The plan for today was quite simple, spend some time at two gorges. I spent the morning doing some mechanical checks on the truck, specifically looking at the suspension to see if any of the nuts had come loose on the gravel roads that we’ve silent a lot of time on recently. As the suspension has been upgraded this was a basic check, with the left front shock needing a bit of tightening. I also managed to get some photographs of the Wedgetail eagles that make WA home, and are up here in huge numbers. I must admit I had thought these beasts were up there with Yowies and Dropbears as I’d never seen one until now.
After this I went to Windjana Gorge and saw my first crocodile in the wild. You can only swim in certain parts of the North West because of the crocs, and watching these guys on the shore i had no intention of getting in. I think they saw me first as I had a weird sensation of being watched, similar to when I was at an alligator farm last year in Florida. The crocodiles were all on the far bank and in the water, however I heard that a French backpacker had asked if anyone would pay him to touch a croc just a few hours before. You can’t stop stupid I guess.
After this we went back to the cars and then headed to Bell Gorge and falls, about a two hour drive over gravel roads with just enough blacktop that you knew what you were missing, and the first water crossing of the trip.
This was more like it, waterfalls that you could swim in, even if there was a bit of a hike. The water was quite warm compared to Karijini, and pretty powerful, I couldn’t swim against the current directly to the fall edge, instead I had to go side on, then drifted back to shore with the current.
The hike back to the car was a bit more fun when not stinking hot and then into camp for another fire and some Mexican inspired food.
We also got an update from a DPAW volunteer on the Freo game, a win for us!