We are waiting for the flat tyre to get fixed. It hasn’t taken two days, it’s another tyre. The one we blew going into Mornington was duly repaired and so we had the piece of mind of having a spare while we explored the park. There are two gorges in the park, Dimond Gorge and Sir John Gorge. Both are on the Fitzroy River and there is a waterhole on the way to each gorge. Mornington itself is owned and run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a not-for-profit organisation that buys land incorporating important habitats and ecosystems. Mornington is home to the Gouldian Finch and a host of other savannah bird life.

There is a lot of research being done on this former cattle station station and the beneficial effects of de-stocking (of cattle horses and donkeys) and having a more controlled fire regime have been substantial. Several previously endangered species are showing signs of recovering to healthy populations. There are thousands of termite mounds on Mornington and an average mound consumes as much spinifex and contains as much protein as a male wallaroo. Termites are the primary grazers in the Savannah. The termites are able to digest cellulose and wood because of the microflora in their guts. There can be as many as one billions of the microorganisms per millimetre of gut. Each termite mound holds up to one millions termites. The tiny size of the microorganisms and the sheer number of them (and the termites) is mind blowing. Each of the roads in the park has track notes that are very comprehensive and informative. The diversity of habitat and species and the changes that can occur within the space of a few metres are phenomenal.

After staying two nights in the safari tent, with couldn’t slum it in the car the third night, so we decided to move on. The road out was just as bumpy as it was on the way in and the draw in the back of the van kept opening (even after being taped shut). The draw would slide open going around a right hand curve and close on the left hand curve. I soon perfected a technique whereby with a deft flick of the steering wheel I could close the drawer at will. Twenty kilometres from the main road we blew another tyre and had to change it in the blazing heat. The tyre itself was too hot to touch for more than a second at a time and that proved a challenge. The other challenge was the jack. It was just the right size to fit neatly under the designated jacking point ONLY IF THE TYRE IS FULLY INFLATED. This forces you to use another lifting pointand at full reach there is only a couple of millimetres clearance between the tyre and the road. To get the new tyre on, I had to dig a hole in the road to get enough clearance. We took the remaining 20km at a cautious pace, followed by another 25km on the Gibb River Road to the next roadhouse, which luckily provided tyre reapirs on Sundays. We are now thinking of spending our spare day in Derbyand flying out to see the horizontal waterfall. This is the beauty of a flexible itinerary.