We spent the next three nights at Mornington Wilderness Camp. The camp is a two hour drive on a dirt track. To make sure that visitors don’t do arrive to find they campsite full, the operators have installed a radio booth about 500m off the Gibb. We called from there and got the OK to venture on.
Mornington is owned and operated by the Australia Wildlife Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization that only started up 18 years ago. We were really impressed with the work they are doing - managing and restoring habitat, reintroducing and conserving species and providing educational programs. (See below for a couple of links that will tell you more.)
The campground was well treed, spacious and quiet. The reception reminded me of an African safari camp, complete with an open air bar and restaurant. The first night we went to a talk by the resident naturalist about the Conservancy and the work they are doing around Australia. A couple of days later we had the chance to sit down with her for an hour ask a million questions. It was really interesting to learn about how the habitats and their associated species respond to regular bush fires, as well as about the affects of introduced species, and the efforts to recover native species. Feral cats are a huge problem as they prey on the small marsupials and birds. There are an estimated six to 20 million feral cats in Australia!
For our first full day we arranged to use the canoe at a place called Sir John Gorge. It’s about 1.5 hour drive from the campsite and we had the place entirely to ourselves. On arrival, we walked for about a half an hour beside the first of the gorge’s pools to reach the second pool where a canoe awaited. It was hot hot again (!!!) so we went for a swim before jumping into the canoe to paddle to the end of the second pool. Then we had to walk again for about 15 minutes to the next pool where another canoe awaited. This third pool was about 1.5 km long. Whenever we got too hot we just slipped into the water. At lunch we watch a freshwater croc swim by just off-shore. It was strange to think it was nothing to about. At the end of the third pool was a series of smaller pools flowing from one into another. We sat there enjoying the coolness of the flowing water, watched by a big lizard as we watched the bright red dragonflies. The bird watching was great all day. The high red walls of the gorge are ancient – over two billion years old. Once when reaching out to steady the canoe, I realised the rocks at my finger tips were probably the oldest thing I’d ever touched. We repeated the walk/ paddle pattern at the end of the day to return to camp. It was a very hot, glaringly bright excursion but we managed to avoid sunburn – expect for my lips, which in spite of being slathered in sun block all day, got badly burned. For the next 3 days I had to drink my wine without my lips touching the glass! We got back to camp, cooked a quick dinner and fell into bed, exhausted but laughing. My clock read 7:28!
The next morning Barney got up at 5:30 for an early morning guided bird, walk so I was able to sleep in till 7. When I got up I felt a bit chilly so I put on my light fleece. Checking the thermometer I was dismayed to see that it was 16 degrees C. I guess that means I’m adjusting to the heat.
We went to a different pool on our second day, swam, read and wandered among the termite hills, continually bird watching and being delighted by what we were able to see. Driving along the red dirt roads through the natural savannah was heaven.
Each night we listened to owls hooting and dingos howling.
Links:
http://www.australianwildlife.org/AWC-Sanctuaries/Mornington-Sanctuaryn/Mornington-Wilderness-Camp.aspx
http://www.australianwildlife.org/Home.aspx
Pictures from Mornington...
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| Mornington |
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