We got to the park, had dinner and rolled out the tarp we were going to be sleeping on. The flies were out of control, all over our faces, but luckily the flies have a bed time - right after sunset. We could see orange glowing in the distance which was one of the bush fires. Kimbo also pointed out the international space station as it passed close to the horizon. We also spotted a small snake slithering away from the toilet!
One girl got ready for bed and then Kimbo noticed that there were no swags on the tarp! Apparently we are the first tour group she's had that has neglected to get the swags out and didn't even say anything when we were sleeping on rocks! The swag is like a foam mattress inside a canvas sleeping bag type thing. We slept under the stars on the most deadly continent! One of the girls woke up in the morning with a tiny poop on her pillow! Kimbo said it would've been a pebble mouse which isn't a mouse as we know it, but looks like a tiny kangaroo!
The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and hiked down Hancock gorge to Kermit's pool through the spider walk. One of the guys was being naughty and jumping off the rocks into the pool, but he managed to lose his gopro off his head. As luck would have it, about ten minutes after diving in the deep water he was able to retrieve it. We hiked back out of the gorge and headed to Weano gorge. Both gorges were class 4 and 5. We went back to camp for lunch and then back out to Hamersley gorge for another swim.
I still slept outside on night 2, but several of the girl opted to sleep in the tents with 4 sets of bunk beds! One of the boys slept inside too, but swagging was too cool to miss for me! I was really happy with my sleeping bag since I was able to zip myself in with the built in mossie net.
We went out to Dales gorge the next day for more hiking and swimming.
We went to circular pool, walked the length of the gorge and then down to fortescue falls and fern pool for our 7 hour excursion.
Shamelessly stole the next photo from Katie.
And the next stolen from Lukas!
When we got back to camp we stopped at reception to have some ice cream and pick up beers to have back at camp. We sat around chatting for a bit and by the time we came back to the bus there were two flat tyres!!! Mo and I are surely the jinx. This was the FIFTH time this trip we've had a flat!
The boys and Kimbo worked several hours to fix them, but various obstacles including darkness, jacks that were too tall, and jacks that were too weak meant we had to leave it for the morning.
Even after hours under the bus, Kimbo cooked us some kangaroo to taste. Very good!
We got up at 5am the next morning to get started on the tyre and Katie managed to get this amazing photo of the sunrise.
They managed to get the front tyre changed, but the back was still busted. Because we have "duallies" we just all piled in to the front of the bus and Kimbo drove slowly for 100kms to Auski so they could put our tyre on a casing and change the back. It took us 2 hours to get to Auski and wouldn't you know it, it was the mechanic's day off! Oh well, another 250kms at a slow speed with all of us piled in the front rows (not really piled in...but seems like it when you've had 2 seats to yourself for a week.).
Apparently being piled in doesn't keep me from sleeping in any position possible.
Meanwhile, I missed some of the bush fires out the window. Luckily Mo was on photo duty.
Plan A was to make it to Port Hedland and have the tyre changed, plan B was to meet the truck leaving from Broome and get another spare from them. Plan A was a success! We made it to Port Hedland around 2 and the tyres were good to go in less than a half hour!
Kristof decided he was going to cook a surprise dinner for us - gnocchi, and it was amazing! We had a visitor to the table..
We also had two geckos join..
We learned to blow a bottle cap into the bottom of a bottle with one blow.
(Note this is not the proper technique)
The next day we packed up and headed to Broome! Kimbo dropped us all at our respective hostels and that's it for the tour! We'll all meet up for dinner tonight and then Mo and I head to Sydney!
Today the temperature read 51 degrees Celsius... That is HOT. I'm starting to wonder how I will cope with cold after basically 6 months of summer!
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