The long awaited horse riding day had arrived, but we had to wait until 10, so we fitted in some canpakes and tiny bit of schoolwork before we headed to the stables. After we’d all signed indemnity forms the girls gave us helmets and a horse and on we got! I was expecting a bit of a nothing first half hour while they went through how to hold reins and the basics of horse safety, but we got about a 5min brief on how to pull the horse up and turn it and we were off on a trail ride! Stu was on Albert the largest horse of all and also second in line to the girl who was leading us. Her horse was not agreeable to going through the first gate which made us quite nervous but Albert didn’t move and Stu remained in very very quiet hands for the ride. These horses were so well trained and the girls with us completely confident they would be fine out on the trail. We went through 3 creek crossings, one very deep up to my boots with quite steep banks where Thomas tried his hardest to lean the wrong way and fall off. Felt sorry for the horses picking their way through the rocky paths, which must have hurt even with their shoes, but it didn’t seem to bother them. They get the wet season off to run wild in the NT while the trail company runs tours in the snowy mountains with different horses- not a bad job for these girls chasing the warm weather all year round! The kids completely loved this experience and would have to be one of their highlights, I wouldn’t want to write the risk assessment for taking inexperienced riders on a trail ride but I’m not complaining- the scenery was just beautiful, we were surrounded by the pink sandstone hills, birdsong and wide blue sky as we were rocked to and fro on our horses. A big highlight for adults as well.
We had one more gorge to tick off our EQ list so headed to Amalia Gorge in the afternoon. This was about 4km return, much easier than yesterday, with no scrambling but we were a bit leg-sore and Gorge weary. This was a grade 4/5 combination due to a crawl space, a narrow ledge to traverse as well as a section we had to actually climb which got interesting with little people! The falls and pool were characteristically spectacular and different from any we’d seen, water absolutely freezing, it beat our kids, and they usually get in and stay in no matter how cold, today it was a very quick dip! Backwards through the crawl space this time and watching out for wasps just for good measure, we made it back along the river bed of rocks and headed home. Some ginger beer was in order and the kids got out the rugby ball for a kick around. This immediately drew out one of the staff - a kiwi rugby tragic, who also recognised Matt as she had been a barista in CBA building. She proceeded to teach the boys how to kick the ball and demonstrated some impressive skills - turns out she was an ex sevens player. Kids had a great time racing around under the huge bombs being put up until light faded and she reluctantly had to get back to work. Gorgeous bottle trees all around were silhouetted against the sunset ending another beautiful Kimberley day.