This was a place of great beauty, and it was stinkin' hot in the day time.
We camped at the Victoria River Roadhouse, in part because I didn't want to be too far from the facilities in my state of mild gastrointestinal uproar. It was an amazing landscape with an escarpment that almost surrounded us.
The temperature really bit in the day time, so much care and attention was paid as to where the best spot for the caravan was. We found a nice big tree that provided pretty good shade for most of the middle of the day and afternoon, and parked under it.
Emma, Dom and Isaac were up nice and early and had a great time pottering around before sunrise, in the cool of the morning. The sight of the sunrise on the rock face was amazing. Isaac managed to find a "case knife" (Huckleberry Finn reference) and most of the games for the next two days derived from it.
The temperature really bit in the day time, so much care and attention was paid as to where the best spot for the caravan was. We found a nice big tree that provided pretty good shade for most of the middle of the day and afternoon, and parked under it.
Emma, Dom and Isaac were up nice and early and had a great time pottering around before sunrise, in the cool of the morning. The sight of the sunrise on the rock face was amazing. Isaac managed to find a "case knife" (Huckleberry Finn reference) and most of the games for the next two days derived from it.
The escarpment walk was only two kilometres up the road so we headed off before breakfast to enjoy it before it got too hot. What a walk! There were views all the way up and great things to see everywhere. One particular highlight was Sascha falling over and wailing as he had hurt his leg and elbow. Then in the quiet following him calming down, we heard dingos way off in the valley howling in reply. Amazing! It was been the only time we have heard them at all so far.
There were quite a few rocks that showed evidence of the sea being a lot higher up in the past, with their beautiful rippled sand patterns.
I had to take it a little slower than normal, feeling pretty washed out and strangely exhausted by the steep sections. Nonetheless, this was one of my favourite walks on our trip so far. It was so pretty and quite different to any we had done before. One of the most spectacular walks for views, with a new one to greet you around every corner.
There were quite a few rocks that showed evidence of the sea being a lot higher up in the past, with their beautiful rippled sand patterns.
I had to take it a little slower than normal, feeling pretty washed out and strangely exhausted by the steep sections. Nonetheless, this was one of my favourite walks on our trip so far. It was so pretty and quite different to any we had done before. One of the most spectacular walks for views, with a new one to greet you around every corner.
The middle of the day was spent either enjoying in the air conditioning (and close quarters) of the caravan, or reading books or doing some art under the big tree. I wasn't much good for anything, having no energy, so I ploughed my way through the rest of The Three Musketeers in very quick time.
The morning we left, we headed out to do the walk a little further up the road, from the picnic area at Joe's Creek. It was a little later in the day as we headed out, having had a breakfast that was perhaps a little too leisurely. It was warming up and thankfully, the walk hugged the north escarpment, so we were in the shade for most of it. It was a really strange mix of scenery and vegetation. Bare rock faces with tall palm trees stretching up to the light at the top of the cliff. We found a few paintings on the walls, and disturbingly, quite a few places where some special individuals had taken it upon themselves to touch up some of the art work or to do crude imitations of them nearby. Sometimes I find it hard to understand how people can treat something so old and special with so little respect. It's like giving the Mona Lisa longer eyelashes because you think she'd be more fetching that way. Some people....
Back at camp, we packed up as the day was coming to gas mark 6, and Emma went to get a few shots of the amazing bower she discovered, under the low canopy of a nearby tree. That Great Bowerbird really puts his heart and soul into it, and out here, uses a mostly white story with touches and highlights of green. In the desert, there are plenty of white things, particularly bones and stones.