28 July 2019
This morning we headed off on the Dales Gorge walks. We started by walking to the Circular Pool lookout, and then down into the gorge to Circular Pool. The water looked beautiful, however it was so cold! We didn’t swim, however did snigger at the people who gingerly immersed themselves with involuntary sounds of pain.
We walked along the bottom of the gorge and marvelled at the rock formations. They are stunning. Fortescue Falls at the end, and then Fern Pool just a bit further on were absolutely beautiful. We didn’t swim, as I didn’t have my togs, and lunch was calling. Mum had done a fantastic job with the walk, aided greatly by a set of walking poles that Bill bought for her in Broome.
After lunch and a bit of a spell, Bill and I walked back down to Fortescue Falls for a swim. We timed it perfectly and had it completely to ourselves. It was a lot warmer than Circular Pool and was definitely worth the walk back down all those stairs.
Early tea, and we headed out for the astronomy session held at the campground nightly. We almost missed out as it was a bit cloudy, however the fella taking it decided we’d see how things went. It was amazing! I can’t remember hardly a single statistic he told us (he was quite the showman, but evidently very intelligent) but it was all fascinating. We looked through high powered telescopes at Jupiter (and four of her 76 moons), Saturn and other stars and clusters of stars. Turns out that shooting stars are fragments the size of our little fingernail and it is estimated that there are a million a year. There is a red supernova (a star) we can see that is about to explode. Well, it could happen anytime in the next thousand or so years. But they know it is going to because it is getting so big. However after it explodes, it will take 620 years for us to be able to see it, and it will light up the sky for days! So if we see it tomorrow, it means it exploded 620 years ago! I hope I get to see it in my lifetime. I don’t like my chances though.
An absolutely fantastic day.
The whole crew at the Fortescue Falls lookout.
Circular Pool.
Fortescue Falls.
Travelling the Big Island 