The drive inland to Carnarvon Gorge from Calliope River was long, slow and fairly boring. We passed through farmland and small mining towns before eventually reaching the turnoff into the Gorge. 450 kms took us 7 hours, mostly due to constant roadworks. Things improved as we neared the National Park and spotted wallabies, emus, brolgas and bustards along the roadside. The only camping option outside of school holidays was a private campground called Takaraka which was really lovely. It was a beautiful bush setting beside a river with plenty of shade and huge camp spots.

The main section of the gorge is 14 km in length so when we headed out the next morning we expected to only walk a short distance. However, the kids really surprised us and we all made it to a section called The Amphitheatre where you need to climb a steep ladder to go through a small gap in the rock to a secluded opening. It was most inpressive. I then walked back with Gemma and Lachie which turned out to be a 9km hike without too much complaining! Toby and Neve walked a further 4 km to get to The Art Gallery to look at the different types of Aboriginal art on the rock walls. We were all fairly tired that afternoon but it didn't stop the kids from riding their bikes around the campground and making new friends along the way.
The following day we did two shorter walks in the morning then decided to pack up and get some kms covered as our next drive was a big one. We needed to drive 700km to get to Hervey Bay and whilst we could have done this easily on the west coast, Qld driving is just so much slower. We drove for a few hours until dusk and stopped at Dawson's River for the night.

It was a shame we only had 2 nights at Carnarvon Gorge, Lachie in particular was really enjoying Takaraka as he'd found some buddies and was free to explore the river and make cubbies in the trees, but we were starting to run short of time. Carnarvon Gorge was perhaps the most impressive gorge I've visited in Australia - it's so green, picturesque and full of wallabies and bird life, however it's a long way from anything else!

Luckily we'd given ourselves some extra time as the roadworks on the way to Hervey Bay were particularly bad. We pulled into a caravan park where the kids could swim, ride and jump on the giant pillow whilst Toby and I prepared for Fraser Island the following day. Hervey Bay looks like a nice place for a return visit one day but for now we had to be content with a quick look around. We had a rare dinner out at a Thai restaurant (which was ok and certainly better looking than many of the other options along the tourist strip).