Day 12
Depart Emerald ~ 10am
Arrive Carnarvon Gorge National Park ~3.30pm
250kms

Stops
- Rolleston for fuel and lunch

After a lazy start to the morning, including stocking up on supplies in Emerald, a coffee and filling up with fuel, we turned south towards Carnarvon, after many kms of heading west the day before.

What I failed to mention in yesterday's post was how much the landscape changed as we did head west. The day had started in the Outback - the broad, flat and dry plains with the occasional Mesa or "Jump Up"; a harsh landscape.

As we got closer to Emerald, the land started to become more undulating, and the vegetation changed to become more scrubby again.

Emerald is classified as the "Central Highlands". And as we headed south from there this morning we were treated to some spectacular formations, including one "mountain" that had many, many landslides - they looked like ski runs carved through the trees.

As we reached the Carnarvon turn-off, we could see a dense smoke haze in the distance. The road into the national park was sealed for about 20kms with the last 15 or so unsealed. It included several minor creek crossings that looked like they would be forces to be reckoned with after wet weather - but fortunately were in good condition for us.

We stayed at Takarakka Bush Resort which is the only available camping close to the national park. It's a good set up with spacious sites for us to set up on, and on site permanent tents also for hire, which our travelling companions took advantage of.

After dinner we were fortunate to stumble upon "Uncle Fred", a local indiginous elder who take groups in guided walks in the gorge.

We were lucky enough that he was doing a walk the following day, and after listening to a number of his stories, we made arrangements to meet him at the national parks office.