31/8/16 In hot water - Douglas Hot Springs to be precise !

 Yesterday was spent doing the chores and just chilling out - we've yet to perfect that , but we'll keep trying . The afternoon was spent in the pool , keeping cool . We are staying at the Adelaide River Showgrounds , it is also the horse race track , we are about 50m from the finish line !!

  Today we are heading off for a drive down to Robin Falls , then continuing on to Douglas Hot Springs - seems a bit of a contradiction - it's heading for 37 degrees today and we're going to the Hot Springs ????
  Down the road we go , the 1st creek we cross is Anniversary Creek , so stop for a look .A bit of a novelty - it has water - after months of WA's creeks & rivers not flowing above ground , this was a real treat !!

  Only another 5 or 7 klms down the road we found the turn to Robin Falls and took it . Following it to the end we parked not far from a small bus & 4wd - the occupants of said vehicles don't waste a lot of money on clothes !! One gent put a sarong on and explained about his dogs and not to be worried by them , that wasn't a worry !!

 We started off up the track , it was rough and rocky , and had a stream beside it - the best part of that - it looked like the falls must be flowing , Yahoo !! Reflections in the creek were excellent , and with the trees having a high canopy , it helped keep us a bit cooler - todays temperature was climbing steadily to a forecast 37 degrees !!

 Whilst having a look around , the birdlife was flying and chirping around the place . I think this is a Satin Bower Bird . Not sure what the 2nd bird is - maybe someone can tell me ??

 A little further up the track we started to notice butterflies , not much further there were lots of them , perched on rocks & branches and fluttering around .

 Seems to be a wildlife walk today , here's a lizard just hiding around the edge of a rock .

 The track was getting rougher and we also ran out of water - it was coming from the left , in between 2 rocky ridges - seemed our waterfall may not be blowing after all . I continued , leaving Lyn to sit in some shade to cool down while I had a look . Making it to the falls after a lot of rock hopping and climbing , it was a bit disappointing to see the smallest triple of water coming over the edge 15m above me . It would be awesome with water flowing over it , but you may not be able to get to it then. The evidence of previous floods was still a couple of metres from the ground . 

The water would drop into a plunge pool , then cascade over that rock shelf and then flow into the creek bed . The surrounding rock must have been subjected to a lot of force & pressure , as it has been pushed upward's at an angle .

 To carry on the wildlife theme today , we stopped and watched some skaters , doing what they do best - skate across the waters surface .

 The water looked very inviting , but we had other things to do today .

 Spiders were playing on and with their webs , running out occasionally to grab an insect for lunch .

 Back to the ute and off down the road again , after another 45 klms we found the turn off and headed in to Douglas Hot Springs . Our first views of Douglas River looked good .

 We walked down beside the river and started to walk across - that turned into a run - the water there was HOT , to make it worse , we ran through the water & onto the sand , to find the sand was just as hot as the water - we wondered what we had got ourselves into !! Making it to a shady section , all the temperatures receded .

 Finding a larger pool we didn't hesitate on going in , it was absolutely wonderful , sitting on about 27 degrees , depending where you were .

This pool got to enjoy our company for several hours !!

 There were many fish swimming around in the pools as well - small up to 300mm long , and a couple of Longtoms ( I think ) that were about 450mm long . Here are some of the smaller ones .

 There is also a billabong that sits about 2m higher than the river , yet is only about 20m from it . It would be a few metres deep and is also warm water .

  We spotted a curious looking plant/ flower beside the pool we were luxuriating in - it may be an insect eating plant by the look of it .

 There were some very small yellow flowers beside one of the stagnant side pools .

We had lunch down beside the river in between swims , and then headed off back to Adelaide River for another swimming the pool - that's about 3 hours in the wet stuff today !!! 

 Here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=17Idu9t0SrcEMD-M5xqn8k53HPPE&usp=sharing