June 7-9 Mornington Wilderness Camp

We headed to Mornington Wilderness camp with the Serisiers and Webbs. Mornington is a privately owned not for profit wildlife conservation property. The road in was nicely graded with a few easy creek crossings. We made camp in a nice shady bush area.
The first afternoon we all went for a swim at Sir John Gorge. The water was a bit slimy, with no good jump rocks for the kids. We had been pre-warned about a heavy going creek crossing that had to be done in 4WD (we were ready to send Chris in first!), but were slightly relieved to find the degree of difficulty had been hugely overstated. We then stopped at a track that winded its way round termite mounds with information on termites posted along the path. The guide said it would take 45 minutes but the kids raced through in 5 minutes.
The next day we hired canoes and paddled down Dimond Gorge for 2 km. We all had great fun swimming in the water, racing down some rapids and exploring the waterfalls. Even found a good jump rock. The final day was spent lazing around the campsite (including coffee and cake at the homestead) and swimming at a nice waterhole (Blue Brush). The evening was spent listening to an interesting talk about the area surrounding Mornington and the work carried out by the conservationists. Although the talk was interesting I think I enjoyed the saltwater crocodile near death experience stories of a couple that we met from Kununurra even more!Although there have been freshwater crocodiles in the rivers and gorges we have swum at so far, they are relatively timid and more likely to be scared off rather than approach you. The “salties” on the other hand are more likely to drag you away in your sleeping bag and eat you. We have been told we won’t need to worry about salties until Mitchell Falls and the Pentecost River.