Murchison River Gorge - Day 6
Trapped Bird
The group set off at 08:30 the next morning, heading northwards and crossing the river back and forth by hopping across rock fields. On one occasion (approximately 2 kilometres in), we had to trackback a little and rock hop across to a small peninsular in the middle of the river. The bush became very dense here and we were forced to bush bash for a while trying to find a point where the rocks continued to the other side, allowing us to cross.
We then entered a grassy area that was surrounded by swathes of fine sand. The area soon gave way to a small grove of two to three metres-high watyl bushes
(Acacia cyclops), their spindly branches and leaves clawing at us as we pushed through, leaving us stumbling on brick-sized red sandstone rubble that was strewn across everywhere. Just as the bushes cleared, my peripheral vision caught a flutter of movement. A tiny bird flew away just as we approached, leaving another on the ground flapping around. It seemed to have somehow gotten its foot tangled in the grass! The foot was very frail so we took great care untangling it before setting it free.
We ended up cutting up the hill on the left towards the
carpark at the 6.9 km mark. Everything seemed to have just flashed by, and the end came upon me very abruptly. I also felt that for some reason, everything seemed to have just blended together on this section of the route. Perhaps it was because this section of the gorge was mainly just crossing back and forth from one side to the other; or maybe it was because I was keenly aware that this was the last day, that we weren't too far from the end point, and that we would be leaving all this behind soon after...
...at least there was still The Loop!
Suunto Movescount Stats
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