Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

Hidden Valley, Kelley's Knob etc

Slack day. A trip up the ord River on a friends tinny. Seems this is the outing of choice for the Kunnanurra community. You could hardly say you had the water to yourself. Very impressive trip though.

Hidden Valley, Kunnanurra. More info later. Must be off to boat up the Ord.

El Questro Gorge: 159 metre cliffs on either side. 3 k long. Only 15 metres wide towards the end of the walk. Running water and swimming holes. Shade for most of the rip, from cliffs and padanus palms. Looking up you can see the upper cliffs glowing in the heat.
Emma Gorge: Only a couple of k in. Not as impressive as El Questro, until the final pool where you can swim in a deep black pond with the waterfall dropping onto you.
Zebeddy hotsprings. Lard tub more like it. Mildly warm water, and small pools full of people. The impressive part was the vegetation and the drive in. The palm lined creek was an extreme contrast with the dry and hot savannah. In this heat hot pools are most overated. The drive in was a bit exciting.
Sign of the day: Gibb River Road. Roaming stock next 632 kilometres.

C • Emma George 1

There was a free concert tonight. Alcohol, smokes and money free. Mainly indigneous bands playing a version of country rock. As you can guess, pretty loud. And just across the way. Pretty good version of Johhn B Good woke me a bit before midnight. I admit enjoying it. Quirky interpretation and catchy.

6.15am Along the Kunnanarra M1 irrigation channel. An unisnpsiring run in terms of scenery, but quite interesting from an agricultural perspective.
Highlight: Free water. So says the sign at the caravan park. Please water the lawn around your campsite! Argyle dam is a stunning sight. More water than they can find a use for. Only 10 per cent of inflow is used by irrigators. For a resident of the Murray Darling basin its another wolrd. I was reminded of Ernie Bridges dream of a pipe to Perth and my missed chance of musical glory. For the uninitiated, he was once WA agriculture minister. I was at a conference where he was programmed to give a speech. Instead he pulled out a guitar and sang a song about pumping water south from the Ord. I cursed that my mandolin was elsewhere. It would have been wonderful to walk up and accompany him.
Early this year I contributed to Dave Panell's blog, suggesting that Ernie's scheme should instead talke water to Adelaide to save the lower lakes. It would give WA membership of the Murray Darling Basin Commission and they could then stop whinging about missing out on MDBC Federal Funds. Economist Al Watson responded that ionly had half a scheme. Instead, if the water was shipped down via the new railway, then that would make a profit and the north would have one white elephant rather than two.

Trip to Wyndham. Uninspiring town, but massive view of 5 rivers from the hill over the town. Spent ages sitting looking at the mud flats. Visited the prison boab tree.
Highlight: Watching Garnauts press conference while eating Barra burgers at the Wyndham pub. Not what I expected would be on a big scree in that sort of place.
Highlight 2: Driving the Ivanhoe Crossing of the Ord river. Watching the vehicles come across in fear is a local sport. We were last sothere was a crowd egging us on. Fast water half way up the door. Crocdile country. Wide river. Yep, adrenaline stuff for a novice like me.

6.54 am Run up and along the range overlooking Katherine Gorge village. The first part of the run, well most of it, was quite uninspriing, but like yesterday it finished with a sudden revealtion of the gorge from above. Again, stunning. At the bottom I truned around and climbed back up the range to getthe extra climb and to get the views again.

Highlight: The views of the gorge.
Lesson: Showers are for comfort. After the run I had the shower block to myself. In most southern caravan parks you would queue at this hour, but here everyone showers in the evening to cool down. Showered in what I thought was pleasant but lukewarm water for running just the hot tap. It was only when i finished that i realised I had been running the cold tap only.
Lowlight: Gregory Tree 'closed'.

Sight of the day: Irriagted sorghum. Can't find this anywhere else in Australia at the moment.
Lowlight: Very noisy sound system from the indigenous camp across the way from the caravan park. kept on from 10pm till first light. I was thankful for exhaustion and ear plugs. Its a symbol of the tense race relations of the area. I think its obvious both sides despise each other. Totally different cultural expectations. There is resentment from Europeans as they see the other side 'outside the law'. The enforcement of noise laws is a case in point. The cops drive round and it goes down for 5 minutes then goes back again. Royalty payments are a source of anger as well. But then its some Euopeans who benefit by selling the grog, the music gear, the 4-WDs, whatever. Pretty depressing story.

The route: 7.20 am from the Douglas River Hot Springs along the Butterfly Gorge track for a while.
Highlight: Plunging into the warm creek after the run. Every run should have one.
Lesson: Sleeping mats are important for insulating the sleeper from the ground, especially when the ground has been baking the sun for a day.
Lowlight1: Discovering my sleeping mat has a leak and only lasts 15 minutes.
Lowlight 2: Watching a tyre on the 4WD display anothe leak.
Lowlight: 3: Leaving my heart rate monito band behind.
Glass half full interpretation: A great excuse to drive in again on the way back to Darwin in 2 weeks.

Into Katherine Gorge via the plateau. Stunning scenery. Amazing terrain. Lots of world class orienteering terrain. No world class orienteering weather though. Bloddy hot. We started the walk 2 hours before sunset and got back just before dark.

Bulli waterholes, then Florence Falls. The former was a great feature with a series of small waterholes between waterfalls. But you almost had to queue to get a spot in the water. Close to Darwin. Florence falls was better. Atmospheric swimming in a deep hole at the base of a substantial water fall, surrounded by farless fish swimming around you.

Started at 7.15am to avoid the heat. Can't avoid the humidity though. I was surprised to find a small area of my running top dry at the end of the run. Still very tight in the left hammy, though its no longer sore. Took it real easy.
Retraced some of yesterdays route, added golf course and Mindel Beach. The latteris interesting. The grey nomads and younger aquarius types are camped on the foreshore. The indigneous are back up the creek.
Discovery of the day.
When you leave the airconditioning and head outside, your glasses fog up. Try the contact lens. OK, but the sun is stong so you need sun glasses. OK, but then they fog up... back to square one and live with it.
Heading off this morning inland. Not sure where.

Walking because I can't run today. Still sore from whatever it was that I did on the weekend.
Fanny Bay, Botanic Gardens, NT Art Museum and Darwin generally.
Highlights:
Jackfruit hanging from a tree (nd mangoes and soursop on other trees). Nothing ripe yet.
The Art Gallery.
Lowlights:
Darwin = Gold Coast on the Arafura.
You know to expect it, but the public drunkenness, indigenous and backpacker, is still unsettling.
Newspapers. You have to read the local rag to believe it.