Manning Gorge

Saturday 15th
As the days were around 30C we decided to do the gorge walk in the morning as it was a 3 hour return trip. This time we knew to wear bathers.

We got a photo of Manning with his name on the sign. It was funny that we were in the Kimberleys at Manning gorge.

So this is the sandy beach with paper bark trees and the boat. You can choose to go across in the boat or swim. You have to go across as the gorge walk starts on the other side.
The walk wasn't too hard just again you are walking on a narrow track with dry grass that is sometimes way over my head!

This is the view of Manning waterfalls from pool number 2. There were about 3 pools you could swim in but you really had to find out where all the rocks were as it is hard  to tell the depth of the water in spots. You can swim along and all of a sudden your arms touch a rock. They are hard to see. So we all went to the waterfalls and there were some rocks sticking out that you can jump off of, so that's what the kids did for the next 2 hours. Time went very quickly and we knew we had to come back again the next day. It was great. You could also swim behind the waterfall and look out through it.
So with hungry but very happy kids we headed back. As we got to our caravan though we realised we had made the mistake of leaving the rubbish outside for the crows to get into.And they made a huge mess!!!
After lunch we hung at the sandy beach and the kids played in the boat at the river all afternoon and made new friends again. They are getting good at this and we may see the familys another couple of times before we loose track of them. Quite a few families on the road.

The kids had a great time with the boat and new friends. Pretending they were pirates and dragging each other along in the water. They have all passed their degree in hiking across level 4 hiking terrain now they were all becoming captains of the silver ship! This river was very pretty and I really enjoyed swimming up it looking at the palms above! Every kid needs this in their back yard.
When Tim was sitting on the beach he talked to  a guy that was also heading on the Gibb to Kununurra and he encouraged Tim that he would be find to keep going. Yeah says Heidi.
So due to the extreme fun that our family was having we added 2 nights to our stay at Manning and took some time out to relax in the tranquillity of the place.
It was a common thing for everyone one in the camp ground to  get  a fire going as soon as the sun went down, so our kids thought that was a good idea but they left their wood collecting a bit late and had to do it by torch light. As Zane was carrying his log to the fire he stopped and yelled out "Mum come and look at this" As I looked there walked through a large Brahman steer through our camp and out into the scrub. He looked quite startled and I don't think he was expecting these caravans to be in his paddock.