Kimberleys page 7

The turn off to Old Mornington Camp is a further 33 kms on from Bell Gorge and then it's another 100 kms drive into the camp itself. This was a cattle property and has an area of 1 million acres. It has been purchased by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and the cattle are being removed from the property, which will be partially fenced to preserve the abundant wildlife. It has a 40 km frontage on the Fitzroy River and has two gorges - Sir John Gorge and Dimond Gorge as well as several excellent fishing spots. The drive in wasn't too bad for most of the way however the last 20 kms were extremely rough to say the least.


	When we finally arrived at Old Mornington Camp we were tired after the 3 hours it took to drive the 100 kms from the turnoff, hot and thirsty. The "registration" desk is also the bar and is in a huge shed, open on three sides which also doubles as the dining room and kitchen. We were offered a coffee and were able to relax before setting out to find a good campsite.

After pitching the tent we set out to explore a minute part of the one million acre property. This is Cadjeput, one of several very good fishing spots. Barramundi are caught here but not on the day we were fishing.

	As Mornington is a cattle property there are large numbers of cows drifting around. One small mob of them uses the campsite as their "bedroom" and being early risers themselves they do an early morning inspection of the various tents. I couldn't help wondering about the reactions of the occupants of this particular tent when they were confronted by four very curious cows at that hour of the morning.

This photograph was taken at about 9am and the day was already very hot. We were driving to Sir John Gorge when we happened to see this beautiful creek complete with water lilies.