Day 54 24/10 (Sun) – Karajini

Enjoyed the tour so much thought we should stay at least an extra day and try to see some of the other gorge attractions. Bit achy after yesterday though so thought taking it easy would be the way to go! Drove 45 min back over to Dales Gorge (quite different to the gorges we saw yesterday), hiked down to Fortescue Falls and lazed around in the pool for a while. Then a short trek over to Fern Pool, upstream of Fortescue Falls, for another refreshing dip. Very relaxing in the 39 degree heat and the flying foxes in the surrounding trees were pretty entertaining as well. Given that our big gas bottle had died overnight (leaving the fridge off for some unknown time), we drove the 90 odd km into Tom Price in search of a refill, which took uo most of the rest of the afternoon. Hooked it back up to the fridge (unsure how much gas is left in the small bottle) before driving up to Oxer Lookout to see where we were yesterday. Ran into Annie and Julian, two of our fellow adventurers, up there, on there way back to camp. A perfect end to the day with just us and a spectacular sunset over the gorges. Still pretty hot and dusty though, and despite the camp here having toilets and showers, they are not conducive to happy camping if you like to feel clean (red dust covers everything, including you and the shower) and ant free (ants teeming everywhere at times). Debated staying on vs leaving the next morning and the discomfort of the environment won out. Madras chicken curry tonight, to use up our chicken and some of the vegies, given the dire state of the fridge (still 20 degrees in side despite the new gas bottle!).