This morning early there wasn’t any wind and I began to think that we should have been out snorkelling, however by 8.30am it was very windy.
Today we planned to do the Mandu Mandu Gorge walk, so headed to there.
As we were leaving the park entrance, outside at the watering trough was Dad Emu and three offspring. We have seen a few Emu around here.
The gorge walk heads along the creek bed and then you climb out of the gorge and head back the same way along the top, but you also have to traverse a few steep gullies as well. It is about 2 hours +
View up the gorge. There were vines and fig trees growing against the gorge walls.
Ever get the feeling that you are being watched – I did and looked up and above me, very quietly chewing the cud, were four goats perched on a shady rock outcrop. We encountered other goats bleating further up the gorge. They were also precariously on the vertical ledges.
Looking towards the walk entrance to the creek and looking up towards the gorge.
View looking towards the ocean, part way up and Glen at the start of the gorge climb. We came across from the other wall, shown in the distance.
View of the way we came up the creek bed and the coming back showing a path leading down to one of the gullies.
It was a great walk. The perfect activity for the very windy days when you can’t snorkel. No going near any edges though, not with those gusts. We saw a Mistletoe Bird, you can’t miss their vibrant Black, Red & White colour scheme, they stand out even though they are only 10cm in length.
The track across Cape Range
Usually roads within the National Parks are locked off, so we were surprised to find that we could traverse this one. We only travelled to the end of the National Park Boundary to Yardie Creek. The track is 41 kms long and would take around 4 hours. The track finishes at the Learmonth Airport / and the RAAF Base, so there is a possibility that we would find that we would not have entry on the Exmouth Road. The map shows our location at Yardie Creek (See Red Arrow) The purple is the route we took today.
Slow climb to the top over rough rock.
On top was like being back in the desert. - Red Sand again….
These beautiful orange Banksia were in flower everywhere. These are not down on the coastal level.
Numerous plants were in flower. Above – (Left) Grevillea (Right) Hibiscus
We stopped for a late lunch in a dry Yardie Creek under some shady gum trees. There were a lot of these beetles on the gum tree. There are always some great pattern designs on insects if you look carefully. We saw quite a few grasshoppers. I saw a completely bright yellow one, a red and green one and the last one was tan & cream & purple.
When we were heading across to Yardie Creek, in some spots we were doing 4 kms per hour and on the sandy track around 17 kms per hour, so I had estimated that we would average 10 kms per hour. When we left Yardie Creek after lunch, we tested the theory. It just happened to be 10 kms back to the start of the track and it took us one hour.
We could see the Kite Surfers from the top of the range and went down to Sandy Bay to have a look. At least some one is happy with the windy conditions.
On the way back to camp, we called in briefly to the Mangrove Bird Hide and intend to go back another day. We finished our day with birds also. For the first time we spotted a male and female Australian Bustard together. It was surprising that they were so near the beach. I had wondered if there were any here. They have a really odd way of holding their heads.
Tomorrow is a drive back around to Exmouth and on to Charles Knife Cannon.
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