What's Up Down Under Adventure: Day 12

  


Day 12 Blog

Location: Manning Gorge, WA



Everyone is up early for a quick breakfast and then we start the swim and hike to the Manning Gorge. Macca is staying at camp to do some planning, so we will use our ZOLEO Global Satellite Communicators to keep in touch with each other. It’s about 6:30am and a little cool, so not really looking forward to the early morning swim. They provide a barrel to put your gear in to keep it dry while you swim across. As there are so many of us, we have an additional large waterproof case for all the camera gear. It does take a few trips to get us all over, and the boys do a great job swimming the cases back each time for the next lot to come over. The water wasn’t that cold which was great! Once on the other side, you dry off, put a top on and good walking shoes. These are essential for the hike. 


The park rangers have signs for the public that say they expect everyone to be back from the Gorge no later than 2pm, as the hike gets too hot after that. Once we are all ready, we head off and follow the trail markings to the Gorge, which at times can be a little hard to find. The hike is flat ground in parts and climbing over, up and down rocks in others, so it's not an easy hike, but everyone in the group managed ok. It's hot, so make sure you bring water, and some energy snacks. We finally make it to the Gorge and WOW, it's just spectacular! The waterfall is huge and there are already some people here swimming and enjoying the water. Doesn’t take long for everyone to jump in and cool down after the hot hike! 


A few climb a little way up the waterfall and do a jump off the rocks into the water, which was awesome! You have to be really careful on the climb up, as the rocks are incredibly slippery! We stay for around an hour, have a snack, drink and of course take lots of photos, and then it's time to start walking back to camp. What an experience, I have seen Manning Gorge on TV before, but it's so much better being here! It’s getting close to midday now, so it's really hot on the hike back. I message Macca when we get back at the swimming whole, so he meets us there with the cases to transport everything back. The swim is a welcome relief after the hot hike, and we get everyone back and all the gear over with no issues. Then it’s a super quick pack up to get on the road again, as we have some km’s to cover today. 


We stop at the Mt. Barnett station for some quick lunch and then it’s back on the dirt. We stop at Galvin Gorge after a short but easier hike. It's another beautiful spot for a swim with a very nice waterfall, which all the boys climb to jump into the water. Scatter climbs up to do another jump and slips and falls on the rocks into the water. It's all hands-on deck to get him out and we were lucky to have a first aider there who checks him out thoroughly. No major damage and nothing broken, just a badly sprained elbow, he was very lucky. We all head back to the cars, put a brace on his arm, and then hit the road again to put some k’s behind us. We drive 'till late afternoon and stop at March Fly Glen for some free camping for the night. A great dinner of spuds with bacon and some mince sauce, a nice fire and then off to bed early as everyone was tired after a very full, great day! 😊


Check out more images below!

These are a range of images & videos from our trip to Manning Gorge, WA!









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