Grey Nomad Chapter Two

Day 2 and 3 - Carnarvon Gorge.

We awoke this morning to the news that we have a new Prime Minister. All I can say on the subject is that it will be a nice change to have a PM who can string more than three words together without saying "Ah"......
We had a leisurely breakfast before packing down the camper to make the trip from Cape River to Carnarvon.  We stayed on the highway, with our only stop being at Clermont for lunch, and arrived at Takarakka Bush Resort around 4pm.  We were told that there was to be an information session at 4.30pm on the deck so we sat down and waited for that.
Imagine our utter surprise when, after the talk, we turned around to find our very good friends from Julia Creek walking up to us.  How amazing that we had all booked into Carnarvon for the same period of time.  I used to do some bookkeeping for Robyn and Tony when they owned the BP service station in Julia Creek and we became firm friends.  Philip has known them practically all his life.
We hadn't yet unpacked the camper so we quickly did that and made our way over to Robyn and Tony for "sundowners".  They have been travelling around for about a month with the highlight of their trip being the Birdsville Races.  They purchased a brand spanking new caravan to travel and I must say if I was to tow a van, this would be the one.  It was incredible with full size everything!
We talked for hours and made plans to meet the next morning to start our hike around the gorge.
The next morning the sun was shining on us as we entered the Carnarvon Gorge National Park.  At our information talk the previous day it was suggested that you walk as far into the gorge as you want and then make you way back into each of the highlight spots.  The Art Gallery was the furtherest away at 14km (one way) so that is where we headed.  The walk is easy enough and we criss crossed Carnarvon Creek several times.  This was made easy with stepping stones.

Beautiful Reflections

Wards Canyon

 There are a few steps that we found quite easy on the way in.  Coming back was a bit harder.  We trekked into the Art Gallery, Wards Canyon, and Amphitheatre on the first day.  All up we covered about 30 kms that took us about 7 hours.  We did it leisurely with stops for smoko and lunch but I must say I really struggled for the last couple of kilometres on the home stretch.  The calves in my legs were really burning!  Big thanks to Robyn, who kept talking to me all the way home.

Our first glimpse of the soaring sandstone gorge

The path was well marked and signposted

Robyn at one of the creek crossings

Beautiful peaceful spot

The soaring Art Gallery where hundreds of Aboriginal paintings are along the walls of the canyon

Shooting the breeze over smoko

Wards Canyon - magnificent and our favourite

The Amphitheatre. Philip pointed out this crack in the sandstone that reached from the top all the way to the bottom.  Scary.

I had to balance myself agains the wall to look up to take this photo otherwise I would have fallen over from giddiness

Taking in the awesomeness of the Ampitheatre.  That tiny opening is where we entered.

The very narrow entrance to the Amphitheatre

The ladders we had to climb to enter the Ampitheatre.  These kids made a mockery of our extremely slow climb and galloped up the ladder.  Oh to be a kid again!