Sun 15th June – Day 36: Arltunga, Ross River, Trephina

Just before dawn the nearly full moon set between a fork in the hills and was quite a sight to see. It seems every morning I am up about this time and it has nothing to do with my body clock and everything to do with my pathetic bladder. But I enjoy the pre-dawn silence and often sit outside with a cuppa to contemplate the coming day.
All ready to go by 9, we headed for Arltunga Historical Reserve where the same ranger told us all about the gold mining that took place here back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She showed us how the Stamper machine ground up the quartz honeycomb rock containing the gold into fine sand, then how to use the Gold pans to sort the gold. Many of the old timers also used arsenic and mercury to purify the gold easier – you can tell it was a healthy lifestyle, NOT!
The settlement of Arltunga has many stone buildings complete with fireplaces, old mine shafts, water tanks, a Police Station with lockup so we spent a good hour or so meandering through the ruins and wondering just how these people survived out here.
Onto Ross River Resort for lunch – green grass a sure sign of water. We learnt that the new owner was sent here 2 months ago to close the place down fell in love with the countryside and brought it. The old riding horses had been turned out when the place went bust, joined the local brumbies and now the foals were being bought back to the resort by the mares to graze the irrigated surrounds – we had to stop for a small herd, including a donkey on the road as we left.
Back towards Trephina we all collected large amounts of termite infested wood just outside the park and then did the 4km 4WD only track into John Hayes Rockhole – once again spectacular sheer orange/red cliffs towered over a normally very deep pool, but at the moment there was nothing more than a puddle.
A large campfire tonight we all sat around listening to the kids give us a concert (Toby on Didgeridoo, CHloe on tapping sticks, and Jessie on untuned Guitar!) until the cold drove us inside once again – it must have been cold because Pete was wearing just about everything he owned!
Trephina Gorge Camp Ground (Bush Camp $7.70)