Carnarvon Gorge

From one sort of Paradise to another! Inland this time.

Takarakka Campground

We had quite a day's drive from 1770 to the Takarakka Campground, near the Gorge National Park. This involved our first "river crossing" for the trip - crossing through the trickle of Carnarvon Creek, over the road into Takarakka. This had evidently been impassable for a few hours in the previous week, due to rain. But we were spoilt and had three perfect days of weather whilst there.

The campground was lovely, with big camping areas, large grassy area central and a campfire area for "Bush talks" and socialising. And the birdlife was very active - with loads of Apostle Birds and White-winged Choughs (I think that's what someone called them), that were happy to help you eat your breakfast, and help in recycling the garbage!? We even heard the dingoes serenading each other, after nightfall.

One of the attractions for us, was that we were unable to get any phone service, hence limited school work!! Yay! Although, we did focus on the PE side of things for the 2 or 3 days we were there, with 26kms or so of walking in total! We slept pretty well at night too.

The mouth of the gorge, from Balimba Bluff

Firstly, we climbed Balimba Bluff, in the mouth of the Gorge, so we could get a bit of an overhead view of where we were. Fantastic scenery - looking at the winding gorge, bordered by roughly hewn, sandstone cliffs carved out by fast flowing water, with the Carnarvon Creek winding it's way through the base. And such a variety of habitats - dry and scrubby, large gum trees, grasses, palms and cycads, ferns and damp shady areas. This seemed to depend on how high up the gorge you were and how much the sun penetrated through the vegetation, and how shaded it was by the cliffs.

On top of the gorge, at Balimba Bluff

We were assured, by Simon (the campground's local tour guide and ecologist), that the National Park wasn't virgin bushland, although it hadn't been logged, up until it was gazetted in 1932 it was used for grazing land. One of the renowned features of the park had previously been used for holding cattle when mustered.


   


The national park has been added onto over the years and now has 350,000ha within it's borders. It is deemed to be a place of importance, apart from it's natural beauty and the preservation of flora and fauna, because of it's structure and placement, for feeding water into the Great Artesian Basin.






"Simon says..." (some other interesting facts Simon told us while around the campfire):

These pretty seed pods contain cyanide

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•  the seed pods of the many cycads in the area, although looking very attractive with a nice red fleshy covering, contain cyanide, so do not eat!

"Milky" appearance to water, in Mickey's Creek

• some of the water in the water holes and creeks in the gorge looks 'milky' in appearance. This is due to the Kaolin in the sandstone cliffs. The water leaching through the layers, brings some of the suspended white substance with it. Kaolin is used to make fine white porcelain china, AND is used to make Kaomagma (or similar) digestive remedies!! Ah...I hear you saying that white, chalky stuff! OOh, yuk! Yes, that would be it!
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• the King Ferns, in Ward's Canyon, are an isolated pocket of these huge ferns and are the westernmost occurrence of these in Qld. They have huge, fleshy water-filled fronds, that come out from a low base.




King Fern


• 5 of the 6 species of bats in Queensland are present in the Carnarvon Gorge National Park. (we didn't see any)

First creek crossing, over carnarvon Creek,
on the main gorge walking track

We walked the main walking track through the Gorge, crossing the creek several times, over carefully placed stones until we reached the feature known as the Art Gallery, then backtracked, taking in the sidetracks as we encountered them to see the other fantastic features of the gorge.

Art Gallery - a long face of rock, exhibiting lots of  aboriginal "stencil" art, using hands, boomerangs etc. This type of aboriginal art is evidently quite rare.

 Ward's Canyon - a short, but steep walk led us into the most amazing place, that was filled with rare parcels of King Ferns and other lush tropical growth, along a running creek, in this canyon that went on a ways as a side shoot off the gorge. Evidently, in the early 1900's the canyon used to be the seasonal 'camp' of the Ward brothers who would trap possums and sell their skins.

The Amphitheatre - up the ladders, through the narrow crevice, and into the cavern, or "amphitheatre" behind.


 

other end of the crevice,
on the inside



Looking up to the sky from
in the "Amphitheatre"

            
                                                                                 

Moss garden pool

The Moss Garden - another pretty, leafy,

damp rock opening with moss covering most of the shaded walls

The next morning, after resting weary legs we decided to have one last look at the gorge and headed for a relatively short walk, which some 'locals' had listed as their favourite:

Mickey's Creek to Warrumbah Gorge - the gorge we discovered on the right hand fork was beautiful and fascinating, and had we had more time I think the kids could have stayed all day. This little narrow gorge, about 1-2 metres mostly just kept going on and on! As you clambered over the rounded rocks in the creek bed and tried to find a firm footing, there would appear another corner for the 'billygoats' to disappear around. I guess someone knows how far it goes, ...we didn't get to the end! But we felt like explorers!

 

 

Great fun exploring !

The road to and from Carnarvon Gorge passed through some prime Queensland grazing country, with lots of fat, healthy brahmans hanging out of the roads, and their calves bounding out of the way. The snakes seemed to like this stretch of road too, because we saw a couple of massive ones, 'sunning' themselves. Thankfully, we didn't see any on the walking tracks!

A fantastic place - something for everyone!