Tuesday 19th June 2018
Piccaninny Gorge Day 2 – Adventure day without our big packs. Woohoo!!
David had a good night sleep and mine was ok with my new, thicker, heavier mattress. Time to decide what to do today. I was still keen to explore as otherwise it feels like we have just trudged in and out, with no fun bit. So DB said ‘The Dominator’ wins. I don’t think I am the dominator but we had an explore day anyway. We headed out at 8am with just daypacks, a bit earlier and lighter which was good. I thought we would go to the 2nd junction ‘Finger 5’ but when we got there DB wanted to do his usual and check around the next corner. In the end we kept walking to the furthest finger junction. This was a lot trickier section, up and over boulders, around water holes, across sheer ledges, down slippery rocks, over slippery spinifex and all in all a great adventure. DB was a bit happier. By this time it was 11.30 so we stopped and had some lunch. We decided against exploring one of the fingers (gorge) at the end as we had already walked 10km and we still had to get back. This was supposed to be an easier day. I was still hoping to do one of the two fingers closer to home. When we got back to this junction we met a lone girl who was hiking up the gorge. We sat and talked to her for about 30 mins, unfortunately this was my ‘finger’ trek time, so I missed out. After our chat we just headed back to camp. We arrived to camp at about 3.30pm and thought we would have time to get some water, have dinner and a bath before dark (5pm). No such luck, a couple arrived to get water and we talked to them for 30 mins as well. Oh well, at least we managed to get water in the day light.
It is now 7pm and we are in bed ready to go to sleep as we have a big day again tomorrow. Full packs back on, hopefully a little lighter as we won’t carry 4 litres of water each, our food will have been depleted except for lunch and it should be a little easier going. Hopefully we will set out earlier than 10.30 as we have a couple of side tracks to do on the way out. Anyway nighty night.
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- Our little home away from home. Our new Mont hiking tent. Weighing in at 2.65kg plus the foot print. On yesterdays efforts, way too heavy.
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- DB eating out of his favourite receptacle. A ziplock bag. We all know how much he likes plastic but in this case it is much much lighter than crockery.
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- Daypacks on today. Only 5kg instead of 12-15kg. The pack weighs about 2 kg, 2 litres of water, our lunch (a tin of salmon, a wrap), some warm clothes just in case, sat phone and superb). Makes for a much easier day.
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- Heading passed some enormous rocks. Imagine the noise they made when they fell.
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- A little water to dodge. Made a bit difficult due to the sloping rock. DB kept his feet dry. One of my shoes got a little wet.
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- Huge cliffs all around. Some rocks to climb over. Heaps easier to rock hop today.
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- Our first big water obstacle. Lucky he is an explorer from way back when he was in nappies. He will find us a way.
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- We find a track and DB surveys the situation. Looks like it is the high side. Look how tiny David is amongst those rocks.
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- It starts off easy…
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- ..and we are past the water..
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- …Now to head down. Nice to catch DB concentrating on the next drop…
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- Some interesting rock formations below. Water rapids I am sure in the wet season, and a palm tree..
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- ..a walk passed some termite mounds on the edge of the ravine..
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- Some amazing coloured rocks and interesting missing sections that have already fallen down.
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- I love looking down these gaps and imagine how long it has taken to form these cliffs that start from just a fracture in a rock.
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- Now to find our way across, this one requires more concentration. A little bit of a drop if we fall. At least we are only walking with day pack weight today. Makes our balance heaps better.
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- My turn now. Slow and steady wins the race. I feel heaps stronger and balanced today thank goodness. David always asks me if I am good with these before I cross and offers to take my back pack for me.
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- A narrow crossing. Instructions – Lean towards the rock and take your time.
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- The gorge is very narrow.
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- I thought we had made it passed the water but it looks like we have to go up again before we make it down.
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- Look at the cave below in the crevice and the formation of the rock in there.
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- Back on lower ground. Look at the height of these rocks with a Livistona Palm right at the top as well as growling at the bottom.
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- Some of it was through rounded stones again, much easier today.
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- Another section of well water worn rocks. Imagine what this is like in the wet season.
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- Sometimes the colours are so different.
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- This shows how high the cliffs are, DB is so little here.
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- The conglomerates (that is their geological name) look like croc chip cookie dough.
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- Some more soft sand walking.
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- We managed to see one live cane toad. A problem here as well.
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- I am getting better with my walking sticks, have mastered marching and it also helps with the load and gives your arms a work out as well, distributing the weight as well.
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- See how high the spinifex grass caught around the trunk of the trees is. It is at least one foot higher than DB, so the river flowers at least 7 foot deep here last wet season and apparently last wet season was a pretty dry one.
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- Back at Black Rock Pool Camp after 20km exploring the upper end of the Piccaninny Gorge. One job before dinner. Collect water from the pool to filter and boil for the hike out tomorrow.