By this stage the car had died completely and was taking a holiday of it's own in the lovely town of Launceston. It was having the full spa experience while spending a little time on the waiting list for an alternator transplant!
The Waterhole
Seeing as we had been interupted during our first trip into Douglas Apsley National Park, now, having some enforced leisure time on our hands, we headed back in with the hire car. It was a lovely warm afternoon, and we thought we might tackle the short walk in to the waterhole. The kids had been a bit dicey on walks since we did the canyon walk in Bright, which was long and hot, with no swim at the end!! We managed to convince Dom that it wasn't far, and neither it was. The path opened out onto one of the most beautiful pools of water we have seen.
The water was crystal clear. Even when it was about a metre deep, you could see the bottom as clearly as if it had no water over it at all. It was so very tempting to have a drink, and so Emma, Isaac and Sascha got down for a sip. These three wouldn't make Gideon's army...I however, sipped watchfully and carefully. Dom got in on the act and had to have a slurp too. The drinking water for the town of Bicheno came from this very pool, just a little further down. It was so fresh and clean, and tasted like nothing, except really sweet.
As it was such a warm afternoon, Emma couldn't resist the urge to have a quick dip. We didn't have swimmers, but as there was nobody anywhere in sight, she stripped down and jumped in. It was quite refreshing by her account and so we all made our way around the bank to where she had gone in. Just then a group of grey hairs came to the end of the track, at the waterhole. They called out that it looked nice, and Emma replied "nice enough for me to go in in my undies!" The old guy said "we won't look" and at the same time, the ladies with him said "we won't tell". There's something in that I think. The guys will say they won't look, but will anyway, and the girls will definitely look, but know how to keep quiet about it! Anyway, as they wandered around and took in the beauty of the place, the rest of us stripped down and jumped in too. It was heaven. The water was cool, but so wonderfully clean and clear. It was amazing to be swimming in water that you could just take a gulp of as you swam along.
We were at the waterhole for nearly two hours, but it really didn't feel like that. It was so nice and peaceful, that you just didn't want the afternoon to turn into evening. It was another magic moment.
Soaking it up
We spent a little while drying off and warming up, before the walk back out to the car. It was lovely to be in such a beautiful spot, with a little time to slow down and appreciate nature.
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