Day 5

Amanda

We woke up to the sound of the birds screeching in the trees. We gathered up some water, and our Akubra hats and headed to the top of the Mountains. On the way, we saw The Elephant's Hide, which gets its name because the rock layers look like an elephant's skin. On top of the mountains, the view was absolutely amazing! We could see all of Hall's Gap, Lake Bellfield, and even our campsite. From the Fire Lookout at Reed's lookout, the view was incredible. Try as we may, however, we couldn't get mom to go all the way to the edge, by the fences. She stayed a safe distance away!

At Zumstein's, a picnic area, we saw several wild kangaroos, and we pet all of them, including a joey! Their fur is different from any other animal's that we know of. The joey was very soft, and the adults were more coarse to the touch.

We tried to get to an Aboriginal Art site (The Cave of Hands). After driving a supposed "36 kilometers", which seemed more like a million (!) we finally reached the site, there was a sign that said it was another 1.3 kilometers to the actual site! There we were, miles from anything, with no water and we were supposed to walk 1.3 kilometers there and 1.3 kilometers back? I think not!

After our adventure being "geographically challenged" by maps that had the wrong road names on them (David was so frustrated that he crumbled the RACV map into a tight ball) we finally made it back to Hall's Gap.

Dinner was an adventure in itself. We TRIED to cook burgers, but it was so windy that the flames wouldn't stay on the barbecue! We took over an hour to cook these (SMALL) burgers. We finally did get ourselves fed, though. Dinners taste great in the outdoors.

(note from Sue: The wind and rain continued through the night and there were times I thought the tents would blow over. I was so proud of Amanda ... she was sleeping alone in her tent and was not scared in the slightest. I, on the other hand, spent the entire night worrying about my baby girl, alone in a tiny tent in the Australian bush!)


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