It's crazy waking up at 5 am on a no work day but its a magic part of the day here awaiting sunrise but still light due to being in the middle of a closed valley.
We were keen to push on to the Bungle Bungles but had the formalities of brekky to roll on through then journals and pack up before the heat set in .
We we're swimming in the springs again by 830 before we left to get the fine dust that comes with packing campers but it was great in the water.
Dash had lost his goggles in the water yesterday but as it was three times my height in depth I tried in vain to find them but had fun trying .
Solar panel had shade most of the. Day so we needed a good charge up driving back in to Halls Creek after stopping to check out old halls creek town nearby , unfortunately item and vandalism hadn't helped this place at all so we didn't get a lot of history apart from what Bonnie had told us and the tourist info in town .
No need for supplies in town today we simply added funds to our savings account to use and checked our emails, Facebook and post the latest series of blogs .
Quite a laugh sitting on the side of the road getting mobile reception and watching locals screaming around on quaddies , motorbikes and dodgy looking utes with up to 9 in them some had seats in the rear tub but seemed to get around just fine without authorities as we used to on the farm I guess as well.
A quick nature stop on the side road at Patin river caught some young backpacking nudists out but not that the male was peturbed one bit as he waved and smiled away ,but with his package I'm guessing he had little to worry about lol.
Around the 100 km mark we made our way in to the ridiculously corrugated creek track into the park , now we went to 25 psi and it was still pretty bad and slow going but we persisted but came across some unlucky tourists caught out going to quick and fully inflated and after offering help and soome advise seemed not to give a hoot so we kept going passing more than a few speedy backpackers in 2 wd vehicles .
We arrived the 56 or so Kms in to the ranger station and explained we were guests of the TO people we met the previous day with no issues till the head ranger came in and he gave us his rhetoric , most of which was quite arrogant but a little understandable , he obviously thought little of TO people letting others visit their land , I tried to ease his mind explaining we had done similar things before and were self sufficient but I'm not sure this helped , a shame really but we pushed on none the less.
A few turns later and 20 or so Kms further we reached our campsite down a management only track which was rare but appreciated on our part , away from the crowds for the next few days .
We looked around down to the Lower Ord river for a good spot to swim but a bug arse bull hindered our efforts a little here although we found a decent swimming pool despite lower water levels around and the fishing looked promising .
Back at camp we unhitched and setup the solar panel made a late lunch and took of into the tourist area of park again passing Elephant rock and some brilliant formations along the way .
We then took off on the domes area walk and took the track east to Cathedral gorge which was spectacular in size and how it was formed , on the way back dash and I took another detour to Piccanniny creek lookout further up and got some valley views below and were soon tonguing for some more water as our bottles were now empty in this late day heat , luckily the sun had disapeared
Over the range to the west .
Some great shot we retraced our steps back through the domes to the car for a we learned cold cordial with the others .
There wasn't a lot of tourist activity here Atm I'm guessing heat and late in the season and day did that.
20 Kms back to camp with some more photo stops we had tea in dark as the sun sets far too early here and we discovered today no daylight savings to look forward too either , ah well.
Bangers and mash with onion gravy for tea all round and a cold beer for me finished off our day perfectly here , this is great, the kids are sleeping soundly ( well snoring actually !)
We may make the most of another early day here Tommorow so all of our water bottles and cordial are full and chilling in the fridge for tomorrow's walks .
We were there in 1987 before it was a National Park but probably did not see as much as you have. Keep on enjoying the Top End xxxxx
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