Mornington Wilderness Camp (June 7 – 11)

From Charnley we headed into Mornington Wilderness Camp, also run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.  Before embarking down the 90km road you have to use their UHF radio on the side of the road to check for campsite availability.

 

Another lovely campground along the banks of the Annie Creek, the station is actually named after the Mornington Peninsula.  A man by the name of Bob Maxtead rode his horse from Mornington to here to go droving.  (Poor horse!) 

 

There are two main self-drive interpretative trails out to the Gorges here indicating places of interest and the AWC’s conservation efforts.  Sir John Gorge ends at a huge gorge which Ash and Cadell went and explored by foot while Coen and I sat in the shade of the big rocks reading.  Coen got most of the way down on the crutches and we piggy-backed him the rest of the way.  Afterwards we headed to Bluebush swimming hole to play on the rope swing.  Coen unfortunately had to sit and watch but was visited by a large Merten’s Water Monitor just ambling past him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the next day canoeing the 1.9km up the Dimond Gorge, stopping at each of the sandy beaches.  Oh no our first cloudy day in 34 days!  The sun did come out later on.  Quite a bit harder paddling on the return journey as the wind had picked up.  Unfortunately we didn’t see any freshwater crocs or shy little wallabies.  We did however rescue a couple from the middle of the gorge who capsized their canoe and had some harsh words with each as to whose fault their misadventure was. Then a quick swim in Cadjeput Pool on our way back to camp.