Friday 10 August – Well today I’m not going to mention the 35 degree day we’ve had as Lyn suggested that if I keep mentioning the lovely weather I will probably start getting hate mail!! We made our way to the cruise departure point at about 8.20 and it left right on 9 o’clock under the captainage of Tom.  The scenery as we cruised through the first gorge was lovely, and Tom described different aspects of the gorges as we went along.  Once we reached as far as we could go (the gorges don’t join up), we all got off the boat and walked 500 mtrs across the rocks to the second gorge where further boats were moored.  On this walk there was an example of ancient rock art (fairly faded) a long way up the cliff where you’d need to be abseiling down from the top to be able to get anywhere near it to paint.  When Grant asked Tom how it could have been done, he pointed out the very numerous rocks at the base of the cliff and said that way, way back there was a rock ledge which has obviously collapsed at some stage in the long distant past.  It is believed that they would have had access from that ledge.

Once aboard the second boat, we moved on into the second gorge where the scenery was just beautiful.  Tom was very considerate of everyone and moved the boat around so we would all get good vantage points.  The boat holds 60 and I reckon there would have been 50 on it.

Back on the land after the two hours had elapsed, we decided we would do the 1.6 km walk to the lookout.  Now obviously a walk to a lookout is steep, and this one was no exception, but at least for the tougher parts of it they had hand rails, which I found really good.  The view was spectacular, looking down on the river and the first gorge.  I thought that would be it, and we would just return to the camp, but Grant (leading the way), continued on to the loop walk – a total of 3.7 km, so a hot and sweaty two hours later we arrived back in camp.  As we were getting to the flatter ground on the return walk Grant saw a small snake move from the path near us.  I didn’t see that one as I was too busy making myself scarce when I heard him say ‘Uho’.

By then it was after lunch time, so we had a bit of lunch, I did a load of washing – half of which I rewashed by hand just before tea as the machines are a bit dodgy, then we went and sat by the pool for the afternoon.  Grant had a dip, but I was happy just to read my book and watch the world go by, and chat for a bit to Heather (a fellow patchworker) who I had met in the laundry.  She came to our van just around teatime to show me the fabrics she had bought in Alice Springs and Darwin.

After tea we were entertained by a couple of singers performing in the pool area, apparently rehearsing for their gig here tomorrow night.  They were pretty good.

We are now into our fifth week of the trip.  It’s hard to believe that we have been on the road so long, but we have certainly seen heaps.