Day 19 – Cobbold

Snoring – I think the world championship for the loudest snorers goes to those around us. It was a co-ordinated symphony, with one taking up in the gap(s) left by the others. Even the iPod had to be at a high volume to drown them out, but as I’m listening to audio books, the pauses were all punctuated by snores or other loud sleeping sounds. Finally we were up by before 7, showered, dressed, had a leisurely breakfast and were then well and truly ready at 9:30 for the 10 tour. A family travelling together (13 – grandparents and two sibling families) took one bus and the rest of us took the other. Our group split into two and ours was the first to traverse the gorge. I was very interesting, with a different patter to last time and at least two crocs visible, one of which I was able to photograph. We had a view of the tourists in the first group, up the top. Then we walked and got a similar spiel to last time, but more on the aboriginal and European history and less of the geological history. Lynn walked all except the last section. Part of the way I chatted to the husband of a café owner from Ingham about promoting towns. We got back to the centre about 1:15, had a light lunch and Lynn eventually went for a swim – I chatted to a pie maker (retired) whose brother agists cattle on Robin Hood Station, from which Cobbold Gorge is taken. Returning to our camp, we found the couple from Orange were now our neighbours. We spent a little more time at the café, which in reality is the social centre and also bought some souvenirs. I showed Lynn where I had stayed when visiting on SUZI. Then later we went back to have an early tea and finally got to bed by 7:30, hoping we could sleep because most of the snorers had left – but alas, their places were taken by even more ardent noisemakers! I retaliated by turning up my iPod, but with the volume up I flattened it by 4 a.m., so the last two hours were spent listening to a louder and more orchestrated snoring performance.