Carnarvon Gorge

A day walk in the gorge.

Carnarvon Gorge has endless walking options. Our planned route was to walk up to the Aboriginal Rock Art site - about 5km one way. On return we would make various side detours to points of interest. Ward's Canyon, The Amphitheater, and a final side trip to the Moss Garden. All up a round trip of about 14km.

We managed all of it, taking 6 hours return from the car park.
Perfect walking weather and starting at 9am along the gorge in a westerly direction meant we spent a lot of time in cool shade. As the day progressed and the sun moved west it got progressively warmer.

There were 6 major creek crossings en-route which meant 12 occasions requiring careful rock-hopping. I can report that neither of us got wet feet. The fact that we both had walking sticks helped. Celeste used one we'd brought from home. I'm a sucker for new/novelty walking sticks and I'm always on the lookout for interesting sticks on our travels. On noticing the shop at our campground had a batch of excellent examples I could not resist. The fact that they were Made in France only strengthened my desire to possess! In fact it turned out to be light, strong and with a metal tip that produced a most satisfactory "click click" as it struck the rocks along the way. Bizarre though that nobody locally had thought to tap this market. Perhaps Australians have lost this ancient skill?


 At the end of the walk I deliberately removed my shoes and socks after the final crossing in order to bath and wash my feet. A reward for their effort. Strangely they did not immediately thank me and rather recoiled from the cold water. However, after resocking and reshoeing, they reluctantly admitted that they felt much better!

Coffee and scones at the upmarket Carnarvon Lodge before returning to camp. Shower, beer, dinner and now off to see what movie they are showing. (Tuesday night is movie night here at Takarakka!)