Set off today to tackle the famous "Gunshot Creek". We had poached eggs for breaky which were great. We were all on the road by 8:30am and everyone was pretty quiet, don't know if our big day yesterday had caught up with everyone. Marty and l were a bit worried cause we were out of water, only had our drink bottles to go. Then we arrived at Dulhunty River.....glorious fresh water!!!! We all jumped, out once crossing the river, with our toiletry bags in hand. Then before you knew it the kids were in their knickers swimming and we were all having a commune bath. Shampooing hair, shaving legs and soaping up. It was heaven to feel clean and funny that we were all comfortable with one another to be so intimate bathing.. We spent about an hour and a half there, had lunch then everyone was reguvinated to push on. We crossed another creek, shallow and rock based, easy. On the other side of the creek there was three tracks out and one was a very deep, muddy boghole. Dale tried to get thru but gave up after flicking Kerry with mud first. So then Mick attempted! After flicking mud up all over the car and nearly on everyone else, he got bogged! He had buried his back end in so deep that he had to lay down on his tummy in the mud to try find the rear recovery point. Kerry tried to throw mud at Dale but missed, then Dale and Mick both started throwing mud at Kerry. Next Angie untied her surrong and was sown there helping Kerry out. It was on for young and all, huge mud fight and everyone was tackling each other to the ground. All us bystanders were laughing whilst taking pics. The kids then started crying so the mud fest ended. Was hilarious. They all went back to the creek to wash up and we winched Mick out.
Another 10kms on and we arrived at the 'Gunshot Creek'. All the boys were so excited. We all got out to survey the entry points, everyone but Dale went down the chicken entrance. This was still a little difficult with a few scraps heard on the way down. Then to Kerry's disgust Dale started to prepare his drive down. He had decided not to do the actual gunshot crossing, but the next difficult one in line. It was a virtual straight drop down into mud then across the water in the creek. Kerry was totally disgusted but you could tell this was something Dale came here to do. So he got his snatch strap set around the tree behind him and then connected his winch to that underneath his cruiser. Things were set and he started to lower himself down, it all went well and was cool to watch. Lucky for him it went off without a hitch cause l think Kerry would have gone a wall otherwise.
We decided to set up camp at one of the sites. It was 1:30pm so was great to have stopped driving for the day early. We all got organized and then headed down for a swim at gunshot creek. The kids decided this wasn't enough and found some mud up have their own fun. They all looked like cave kids by the end but washed up alright. Leaky was the worst with mud caked in her hair, total crack up!!!
Did our clothes washing by hand in the creek, learning heaps off Angie and Kerry. Angie puts her clothes in a bucket with washing powder and water then gets a plunger and moves it up and down. Works a treat so will have to give it a go.
Finished the day off with another camp fire, curried sausages and another sing along by Martin and Barbara (aka 'tge germans'). Dale cooked us all apple pie for desert, it was delicious. Angie then recited a poem she had written earlier in day about our previous day's adventures named 'The Frenchmans Crew", it was so witty and wonderful. We all hit the hay around 9pm amd decided we would start tomorrow a bit later with the aim to push off around 10am.
Was so nice to be clean, have our water supply topped up and our washing done. Still loving it, these new friends ate making our Cape adventure so much more memorable....
Bell Xxx