Carnarvon National Park

Salvator Rosa Section

After the delights of the Blackall Caravan Park we were happy to find a nice little camping area in a national park again. Carnarvon National Park is best known for just one section - the Carnarvon Gorge. But this park is huge and extends across the map in a swathe of green that covers a wide area from west to east. The Salvator Rosa section is at the western end and can only be reached by a dreadful unsealed road from the north. Inside the park past the camping area, it is strictly 4 wheel drive territory.

This section is quite remote and only 3 other cars took the road in on the day we ventured forth. The river crossing was shallow and sandy bottomed but with fairly steep entry and exit but our now-trusty truck did it with ease. The sandy track meandered through open eucalypt forest punctuated now and then by extraordinary sandstone outcrops eroded into pillars of strange shapes often with tunnels through the softer white sandstone stratum. One large hill also boasted a 10 metre diameter hole at the top and was aptly named Spyglass Peak. A walk to the top of another hill revealed that it was not alone, and all around the peaks and escarpments showed off their strange shapes.

Here up in the porous sandstone country, springs emerge from the rock and bubble down shallow gullies lined with lush ferny growth to form small creeks merging eventually with the Nogoa River, the one we had forded near the camp. Large boggy areas, surprising at altitude, are covered with high yellow reeds topped with fluffy seed heads.

This park once was a cattle station like so many National Parks in Queensland. In many, the old buildings and yards are preserved as part of the history of the park. A sign pointing to 'yard's led us to (just) figure out that two half-burnt stumps with a tangle of wire were the said remnants of the stock yards!

Salvator Rosa also gave us our coldest night of the trip so far. In the Simpson Desert we had an overnight low of 0.8°C but our night here was -1.1!

Carnarvon Gorge Section

The Gorge is one of the best known features of Queensland, but unfortunately there was no campground in this part of the park. As we did not feel ready to tackle yet another campsite filled with caravans (and which was grossly overpriced to boot) we found a side track in a nearby State Forest and settled down for a very quiet night. So thus refreshed we entered the very popular Carnarvon Gorge. Here at the entrance and in the grounds around the visitors' centre Eastern Grey Kangaroos are in abundance and well habituated to humans - not enough to pat, but enough to get quite close to both adults and joeys.

Walks are the big thing here and the path goes a long way up the gorge with side tracks to all the attractions. We opted to go as far as the 'Art Gallery', a 6 kilometre walk along the gorge. The path crosses and recrosses the creek several times, with strategically placed boulders in the water as part of the path. Along the way, rainbow lorikeets and sulphur-crested cockatoos make the treetops a constant vocal and visual show. Gullies are filled with tree ferns and palms shine in the sun and casuarina groves grow next to clear running streams. Each side of the gorge, high escarpments of shining white sandstone show off their vertical walls.

The Art Gallery is one of the best examples of rock painting and carving in the state and was quite extensive. We took the side track to the Amphitheatre, a huge hidden canyon accessed through a narrow slit in the escarpment reached by a series of steel ladders set into the cliff face. The Moss Garden along another track with stairs, stairs and more stairs, is an extraordinary growth of moss over vertical walls which seep constantly with spring water. A waterfall tumbles down the dark gully beside and the path crosses it several times. On one track we encountered a hazard…a large roo was grazing on the grass on the track. With no way to go around - the path was lined by metre high thick grass - we approached. The roo looked up and growled at us. We persevered, and with annoyance and reluctance it bounded off a couple of metres which allowed us to get through! It was a big male - we didn't want to upset it.

All up we walked about 15 kilometres and our feet hurt! Time to move on…