Carnarvon Gorge

Carnarvon Gorge blew me away. It was a long haul to get there from the coast and back but completely worth it! And I made the decision to go there based on this one short paragraph in my Lonely Planet travel guide: "EPIC GORGE TREKKING. Significant to the Bidjara and Karingbal people for around 4,000 years, Carnarvon Gorge is a primeval landscape of sheer sandstone cliffs, pinnacles, ancient rock art, and verdant vegetation. This 30km-long, 200m-high fissure was carved out over millions of years by Carnarvon Creek and its tributaries as they twisted through soft sedimentary rock. Today there's a lush, otherworldly oasis along the bottom of the gorge, where life flourishes. You'll find giant cycads, king ferns, river oaks, flooded gums, cabbage palms, deep pools, and platypuses in the creek. Escaped convicts once took refuge here among caves that still bear ancient rock paintings. Wildlife - including wallabies, gliders and echidnas - is plentiful and the hiking is spectacular."

Wouldn't that description grab you too?? I didn't see any of the wildlife mentioned but the birds chattered away the entire day vs. just in the morning and just towards dusk. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

My drive outbound to the Gorge was 532km from Agnes Water and took me 6+ hours including stops for fuel. I rolled in on a Thursday night and had three full days at the Gorge. I was up early and walking into the Gorge around 8:30am on Friday...My plan was to to walk to the Art Gallery where there are significant ancient aboriginal rock art paintings and then to loop back and check out the Amphitheater and Moss Garden. So my total distance for the day was around 13-14km.

The walk starts with crossing the Carnarvon Creek by hopping on boulders...The first crossing is very easy with large flat boulders and it gets progressively more difficult hopping on smaller boulders and boulders that move when you step on them...Luckily, I had my super duper fabulous hiking poles that Kelci bought me for my birthday several years ago when we went hiking somewhere for my birthday...I don't go hiking anywhere without these poles now and they kept me from slipping into the creek more than once during the 20+ times I had to cross the creek to reach my desired destinations.

The gorge is open as the walk begins and narrows as you progress deeper into the gorge to where it can feel quite "jungly." This is one of the things that makes the gorge so interesting is how the landscape changes as you weave your way deeper into the gorge and how many "peek-a-boo" views you get of the rim of the gorge as you progress...Get ready for a flood of pictures to show you this amazing landscape...I took over 500 pictures on my various walks in the gorge and feel really constrained limiting what I add to this post because I want you to experience it! If you're not already booking your trip to Carnarvon Gorge by the time you finish reading this post, call me and I'll talk you into it and you'll thank me later...

The Art Gallery was good; not as good as what I saw at Kakadu National Park in 2019, but definitely worth a squizz (that's Aussie slang for having a look at something)...There are over 2,000 engravings, ochre stencils, and free-hand paintings on the 62m long sandstone walls of this site.

After the Art Gallery, I visited the Amphitheater which is a side track off the main walking track...There are multiple side tracks that branch off from the main walking track that take you to a variety of different areas / experiences in the Gorge. The Amphitheater is a 60m deep chamber gouged from the rock by running water and a great place to practice my "cooeee' (look up cooeee if you don't know what this is!).

You reach the Amphitheater by a series of stairs and metal ladders that are so steep you ascend as well as descend them facing the ladder. Then you squeeze through a giant crack in the rock to enter a hidden "room" with great acoustics!

After the Amphitheater, I pulled off the main walking track to check out the Moss Garden which also had quite a few stairs and windy bits. Once you reach the end of the trail you arrive at a waterfall tumbling over a rock ledge and water dripping constantly from the sandstone with a lush, green carpet of mosses growing on it. It felt like I was somewhere in the Pacific Northwest where we famously have long periods of wet and cool weather vs. somewhere in Australia!

After the Moss Garden, I was ready to head back to camp and celebrate a great day's walking adventure!

I took the next day off to do laundry, some cooking and travel planning, and to watch the rain...I spent my last day doing another 10+km hiking on two trails...

The first trail was the Boolimba Bluff which is off of a side track located 1 km back inside the Gorge. This is a steep hike with more than 900 steps and scales a number of metal ladders similar to the Amphitheater to take you 200m above Carnarvon Creek. I intentionally wanted to do this walk in the morning when I was "fresh" and it didn't disappoint! the walk takes you through spotted gums, rainforest scrub, and stands of budgeroo before reaching magnificent views out towards distant ranges...

A spectacular hike! Most of the people I met both days I was hiking were either newbies like me and there for their first time or Aussies who have been several times and come to the Gorge again and again because they love it so much! I get it! If I lived here, I would definitely be finding my way back there...!!

My last hike was outside of the main Gorge called Mickey Creek Gorge which splits off after about 1km to Warrumbah Gorge where the formed hiking path ends and the boulder scrambling begins! You can go far enough back into this gorge to be able to touch both sides of the Gorge walls with both arms....Check it out!

So I have to place Carnarvon Gorge in my Top 5 Australia travel experiences right up there with Uluru, Kakadu National Park, and The Great Ocean Road...Get this on to your list of places to visit and invite me to come with you if I'm back in Australia!