Nele & Andrew Around Oz

Day 252 – 26^th October 2011

Workman’s Beach Campsite, Agnes Water, QLD

We got up early this morning, packed up the tent and walked back through the gorge to the visitor information centre where the van was parked (9.6km – 3h). Happy to be back! We enquired about the walk to Battleship Spur Lookout and it turns out that from the point we turned back it would have taken us another 2 hours to get there. We did see some photos and the view is amazing so we’ve decided to put it on our ‘to do next time’-list. Before leaving the park we took a short walk to a rock pool where we enjoyed a nice refreshing swim (2km return – 30min). We spent the remainder of the day in the car travelling to Agnes Water via Rolleston where we had lunch. Along the highway there are many road signs reminding drivers they need to rest and not speed to avoid accidents. They even have a trivia game along the way: What is the name of Queensland’s highest mountain? of which we knew the correct answer of course as it is Mt Bartle Frere which we climbed only a couple of weeks ago. Also this sign was quite humorous ‘All those in favour of making it home, raise your right foot’.

Starting the walk back

Carnarvon Gorge

Trying to keep the feet dry

Carnarvon Gorge

Vegetation in the gorge

Another crossing

There is a roo in the way

Carnarvon Gorge

A crow patiently waiting for us to leave
our backpacks behind so he could get in it

Last crossing!

Refreshing swim in the rock pool

Scenery

Historic travellers' hut at Rolliston

Scenery

Day 251 – 25^th October 2011

Big Bend Campsite, Carnarvon Gorge National Park, QLD

This morning we set off on another overnight hike within Carnarvon Gorge. The main track leads to the Big Bend Campsite where we camped the night (9.6km), with 22 creek crossings and many detours on the various sidetracks along the way. First up was the track to Boolimba Bluff with magnificent views of the gorge (6.2km return – 1hr 30min). Next we visited beautiful Moss Gardens (1.2km return - 30mins), the amazing Amphitheatre (1.3km return – 30mins), Wards Canyon (540m return – 20mins), the Art Gallery (780m return – 40mins) and Cathedral Cave (along the main track). Each time we left our backpacks at the main track and upon our return from Moss Gardens we noticed someone had opened the top and side pockets of Nele’s backpack – leaving all our toiletries on the ground. Not long after we saw the guilty one… a crow – they are clever birds those crows! When we arrived at the campsite, we set up the tent before backtracking 420m to Boowinda Gorge. We walked quite a way through the gorge to the point where you can climb up to Battleship Spur Lookout. We started the climb but at the first plateau we had to decide to turn back as we didn’t really know how much further it was and we were running our of time (4km return – 2h). Back at the camp we cooked tea and hopped into bed just as it got dark. Overall for the day we walked 24.5km. Later in the evening we heard a thunderstorm in the distance and saw lots of lightening. Nele has never been very keen on thunderstorms so she was a bit scared but Andrew was a good support. Luckily we only received a few small showers and the storm passed us.