Up early to make the most of the ‘cooler’ mornings and drove 1hr 45 mins south to Gunlam falls. Most things are a long way apart even though we are in the middle of the park! This is the biggest national park in Australia so we need to get used to Australian distances!
We climbed up a short hill (only 33 degrees) and, with nobody else to have to share with, we enjoyed the pools above the nearly dry waterfall. A great view and amazing rocks, some with black stripes.
The views were lovely
It is the end of the dry season here – hot and humid. Most waterfalls are a trickle or dried up altogether. The benefits though are no mosquitoes and hardly any people. But this is also why we aren’t bothering with the 2 hr drive to Jim Jim falls as they are dry now.
I saw a dollar bird and a black faced cuckoo shrike. And big termite mounds:
On our way back we also stopped at Maguk – we saw many warning signs about crocodiles but at this time of year they are mostly in the rivers.
Several people were swimming in a big beautiful natural pool at the base of a good waterfall. As they had very bright floating devices and weren’t at all eaten, we went in too. As the temperature has now risen to 36 or so the water was delicious!
Also we could see the bottom & we had been told ‘don’t swim if you can’t see the bottom’!
We saw fish swimming round us and enjoyed showering under the waterfall. We really didn’t want to get out!
Back in the lovely cool car we set out to see aboriginal rock art. On the way we saw a blue-winged kookaburra – and another forest kingfisher- a very smart chap. Too far for photos! Here are some of the lovely trees here & new shoots – a sign of the first rains:
Our first visit involved walking across the Gobi desert (or so it seemed). With fly nets, lots of water & determination we walked through burned scrub and lovely white barked trees in 37 degrees & high humidity the 1.5 km to a rocky bluff. No one else was in sight.
It was worth it – the art is anywhere between 20000 and 1000 years old but represents continuous aboriginal culture.
The etiquette is that you can’t touch up other people’s paintings but you can do your own on top of them.Turtles and fish are popular
And here’s the coming of a very different time:
The paintings were first made by ancient spirits who showed people how to paint.
The second site is Anbangbang (given a totally different name on the map!) – this has coach parks and much more money spent on access & therefore an easy 5 min walk from the car. These showed the creation spirits (quite a difficult lot)
And kangaroos
These paintings are in a shelter in and around the rocks – only used in the last 6000 years once the plains got so hot and then flooded. It was an eerie place – you could feel it was ancient and alien territory.
There was a wonderful lookout over the green bush & you could look back at the spectacular, incomparable rocks.
By this time were pretty tired & dying for a shower! Another good dinner & bed!
Wonderfully interesting rock paintings. Looks like quite hard work keep checking for crocs!
Hello mama
This is a very wonderful view.