The Far Carnarvon's to the Mines to Sapphire

1 May 2013 - Carnarvon Gorge

The drive into Carnarvon Gorge

We arrived at Takarakka Campground all safe and sound and were allocated a site right opposite the toilet block.  Now some people would kill for this site as the amenities are so close.  Every caravan park site we have stayed in this trip so far has been opposite the amenities block.  We  must look like we have either diarrhea or are incontinent.  It is a good way to meet everyone in the park because they all at some time walk past us, many glaring as they would kill for our site.

Our Takarakka Campsite - view from van

The National Park section of the park is closed for all camping outside of school holidays and Easter. The only campground (Takarakka) is 4klm from the start of the walks which has two of its three camp areas closed to take school groups – go figure.  All the travelling campers are relegated to the remaining camp area which is lovely.  We have booked in for five nights.

Day 1 Walks – 

Campsite where we camped 25 years ago

There has obviously been a huge flood here since I came here 25 years ago with Dad, Peter and his family and me with mine – Ryan just 9 months old.  

Flood damaged and now wider creek

The walking track is very different and the creek bed is at least five times wider. The 20 river crossings up to Big Bend have been reduced to 14 now and there still remains track damage, missing signage and piles of flood debris lodged in the trees well above our heads.  The beauty and majesty of the place still remains. 

1st crossing

Sandstone cliffs and palms

Today’s walk of 14 klm took us to the Amphitheatre, Ward’s Canyon and the Art Gallery.  The ancient cycad forest near the start of the walk, the tall palm trees along the Gorge and the towering sandstone cliffs framing our view to the sky are still a wonderful feature of these walks.

We arrived at the Amphitheatre and had the place to ourselves for about 15 minutes.  We thought we had the place to ourselves until a fellow joined us and informed us there was a large snake against the wall of the crevice entry to the Amphitheatre.  The remaining walks were beautiful with Ward’s Canyon being a standout.  The Art Gallery has extensive indigenous rock art from over 3600 years ago.

Entrance into Amphitheatre

Stairs into Amphitheatre

Inside Amphitheatre

Inside Wards Canyon

Wards Canyon sandstone walls

Art Gallery - just some of the many Aboriginal rock art paintings 

Day 2 Walks – 

Moss Gardens

Moss Gardens

After a good night’s sleep and no soreness from yesterday’s walk we set off to the end of the Gorge to see the remaining sights.  22klm later we had seen Cathedral Cave

Cathedral Cave- Aboriginal paintings

with its array of Aboriginal cave paintings, Boowinda Gorge with its sculptured sides and bolder strewn floor and the Moss Garden with its moss and garden. 

Boowinda Gorge

Boowinda Gorge

This was a long but rewarding walk with Boowinda Gorge being the highlight.  We made 28 creek crossings in total there and back with each crossing becoming more difficult the further into the gorge we went and with the directions becoming less and less clear. 

Typical creek crossing - although this is one of the easier ones

Day 3 Walks –

After an even better night’s sleep we tackled the walks just outside the main Gorge, Mickey Creek Gorge, Warrumba Creek Gorge and Baloon Cave. Warrumba Creek Gorge was new to me and what a standout it is.  The entry looks quite benign but last night our neighbours told us to go past the end of the formed track, which we did.  Turning a bend the walls start to close in and the gorge narrows down to just a couple of metres. Near vertical moss covered walls disappear 50 metres or more above our heads as we clambered over slippery wet rock with the little creek below us easily deep enough to fill our boots if we fell in.  Warrumba Creek Gorge was the highlight of the day for us.

Climbing through Warrumba Creek Gorge

After two hours walking we headed home arriving back at 9:30am. In that time 80% of the campers in the van park had left and we felt like orphans.  A quiet and peaceful recovery day followed for Julie.  I had to do the photos, the blog, the washing, the car – the list just goes on and on.  The weather remains perfect – clear skies and nothing above zephyr status as far as the wind is concerned.  

Day 4 Walks – 

With hardly anything left to see we amused ourselves in the morning and then got out of bed (haha – maybe – maybe not), had breakfast then set off back to the start of the main Gorge walks to do the 2klm Nature Trail which is code for “Do this walk if you didn't t realise you had to walk so far to see the real sights of Carnarvon Gorge”.

Rock Art by earlier bored walkers on this walk

Somewhat bored by this non-walk we arrived back at the car after 45 minutes and set off back towards camp to take the deviation on the left to do the Rock Pool walk.  After walking 200 metres we came to a rock pool.  

Rock Pool reflections

The Rock Pool was beautiful with perfect mirrored reflections in the water and tranquil waters babbling past us.  Looking carefully for platypus along the banks, making sure we made no noise and with no one else around we were rewarded with ….. perfect mirrored reflections in the water where we both felt that platypus should have been playfully performing for us and our ever poised cameras.

Arriving back at camp at 10am we discovered we were even more orphaned today than we were yesterday!  Yes! – home alone.  Coffee and home baked muffins flowed freely as we enjoyed peace and serenity in our little corner of the van park. The day was spent doing our weekly wash and readying ourselves for leaving tomorrow.  This entailed us consuming the coffee and home baked muffins prepared lovingly by Julie back home which have filled up the freezer since the start of our journey.  I busied myself outside arranging our two chairs so that we had wide ranging views of the pretty van park.  Aaah serenity now!

As far as Carnarvon Gorge goes it has been, for me, quite nostalgic.  25 years ago I was here and the place, while devastated by flood 10 years ago, is the same, but different – an example of how Mother Nature continues to evolve our world while I am but a visitor at various insignificant points in time.  This is a place we all should visit to take away that unique memory Carnarvon offers that, while etched in our memory forever, is nothing but a minute part of millions of years of evolution that we observe today.

The van and car continue to perform well. We could not be happier with them. We are both well and injury free.  This is truly a wonderful adventure for both of us seeing our vast country together, meeting so many different and interesting people all with their own story.  We constantly pinch ourselves, acknowledging how fortunate we are to be provided with this wonderful opportunity.

Leaving Carnarvon Gorge - the 10 klm of dirt road passed beneath us finally turning into narrow bitumen, while the majestic sandstone cliffs of the Gorge slowly disappeared behind us in our mirrors.  In paddocks beside us a mob of emus frollicked as kites soared effortlessly on the breeze above.  

Frollicking Emu

Stopping on the intersection of the road into Carnarvon we had morning tea and again watched emus in the paddock beside us.  While sitting in the van having a cuppa a 4wd travelling on the main road in front of us slowed down quickly and pulled off the road to stop right outside our van door. I said to Julie "I'll do the washing up darling, you see what they want".   It turned out that the lady had spotted a 'huge dingo' not 50 metres from us and she pulled in to warn us about it - very, very nice of her.  I said to Julie " I'll dry up and put away too while you get the stuff in the car Azaria, I mean Julie". 

Morning tea and dingo spot

In the end we didn't see the dingo and headed off to Emerald for a one night stand.  The van park was very busy with 27 vans arriving that day.  The owners help everyone park their vans and we needed special help because we had the closest site right next to the amenities block.  We were so close that for me to go to the Gents here entails less steps than if I went at home from a sitting position in the lounge.  You should have seen the glares we got from everyone.  I just shouted out "You should have seen the huge dingo we saw today, we need to be close!"

We went for a shop in Emerald (our van park is on Fairburn Dam 17klm out of town) and what a great town it is for shopping.  All the mining in the region has attracted many major retailers here so we were able to get everything on our shopping list - groceries,  fuel and water containers. 

As night fell, so did the rain.  Showers drifted in around 8pm and slowly became heavier overnight.  Being Monday night, it's sausage sizzle and entertainment night all put on by the park owners.  A gold coin donation to Angel Flight charity is all that is asked.  Over $65,000 has been raised by the owners in the 8 years they have been doing it. The music and jokes were right out of the 60's while the 130+ people in the park had a wail of a time.  At 9:20pm the 11th encore ended and so did the frivolity.  Thank goodness for the rain as it chased all the afterparties inside.  These old people sure know how to party.  

Emerald to Moranbah to Isaac River Bush Camp -  We packed up and drove in the rain for most of the day.  Heading north towards Moranbah is heading into coal mining central.  It is very easy to see where the money earmarked to pay the mining tax is now being spent.  The drive took us through the Peak District with its ever decreasing tree size and ever increasing mining site size and interesting volcanic peaks.  We turned off into Moranbah and had lunch with Amy's (my favourite daughter) boyfriend, Jamie.  The Moranbah Workers Club was filled with people not working and served a great meal - if you're not a vegetarian like Julie.  It was great to catch up with Jamie and see where he works and lives.  

After farewelling Jamie, we drove back out onto the main road north and set up camp on the Isaac River in a good rest area just off the road.  We had arranged to meet up with my favourite brother Peter, who works at Coppabella Mine some 30klm north of us.  Another caravan pulled in before we left to visit Pete and the couple agreed to keep an eye on our van and everything we own while on the road. We were very grateful they decided to camp the night with us.  The showery rain was still with us as we travelled north to visit Pete.  To describe the region as another world is an understatement. Massive machinery, 100's of mine 4wd's and 1000's of workers were everywhere.  Pete's camp has 4500 workers living, working and moving in and out 24 hours a day.  His donga is quite good - a little bigger than our caravan.  

Pete and Jeff

We had the option of two dining establishments - we chose the one over the road because Pete had never been there.  We had a great meal and it was a real treat to catch up with Pete, see where he works and lives.  We said a sad farewell knowing we would not see each other until at least September and drove the 30klm south to our van in the rain.

Isaac River Rest Area bush camp

 To our great delight everything was as we left it.  Climbing into bed we fell asleep to the rain on the roof and woke up every 10 minutes to the semitrailers driving past.

Draglines at Peak Downs Mine

Isaac River Rest Area to Sapphire - the rain eased overnight and we set off, under clearing skies, south towards Emerald via Dysart - another mining town and region.  Passing the massive Peak Downs Mine we saw two enormous draglines being commissioned in a paddock on the side of the road.  Kilometre-plus long coal trains filled the rail tracks and the myriad of mine 4wd's and workers were everywhere.  Slowly they thinned as we travelled to Dysart where we turned right onto "what might be a dirt road".  It did turn out to be a dirt road that had been well watered by the recent rains.  30klm of dirt road and mud later we drove onto bitumen - so nice.

Arriving in Emerald with the "You idiot you're really low on fuel" light blaring away on the dash, we fuelled up and turned west towards Longreach.  We decided to camp in Sapphire and a van park that had rave reviews, to dry out and clean up after all the rain and mud.  The park is quiet and very pretty, located in a bush setting high on the hill in the village.