Carnarvon Gorge 14 Aril 2011

Our first water hole!

Rock paintings at Carnarvon

One of many creek rock hoppings!

Moss Garden, Carnarvon Gorge

Russ blog entry for 14 April 2011

It’s about Day 5 without internet access, and the stress is starting to show…..

Thursday 14 April 2011 and we find ourselves on the sandy banks of Carnarvon Creek as it carves its way – as it has for millennia of millennia – into the sweet sandstones of central Queensland.  The result is Carnarvon Gorge – a place we spied on the map; then we went “We wonder what that’s like?”, and then we headed a tad more eastward then planned to find out.  Good move!  This place is brilliant, and if you ever find yourselves in this neck of the woods, you’d be crackers to miss it.  Towering sandstone cliffs loom down on crystal clear shallow sandy creek beds. A wide gorge winds more than 30 clicks upstream, breaks into wee side gorges that hide rainforest pockets, art galleries of hand stencils, rock etchings and the stories from the old folk, and cool slot canyons where the mercury drops about 10 points and you swear you could just live there forever and soak up the calm (well at least until the next horde of school kids come in for their turn).

This is our fifth day here, and next step will be the western end (Salvator Rosa) of the same Carnarvon NP – a short 300 km trip away; a bit less water, and out of the gorge country, but promising a slightly less crowded few days on the banks of another sandy creek.

We found ourselves here after a great week in Corner Country.  We swung back east to Bourke, camped for a few days on a slightly less flooded Darling River – ie compared to our Wilcannia visit – and headed north via Cunnamulla to Charleville.  It was fascinating to watch the landscape constantly change as we headed north.  The gibber deserts of Tibooburra gave way to the Wanaaring mulga scrubs. Bourke picked up brigalow scrub that followed us all the way up into Charleville.  Then as we picked our way north-east-ish on a backroad north of Mitchell (home of the world’s best apple turnovers, as voted by experts) cypress and bimble box woodlands suddenly gave way to the central Queensland sandstone belt and you find fan palms, tall white gums and remnant rainforest species.

Yesterday, we set off at a cracking pace for a (record) 13km walk up the main gorge and its various sideshows. Predictably, the young ones coped brilliantly.  There were two sets of flooded shoes courtesy of wet creek crossings (Jenny and Ellen), no blisters to speak of, and no sooner back home than the young’ns start planning tomorrow’s walk.  The wisdom of the elders (or the weariness of the elders, more like it) prevailed and today is a quiet day mucking around the Takarakka campground.  Tomorrow we will don the walking boots again, climb up one of the bluffs and then hit the road westwards on Saturday (just in time to escape the influx expected as Queensland school holidays start). Pictures to come later due to satelite time difficulties!