Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Today we joined a bunch of backpackers for a canoe trip down the Murchison River. Once again we were the only old farts but at least we didn’t get stuck on a sandbar, like some of the others did. It was sunny and warm and surprisingly the guide let us go on our own, while he drove downstream to cook up a big brekky for everyone. I guess they don’t worry too much about people drowning in the river, since it’s pretty much waist deep in most parts. Prior to the guide telling us that, he explained how to inflate the life vests that we were required to wear, and he said after pulling the cord and inflating the vest, you simply stand up and walk out of the river. That gave us a clue that it was pretty shallow. Although we saw lots of cool looking birds, my pics didn’t turn out so well, since I kept turning the camera off every time I tried to take a picture. Bill had put the camera in the underwater case so it wouldn’t get wet, but it’s hard to see the buttons and even harder to push them, and I kept forgetting which ones did what, so I got very few pictures.

In the afternoon we drove out to one of the river gorges for a hike along the riverbed. It was surprisingly hot in the sun, since this is late autumn, but the temps out here during the summer months reach nearly 130 degrees, so this is definitely the right time to visit.