Day 22 10/06/2013 Manning Gorge to Charnley River Station.
The walk to Manning Gorge takes around 2 hours there and back, and with a swim included it takes around three hours, so we couldn't attempt it yesterday, as it was too late. There's a sign warning people not to set off later than 2pm. So this morning we packed up our camper and headed off for the walk at 6.45am. The start of the walk begins on the other side of the swimming hole, approximately 50m. Now, you can swim across, pushing all your gear ahead of you in a, (thoughtfully provided), polystyrene box, or, (also thoughtfully provided), there is a 'tinny', attached to a rope pulley system, which you can get into and pull yourself and your gear across. After watching several people use this boat yesterday, and seeing a couple of them fall in the water when getting into or out of the boat, we decided to use the Wickelfisch once more for the camera and towels etc. However all ran smoothly for us and Dave got some early morning exercise hauling us across. The track to the gorge was pretty rugged in places, but very scenic, and we were glad that it was early morning because it was already getting hot. When we got to the gorge, it was was pretty spectacular. We swam in the deep plunge pool under the falls....there was no-one else there. I took lots of photos and after about 45 mins we set off for the return walk. By now there were several groups of people heading towards the gorge, including the young family who were camped near to us. They had an 8, 6 and 4 year old........ we were impressed with the stamina of the kids.
The next stop was the Roadhouse again, to buy bread. We ran into Jill and Tony. They were heading to Bell Gorge to camp for a couple of nights. We intend to go there too in a day or so. We then visited Galvans Gorge.....car park next to the road, and then a 1km walk........a popular swimming hole with a very pretty waterfall and plunge pool. (No camping allowed). There were a few people there. Next stop was Adcock Gorge, also day use only as it is part of a large cattle property. The 5km track was not in great condition and the last 500m looked terrible.......very narrow and rocky; two shallow water crossings, one sandy and one stony.......so we parked and walked that section, plus the 500m into the gorge. Again, a pretty gorge, with a small waterfall into a swimming hole. Back to the car for lunch and then on to Charnley River Station. We arrived just before 4pm. This property is 43km north of the GRR. It is a working cattle property of approximately 300,000 hectares, with just over 1/3 of the land being managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), therefore all fauna and flora is protected, including dingoes. The past practice of baiting dingoes has been stopped in the hope that the number of feral cats might be reduced. Around the very nice campground we have seen a couple of dingoes, dozens of wallabies and several species of birds.....oh and a very large goanna called Graham!
Mike and Karen run the property...they have been here 3 years now, and are from Yeppoon in QLD. We decided to have dinner at the homestead last night. We ate with Mike, Karen, Bruce, (the 'general hand' as he called himself) and his wife......they are from Tasmania......and two guests staying at the homestead. It was a lovely meal....we had T-bone steak which we were told had been flown in on the mail plane yesterday!
We stayed up much later than usual !!! It was a cool evening and night.....after all it is winter....even if it does reach 30 degrees during the day!!!