Thursday 27th November 2014

Clear day but warmer than yesterday now the wind has dropped. Mal was up early for a quick sketch - didn't even take his camera. Sue caught up on a few winks. Sue was out of bed with the billy boiled by the time Mal got back. After a slow start - really probably pretty normal - we went off to a small waterhole where Sue, hidden in in her bird hide snapped away at unsuspecting visitors to the waterhole.

Mal communed with a large gum tree nearby with his pencil and paintbrush.

We had drinks with Quinten and Anne and they shared their trip to Alligator Gorge - we realized we had to do that trip - but to avoid the heat we needed to start early.

It blew pretty much all night and Mal was singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and realizing we had already landed in OZ.

Friday 28th November

We were up fairly early, the wind had faded away and we were on the bike heading to Alligator Gorge by 10 past 8.

It is quite a long ride up to the Wilmington Turn off, up through Horrocks Gorge, through the small township of Wilmington and then a further 12k up to the carpark where we were able to walk down to the gorge.

We actually parked at Blue Gum Flat and walked back to the carpark to avoid putting the hard slog at the end of the walk - we were thankful later we had done as much.

The walk down to the gorge is a lot of stone steps with a handrail and is neither very hard or very long. At the bottom we turned right and walked to "The Terraces" - then retraced our foot steps to "The Narrows" which is as the name suggests is a narrow gorge - which turns out to be about 8 feet wide and maybe a 100 or more feet high.

The walk back up to "Blue Gum Flat" yielded a Bronzewing - which was a first.

When we got back we stopped for morning tea and Mal spotted a brown snake sleeping on a flat rock about 25 meters away - Sue grabbed her camera for the shot and by which time e was exiting "Stage Right" - then Sue moved over closer to get a better shot but he turned around and reared up on his "back legs" and came for her - she naturally retreated as Mal devised an exit strategy - another adrenalin check proved the system was still working - A OK.

We stopped in Wilmington for lunch and a visit to the "Toy Museum" - then we headed back to Membray Creek - by which time the temp was climbing - we did stop and have a quick look at the Baroota Ruins - not every one who got in early made a go of turning a leasehold opportunity into a multi million dollar nest egg.

Saturday 29th November

We packed early to avoid the heat and plugged off towards the York Peninsula.