Carnarvon Gorge

First things first: unfortunately, nothing has been published on our blog here in the last few weeks because someone from our travel group was supposed to write this post. But unfortunately, this someone has been procrastinating since then. The other posts have been ready for a while, but since the order can no longer be changed, everything has to be published in chronological order. So, there's a lot coming up now. We were in Carnarvon Gorge almost 4 weeks ago... oops 😅

The Destination

Actually, when we told our parents before departure that we were "not going to the Outback," we meant it... But that was before Donald, the bearded old man we met in the hardware store parking lot in Cairns, told us that we absolutely had to go to Carnarvon Gorge National Park. At first, we were still considering whether to do it. But when we googled some pictures, the decision was made.

Preparations

The national park may not be deep in the real Outback, but it's still more than 800km from Mackay, with only a gas station every 100-150 kilometers. So we bought another gas can, as well as 40 liters of drinking water and enough food. But hey, let me ask you:

"Where is the spare tire on our car, actually?"

"...uhm not under the seat or something?"

"...no, that's where the engine is."

"...but they said the car has one, right?"

"I thought so..."

"Hmm..."

"...Hmm."

*Walks around the car multiple times*

*Checks the roof just to be sure*

*... checks under the car?*

Ah yes! Attached underneath the car, good to know. 😅 (At least we knew where the jack was)

On the Way

The drive was long, very long. There was almost no cell phone reception. No radio either. At first, our playlist kept us entertained, but eventually it got annoying and we switched to an audiobook.

On the road, we encountered more dead kangaroos than other cars. (Don't ask how that works out mathematically). On the side of the road, there are abandoned cars slowly rusting. Apparently, leaving them there is cheaper than towing them.

The Emerald Gem Mines.

I wonder if we can convert this thing into a camper?

We couldn't make the whole journey in one go. So we made a little stopover in Emerald. Like many other inland towns in Australia, there are gem deposits here, mainly opals that have been mined for over 100 years.

More exciting than the gems, we found the microbats on our guided tour of one of the old mines. These are bats that are only a few centimeters in size and live here. The young ones are even smaller and hang from the low ceiling in colonies.

Microbats

The Actual National Park

Even though it looked different on the map, it was still more than 400km from Emerald to Carnarvon National Park. So, more endless driving. The closer you get to the national park, the more water there is again. In the surrounding area, there are even fields and livestock again. The roads lead right through the grazing land. In order to prevent the cows from running onto the road, the road crosses the fence with large metal bars. The cows don't step on them, which is good. At the same time, these bars shake your own car violently, even at low speeds, which is not so good, especially if you have an old and heavy car like ours. The end result: our car radio gives out several times/turns off after the next metal bar, but usually comes back on. OH NO, it stopped working again =( (We thought we could look forward to the 800km return trip without music or audiobook. 😑)

But what's actually here?

The Carnarvon Gorge consists primarily of the namesake gorge. Inside the gorge, more water collects, and it's overall cooler. For thousands of years, an isolated ecosystem has existed here. As a result, the climate here is completely different. It's an oasis in the Outback with suddenly palm trees and ferns that are usually only found in the distant rainforest.

This is what it looks like in the model. Most of the hiking is done along the river.

There were many river crossings like this one

We opted for a 23km loop walk that covers most of the highlights. But there are also multi-day hikes available, where you have to bring everything, including a sleeping bag and possibly a tent. Along the way, there are only marked water points and definitely no cell phone reception.

You can see deep narrow side gorges in the deeper parts of the national park

You're not allowed to climb here, despite the impressive cliffs. The ranger we asked about it said not only is the land sacred, but also, if climbing were allowed, the place would soon be overrun by climbers. And they can only just handle the current number of visitors.

We also went on a guided night walk, where we learned that scorpions fluoresce under blacklight. We also saw many yellow-bellied gliders (a native flying squirrel species).

We even saw one flying from tree to tree. We don't have any pictures of that, but we have some of the night sky

You can even see the Milky Way.

Someone walked through the frame.

The campground had only the bare essentials but a great view

Occasionally, a curious kangaroo came by

The echidnas were also cute. We saw many of them, but somehow never took a photo. So here's a picture from Google

So far, Carnarvon Gorge has been one of our absolute highlights

Oh, and the car radio started working again on its own after a few hours without power. So, the return trip was saved. 😁