Manning Gorge. 24 August

We woke up around day brake (5:30 am), had our brekkie, prepared our lunch and were off on our Manning Gorge walk.  Everyone wears their swimmers, so they can cross the river.  We did that of course as well.  This early in the morning, the water was actually warmer than the morning breeze, as the sun was very low on the horizon.  I went three trips across, one floating my gear in a box, second one to float Sibbas gear and the last one to help Sibba across, just in case.  All went well, so on the other side we donned our gear again and then walked the 3km walk to the Manning Gorge.  

Walking through this landscape is amazing.  The vivid contrast and colours are striking.   Rocky mounds, trees and different vegetation seem to co-exists in a balanced way, producing a colour confetti of sorts.  

Anyway, we reached the gorge early and as it turned out, were almost alone there for quite some time.  I single fellow traveller got there first, but left a short while after we arrived.  Later in the morning the tour group arrived and some of them decided to take huge leaps into the pool from the side of the waterfall.  Not something that is recommended!

The gorge is stunning.  A beautiful waterfall flows down into this inviting pool of water.  I, of course went for a swim in the pool, plus climbed up the rocky ledges to the top of the waterfall, just to see what was there.  On the way back I managed to get my feet massaged by the waterfall as well.  Then it was back into the pool and swim under and behind the waterfall.  Sibba also went for a swim in the water.  She stayed close to the pool bank and didn’t want to enter the deeper areas.  She needs to protect her skin, which isn’t very sun friendly.

After a while we got dressed and headed down stream, to see where all this water was going!  There was another large pool, pretty inviting as well, but we were quite swimmed out so we went back and had our lunch, before heading back to camp.  I, again ferried our things across the river and then both of us spent an hour in the pool at the crossing, just soaking away the fatigue after the walk.  We had that pool pretty much to ourselves apart from the occasional couples ferrying their things across to do the walk.  Back in camp it was a lazy afternoon, just relaxing after some nice hot showers.

Tomorrow we are planning to head out to Mt. Elizabeth station and spend a couple of nights there.  On the way we will again stop at the Mt. Barnett road house to stock up and try to call Linda from the Telstra pay phone.   We tried calling her on the way in, but only got her answering machine. 

Sibba, once we had swam across the Manning River to start our walk.

Very diverse landscape and colors during the Manning Gorge walk.

Panorama over the Manning Gorge and falls.

Manning Falls and the pool below it.

Me swimming under the fall.

Sibba having a swim as well.

Some jumped from the rocks into the pool!

The girl on the rock eventually jumped, after some persuasion!

Down Stream from Manning Falls is another great pool to swim in!

Heading back to camp, it was a long walk! 

Me ferrying our things across Manning river to camp after the walk.