Bell Gorge

Sunday 1^st June 2008

After yesterday’s laziness we were determined to get to the gorge today so packed up sandwiches and the ever-present biscuits (life wouldn’t be worth living if I forgot them!) and drove on down. There were indeed burnt out patches along the way and a slightly rocky drive as well as a very rocky path down to a creek which we then followed til we reached the gorge.

It is a stunning spot with a meandering creek turning into magnificent falls with a huge pool below and impressive rocks around. We were able to clamber down below the falls and swim in the very chilly water. There were plenty of other people there – apparently it is a long weekend in WA but we wouldn’t notice things like that – it’s all one long weekend for us but it didn’t spoil the experience for us.

Holly fell into a funk again and had to be jollied along but all was good when we returned to the campsite to find both a big lizard and the Stanleys in the vicinity. They went off to check out the gorge while we did some more schoolwork and Paul got stuck into his Stephen King book (Dumas Key) from the secondhand bookshop in Broome.

I managed to purchase a Telstra PhoneAway card and put in a call to Tasha to see how she and Geoff are coping with the new baby. Apparently the doting dad had done a good stint with James that morning and given Tash a decent lie-in so it sounds like things are working out ok. I also called Mel, ostensibly to order flowers but with the secret hope of finding out the latest news. She didn’t let me down!

I was then hassled back to the campsite where the four girls had collected bits of firewood and were desperate to light the fire and cook marshmallows. Since there wasn’t much wood we had to use the kitchen tongs to hold the marshmallows but that didn’t adversely affect the taste at all and they scoffed the lot in a very short time.