Mornington Wilderness Camp

We had heard from Mum,Dad and others that you need to get in early for Mornington Camp as they only take about 56 campers. So we set an alarm, yes we weren't quite sure what that buzzing noise was either, for 6am. We got the girls brekky and set them up in car with a movie, and had packed up by 6:40. We kind of think of our pack up like a time trial and try to better it each time. Michael thinks we can still perfect it further. As we drive out of each camp we slide the hand out and wait for the other to high five it whilst driving. We grin and nod our heads in agreement..."not bad"!

The drive to Mornington from Bell Gorge was about 50km and we arrived at their turn off to radio in to see if they had any vacancies.

Luckily they had vacancies, so we boiled the billy and had a cuppa. A snake rustled in the spinifex. It was Unidentifiable. The overnight temps at Bell were chilly but it warmed up quite quickly so by 8am you were back in shorts.

Scenery driving into Mornington

We were going to stay 2 nights here at Mornington and once we arrived at reception we had also booked a canoe along one of their gorges for the day. At Mornington you can book on several tours such as bird watching, slideshow talks, sunset colours tour, canoe tours as well as breakfast, dinner and lunch hampers. We gave the 2 course dinner a miss as we couldn't justify the $60 per person and $28 for the girls. There are several walks and drives that are well signposted and with mud map notes.

 We headed to Sir John Gorge for the afternoon and it was beautiful. It felt like we had it all to ourselves. The girls were pretty scared as there was no one swimming and there were fresh water "crocky's". I can't blame them. Once they were in they were happy to swim to the other side and explore the rocks. On the way back I think Rubes cried the whole way back and grabbed tight so she literally was siting on me like a camel. Olive also had  a free ride on Michael. We bribed them with biscuits and once we got on dry land they had forgotten about any "crocky's".

Sir John Gorge

Canoeing the next day was great. We had a lazy morning and Michael had cooked some damper on the Weber as no fires are allowed at Mornington. 

I spotted some Crimson Finches right next to our camp as well as some other Unidentifiable birds. The Crimson finches are like a shot of red flitting among the spinifex. Overnight we had some dingoes and roos grazing in the woodland next to us. We spotted some Bustards too. At Bell Gorge we spotted a bandicoot.

Canoeing on Dimond Gorge was fantastic. The girls loved wearing their life jackets and were happily swimming. I think they thought that if they were wearing them then they wouldn't be eaten?

Olive kept saying "let's go deeper"!

Boabs are prolific in the Kimberley and we have named them Boaz after our camel in Broome.

Typical scenery in Mornington but it changes all the time.

This photo shows the dingo and also the road conditions.You can see how the road changed in the next photo about 30m along.

This dingo looked like he hadn't eaten for days. At Mornington the Dingoes are not treated as pests as they keep away the feral cats. Imaginative Olive then told us that she once saw a dingo riding a bike!! I couldn't help myself and asked if it was wearing a dress? Yes, was the reply.

We had spoken to some of the scientists (they live here all year round) and I was all convinced about going on a bird watching tour the next morning at .....5:45am as I was keen to spot the infamous beautifully coloured Gouldian Finch. Unfortunately they were booked out so I hope that I may be so brave to get up in the chilly morning (it got down to 8c last night) and spot it for myself near the creek.

The thermals are on but the alarm is not. Surely Gouldian Finches don't need to be seen before 6am??