1 September - Champagne Springs, Chamberlain Gorge and Branco’s Lookout, El Questro Wilderness Park

1 September 2016 – 185 936

Champagne Springs, Chamberlain Gorge and Branco’s Lookout, El Questro Wilderness Park

Today we tackled the walk to Champagne Springs – the brochure advises an early start as this walk can get hot – we were ready to start by 7:00am, and I am glad we were.  This was the most technically challenging walk we have done so far; it included sandy sections, large rocks, sharp rocks, slippery rocks, large ledges to go up and down, forested country, boggy creek crossings using rocks and branches, open rocky expanses without shade.  And at the end a beautiful pool and waterfall all to ourselves.  We spent about an hour in and under the waterfall before walking back.  The actual walking time was about four and a half hours, covering 11.42km. 
https://www.elquestro.com.au/explore/activities-and-experiences/self-guided-hikes

After lunch we had a well-earned nap before heading out to look at Chamberlain Gorge.  This is pretty!  https://www.elquestro.com.au/explore/activities-and-experiences/guided-tours

We then four wheel drove our way to Branco’s Lookout – this involved a long rocky river crossing, not deep but very rocky.  The views were lovely, looking out over the junction of the Chamberlain and Pentecost Rivers and at some of the surrounding escarpments. 

All up another awesome day in amazing scenery.  Also a very tiring day, particularly as it was so hot – 38 degrees with intermittent showers and build-up humidity!!

29 July - Drew’s Birthday, Top Didj, FA18’s and Thermal Springs

29 July 2016 – 180 947

Drew’s Birthday, Top Didj, FA18’s and Thermal Springs

First up this morning was Top Didj Aboriginal Cultural Experience.
 https://topdidj.com/
This was run by a man named Manuel who grew up in East Arnhem Land living a traditional life.  He talked first about his life, the pluses and minuses of the changes taking place in aboriginal culture, both for himself personally and also for aboriginal people in general.  Sadly, I think he is correct in saying that the aboriginal culture and law he grew up with is dying. Manuel then performed on the didgeridoo and the clap sticks. Then we were taught about the Dalabon method of painting – looking at the technique it is possible to tell where each method comes from, eg dot painting is from the desert, the number of white lines in each group of cross hatching is determined by the tribe the artist belongs to.  The paintings we did were done with acrylic paint on canvas, we did use a small paint brush for the first part in black, but after this we used brushes that were made from the centre of a particular reed.  These were used more by laying on the canvas and pushing and dragging at the same time rather than stroking as with a regular brush. Next up was fire starting using two pieces of softwood and some kindling, Hayden gave it everything he had, but just did not have the muscle power yet. 

The last item on the agenda was spear throwing using a woomera – Hayden was quite good!  From here, we rushed back to the van for Hayden’s appointment to Skype with his class – both he, the class, and the teacher all seemed pretty excited and enjoyed it immensely.  The next Skype session will be a mystery Skype, where the class has to work out where we are.  After lunch we headed to Cutta Cutta Parks, but decided against a tour as from the information available it appeared very similar to the one we did in Tasmania, just warmer.  So, instead we drove to the Katherine Airport and were lucky enough to have a FA-18 Superhornet come in, bank around a full circle and then land, passing about 30m above our heads – it was very very loud and very fast.  We relaxed in the afternoon at Katherine Springs, which originate in the Cutta Cutta Cave system and come out near the Katherine River at 32 degrees Celcius. http://www.ourterritory.com/katherine_nt/hot_springs.htm I cooked up Beef Parmigiana with vegetables for Drew’s birthday dinner, I hope he enjoyed it!  Happy birthday my love!

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