Carnarvon gorge- simply gorgeous!

Yesterday was a long day.  It's 100 kms from Rolleston to the gorge, so a very long day trip.  On the drive in, there are a number of creek crossings.

Crossing Carnarvon Creek on the way in to the gorge- the tyres get washed!

 It's a good gravel road and we thought we could have taken the caravan in, but once there, there's only one place for caravans to go, Takarakka or some such resort, at $44 per night.  Tents can go right to the visitor's centre, I don't know if there's a camping fee but no fee for entering the park.  Many walks, varying length- we did one to Moss Garden which was 10km return with a number of stepping stone creek crossings.  We had lunch at this lovely spot, joined by a hopeful raven, but there was no way he was getting any of our food!  He did grab the gladwrap and flew off with it, dropping it out of reach so we couldn't retrieve it, which was a bit of a worry because some other animal might try to eat it.

At Moss Garden there's a little waterfall as well as mossy walls which are permanently damp due to a multitude of drips coming through the huge sandstone rocks above- they say that this is long-ago rain being filtered through the sandstone, maybe thousands of years old.

You start the walk by crossing this creek on stepping stones.  These were dry, but sometimes we got our feet a bit wet. This photo is looking up the gorge, which closes in as you walk further.

We did a couple of short walks, to the Rock Pool (where we decided not to swim, since the access to the water looked a bit dicey- we should have approached from the other side) and to Baloon Cave, where we looked at aboriginal art.  Obviously it was a huge slab of sandstone originally, but now much of it has broken off, but there are still designs to be seen, mostly hands large and small but also axes.

On the way back to the main road we stopped at one of the creek crossings and had a cuppa.  Further on, we saw some spectacular birds, which unfortunately flew further away as we stopped but we were able to identify them- jabiru.  They are absolutely lovely, with stark black and white colouring, and bright red legs, and as they are a type of stork, they are huge!

Overall, Carnarvon Gorge is well worth a visit for the lovely forest, well kept visitor centre area (roos are abundant here). The creek crossings (two where you actually drive through water) can become risky if there is rain in the area.

No photos yet but stay tuned!