Wow, a great big sigh at the end of a massive day! It has been such a wonderful day with some amazing experiences. Above all these amazingly beautiful places, I have particularly loved watching the boys through the day as they have overcome challenges they thought were too difficult.
We swiftly packed and left 'Sandy' the camper at the campground while we ducked off down the road to Tunnel Creek National Park. We arrived not really sure what to expect, as we had heard murmurs of it being a wading through water experience... How much water we were not sure. On arriving we saw people heading in with bathers, water shoes, head torches, swim vests for kids and pool noodles... Which we had none, except for a Micah swim vest... Oh and the dry bag.. which we did have, so I grabbed that and off we went, on our way. We striped our clothes off at the entry and left our belongings piled outside the tunnel entrance. Now wearing nothing much more than our underwear & clutching a dry bag with two phone lights on inside glowing like an orange lantern Judd was putting on the breaks!! He did not want bar of this adventure to which he made sure was known. But he agreed to come only because we wanted him too.
The second pool was quite a deep one, we were literally in up to our necks, Clint had Judd on his shoulders & Marty on his back. Claire had Micah on her shoulders it was pitch black, no one around just our family in neck deep water in the dark, all we had was each other! Judd wanted OUT, Claire was not that keen to progress without a little more light so we could at least figure out which direction to swim! Clint was thinking to himself "at what point am I being an irresponsable parent." Marty and Micah probably both wanted out too, but we couldn't hear them over Judd carrying on!
Quick thinking mummy grabbed out the phone from the bag and shed some light on the situation. We could now see the bank we were swimming to, not too far so we slowly edged our way across, by the end Claire out of her depth swimming with Micah and one arm in the air holding the phone out of the water. WE MADE IT 🙌 oh boy, hearts racing we forged on.
The tunnel was beautiful, great big stalegtites hanging from the ceiling, a waterfall and a halfway hole which provided some welcomed light. At the far end it opened out into a swimming hole with some large water monitors which were fun to watch sunbathing on the banks and then sliding into the cool water. We also found ourselves our first but of Kimberley rock art.
The walk back was a lot more pleasant as we hooked up with a couple of old blokes that had a really good torch, to which we exchanged torch light for photos as they had no camera. Besides Claire nearly drowning thanks to Micah having had ENOUGH in the deep hole near the exit the trip back was a lot smoother.
It was then off back down the track to collect Sandy camper from the campground, a quick lunch and we were back on the Gibb.
The road between Winjana & Bells Gorge was a spectacular drive, although Clint couldn't appreciate it as much as I could as he was needing to concentrate on the road rather than the scenery, but it really was a beautiful drive.
What a wonderful sense of accomplishment it provided for all of us! We did it!! Us Hartley's don't give up! It was everyone's highlight for the day 🙌
On arrival at Silent Grove campground (10kms from Bells Gorge) the camp was rather full, but we found a spot under a boab to stop for the night. Quickly set up the camper & headed into the Gorge.
Bells was a great kid friendly water hole in the upper reaches, which then dropped down a large waterfall to a deeper hole down the bottom section. We stayed and played in the water hole around the top. Daming the creek and splashing in the sandy shallows.
A refreshing way to end another blissful day.
No comments:
Post a Comment