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The next stop was the Buley Rockhole, a gentle stream which fell over several ~1m cascades to form clear pools in the rock. It was a beautiful, relaxing place that would have been perfect for a swim later in the day.
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Five km downstream from there is Florence Falls. A short trail led us to a breathtaking overlook. The waterfall plunged down into a deep gorge, forming a pool at the base. The bottom of the gorge was covered densely with Palm and other broadleaf trees, creating a Monsoon Rainforest environment. The trees, which were quite tall, reached only halfway up the gorge to the overlook. Looking DOWN on thee ceiling formed by these tall trees was cool. We decided not to take the staircase down to the floor of the gorge.
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Ten paved km from Florence Falls & down a 20 km dirt road we found the Lost City. To understand it you must understand the kind of terrain we had been driving through. For the most part it was completely flat, with nothing that could be called a hill, let alone a mountain. Both sides of the road were densely forrested, with trees with single, straight trunks for a meter or two, which then branched out and became leafy for the top couple meters. Interspersed with these are short, 1-2m palm trees whose fronds grew in a spiral pattern around the trunk. These forests appeared to have fairly regular low burning fires to rid the forest of its brushy undergrowth. Most of the tree trunks seemed a bit charred, but the trees looked healthy.
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So, in the middle of this forest, at the end of the dirt road, we found these massive bolocks of old, weathered sandstone. It was easy to imagine that they were all that was left of an ancient city. We ate lunch here and called our parents on the sattelite phone.
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Down the main road a bit farther was tabletop swamp, which fills with water during the Wet (rainy summer) and gets used all winter (the Dry).
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Tolmer falls was another 5 km down the road, and being close to the road, there were a lot of tourists there! This was another waterfall even taller than Florence.
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We turned south on a dirt road and were immediately presented with a river but no bridge! Jason considered that the man renting us the car had told us: "If the water is deeper than the tops of the wheels, you might consider giving it a miss." (This was not the last time we would hear this expression.) So Jason thought, "Ah ha! This means that we CAN go in water up to the tops of the tires." So Jason took a deep breath and drove smack into the water . . . and out the other side!
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The Blythe Homestead was past another, smaller river, and this time we got pictures of us driving through. The homestead itself was less exciting -- dirt floor, low ceilings, corrugated metal walls & roof held up by wooden beams, built in 1929 as an outstation to the main ranch.
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The highlight of the day was Sandy Creek (Tjaynera Falls). We thought twice about got at all because it was a 1.7 km hike to get there, and 1.7 km back, and we weren't sure if my feet could take it. Amazingly my feet were fine the whole way. On the way there we saw a field of short palm trees that were white. When we looked closer we saw that they were not (yet) dead, as we had supposed, but were covered in a fine white powder.
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When we got to the waterfall, we saw it pouring down from above us into the crystal clear pool at its base. There were about 25 people already swimming in the natural pool; kids, their parents, and some old people.
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Jason had brought his swimsuit and joined them; I took pictures of him swimming and at the far side of the waterfall.
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When he got back he convinced me to go in too -- in my clothes since I forgot my suit that day. The water was cool, but it felt good after the hot walk, and it was exciting to swim to the base of the waterfall and just lay there in the water looking up at it.
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Back at the dirt road, there was a sign saying that to proceed, snorkels were strongly recommended. We wouldn't have known what this meant except that we saw one parked at the lost city. At first it looked like a parascope attached to an SUV, but we quickly realized it was a pipe designed to get air to the auto's engine when passing through dep water. Since we didn't have one, we turned back instead of continuing on the loop we had planned.
We saw a cute place to have dinner, and went back to it after I had changed out of my wet clothers. It was owned by a German couple, so they had a combo German-Australian accent. Our dinner there was Barramundi fish, -- a local speciality. Our dinner here was much better than the one the night before at our Bachtelor hotel.
When we got back to our hotel there was still a bit of daylight, so we went to play mini golf. It was 100% concrete -- no astroturf here, no moving parts. But we had fun, even though the last couple holes were played in complete darkness!
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