We got up early and packed up what we needed to for the day,
and put the rest in the beach shelter. While we were busy, Guy came over to
find out what our plans were for the day. As we had similar plans we decided to
head out together to do a bit of exploration, and swimming. They are still
learning as they go along, so we tried to give them as much help and advice as
we could. Turns out they are very similar to us and really enjoy getting out
and walking – what a bonus.
We decided while it was still early to explore the scenic
places we had chosen to go to, and then end at a waterhole when it was hot. We
went to a place called the Arches, a bit of a walk but the views were
magnificent. We explained to them that we were doing a series of photo’s called
‘Naked in The Outback’ and they were fine with it, so we did some photo’s while
they explored a bit.
We moved on to a cave called musterers cave, a very narrow
entrance leading into a fairly large cool cave. There were still bits of what
appeared to be an old saddle there, a fascinating piece of history.
Next stop was a water hole called the water slide, the kid
in me was intrigued. We arrived a little after Adrianne and Guy as we had
explored a little more around the cave. We had our Garmin GPS UHF handheld radios
with us, one of which we had given to them. Turns out to have been a fantastic
idea – we all started following a path that turned out to be the wrong one. We
decided to head back in the opposite direction to have a look around while they
kept looking in the general area they were in. We managed to find the right
path, then had to use the radios to guide them back to us. It took a while but
we stopped for some refreshment in the shade before moving on.
Tip of the day: If you have canned fruit, put it into small
containers or buy it in small containers and then drop it into the freezer –
makes a fantastic cold snack when you are really hot. It works really well with
fresh fruit too – especially very juicy ones like oranges cut into wedges
The walk was only 500m, but we had been warned it would feel
a lot longer. We had to find directional clues along the way which turned out to be a lot of fun.
It was a real hike climbing over boulders and through gaps between rocks, we
had a few surprises along the way too. At one point we walked around a corner
and a mass of butterflies took flight, an amazing sight.
Iain was leading the
way with me next, then Guy and finally Adrienne. He stepped down from a rock,
turned to me and said ‘oh wow there’s a green snake’, knowing that green snakes
are usually OK, I asked where, he said it had retreated under a rock.
Confidently I stepped down when I saw a BROWN snake heading straight for me, I
realised his polarised sunnies had tricked him and this wasn’t a harmless
snake. I think my feet grew instant wings, I ran back up the rock so fast
yelling ‘Oh God it coming straight towards me’ this caused poor Adrienne to
also turn and run. It headed for rocks away from us and with my heart still
pounding we resumed our hike!
When we reached
the pools we were amazed and very happy to have taken the time to find
them. The waterslide was definitely not in it’s prime , but there was enough
water going down to have a whole lot of fun. We all had a go, and then went
back for more! After about the third time I realised that doing it in a bikini
was probably not the best idea as I had developed rock rash on my bum – it was
worth it though!
We swam and chatted for about an hour, then Iain and I did
some photo’s for the Naked in The Outback series.
We then headed back to the
car for some lunch – very late lunch. It was very hot and on the way back down,
I started to feel quite unwell. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had
not drunk nearly enough and the combination of low blood sugar from not eating
, was a recipe for disaster – lesson learnt! After drinking a litre of water
and half a litre of milk in combination with cheese and biscuits I started to
feel good again. Mother hen Iain kept trying to feed me more and was generally
fussing over me.
We decided to part ways with Adrienne and Guy, we had one
last place to go to that had been highly recommended, but it was a long way and
they had had enough adventuring for one day. We headed off and arrived at a
place called Nanny’s retreat, a new adventure only just opened up. As we got
out of the car I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and there was a
pitch black snake slithering along a couple of metres from the car. It was far
enough away and not heading in my direction, so I turned to get my camera, when
I turned back I couldn’t see it any more. Suddenly there was an explosion of
movement, it had been stalking a lizard and had struck it, the lizard took off
and the snake took off after it at an incredible speed. I was a little shaken,
but was trying to act brave. When we found the ‘track’ it was literally a
pathway of trampled down long grass.
With the memory of snakes fresh in my mind
we set off, but it was a challenge, my boundaries were being severely
challenged and it turned out to be a rather long walk, probably around 1.5km.
It was getting late when we eventually found it, but what a site it was truly
magnificent. I was sorry that we hadn’t spent the whole day there – it was
certainly worthy of a whole day. We did a quick photo shoot and then headed
back for the car.
We got back to camp at around 7pm and when we told them what
we had done for the day, they didn’t believe us – until we could describe some
of the landmarks, they were quite amazed. We set up for the night, Iain made mince
for dinner and then we collapsed into bed exhausted!
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