Day 13 & 14
Carnarvon Gorge National Park

There is no phone reception in the national park, and when wifi costs $12/hr, well - you know - its just a good opportunity to switch off from the outside world for a few days.

We met up with Uncle Fred at 8am at the National Parks office, with the intention being to undertake the 14km round trip hike to the "Art Gallery" - an area in one of the side canyons rich with aboriginal artwork, including ochre stencils. There were 10 of us (the two families which included six kids, with similar ages in each family), plus a couple of others who had also heard of uncle Fred's walks.

Things started out well enough, but Ms3 quickly waned, and despite Uncle Fred's best efforts, including some bush tucker sugar cane, she tripped over her toes one too many times, and we decided it wasn't worth pushing on with her, so after making it 3kms up the gorge, I turned around, and carried / piggy packed her most of the return trip.

Hub pushed on with our older two, and the other family as well (which included a 4yo). They not only made it to the Art Gallery, but also up a side gorge to Wards Canyon, which was home to the "king fern" - only place that it is found in the gorge.

We worked out that they (all the kids except our Ms3) had walked about 16kms - which was some achievement when you think about it.

After the heat of the day (low to mid 30s), everyone enjoyed a dip in the creek.

The next day, we had thought about having a lazy day, maybe hang out by the rock pool for a while, but our Mr7 quickly realised this was our last day in the park, and quickly made it known that he wasn't done exploring, and he really wanted to go to the "amphitheatre" as well as a few other places. Plans were quickly revised, and the two dads, and Mr7 hit the track again, while the two mums and the remaining five kids hit the rock pool.

The Rock Pool is the only place within the national park that you're allowed to swim, and we spent a leisurely four or so hours there, watching the turtles, swimming in the creek / river and enjoying a picnic lunch.

We were not long back to camp when the walkers arrived back also. As well as the amphitheatre (which is a chasm in one of the side gorges), they made it to the moss garden, so all up had probably walked another 9kms or so. Apparently Mr7 had a small spot where he lost his energy, but hub said he set a cracking pace most of the time.

You could tell how proud he was of his efforts, and he learnt so much from those two days of walking.

Again, we all hit the creek for an afternoon dip. The kids have had a ball here in Carnarvon Gorge, and have the tired eyes to show for it. Oh well - they can sleep in the car.

Just as we sat down to dinner tonight, a thunderstorm rolled in. It was the full deal - lightning, heavy rain, wind, sideways rain. Fortunately we were in the camp kitchen, and even though we were right in the middle, we still got a bit of spray.

The forecast is for a bit more rain - which is no fun for packing up in the morning. We've packed as much as we can tonight, but feel that today sort of marks the end of the holiday. It's a three day drive home, and we'll see some more of the country side as we pass through northwest NSW.

There are some things we didn't get time to do - like making damper on a campfire and drizzling it with golden syrup, but there's always next time.

But tomorrow we will be driving along the Carnarvon Highway somewhere and we'll suddenly get phöne service again, and two phones will start beeping with messages and emails and the like, and we'll be back in the real world again. That is of course if it doesn't rain too much more tonight, and we can get back across the numerous creeks we crossed to come in here!!

Mind you, if you're reading this, we obviously made it out.