Thursday, October 20, 2016 – 16.42 km

Another scenic day as the HT passed into Caroona Creek Conservation Park. With its hard spinifex, the scenery reminded me of what I had seen hundreds of kilometres further north. Tourilie Gorge was beautiful and dramatic, but easier walking than the gorges near Quorn since an obvious trail bypassed the rockiest bits (though the map defines this segment as non-trail, being a high standards map).

Huge tadpoles lived in a scattering of pools.

Someone actually built a road through the gorge at once point, and a few stone retaining walls remain. I love this kind of country that isn’t great for either growing crops or raising livestock, just exploring.

Caroona Creek Campsite is a large site accessible by vehicle, but I had it to myself. Neil had specifically warned me to treat the rainwater tank water because there are ‘creatures’ in it and it made Gregory sick. I drew some water and sure enough, there were wiggly larvae-things in it. Later I checked the water in the outhouse tank and didn’t see any larvae, so it might be okay, but obviously filtering or treating the water is always wise.

The forecast was for clouds today, but until evening I was lucky and had what I’ve known for three years as an ‘Arizona sky’: a perfect blue sky. Now a bank of clouds has sprung up. The air is still warm, which is nice after so many cold nights, but a thunderstorm is in the forecast.