6km Detour Thanks to National Parks Signage — Nichols Gorge & Caves | Kosciuszko Part 3

📖 Simpson Desert Travel Guide — Over 260 pages, two years in the making. Detailed maps, locations, and knowledge that applies to any remote outback travel. $59.95 🔗 https://simpsondesertguide.com.au Part 3 of my Kosciuszko high country trip — a day that started with coffee and ended with questionable navigation decisions. The morning kicked off with a dawn drive to test the Lazer Glide LED bar against my Linear Elite Plus in real conditions. Verdict? The Glide is a solid light, but for outback driving I still prefer the wider beam pattern of the Linear Elite. The Glide sits more comfortably in on-road and soft-road territory. Back at camp: coffee with the OutIn battery grinder and Delta Press, cleanup made easy with the OnTap Roam pressurised water system. First night on the new Agnes Kempmeister Deluxe winter mattress — warm, comfortable, quiet. Only issue: the Flextail pump couldn't push past about 70% inflation. Lungs had to finish the job. Then we set off for the Nichols Gorge walk from Blue Waterholes car park — a 7km rated loop that turned into 17km thanks to a missed turn and some truly unhelpful National Parks signage. If you've ever walked past a sign, glanced at it, and kept going — you'll relate. Water became an issue. The creek that was flowing the day before? Bone dry. Lesson learned: carry water, don't just carry a filter. The Katadyn BeFree portable filter saved the day — once we actually found water. The caves were the highlight. Cooleman Cave (335m of passages) and Murray Cave (784m, the largest at Blue Waterholes) are genuinely impressive — stalactites, flowstone, crystals in the ceiling, and tight squeezes that test your commitment. Murray Cave has a siphon that's only been passable about three times in the last century. With time running out, we took a shortcut down the dry creek bed, skipping the plateau loop — a gamble that paid off. Aired up with the MorrFlate system (four tyres at once — sorry, JMAC, but that's hard to beat) and drove to Gungarlin River camp for the night. Gear mentioned in this episode: 🔦 Lazer Glide LED Bar 🔦 Lazer Linear Elite Plus ☕ OutIn Battery Coffee Grinder ☕ Delta Press 💧 OnTap Roam 🛏️ Agnes Kempmeister Deluxe Mattress 💨 Flextail Pump 💧 Katadyn BeFree Water Filter 🔧 MorrFlate Airing System 🗺️ ExplorOz (with its ongoing mapping gaps...) 00:00 - Start 00:30 - Lazer Glide Elite early morning drive 02:15 - Morning Coffee with OutIn and delter Press and OnTap Roam Clean up 02:58 - I purchased a new winter mattress, first test 03:53 - Packed in and now heading to Blue Hole for Nichols Gorge Walk 04:31 - I broke my belt….. 05:10 - Nichols Gorge walk 06:18 - I made a mistake, running out of water 06:40 - National Parks please fix the signage!!!!!!! 07:47 - Cooleman Cave 13:46 - GME Sponsord Segement 15:22 - Should we risk the shortcut? 15:50 - Does the shortcut pay off? 16:42 - Air up with MorrFlate 17:14 - ExplorOz issues 17:59 - The Wild Dog Tree 18:25 - Gungarling River Camp 19:31 - Outro Blog Post: https://alloffroad.com.au/blog/trips/...