Palm Valley

You would think that being up nearly an hour before the sun we would make the most of the day to explore but not really , while time wasn't particulary wasted we sat around enjoying our wake up brew for nearly an hour before the kids woke up but due to a cloud covered sky we didn't get our sunset shots over the valley as planned but none the less it would be better for walking the tops of the escarpments .

A good brekky and a second cuppa was had then Shahla went to play with her new best friend Aishe.

I tried yet again to get some pics of jones and sd card onto the iPad without success no matter how I tried .

Then a little handy work on the camper and a cool shower before filling a pack and drinks for our walk around the escarpments and into palm valley.

The drive in was true 4 wd ing and I loved every bit of it without any dramas on the 4 km in .

The kids took the 5 km walk in their stride with Shahla leading the way for a large portion of the walk.

The  rid life and flora is truly wonderful here for a semi arid region and we came across some bush tomatoes and a few other plants we had seen othe places but the cycads and red cabbage palms were truly magnificent , reminiscent of some valley of dinosaurs , but without the dinosaurs !

There was still quite a lot of water about really and you could see Finkes flood force in high places further up the river.

It took us 2 hrs 5 minutes to do the walk with plenty of sightseeing stops as well as snacks and water to keep the energy up .

We caught up with our fellow traveling family friends towards the end of the walk which made shahla's day who informed me I left the cruiser driver door open which the shut for us luckily , I can't believe I left it open as I'm generally anal about security whether it's visually a tempter or for checking locks but all was good as it was just as we left it .

Back at camp for a later lunch we dined on soup as it was cooler then lounged around camp a little , I for the bikes off the roof and found I was missing my axle spear quick release and the bike was sitting akward but I found the qr axle just missing the nut which I replace with my seat pole clamp nut and dash and I rode off to do another walk a few Kms away .

The ride was awesome then the walk just as good giving us perfect views ( although cloudy ) over the surrounding escarpments and palm paddock below .

We hid the bikes and made our way up to a saddle above and scrambled the rock ledge to get better views were we read a storyboard on the local legend of the tawny frogmouth father and needle tree son .

Then a quick sprint down hill to the bikes for the downhill rock ride to camp .

Corinna had made Thai green curried chicken with udon noodles which was lovely then after we finished it was time for our ranger talk .

All set up around the fire ranger dave gave his talk and answered a few of our questions and gave some helpful tips on future campsites and drives around here .

A few frothies later around the fire with fellow travellers topped the night off and as we walked back to camp dash found a scorpion on the road near our camper , he was tiny but still no doubt packed a punch .

We made sure everything was packed away as we again had the nosy dingoes close to camp .