Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

7^th of September

We headed out of the campsite just after 7am and drove the 30km or so to Emma Gorge. There we loaded up and headed for the walk. The Emma gorge walk is 3.2km return walk if you go all the way to the waterfall. We had decided that we would go for a swim in the pool below the waterfall, so all the way it was. The pool, also has some hot water flowing into it, from the side of the rock wall.

The walk was not that difficult. A bit rocky in places, but no difficult rocks to climb as such. Towards the end one has to climb up a slope. Then it’s into the beginning of the gorge, where this tall, but small waterfall drizzles down into a very scenic pool. The rock walls are clad in green vegetation so it has this paradise look. We had our bathers, so we quickly jumped in for a swim in the water. We also tried out the spa, which is at the side where the warm water runs into the cold pool. As we were early in the morning, the sun didn’t shine into the pool, so we had quite a bit of shade that made it more refreshing. There were a number of people as we arrived, but after some time all of them left and we had the place to our self’s for some time.

We used it to build up the spa pool in order to increase the heat, but the water that comes in, isn’t really that hot. Luke warm at best.

Emma gorge is full of ripple rock. These are rocks with ripples in them. These are fossilised beaches and mud flats from a few hundred million years ago. It was interesting to see the ripple rock, not only littering the river bed, but also in the cliff faces. Sometimes they were up-side down as well, not sure how that occurs as a few layers down they were ok!

Once we had enough swimming and the place became a bit more crowded again we headed back to the start. We opted to go for a coffee and a cake in the restaurant, which is part of the El Questro resort. We then drove back to the campsite and relaxed. We walked to the pool nearby the campsite, where people go to chill out when it's too hot. There we saw three Rajah Shelducs. Very pretty birds.

We had planned to do another walk, but I wasn’t happy with my big toe on the right foot. I had hit something hard with it a few days ago and this seemed to have aggravated an old wound so it became infected. Thus, late in the afternoon, we decided to drive out to Kununarra to the district hospital that has an emergency reception. This is about a 100k drive one way, so we got there around half past five. After registration, we had to wait another three hours, before seeing the duty doctor. She took one look at it and told me she would give me some antibiotics and I should come back in a few days if they didn’t work. As this is a small town, the pharmacy was closed, so the hospital staff kindly gave me couple of pills to take in the evening and morning, but told me that the local pharmacy would open around 8:30am the following morning.

We drove back to the camp site and on the way came across another bush fire. They seem to be common around here! We decided to go for the Zedebee spring walk early in the morning and then head back to Kununarra to pick up the script for the antibiotics. That would allow us to be back by 2pm, so we could go for our booked tour of the Chamberlaine Gorge.