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Our second trip for the year and keeping it in Queensland not wanting to risk a border crossing during the pandemic, we hit the road early for our 1600km round road trip to Carnarvon National Park making our first stop at Cracow - a tiny ghost town with a tiny population and packed with surprises.
Cracow used to be a thriving gold mining town and the mine that operated here was established in 1931 and operated until 1976. At its gold mining peak, the town included five cafes, barber shop, billiard saloon, two butchers, a picture theatre and a soft drink factory. The closure of the mine led to Cracow becoming a ghost town with many deserted houses and shops. It was fun to walk around after a few drinks and a bit of lunch at Fred Brophy's pub (The heart and soul and pretty much all that is left of this tiny town) and see what we could find searching around the dilapidated buildings and the odd thunderbox that still stand to this day.
We decided to split the journey on the way out and stay overnight in a sleepy little town called Theodore, 50km outside of Cracow and
300km from the Carnarvon National Park. It was nice to hang out for the night in the local pub here, play pool and have a decent countery to finish off a big day of exploring. Theodore's roads are lined with cotton fields and it brought back memories of my childhood growing up on a farm for a short while where cotton production was also prevalent. The next day we set off for the National Park, and with a couple of breaks on the way we arrived around 1.30pm and were able to check into our cool little safari tent at Takarakka Bush Resort & Caravan Park. We lashed out on for our four night stay, the tents come complete with a fridge, beds and en-suite to the side as well which saved midnight trips to the camp toilets and an unexpected power source in there also meant we were able to charge everything right where we were staying as well. As soon as we arrived to the site we were met by one of the resident kangaroos who we affectionately named Roo-by, she hung around pretty much everyday of our stay and I even laid out in the sun next
to her on our last full day only a couple of metres away from her! Takarakka is only 4km out from the entrance to the Carnarvon Gorge and we loved staying here, really well run and a very comfy stay.
Setting off after breaky around 7.30am on the first morning we couldn't have asked for better weather. The Gorge has its own unique weather system and so we had to take advantage of the good weather while we could, the area has been known for flash flooding and unexpected rainfall. Going in May we picked the best time of the year with the least amount of rainfall but you just never know with this place. The full trek we planned to do on the first day was to be around 22km including sites such as Moss Garden, The Amphitheatre, The Art Gallery, Wards Canyon, The Big Bend and Cathedral Cave. We were pleasantly surprised how few people were here and had most of the sites all day to ourselves, but it was probably also good timing with the long weekend just ending and a lot of travelers heading home already. On our way home we decided to slog it
out and head up to Boolimba Bluff just in case the weather turned the next day. It was tough going and we were shattered but managed the steps and steep 300m section to get to the top and be greeted by the beautiful views that tower 200m above Carnarvon Creek. We were absolutely exhausted returning to camp that night, adding on the extra trip to the Bluff took us to about 27km walked in the first day but it was well worth the effort, we were gone for ten hours that day trekking.
Our second day we allowed ourselves a little sleep in as we didn't even have to venture into the Gorge to visit the Rock Pools, Mickey's Creek Gorge and Warrumbah Gorge which are all pretty close together and easy to get to. Warrumbah Gorge was the most impressive place of the three and one of the most spectacular places in the park, this narrow defile is only metres wide, but some 40 metres deep. We found many King Ferns here covering the ground, the largest ferns in the world also and they didn't fail to impress. The Rock Pools are the only place you are allowed
to swim and they weren't as nice as we thought they would be, the water level was a bit low and freezing but again we lucked out and had the area to ourselves for a few good photo ops. We had planned to spend the afternoon here in the sun and packed a lunch but there wasn't really anywhere to lay so we just headed back to camp. On the way back home I spotted an Echidna who very quickly turned himself into a defensive little ball of spikes as soon as we got out of the car to take a photo of him but I waited him out and with the help of my telephoto lens managed to get a great photo of him exploring for food. That evening we thought we would try our luck spotting a platypus at dusk on the aptly named 'Platypus Creek' though along with quite a few others we just weren't lucky enough.
We decided on the third and final full day we had in the park to get up early (4.30am to be exact) prepare some coffee, put on the head torches and hike up again in the dark to Boolimba
Bluff where we were told is the best place in the park to watch the sunrise. It was definitely easier this time around to hike up to the Bluff as we were well rested and made it to the summit first followed by a few other keen trekkers. It was a beautiful time of day and we enjoyed coffee while basking in the very cold but rewarding golden hour up there on Boolimba Bluff. We spent the whole day relaxing in the sun with our new mate Roo-by and in the afternoon on dusk we trekked up to the lookout only a few hundred metres from our camp to enjoy a couple of drinks and watch the sunset in the same day. It wasn't as impressive as the sunrise that morning but still a nice moment to finish off the day.
A fellow traveler advised us that the Nature Trail which is only a short stroll along the shady banks of Carnarvon Creek that you may get lucky enough to see a Platypus here around 6.30am in the morning. Armed with this knowledge on our last morning we set the alarm early again and set off for the Nature
Trail in search of the elusive Platypus. We were the only people there that morning and heading along the creek (telephoto lens at the ready) I spotted a small brown creature moving just below the surface as we came to a rocky outlook over the creek and we finally got to see one! He swam around in front of us for a pretty long time, long enough to even get some video footage. What a wonderful way to finish our trip, our hearts full and ready to do the big trip home we set off after breakky and drove the whole way home in one day. Carnarvon Gorge was such a pleasure to visit and we were glad to have done it while we were reasonably fit and able. Cant recommend this trip enough to any keen trekker who loves to connect with nature and just get out there amongst it.
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