Up early this morning to go to Zebedee Springs.  These are only open to the riff raff (general public = us) from 7am until 12pm.  After that they are reserved for tours and homestead guests.

The springs themselves are fed from an underground source and are at about 25-32 degrees all year round.  They were fairly busy but we had no trouble finding a spare spot to lie in and soak up the natural spa.

Each of the little pools is quite small, some only fitting one person, but the largest easily copes with 10 people or so.  Blake and Hannah were popping around everywhere trying out each of the little pools while Mum and Dad enjoyed a moments peace and tried to find a relaxing spot away from B&H.

About 10am we managed to prise ourselves away from Zebedee Springs as we had more plans for the day.  Next stop was just down the road at Amalia Gorge.

To get to the end of this gorge requires a challenging rock scramble of about 4km.  There is a lovely pool, with waterfall, at the halfway point.  Since there’s very little shade on this walk the pool was a very welcome sight.  We spent about 15 minutes there on the way in and again on the way out.

The main pool at the end of the gorge is beautiful and refreshing too.  It wasn’t as cold as those in Karajini though.

Not much shade on this track

Around 1pm we headed back to the van for a quick spot of lunch.

Local tour guide blocking the path

Not content to rest for the remainder of the day, we headed for Chamberlain Gorge for the sunset cruise at 2:45.  There was only us and one other couple on the cruise along with four staff.  Two rangers, one of the stockmen and one of the bar staff (on her day off).  Unfortunately there had been a slight error with the catering and they’d brought along enough food and champagne for a cruise for 30.  We couldn’t let it go to waste!  Two huge fruit platters and a bottomless bottle of champagne.

There’s salt water crocs in the Chamberlain River, so definitely no swimming.  No mention of no fishing though… but it wasn’t us that were doing the fishing.  Along with Barramundi and many other fish in the river are also Archer fish … and they were fishing for us!

The Archer fish hang around near the surface of the water watching intently for any insects that might fly by.  They then shoot a small stream of water out of their mouths trying to knock them down.  They’re amazingly accurate too.  You just dangle your fingers over the edge of the boat and they’ll shoot them from about a metre away.  They also like to shoot at cameras.

We also had a big Barramundi hanging around the back of the boat scaring some of the Archer fish away.  He was hanging around hoping for some of the fruit platter.  He wasn’t quite tame, but was quite happy to take fruit out of your hand.

Back to the van for a fairly early night.  Still plenty of noises from the river bank and on the other side sounded a bit wild.  Kel heard a Dingo howling nearby in the night.