Tue 26th August – Day 108: Manning Falls

The day dawned bright, clear and hot so the kids quickly knuckled down and competed their schoolwork by 10am so we could spend the day at Manning Falls. The walk itself begins at the campsite and takes about 3hours return but you can cut off an hour by swimming across the river at the campsite. There are inflatable tyre rings and Styrofoam eskies to transport gear across. This just made the kids day – they loved piling their clothes in the eskies and then swimming them across the river. The walk for the most part was relatively flat across great stony cliffs except for a steep climb down at the end where sandy beaches and cold clear waters beckoned you onwards from below. We arrived sweaty, dusty and dying for a swim. The waterfall plunged into a deep blue-green pool and we all dived in heading straight for that falling water. The kids delighted in swimming directly under the falls and coming up behind them in a small cave. We spent the whole day there lazing on the hot black rocks, swimming in the waters and making sandcastles on the beaches. After an initial rush of people (like 8 of them) we had the place to ourselves. We had a leisurely walk back to the riverbank and then another hour or so swimming around with rings, noodles and eskies.
Fellow traveller Rob turned up just on sunset with a tale of woe about making it to Drysdale Station (on his way to Kalumbaru) and finding a crack in the front differential, repairs were made but he was suspect about making it any further North, the roads being very corrugated so he turned around for Gibb River again.
On the way back the tailgate on the trailer failed and all his camping gear went tumbling into the dirt. Later, stopping to take a scenic photo he realised his misfortune and so backtracked to try to retrieve some of his gear (unfortunately most of it had been already looted). To make matters just that little bit worse he then stopped to help a fellow traveller and his snatch strap got wrapped around the camper stabilizer legs bending them like spaghetti. He arrived at camp pretty depressed and beaten but was cheered up by the hospitality he experienced when people went out of their way to donate stuff to him (chairs, cookers, tent pegs etc). Luckily for us we were going to do some roast pork in the camp oven but the car fridge has been draining the second battery and the pork was off. Rob donated sausages (cryovac) and a cold fridge to cool our beers, we supplied potatoes, salad and the means to cook – it was a very enjoyable evening hearing all about his many trips over the past 20years. It seems every holiday this CEO of a ‘Green’ Superannuation company in the ACT heads off with his 20 year old Patrol and Trailer to adventures in the North. Kingfisher camp is calling him but they won’t take him without a partner – any takers???
Manning River Campground (Bush $30)