Day 61 Rolleston to Carnavon Gorge

 Took our time leaving Rolleston as it was only a short drive to the national park, we were booked into the Takkarakka Carvan park which is a beautiful bush setting with lots of very tall gum trees. It was still the school holidays and a long weekend, so it was still fairly busy, 

On the Road to the Gorge 

We had 2 days here to explore the gorge. The tracks into Carnarvon Gorge are set up so you have one main trail to follow, and all the points of interest run off that track. To do the full walk is a round trip of 24km so we did what most other people do and took the shorter option. It was only 16km!

It was another early start (6am) and we headed off with our back packs full of water and goodies to get us through the day. We walked out the farthest point, which was called the Art Gallery, It was an amazing wall of aboriginal rock art including both painting and pecking. Pecking is the process of literally picking at the wall with a sharp implement to create a mark. As the cliffs are all sandstone, there is lots of pecking along these walls. 

As you work your way back, you head into Wards Canyon which is one of the many narrow canyons found in the park, The are all very tall and narrow and create their own cool and water filled environment with numerous ferns and other rainforest type plants.

The Amphitheatre was next which required a climb up some very steep ladders and through a hole in a wall that opened out into this natural open space. The pictures could never do it justice. 

The last one on the list was the Moss Garden. The name comes from the carpet of green moss growing on the walls of this area. There is water continually leaching and dripping out of the sandstone which creates a perfect environment for the plants. At the end of the access walkway, there is a beautiful waterfall and its a lovely spot to sit and enjoy the coolness. Unfortunately, there were a lot of mosquitoes around so we couldn't stay as long as we would have liked.

It was a wonderful day, but it took us 5 solid hours of walking and all of these places are an uphill walk away from the main track and some of them were pretty steep along with numerous crossings of Carnarvon Creek - not deep but much rock steeping involved. Needless to say by the time we got back we were both stuffed so not much happened that afternoon.

We did walk up to the lookout just on the edge of the caravan park which gave you a great view across the plains.

There was other amazing spectacle that happened each night on dusk. Thousands of flying foxes fly across the top of the park. It took about 15mins for them to pass overhead. We couldn't work out why they gave you a handout about bats when you checked in until we saw that. 

Apparently, some people were quite apprehensive about the number of bats that were around. 

There were other walks around the park, but I think you would need a few more days to do them all, 

very spectacular place and well worth a visit.