Walking through Carnarvon Gorge

For a long time I have heard of and been reading about what a great place Carnarvon Gorge National Park is to walk and hike through.  Now, being in the vicinity and with time to visit, we booked ourselves in for a 5 night stay.

Our campsite was a beauty sitting atop a sandstone ridge that afforded a 360 degree view of the area.  From this vantage point, seated in our camp chairs, in the morning we could watch the sunrise over the plains to our east while enjoying a coffee and then, with nothing more than a swivel of our chairs, we could observe the sunset behind the walls of the gorge to our west with a ‘sundowner’ in hand as the day came to a close!  This is the life!

View looking west from our camp chairs.
Picture a glass in hand as the sun goes down behind the ridgeline...life is good!

The park information brochure identified several short walks and some longer more adventurous hikes that could be undertaken.  We planned our time so that we did the shorter walks first with the more difficult and longer hikes to follow on later days.  The last day was reserved to simply rest and relax.

On the first day we did two of the short walks which covered a total distance of less than 2km.  These amounted to what was literally ‘a walk in the park’.  One walk took us through a grove of fan palms and cycads nestled within the walls of the entrance to the gorge and popped out at a cave containing some great examples of stencilled Aboriginal rock art.

Heather in a grove of palms and cycads within Carnarvon Gorge

Aboriginal rock art - Ochre stencils of hands, boomerangs and axes

The second walk of the day was really just a visit to a rock pool where we hoped to see some turtles or a platypus but there none to be seen while we were there.

The next day took us along the bank of a small creek where, after a couple of kilometres, the formed track ended and we proceeded carefully into a narrow side-gorge.  The gorge got progressively narrower, cooler and darker until, with outstretched arms, we could touch the walls on both sides!

The gorge got so narrow that we could touch the walls on both sides!

Later that day, after a light lunch, we completed a sedate stroll along a nature trail located near the park ranger station.  Once again we hoped to spot a platypus in the clear flowing waters of Carnarvon Creek.  Once again, unfortunately, we were unable to spy one of these elusive creatures.  Total distance covered was about 4.5km.

On day 3 we did the 6.4km hike to Boolimba Bluff.  This hike required us to scale the steep slope of one of the gorge walls to a lookout situated 200m above Carnarvon Creek.

The sign was right!  It was very steep and I needed to be supervised at all times!

Upon reaching the lookout we were rewarded with views of the gorge from above as well as getting to see more of the surrounding ranges.

We were rewarded with some great views from the lookout at Boolimba Bluff

Our walks and hikes over the first 3 days of our visit, while getting progressively longer, were not that taxing (I used to walk 7km going to work and back home each day).  These were mere 'warm-ups' compared to the hike that we completed on day 4!

Day 4: The Main Carnarvon Gorge Walking Track criss-crosses Carnarvon Creek about 20 times (which equates to more than 40 crossings as you have to come back) as it wends its way to its end point at Big Bend some 9.7km upstream.  The hiking guide recommends trekking all the way to the end of the trail at Big Bend and then visiting the sites as you return rather than visiting them as you reach them on the outbound leg so this is what we did.

It took us about 2.5 hours to reach Big Bend with each of us managing to get a boot full of creek water along the way at different creek crossings.  We decided to have an early lunch before commencing the return leg which was to include numerous diversions along side-tracks leading to narrow hidden gorges, fern and moss gardens and several Aboriginal rock art sites.

Each of the highlights at the ends of these off-shoots were special in their their own different ways and well worth the extra km to get into and back out again.  In the order that we came to them as we returned to our starting point, I will briefly describe each.

Cathedral Gorge is a large rock overhang that provided shelter to Aboriginal people for thousands of years and its walls are covered in images reflecting the culture of those that gathered here.

Large rock overhang at Cathedral Gorge was full of Aboriginal stencils and paintings

The ‘Art Gallery’ contains over 2,000 rock engravings, ochre stencils and free-hand paintings on a 62m long sandstone wall.  This is one of the places within the gorge the ‘secret women’s business’ was conducted.

More ochre stencils and paintings - this time from the 'Art Gallery'.

Ward’s Canyon was a short but steep climb from the main gorge track.  We passed a small waterfall on the way up into a narrow side-gorge that shelters one of the last groves of the world’s largest fern - the King Fern.

Large Tree Ferns and King Ferns could be found in Ward's Canyon

Getting to ‘The Amphitheatre’ required us to make a bit of a hike off of the main trail then climb a series of ladders in order to access the narrow gorge which opened out onto the floor of a 60m deep, fern filled chamber.  With high stone walls and a natural skylight high above, the atmosphere inside is awe-inspiring.  We took the time to sit and contemplate in the peace and quiet within.

It was necessary to climb these ladders to reach the narrow entrance to 'The Amphitheatre'

Ferns growing inside the Amphitheatre reaching for the light 60m above

Heather quietly contemplates her surroundings inside the Amphitheater

The last diversion from the trail took us to the ‘Moss Garden’.  Again, after a bit of a hike and climb, we arrived at a steep-sided, cool, fern-filled sandstone walled gorge.  A small waterfall cascaded into a shallow pool before the water trickled away downstream while more water drips constantly from the sandstone walls all around it.  This constant supply of water sustains a lush green carpet of mosses on its walls and ferns along the creekside.  It was a beautiful cool place to sit briefly and take a load off our now noticeably tiring legs.

'Selfie' from the Moss Garden

Heather & small waterfall in the Moss Garden

With all of the listed sites along the route now visited we wearily completed the hike back to our vehicle parked at the trailhead.  By the time we climbed into the ute 7 hours and 40 minutes after we had started, we had covered about 26km (34,700 steps) and our legs were feeling them all!  Despite our tiredness we were very happy to have made the effort and highly recommend that anyone that can include a visit to Carnarvon Gorge in their itinerary should do so.

Heather has made a couple of videos of our Carnarvon Gorge walks - these can be viewed on YouTube by clicking on the links provided below:

Short Walks: https://youtu.be/4ctnA7V1zho

Long Hike: https://youtu.be/0TkUor8GEi8

If you like the videos and would like to see similar movies relating to the activities WTF? - Where are The Farrows? get up to, please click ‘Subscribe’ when at Heather’s YouTube channel to receive a notification whenever she uploads a new movie.

As WTF? - Where are The Farrows? continue their odyssey northwards towards the Gulf of Carpentaria we will be sure to let you know about the significant, weird, wonderful and quirky things we encounter along the way.

Personal Footnote: It has been 7 years since you passed away but I am still missing you dad - Love Grant.