Day 24 - Granite Gorge

It is a sanctuary for rock wallabies that scamper round the site at night. The owner also keeps caged birds to allow people to see wild birds. We were in two minds about keeping wild birds in cages which do not have enough room for a wing stretch or exercise. We noticed that when the rainbow lorikeet cage door was left open the birds stayed inside eating.

The caravan park owner sells food for the rock wallabies and they certainly expect to be fed by anybody walking past their sanctuary. One of the males got quite aggressive with other wallabies getting too close when he was testing for free food.

The gorge is made up from granite boulders. We followed a well marked path through the gorge hopping from big boulder to big boulder wondering some of the time whether the park owner had a good public liability insurance policy.

The gorge ended in a deep ‘swimming’ pool. We bottled out and took the track back to the reception centre.

During the walk we had a call from Jeff Hall from Dell’s Malawi days and who was living in Yungaburra. We took up his invitation to stay for the night in a beautifully appointed ensuite under his raised house. We spent a lovely evening with Jeff and Charlotte chatting about old times and happy memories of Malawi.  Jeff called up his brothers, Peter (in Perth) and Michael (in Sydney) for Dell who was delighted to “catch up” after so many years. Sadly, we were not able to contact Jeff’s father John, who was away for his birthday and out of telephone contact. Jeff’s house is really lovely and the garden is so green and lush.  All the pictures and objects around the house made Dell feel like she was back in Ngabu – a place in Dell’s life which has meant so much to her.