28th July 2021 Hamersley Gorge

We started off today on our rough trek not knowing that if we had done an induction on line or Hamersley iron we could have used their very good mine road right through to Tom Price, that explained the lack of traffic on the road we were on.

As we travelled we saw a helicopter and a couple of men on bikes close to the road mustering the cattle, the helicopter was very low, I  had heard of this but had never seen it.

The trip was not exceptional after that apart from seeing a large snake.

Going into Hamersley Gorge was so different there was approximately 11/2 kms of one lane road inbetween gorge walls, it was beautiful, I didn't take a photo thinking I would take one on the way back, we went out another way.

When we arrived at Hamersley Gorge I wasn't sure how I was going to be with the heights, I was very nervous looking down from the lookout was ok as there was fence and rail but looking down to where people was swimming it looked a challenge.

Merv went in front keeping very close to me, the first part was man made steps and not too bad then it changed to natural rock steps of varying sizes, I  never looked down or sideways once just concentrated on the step in front of me, there was a couple of places I didn't like much but Merv was there to help and reassure me.

When we got to the bottom I felt a great sense of accomplishment as I had beaten a huge fear at least this once.

We had a swim it was pretty cold, there was lots of little fish, there was another pool up higher called the spa, apparently quite warm, Merv walked up to have a look there is no way I was going to as it was climbing over and down rocks which was quite high, Merv came back and said no way was he going to climb down to the pool, we saw people trying to that should not have been anywhere near it, every year there is at least one person die up here and it is not hard to see why, people trying to do things far beyond their capabilities.

When we headed back up, for quite a bit of the first part I was almost on hands and knees as though climbing a ladder, Merv was right behind me telling me to lean forward not back, he was close in case I needed help.

It was a high five when I made it to the top, we then went to the top of the hill to a rest area where we had lunch.

We then headed out the short cut road between the gorges, we thoughtwe had been on rough road but this was ridiculous and well used which made it worse.

When we got to our free camp site half way to our next gorge we noticed one of our mud guards on the trailer had fallen off so Merv unhooked the boat, I stayed with the boat while Merv went to look for it, he returned with it not too long after.