Today was the first opportunity we have had to get the boat
out. Iain set it up while I quickly did the dishes and washed our dirty, no filthy
clothes. We managed to get on the water early, but so did all the day trippers
hiring canoes. We took our time and paddled slowly down the river taking in the
sheer magnificence of the surroundings. We realised that the day trippers were
on a tight time scheduled – at $30 an hour they were racing to the waterfall
taking a few pics and then racing back. We tied up at various point along the
river, getting out and lying on the rocks, working on our all-over tans. We had
a prime spot – hidden from view but able to see anything coming up or down the
river, so plenty of time to get decent.
Once we got to the waterfall we carried
the boat up to the next level – past the falls and continued down the river. We
went all the way to the end where the streams feed in, tied up and explored on
foot.
By lunchtime we were getting a little hungry so made our way
back to the falls for a swim. We had a slow paddle back on the way encountering
our one and only snake on this trip. I don’t know who was more surprised him or
us – he stuck his head up out of the water, saw us, turned tail and dived as
deep as he could. Turns out it is a whip snake native to Lawn Hill, a cousin of
sea snakes but harmless and according to the ranger very cuddly! We decided to
leave the boat moored to one of the landings so we could use it again before we
left in the morning.
We have found that there are 2 types of Grey Nomads. There
are those that are like us; just trying to enjoy the land, camping in the bush
and having the occasional catch up and sharing of ideas with other people. Then
you get the ones who travel in packs in their motorhomes, they have no regard
for anyone else, are loud and obnoxious. They just take over and claim the
place for themselves and treat everyone else as intruders. One group of them
set up for the day on the footpath, stairs and jetty – the access we had to the
water. Now I must admit it was a lovely cool spot, but they had taken over the
whole thing, they had chairs, tables, air mattresses with virtually no space to
get past. When you did try and squeeze past you got all sorts of comments. I
got my own back by sitting on the stair entry to the water pretending to get
the courage up to jump in while they queued behind me to get in the water. I
waited a good 5 mins before I jumped in and then turned and said’ ‘you should
get in the water is lovely’. Petty I know but it felt good.
It’s funny how your attitude to food changes when you don’t
have a grocery store just down the road. I now know exactly what I have and
take care to use absolutely everything before it spoils. I had a few apples
that had gone a bit soft so decided to attempt an apple cake in our eco pot
(thermal pot). I was missing a few key ingredients like baking powder and
sugar, so substituted by beating the egg to within an inch of its life, and
using honey along with a few sachets of sugar swiped from one of the café’s
along the route. Well the concept was good, the cake cooked beautifully, can’t
say much for the actual cake though. It was very heavy and doughy, and as Iain
said the more custard you added the better it tasted! Oh well at least I know
how to cook cakes, just need to get the recipe right.
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