#mt remarkable

Day Fifteen already! This was the day we'd planned to hike the Hidden Gorge track in the Mount Remarkable National Park. So we did.

Lately from sleeping in a tent and camping with attacking mice our body clocks have changed and instead of having a later night and a subsequent later morning we've been inside the tent by 8:30pm at the latest, and a good sleep in sees me(the last one up) getting out of the tent sometime between 8-8:30am, and that's only if we're staying put. Brett like to say we have old farmers body clocks now.

The last two nights, and again tonight we're not camping, and after today my body is grateful! That's what is so remarkable!

We left for the national park around 9. We'd slightly slept in because we had a tv to keep us awake the night before. After self registering for the national park, and shooing off emus so we could do so, we parked the car and checked out the board with the available walking tracks.

We'd read about the walk in a book I'd brought titled '40 Great Walks in Australia'. The book said the walk was 16.8km long, the board said 18km, and the track markers, placed at 200m intervals, said 17.4km. So we trusted the track markers.

It was a single file walking track, just how I like them, and we had several dry creek bed crossings on our way to the hidden gorge. I should point out here that it had rained the whole night before so everything, except the creek bed, was damp.

The hidden gorge is this tranquil little place with cliffs less than 10m apart and stretching at least 100m up. And most of the cliffs are sheer faces. A rock climbers heaven. There is a stream that runs through the gorge, and as we moved up the gorge it gradually had a stronger flow.

There was this one part where the sides of the cliff had fallen in and we had to scramble over the rocks to get further up the stream. That was alright, the track wasn't wet, rather under an overhang.

Shortly after this I allowed Brett to lead, I normally like to be in front so this was unusual. It must have been about the time Mother Nature and Lady Luck decided it was time to get a comedy show happening in the Hidden Gorge.

Our next obstacle was a solid boulder about 4m wide, with a stream and pool down it's right hand side. It was determined crossing from left to right would be the easiest so I followed Brett. Brett made it over fine. I didn't. I slid down towards the shallow pool. Not just once. Not just twice. But THREE times. Normally when I injure myself I normally, at least under my breath, let off a fire truck(minus five letters and a space) or two and maybe in excessive circumstances a third time too. This time it was a simple normal toned 'Oww'. No big exclamations. I wasn't controlling myself either, that was all that came out.

So Injury Count: 1st Fall: On my belly. 1 x Right Knee Bruised 1 x Left Pectoral Muscle Pulled

2nd Fall: On my left hand side 1 x Left Hamstring Twinged 1 x Left Elbow Bruised 1 x Left Hip Bone (we all know we can easily see mine!) Bruised

3rd Fall: On my back! 1 x Backside Wet 2 x Feet Wet

I made it over on the fourth attempt after figuring out my cloth covered knees had more grip than my rubber hiking boot soles and therefore crawling like a baby was the way to go. Yes crawling not crying!

With that out of the way and all the aches becoming more evident as the adrenaline wore off, we completed the hike. There was one point where we were walking through a native cypress forest and it felt very USA!

When I got back to the car I was the one driving so Brett could sleep. I made a bee line for our room and the bed to lie down. Oh my green grass was that fantastic. Brett even cooked dinner tonight. It was the second time he had. Any other time I'd not cooked he'd paid for us to eat somewhere. He even took care of the dishes which was even better!

It was an odd nights sleep. I'm normally a side sleeper but it was more comfortable on my back.

Until next time...