an overhang and below was just water, this was the problem.

A moment or two later we see a man coming along the beach and as he gets to us we ask him about getting around, fortunately he has done this walk before and he explained how and where we should get up. Not far behind him his girlfriend appears and with ease she scales this rock.

With her advice I put my hand on the rocky surface above which gives me a good hold, then with Andy’s help my feet find something to rest on and I lever myself up this rock face. Quickly followed by Andy we thank this couple for their help and on we go. This couple are not hanging around (she has a bus to catch apparently so they need to get done), and off they yomp into the distance, while Andy and I pick our way over the rocks stopping for the occasional photo or just simply to admire this fantastic scenery that is right in front of us.

All of those millions of years that it took to layer the rock and the millions of years it took for the water to carve its way through making this tremendous gorge so full of colour from the many layers.

If you look closely then you can see where the level of the water used to be and in fact at one point we seem to be walking on the riverbed, where deadwood had obviously floated down the river and trapped itself on other obstacles, the ground below us was a mixture of sand and rock. The sand made it hard for hiking through it felt like we had lead weights in our boots and we were walking on the moon.

I am not sure how high the river is supposed to get in the rainy season, however some of the markers for the walk I am sure must get submerged when the river rises, so perhaps they close the walk sometimes. Otherwise perhaps it has not been that high in years.

The day was getting hotter and every now and again we stop for a drink and a rest in the shade. We are thankful for our fly nets, oh perhaps I should have mentioned these earlier. When we did a reccy yesterday we found the flies to be quite a nuisance (we may have mentioned those bl**dy flies!!!), and considering a number of people were walking around with fly nets over their hats, we just had to go and buy some. So for $8.75 each we had an 8 kilometre walk in relative comfort without having to continually swat flies. Yes they were on our arms, legs, sat on our clothing but as long as they are not in your face you don’t really care.

When we would stop for a biscuit we would hold the biscuit inside the net in the vain hope that no fly would be clever enough to work out a way in, for the best part that seemed to work but as we were nearing our destination both Andy and myself found a fly had managed to sneak in!

It was hot, we were enjoying the walk, but really now looking forward to getting back to the top and into our lovely lovely air-conditioned truck. We came round the river bend and we see high above us “Natures Window”, yes the end was insight. Knowing that when we got back to that point we only had about 500metres walk left.

So now we would leave the edge of the river and start walking gradually back up the incline using the white markers for guidance and picking our way through fallen rock looking for the sturdy ones to stand on. Before we knew it we were back on the top ridge and back at “Natures Window”.

Wow, we made it, well nearly, we still had 500 metres to go. I remembered that yesterday when we came down to Natures Window we saw a young girl wearing a bikini and thongs (flip flops), nothing else just sunglasses, no hat, no t-shirt etc.

Now, maybe I am starting to sound my age, but this environment is unfriendly it is hot and it can get exceptionally hot as we mention before that the gorge is usually 10 degrees hotter than the temperature at the top. There are warning signs that this place has floored even very fit people. “Heat Stroke can kill” there is no question about it.

This girl has made no effort to protect herself from the sun and the searing heat, with a group of young lads (who I hasten to add are wearing shorts and t-shirts), not one of them carrying a bottle of water, they venture down into the gorge, oh yes no sensible footwear just wearing thongs (flip flops).

Although it is not summer, these temperatures will still catch you out, the temperature is still in its 30’s despite being 2 weeks off winter. Even if you intend on swimming at the bottom of the gorge, the terrain is so uneven to walk on it would be too easy to stumble at the most inopportune moment, lets face it I am expert on that matter remembering my face dive into the boardwalk on Cradle Mountain and I was wearing the appropriate gear, this is not the terrain to be messing around with.

Everybody we bumped into yesterday commented on the girl in the bikini, well all the women commented how stupid she was being (killing yourself for a suntan is not worth it) but most of the guys could not possibly comment while their tongues remained hanging out on the deck.

We bumped into Liz a little bit further up from Natures Window, stopping briefly for a chat, before our final ascent to the top and back to the car park. Phew we made it the time was 12.20, a little bit over 4 hours, but we knew that we may take a while longer because we stop frequently to admire the scenery and take in our surroundings and of course taking plenty of photos.

On the way back to camp a bird flew out in front of us but unfortunately it got caught in the down draught and was pulled underneath the truck, in the mirror was sadly a pile of feathers laying in the middle of the road. I felt very sad about that, especially that is the second bird that we have hit recently, only a few day ago a big white bird glanced off the windscreen causing a big smudge, but we could not see what happened to the bird.

Back at camp it was time for a refreshing cup of tea, a shower and the rest of the afternoon sat around reading a book, oh what bliss!

This evening we asked Liz if she wanted to join us for dinner so late afternoon she appeared with a bottle of wine, Coke and some Tim Tams. Liz sat with us for a cup of tea while we all lazed around reading.

When it got dark we went and cooked dinner, one of Andy’s delicious pasta meals with Chorizo and Bacon washed down with a bottle of Semillon Sauvignon Blanc.

We were exhausted and Andy was edging for an early night, so he went back to camp, I finished drinking the wine with Liz. Liz is from New Zealand and is taking 5 months to have a drive round Australia.

When the wine was finished I retired to my bed with my book, it was a little too early for me to sleep, but the book is so good it is hard to put down anyway.

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Photos

No Flies
There were no flies on Caroline

Food Stop
She has to stop for food