Kalbarri National Park Day 2

We both slept terrible last night because it was so cold. We think it got down to 5 C (around 40F?) Either way, neither of us brought proper clothing or sleeping bags for the weather. Andrew found out that a water canteen does not make for the best pillow either. We woke up about 8 and did not get our of the tent until 10am when it was finally warm enough to emerge. Andrew ate marshmallows and some more of the cheddar and chive crackers for breakfast. As a nutrition student I just laughed.

We broke camp and had some plain and nasty oatmeal for breakfast. (We bought flavored oatmeal but it still tasted bad).

We headed back to the car, exchanged our camping gear for climbing gear and hiked back into the gorge. We hike a different trail to anther side of the gorge where we were able to get to the bottom. We found a nice area to climb and set up gear. There were not big rocks to tie the rope to. So we place trad gear. Blake showed us how before we left. I know you need 2 pieces of gear to be safe. Since neither Andrew nor I had climbed with trad gear before we place a third for backup and a fourth for good measure. I then double, triple, and quadruple checked out everything to make sure it was all safe and secure.

Unfortunately, the spot we decided to climb in was in the shade and wind. We decided to eat lunch before we climbed. We moved to an area in the sun to eat. We were there for 20 minutes bundled in our jackets and we both got sunburned on our faces! Here is the view we had as we ate lunch!

After lunch we climbed! We both did really well! It was so much fun.

From where we were climbing we could see The Lookout that we had visited the previous day. It was about 150 meters away. The people looked like ants. They waved at us and we waived back. It was kind of fun.

We were tearing down all of the gear when Andrew went to get dirt off of the rope bag by flinging it up in the air. As he did this I saw my sunglasses go flying straight up and over the edge to to bottom of the gorge about 15 meters below. So we climbed down and found them all in one piece and unscratched!!! Whoo hoo!

We then went and hiked around and explored the river bed.

We stashed our heavy bags prior to exploring. After making our way back we did have issues finding our bags. We did finally find them.

After we made our way out of the gorge and back to the car, we decided to go into town and have a nice hot heavy dinner. We ate at some local tavern. We got lemon chicken and vegetable stir fry. It was amazing. The weather was very cold again. We were trying to figure out where to set up our tent when I got the bright idea to stay in a hostel for the evening. Nice and cheap, WARM, showers, comfy bed, pillows, and WARM!

Yes, the hostel was a great investment. And yes I got to sleep in the big bed :)