Carnarvon Gorge

9th August

We have had a lovely few days exploring Carnarvon Gorge and the surrounds. What a beautiful area!!

Our first day we did a short, but fun walk through around Mickey River Gorge and … Gorge. The gorge was really narrow and high, and involved boulder hopping and scrambling along ledges.

Yesterday, we had only planned to do the 14km loop, but ended up doing a huge 23km hike all the way up the main gorge as fas as ‘Big Bend’ and then all the side gorges on the way back down. It was a beautiful walk, with lots of river crossings.

You feel so small at times..dwarfed by the huge rock walls and trees

Big Bend was a pretty impressive example of erosion and the force of nature.

The ‘Amphitheatre’ was probably the most impressive display erosion. The soft sandstone has eroded away and left a hollow column of shale, which has created the amphitheatre. You enter it through a narrow crevice, before it opens up in front of you.

The ‘Moss Garden’ was really beautiful! And again, the geology behind its formation very interesting. The rain water seeps down through the sandstone layers at the top. When it reaches the shale layer, the water can no longer penetrate, so the water seeps out of the sandstone and drips down the shale. Therefore, the shale rock face is always wet and hence, why the moss grows on the rock wall at that level. And there is a row of ferns growing at the wettest point, where the sandstone meets the shale.

The huge caves and Aboriginal rock art were also very impressive

The boys were tired by the end, but did a great job to finish the 23km – their longest ever hike!

Takarakka Bush Resort was a great base, with pretty, shady sites, set along a river.

The boys had a great time building rock towers and making hand prints in the river bed

And there was plenty of wildlife in and around camp…including Platypus, and we did see one (believe it or not that’s what the bottom right picture is :-))