Lily and Tim's Travel Blog: Goats

The Blinman Pools Great Short Walk Guide

Day 10. 19/9/11: Blinman to Dedman's Hut and Bore

Got up and Lily spent a good hour or so with her yoga mat while Tim wrote a lovely piece on awe and wonderment and their place in our journey and philosophy. We had the luxury of another shower, packed the van and headed off to have a look at the Mawson Trail. We scoped out Dedman's Hut as a place to stay for the night so that the next morning we could get up, run to Blinman and cycle back. It was VERY exciting to see the track that we'd take on Day 2. It looks exactly as I'd imagined the whole track would be: red, dusty, leading into the wilderness. Yay! And a little bit of eek! Day 1 will be all road - approximately 18k of bitumen. It's still beautiful scenery but it's a regular road.

Emu excitement!

After we'd got excited by Day 2 we drove to Angorichina (Angoorchyna, or something like that, which in the local Aboriginal language means 'blood was spilt on this rock') where the Great Short Walk to Blinman Pools begins. The track is, for the most part, a dry creek bed so there's lots of scrabbling over rocks and wondering which path to take. Apparently 19th century types would regularly picnic at the pools. Dedicated picnic-goers. Lily reckons they rode goats. Near the beginning of the walk are three dug-outs which were occupied by a family and their herd of goats (the family had one, the goats two).

Feathery-arse-flapping

It was an extremely windy day, but we managed to miss most of it, being down in the gorge. First cool thing of the walk: our emu guide. He led us for a while then let us carry on without him, flapping his feathery arse at us as he waddled away. Later a herd of feral goats hung out with us for a while (I wonder if they're related to the 19th century dug-out goats?) then they did some crazy running up the cliff face.

Goat

We made it to the first of two pools after a couple of hours scrabbling and sat for a while. The second of the two pools was only another hour away so we decided to keep going. Saw a magpie chasing a wedge-tailed eagle. The second pool was pretty special. It looked like a luxury horizon pool. We got naked. Tim went for a swim, Lily paddled in the shallows looking gorgeous. We stayed there for a while hanging out, eating fruit, watching flocks of swallows diving just close enough to the surface to catch a beakful of water and maybe the odd dragonfly before swooping back up into the air.

The hike back was much faster. All business. But our emu friend was waiting for us near the end of the walk to lead us back into civilisation. An icecream, a bit of a wash and we headed back to Blinman to leave our bikes there for Day 1's ride! We're going to run from Dedman's Hut (where we're camping tonight) and end up in Blinman to pick up our bikes and cycle back to camp. Sitting in the van now being rocked by the wind. Here's to a good night's sleep!