Oz Trip - Day 85

Day 85 – 25/7/2012 – Zebedee Springs, Emma Gorge and Saddle Back Ridge Lookout

It was nice to finally have a bit of a sleep in and not being woken by people snoring in the other camp sites around you or the early morning camp packups. Zabaee Springs was only open from 7am to 12pm. After 12pm it was only available to people who have paid to go on an El Questro tour. Basically at El Questro, if you want to experience camping or springs away from the crowds, it costs you more. We arrived at about 8:30am and it was already packed out. There were already a couple of tour buses in the carpark and nearly all parking spaces full. The sign in the carpark didn't leave us much hope, “If the carpark is full, then so are the springs, come back later”! We found one of the last parks and headed up the track to the springs.

Zebedee Springs

Busy Zebedee Springs

The springs looked nice but they were way too over crowded and shallow to bother with going for a swim. So we headed back to the carpark and headed to Emma Gorge.

There was a lot of rock hopping up the creek bed to get to Emma Gorge but it was worth it. There were a lot less people and a lot bigger swimming hole. The water was pretty cool to get into but once you were in it was ok. Jodie also found where there was a warm spring running into the water hole so she was happy to just sit in that.

A bit of rock hopping involved

Swimming pool at Emma Gorge

After the walk we had a bit of a walk around the Emma Gorge Resort. The grounds and restaurant looked really nice.

The Cafe at Emma Gorge Resort

The grounds

Free Boab Water out of the tree!

That afternoon we did the drive to the Saddle Back Ridge lookout. It was pretty steep with a few hair pin turns.

Saddle Back Ridge Lookout - looking back towards the camp sites

That night I had a camp fire with wood that I had a collected from around camp over the last couple of days.