There are four key places to take a look at while you visit Mount Hart. We did a little planning and came up with a route that would hopefully fit them all into our day.
In the end we didn’t try to go to the sunset viewing area.
Dolerite Gorge is north along the Barker River (the same river that flows past the campground and provides a nice swimming hole right close to our parking spot). The road to get there has some quite rocky sections that had us bumping along very carefully over quite sharp rocks. The gorge is poorly marked . After following a path from the car park for a hundred metres or so you then have a guessing game ahead of you as you reach the rocky areas. In some spots there is a sandy track or you can see a path a little ahead or the mark where a sign used to be. I think we saw one actual sign along the way. We crossed the river on rocks three times and rock hopped a lot of the rest of the way. On one side the cliffs are a mass of dark red (almost black) boulders piled high, on the other they are a dark gray. The swimming hole at the end is about 100m long and quite narrow and is nestled between these two cliff faces. A large paperbark towers over the lot. Then, after a dip you need to back track over the whole lot. I took a bit of a spill on one rock hopping section and have a bruised knee to show for it, but nothing worse.
The next stop on our grand plan was Annie’s Creek -here a giant boab stands with a fig growing through the centre.
There is also a deep water crossing here that is forcing the road to be closed-with a huge boulder in the centre (perfect for ruining diffs)
We headed onwards to Barkers Pool- here we found the best swimming and relaxing spot. This is really a large bend in the river with an extra shallow pool section at the bend. You can swim out into the deeper river section to cool off.
Al and Zita found us there as they arrived, having finally had their van picked up by the tow truck and taken to Derby. They will meet it there in a few days time, but for tonight they are staying in a safari tent here. They brought their blow up boats down and we all took turns using them along with halves of the paddle that the Colwells bought in Kununurra. This was a delightful and lazy afternoon.
We packed up and headed back to do a little more washing, have showers and be ready for tea. We didn’t pop the camper back at camp as we would have just needed to unpop again to drive back to the homestead for tea.
Fish and chip tea with the six of us together was good. The fish was Shark Bay whiting and well cooked with a really nice fresh salad which we all savoured. We are all feeling the need for salad in this time of deprivation.
Today Sophia will have been 10 weeks old. We thought about her lots today and feel glad to know that there will be a photo awaiting us when we manage to get some communication again in a few days time.
Luvapuzzle 