Again, we were up with the birds this morning. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast on offer before setting off on the 45min drive to the “Northern End”. We arrived around 8:30am and checked out Stonehenge, which is just a walk through the grasslands with various signs indicating what the Indigenous people used each of the plants for.

Slightly further up the road and we were at The Bloodwoods where we embarked on our first proper walk of the day, a 4.4km return trip into Mini Palms Gorge. A bit of rocky creek bed walking followed by a scramble over some rocks and squeeze through a few more and we eventually made it to the end, absolutely stuffed. Thank goodness it was shaded and gorgeous and a perfect spot to stop and catch your breath for a while.

We headed back out of Mini Palms and headed up to Echidna where we did the short Osmond Lookout walk which offered stunning views of the Osmond Ranges before heading into Echidna Chasm. We had timed our morning perfectly that we got into Echidna Chasm around 11am so we got to watch the sun head over the top of the chasm and shed it’s light down through the walls of the deep chasm. The walk in was relatively easy though the chasm gets narrower and narrower and narrower!! Unfortunately, the very end section of the walk was closed as there had been a recent rock fall so we missed the last 100m.

By this stage we all needed a rest so it was a perfect time to sit in the car and head back to the Southern End. A quick detour to a lookout and then our accommodation so “G” could get a coffee and the boys hot chocolates and we were on our way again. This time we headed off to Cathedral Gorge and were lucky enough to arrive just as an Indigenous lady with her tour group started playing the clapping sticks and singing. It was very cool to hear the acoustics of someone who sounded good in the “cathedral” rather than our own screechy voices.

After Cathedral Gorge we headed for a walk down Piccaninny Creek. As we had now walked over 10kms, we were all worn out and decided enough was enough for the day. We headed back to the Lodge and “G” had a rest while “A” supervised the boys having a swim at the pool. Once again, shower time and we rugged up ready for dinner. Another incredible 3 course dinner of broccoli soup, buffet mains of pasta, roast potatoes, steamed veg, lemon pepper chicken, slow cooked beef followed by apple and wattleseed crumble and custard.

As everyone was well and truly worn out after a big day of walking, we hit our beds pretty early once again.