Carnarvon Gorge - Its Gorgeous

Carnarvon Gorge – Its Gorgeous

Carnarvon Gorge it would seem is in the middle of no –where.  In fact it is 40km of the highway halfway between Emerald and Roma.  We stayed at the Takaraka campsite.  What a great name that is Takaraka rhymes with maraca.

Once you leave the highway you are driving through unfenced cattle farms and have the pleasure of sharing the road with moo cows of various colours.

Art Gallery

Wards Gorge

Ampitheatre

Moss Garden

View from the Bluff

On arrival we attended a information session on the park and its various walks.  We were advised to walk to the almost furtherest point up the gorge and work our way back, a total of 14 km.  I thought there is no way we could walk that far.  But, you know we did  and every km was worth it.   The path was wide and crissed crossed over the creek and was mostly flat ,running up the middle of the gorge.  First we visited the Art Gallery, that had aboriginal rock art running up the length of the wall.  Amazing to see the colours and I wonder how they have lasted the test of time.  We walked down a bit further and called into what is called Wards Gorge a small gorge but very impressive with King Ferns growing inside and a small creek running through it.  This where we stopped for lunch as it was lovely and cool and we also filled up our drink bottles from the creek.  Next up we climbed into the Ampitheatre.  WOW  imagine a big cave with sides reaching to 700 metres up to the sky and with a open roof.  WOW!  Back onto the main track and we walk a bit further down and pop into the Moss Garden.  Cave like but again with a small creek and waterfall with moss covered walls.   Then a  45 minute walk back to the carpark.  Pete and I conked out in our campchairs with a cuppa, the kids ran around chasing a ball!!  James fell asleep within seconds last night and Grace couldn’t get to sleep due to sore legs.

So obviously after a big  14  km walk you get up early at 6am for a spot of Platypus watching.  Luckily the platypus did not let us down.  He was having a jolly old time popping up and then diving back down again.

Now let me tell you the way to recover from such a big walk is to follow it up the next day with a climb of over 937 steps to the top of the Gorge for the most spectacular views up and down the length of the Carnarvon Gorge.  The recipe for jelly legs is to go back down those 937 steps in a hurry as there is no toilet at the top.