Pack up morning and a last goodbye to EQ’s resident donkey slash security guard, hopefully coming up for some food and leaving with only a pat. Emma Gorge was our last Kimberley gorge on the way out of EQ to Kununurra. As it was also the fourth in four days our approach was somewhat weary, but we soon got into a rhythm and perked up. This was a pretty easy 4km return walk, also already quite crowded as a Sunday and striking distance from Kununurra for day trippers and the usual sprinkling of truck tours. A little snake getting his morning sun provided some delight along the way as well as the beautiful turquoise pools. The falls themselves were in an enormous chasm, the pool was huge and absolutely freeeezing, we all headed to take turns sitting in the warm spring that also fed the pool which was beautiful, but made it even cooler to swim out into the main pool. We opted to hike it back to the turquoise pools which were a much better swimming temperature and such a gorgeous rich colour. Even with stacks of people walking past it was hard to detract from the beauty of the sheer light pink sandstone cliffs surrounding us on both sides of the gorge here. People walking past no longer bother us seasoned gorgers as we got dressed out of our swimmers, is very much their problem if they look! Mummy managed to lose a reef shoe somewhere on the walk out but after the sunglass/hat incident on Saturday there was no chance of being allowed the time to retrieve it :)
We were all looking forward to driving on bitumen again and it did not disappoint as we headed into Kununurra for a big restock/refuel pit stop.
We sat and watched the replay of Wallabies/Ireland game at the Kununurra Hotel, a most classy establishment featuring live music ahead of the quiet evening obviously planned for the State of Origin. Onwards to Coles for an actual supermarket shop. As I was fortunately accompanied by the whole family we had to do some very creative packing into the trailer to fit it all in.
We had planned to stay at Lake Argyle and I did ring to check there was a spot before we left. When we got out there, we could see by the look on the caretaker’s face there was no room at the inn. He showed us the last site on a bad slope and we agreed with him it wasn’t going to work out and headed back into Kununurra (dark by now) to ‘Kimberlyland’ which was just about to close. They had big grassy sites right near the water and v friendly reception, so we setup in the dark- we’re actually quite good at that now, had some dins and went to bed after hearing from various parts of the campground that NSW had actually won the 2nd game of State of Origin.