Ellenbrae Station , Manning Gorge and Bell Gorge
After leaving El Questro, we continued along the GRR.
The boys were disappointed that the road was not very rough, and ''wanted their money back'' when the Pentecost River turned out to be a dry crossing. We dropped in to Ellenbrae Station for the Scones and Jam touted on the sign, as a supplement to our lunch and were glad of the shelter as an afternoon shower came over. I helped Dave the manager with some measurements and we ended up camping there, won over by the camp shelter with a a huge steel drum water heater in the middle of the camp kitchen, and the shelter from more threatening storms.
9 Oct After a quick dip in the nice swimming hole a Ellenbrae, we hit the road again. More mechanical trouble struck when a trailer wheel refused to turn after I stopped to photgraph the beautiful red soil of the road. The trailer brake cable was slack, so I figured the worst had happened – a bearing had seized up. When the wheel was jacked up off the ground however, it turned freely.
A guy who had stopped to help noticed the problem – the brake callipers were hanging by just one bolt and jamming the brake disc. I was pretty pleased to be able to fix it with fencing wire – real bush mechanic stuff!
When we got to the Mt Barnett Roadhouse, we found it closed for lunch so we drove in to the river to have our own. Bro and Millie loved fooling around in the punt which was tied to both sides for getting across to the start of the Manning Gorge walk.
We did the walk, misinterpreting the signage and thinking the distance to be half as long as it was. We had little time for a dip at the Gorge and really didn't do it justice.
Then more driving to reach the Silent Grove campground near Bell Gorge just before dark. The shadiest camping spot was near a couple who had Billy Joel's greatest hits pumping out of the car stereo. We headed for the next best spot. As it turned out, the music stopped at a reasonable hour but after our Wyndham experience, we weren't taking chances.
10 October
Bell Gorge
Rain fell during the night and again as we walked the short track down to Bell Gorge. That made the rocks a bit slippery and the popular jump look scary.
I piked out but Fabian stepped up and jumped. It looks all of 12 meters high. We all enjoyed swimming in the lovely cool water and later I got up the courage to do the jump. I experienced plenty of terror as I jumped out. I think it's good for you. Fabe and I also swam down to the lower falls above the much bigger lower gorge, but weren't sure of the return route so we left that one for another day. Maggie started a linocut of the top gorge The rain cleared and we had a nice afternoon catching up with work and repairs at camp.
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