We had a very leisurely paddle up the first section of the gorge taking photos along the way. Shane was much braver than me and kept his camera around his neck, I kept taking mine in and out of a dry bag and I also tried taking a few photos with the gopro in its waterproof casing.
The views were sensational as the sun was still rising over the side of the gorge behind us. We got up to Indarri Falls and pulled the canoes out of the water at the portage site and then carried them 50-60 metres to the top section of the gorge.
The paddling was still easy going and we finally came to a section where a large fallen tree meant we couldn't paddle any further, but we were able to manhandle the canoes past this with a bit of swearing and a lot of getting wet.
This let us paddle a bit further until a couple of little water falls blocked our progress. We got out and explored a bit further on foot climbing to the top of a nearby hill.
We could probably heave carried the canoes a bit further and done some more paddling but decided to head back. At this point I had a brain fade and managed to fall off the canoe as I was trying to turn it around, luckily the camera was in the dry bag and it just floated waiting for both Shane and I to stop laughing and get the canoe the right way up and me on top of it rather than being in the water.
At this stage we realised that the paddle back wasn't going to be easy as the breeze had sprung up and we were paddling directly into it. We got back to the fallen tree and got around it much quicker although still not elegantly. More paddling into the wind until we got back to the portage site and we carried the canoes back to the lower gorge and then made our way back to the canoe rental site. Along the way, we met Wayne, Anne, Phil and company paddling up the gorge with the wind at their backs looking very relaxed.
We had been paddling for just on three hours and my shoulders were starting to feel a bit stiff and sore, so we headed back to camp for a rest and a cool drink or two and some lunch. Then we wandered back to the swimming hole to cool off and I had a try of Shane's canoe, it was easier to paddle than the one I had rented but felt funny as I didn't have anything to brace my feet against. Then Shane decided to experiment and see if he could get back in the canoe in the middle of the stream in case he ever fell out. The results of this were hilarious. His canoe will float even if it is full of water and he can climb into it but it is so unstable that he couldn't paddle without tipping over.
Back to camp for another cool drink and a rest, then as it was still bloody hot we back for another swim to cool off. We decided to go for a walk up to the Constance Range to get some sunset photos later on in the day so we packed up the cameras, tripods and some water and wandered off a little bit before 5 pm (sunset at approx 6:30 pm). The signs and the walking guide suggests it is a 3-4 km return hike which is way underestimated, using a gps app on the iPhone suggested it was 2.2 km to about half way up the hill (I turned this off as it was eating my iPhone battery pretty quickly).
As we were a little early we found a nice shady spot with a view to the north and east and had a rest and caught up with Facebook.
There wasn't a real good view to the west but we found one with minimal trees and setup the cameras and tripods. We stayed there taking photos until well after the sun had gone down and then had to climb back down the hill using head lamps as it was pretty dark with out the moon.
I need to practice taking sunset photos more often as these didn't turn out all that well. The climb down the hill didn't do my knees any favours but as a consolation this made me forget about my sore shoulders from paddling. We got back to camp about 7:45 pm and had a cold drink. Shane then packed up and hit the road as he had to be back home by Thursday. I wandered down to see Wayne, Anne, Phil and company and had a wonderful apple crumble for dessert (with ice cream). I went to bed around 10'ish and slept very well after the exertions of the day.
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