This morning we woke with the birds! There were magpies caroling and willie wagtails calling very close by, with kookaburras and cockatoos (or maybe corellas) in the background. Fortunately the magpies flew off somewhere else after they sang for a bit and we managed to doze off for another hour.
For Christmas our friend Steve received the lonely planet book Best Day Walks Australia. We were all quite enthusiastic about the entry outlining the hike to the summit of Mount Remarkable so included a couple of nights in Melrose in our itinerary. With the day forecast to be very hot, we decided to scale back our plans a bit and this morning we ventured into Alligator Gorge rather than attempting the summit.
As we drove towards Wilmington on our way to the gorge, we passed a sign for the Goyders Line Monument. Because we are nerds and because we had mobile reception, I Googled it and learnt that in 1865 the George Goyder, mapped a line that separates the areas that receive good rainfall, to the south and those that experience drought, to the north. The southern areas were declared suitable for cropping and those to the north
only suitable for grazing. Despite the fact that areas north of the line can experience good years, this demarcation remains very accurate overall.
We are so glad we chose the gorge over the summit as it was spectacular and mostly shaded, which was a bonus. We walked out to the Gorge Lookout first before heading down into the gorge itself to view The Terraces and then hike through The Narrows.
Just before we entered The Narrows a from the other direction advised us that they had just seen a SNAKE! Ugh! I was wearing my gaiters though, to protect my ankles and lower calves, so I was prepared. Even so, I was very happy that the snake was gone by the time we reached the spot that they had described to us. Although I was a bit concerned about where it may have slithered off to?! I remain irrationally afraid of snakes even though I know that very few people in Australia actually die from snake bites.
It really started to warm up as we hiked out of the gorge as we were much more exposed to the sun AND we discovered that we
could have left one of the cars at the lower car park rather than have to hike back to the upper car park. Tcht! Still, that would not have achieved our exercise goal on our Apple watches, ha, ha. Back at the car park we found a little bit more energy to walk the 250 metres to take in the view from Ali Lookout.
Back in town we ate a late lunch at the Over the Edge Cafe & Bike Shop which was delicious! We spent up big on tortillas, followed by cakes (we had earned them!) and Bernie bought a Maybe it was a bit of a stretch to buy the ‘Dodging Bullets one of the mountain bike tracks when he hadnt ridden it???
After this mornings exertions we are relaxing back at our Under the Mount. And boy, it is hot today. We are glad that we got the hiking done this morning as it is 34.5°C in Melrose, SA at the moment.
For anyone into hiking and/or cycling (esp of the mountain biking variety) we would thoroughly this area.
