As it was going to be a very hot day ahead of us we set of at 6.30am to explore Windjana Gorge. Kids had shoes on, sunscreened up and we had lots of water. I had Archie in his baby bjorn carrier and Garry had Zane in his back carrier. We were trying to keep the bubs as cool as we could, hopefully we would be back well before the heat of the day set in. We packed vegemite sangas for breaky which we ate along the way.
It was a great trek through the Gorge, some spots we had to walk through gaps between the huge rocks. We seen lots of fresh water crocs in the shallow creek which the kids loved!! The more we looked the more we seen :) Also we spotted a couple of brolgas and in one section we walked right through some noisy flying (smelly) bats.
We had been walking for nearly 2 hrs when we realised we definitely had walked further than the 1km distance of the track we were following. Indi, Archie and I had stopped in the shade for a rest until the others picked us up on the way back.
After a rest to cool down back at camp we jumped in our cars and drove 30 k's to Tunnel Creek. We wished we could keep driving to enjoy the a/c for longer... it was hard to get out of the car once there.
Tunnel creek was awesome! It's a 750m long limestone cave/tunnel through the huge rocks. We only had to walk in the scorching heat for about 10 mins then we were at the tunnels entrance and we could feel the cool air escaping. We had to climb down into the tunnel then walk through the pitch black darkness with our torches which the kids thought was cool! In the tunnel we had to wade through the water in some spots, nice and refreshing. In a different section the kids spotted a fresh water croc before it quickly disappeared. We wished we were stocked up with enough food to spend the whole day in here, it was lovely and cool and the kids were having a ball. Archie was nice and cool in his carrier also, he had a couple of lil sleeps while in there.
We ventured back out into the heat, skipped making wraps for lunch as it was just too hot and we all jumped back into the a/c in the cars and headed back to camp. Our kids did fall asleep on the way home (one of the only times so far it has happened!) so they stayed in the coolness of the car when back at camp. Didn't last for long though unfortunately, they soon woke up and had to venture out into the heat.
I stripped Archie off and cooled him down with a lil bath. Even the water out of the tap was warm. He was soon happy as laying starkers on a wet cloth to keep him cool :))
Our camper fridge is not working well, hopefully just from how hot it is today. The ranger called in and informed us it had hit 46 deg! This was the hottest temps I had been in. She said last year in early November it was over 50! We were making the most of what we could do and still having fun but the heat was making it a bit tricky... defiantly another place we will be coming back to and doing the whole Gibb River road... in Winter ;)
Sal cooked up some awesome smokey Jack Daniels ribs for dinner and it was off to bed early to enjoy the a/c. We are now very thankful that we had it installed in our camper before this trip!!