Blogs from Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

We were slow to rise the next morning, our muscles being sore from the previous day's marathon hike through Carnarvon Gorge. We had two more side trails to explore in the gorge, but we had little idea of what to expect. We had been told that the Amphitheatre and Moss Garden were special places, however, that is an understatement. Both side trails were a good way into the gorge, and we ended up walking for nearly eleven kilometres over three and a half hours, in the process doing ten river crossings. It was worth every step. To access the Amphitheatre, we had to first climb a series of metal stairs and then walk through a narrow cleft in the high sandstone cliffs, before emerging into a peaceful place surrounded by massive cliffs. We just sat there ... read more

We settled into our first off grid camp at the magnificent Sandstone Park, set high on a plateau overlooking the cliffs of Carnarvon Gorge. We had been watching YouTube videos of Carnarvon Gorge prior to leaving on our trip, and it looked amazing. Our first foray into Carnarvon Gorge was to take the trail to Mickeys Creek and Warrumbah Gorge, both of which narrowed to just a few metres between high sandstone cliffs. We followed each gorge, zig zagging across the creek until the water became too deep to continue. We then checked out the Rock Pool and after stepping our way across the river on rocks, we walked the Nature Trail. We were fortunate to watch for around twenty minutes the first Platypus that we had ever seen in the wild. After arriving back at ... read more

Our Central Queensland trip now headed south west to Carnarvon Gorge via Emerald. The roads on this section were better than the development roads we drove to get to Moranbah. If you see a road marked as a development road, they have an interesting history to open an area for mining or agriculture. Often these were just a metal road, and then later a single lain of bitumen placed down the centre. As traffic increased, the seal was widened by adding wings each side of centre. Overtime, these outer edges seem to sink. Where a line marking had been neatly painted down the edge, time had moved the line to resemble a heart monitor printout. This section was flat-lined by comparison, that is, dead easy to drive over! We were about 20ks north of Emerald and ... read more

Walking part or all of Carnarvon Gorge seems to be a pilgrimage for Grey Nomads, aged between 50 and 80, travelling mostly in pairs with water, a packed lunch, a broad brimmed hat and a stick. Only occasionally a single male or female was spotted. (It was rare to find young back packers on the track.) You could hear their mental chatter, "We've finished working our butts off and now, here we are". With a constant trail of us folk who are in our 3rd trimester of life, all smiling and happy to be alive, we forged ahead (at least on the way in, fatigue quelled our excitement by the end of each day). I personally preferred the whole place to myself but luckily the gorge lost none of it's charm and has not been spoilt ... read more

You cannot help but realise the vastness of Carnarvon National Park when you see the Mountain Range loom up upon the horizon 60 kms away and then take a further 3 hours to drive along the unsealed roads to arrive at the park entrance. Despite its name after the explorer who thought it reminded him of Carnarvon in Wales, (or not?!) the huge gorge opens up infront of you as you drive between its vast sides past cattle and wildlife in abundance, we also saw two or three different species of wallabies and a family of emus. Due to the permanent presence of water Carnarvon Gorge is able to sustain a rich variety of plants and animals and due to its natural beauty and the Traditional owners wealth of cultural history the 16,000 hectars of land ... read more