Pildappa Rock
With no place to travel to today we rose late. Ate breakfast late and headed for a walk up on the rock late.
Pildappa Rock appears to be a bit of a unicorn. It is fantastically amazing, huge, accessible without a fee or permit and not restricted in any way. You just don’t find that in Australia these days. Accordingly it was a winner before we even set foot upon it.
Prior to setting upon the rock we decided to set foot within the long drop toilet in the camping area. Oh mother of god pray for us. This experience was worse than sipping paint stripper through a straw. I felt myself gag at the smell, not breath for fear of one of a thousand flies slipping into my mouth and do business with a haste I have never had reason to previously.
Prior to putting our mountaineering boots on we noticed at the bottom of the rock was a sign telling us about some geraniums that were planted by a girls in 1938. Must say the ‘I think you are talking BS’ metre suddenly flicked into the red for the avid gardener in all of us reckoned we could barely make a geranium last six months let alone 80 or 90 years. A pretty odd place to plant flowers also came to mid. Still in the absence of a better flimsy story we chose to congratulate the girls and walk on.
Climbing the northern face of the rock did not extend our non-existent climbing skills. It was grippy granite on not much of an angle. Once atop we explored for an hour or so noting that the entire area was covered with small round dry pools that clearly held water aplenty when it rained. We also noticed that at a few spots the natural waterfalls had been dammed to hold water on the top. Henry the travelling dog had the time of his life sniffing, running, and climbing. His life was about perfect.
As we circumnavigated Pildappa we walked inside a small rock wall that had been erected about its circumference. It was clear that many years ago local farmers had figured out that the top of the rock not only held huge amounts of water they could harvest , but also that catching the falling water and re-directing it via the wall to a nearby dam provided a valuable resource that otherwise would have evaporated. We collectively decided this was a bit of genius.
Most of the day was spent effectively doing nothing. We chatted, did a bit of maintenance on the vans and prepared for the afternoon assault on the rock for sunset pics.
Late afternoon the sky darkened quickly threatening to dump gallons of water on us. Ultimately, it just stayed dark, didn’t rain yet provided some amazing shots. Again it was cold. Bloody cold. The wind cut through us sending us to bed early.
