From there we had a lengthy and occasionally hairy descent, joining the Split Rock track and making our way back to the car park just after three o'clock.
Given the fact that we'd arrived there around eleven-fifteen (I was too busy scanning the horizon for tour buses to note precise times) and allowing for speed of travel considerations with the tour party, that amounted to a three hour guided walk which seemed pretty fair value at eighty dollars per head.
Heading back to Laura we turned off the bitumen onto a dirt detour just before the new and still unfinished bridge, with Roy explaining that it could be three or four months once the river rose above the old low level right down there In the river bed bridge, and for that time it was a case of flying in food supplies.
Those issues raised themselves again at the Quinkan Cultural Centre, where the bloke I'd spoken with over the phone elaborated on the new bridge and the likely benefits of year round access to Split Rock from the Laura side.
He also let slip the (well, to me, anyway) surprising news that until he'd taken over at the Centre, tours to the rock art galleries had been led by non-indigenous guides, something that I found quite incredible.