Week 2 of the DownUnder Tour

Aside from the failure of our Canon digital camera, we were off to a good start this week, beginning with our last day in Roma whereby we took the opportunity to ride our bikes through some fantastic bike paths throughout the town and park. The park is one of the town’s best attractions in our book, with remarkable native flora and fauna. Also as promised last week, I have attached a pic of their massive bottle tree (boab), taken with my i-Mate phone, (as were most of the pics this week, having only bought a new digital camera on Saturday).

From Roma we went to Carnarvon Gorge, and I would make two observations. The first is that it is a road that should be closed at night given the carnage of wildlife and even cattle, as well as the skid marks reflecting the driver’s attempt to avoid the hazards. (Due to the drought, cattle are permitted to graze alongside the road and not all of them survive the passing cars.) The second observation is that they are good at building straight roads here in Qld. The road stretches out in front of you as far as the eye can see. One of the highlights for me on the journey was seeing an emu wandering along, not that far from the road. There were also many kangaroos but fortunately they either crossed the road well ahead of us or kept their distance as we passed.

Once one gets to the turnoff for the gorge, it is still a 44km trip in to get to the national park, with about ½ of that a dirt road with cattle and kangaroos wandering over it from time to time. I tried the phone as we turned off the main road but already Telstra had failed me, in spite of their claim to cover 98% of the Australian population. I guess that does not cover the 65,000 annual visitors to Carnarvon Gorge. I can tell that this will be a challenge for me during the next eight months as I am accustomed to keeping in contact with my ace stockbroker as well as having access to email and market information.

The trip into the gorge was interesting as the land alongside the road is shared by grazing cattle and some roos, and some of these would dwarf me. We stayed outside the national park at the only facility that could handle campers at the moment, Takarracka Bush Resort. It offers a big camp kitchen, as well as showers, toilets and laundry facilities, not to mention a couple of hundred friendly campers. They had power and water available at the site though no sullage (grey water) provisions. We arrived in the afternoon in time for the daily talk the ranger gives, which offers some insight and background regarding the area and what we might expect to see on the various hikes. One of the key elements that differentiates this area from others is the aboriginal history. This was a fiercely contested area between the aborigines and European settlers because it has a good supply of fresh water. There were atrocities by both sides and fortunately it is now an area that anyone can access and appreciate for both its natural beauty and Aboriginal cultural significance.

In February there was a BIG flood, with the water in the gorge rising 4.5 metres, resulting in both the devastation of many trees alongside the riverbank and wiping out many of the crossings that were in place. Kudo’s to the national parks personnel who got the crossings back in place so promptly. For those of us who were fortunate enough to come along now, the flood had removed much of the overgrown areas, reportedly providing much better viewing than had previously been available.

The first full day there the children spotted platypus and turtles in a small creek and then buckled down to get some of their schoolwork out of the way. The next day it was full on hiking, covering over 20 km’s in the day. The first stop was Boolimba Bluff, which involved just under 7 km’s of hiking, including 960 stairs, though Mariah only counted 895 on the way up and 936 on the way down. I suggested she go back and resolve the discrepancy but she politely reminded me that I would need to accompany her and somehow we never got back to it.
After morning tea we headed for the “art gallery”, a rock face with Aboriginal paintings and carvings. This was a hike of just under 14 km’s return but was interesting as you will see from the pics. There are many paintings of hands and boomerangs and carvings of kangaroo and emu footprints, though the most common carving is of the female genitals, perhaps indicating a pursuit preferred to even kangaroo or emu. :)

From the art gallery we went to Ward’s Canyon. The two Ward brothers were possum trappers and their lair was very cool, about 25 degrees C and to me, the most beautiful area we saw all day. The photos do not do it justice by any means, with some of the oldest ferns anywhere and a small stream flowing through the area just alongside a sheltered area of rock.

It was only a short stroll from there to the Moss Garden and a patient snake greeted us as we crossed a small bridge. We were not quite what he had in mind for lunch and when we returned he was gone.

We were on our way back from the Moss Garden when we came across the access to Hellhole Gorge. Now some had said that this gorge was inaccessible while others had just described the access as “rugged”, but it was nothing that could stop determined mountaineers like us as we shimmied across logs over water and pushed and pulled each other over large boulders. We got there in the end and felt like we had done enough for one day so made the 4 km trek back to our mobile “bower” and headed back to the Bush Camp.

The following day we could not help ourselves… There were still a couple of short hikes we had not done and we felt like we just had to squeeze them in before heading out. The first was to Baloon Cave (yes, it is spelled that way), another area where one can see aboriginal art. Next we had to visit the rock pools, which entertained us with the tadpoles and turtles. Christian had some trouble with the soft bottom on the creekbed, but in the end he did recover his feet.

From Carnarvon Gorge we headed to Lake Maraboon, a dam just outside Emerald and one of the most prolific areas in which to catch “red claw” a delicious crayfish. We stayed at the only caravan park near the dam and it was nothing short of terrific, thanks to superb management committed to keeping the patrons entertained.

On Good Friday they had “Redclaw Races” in the camp kitchen, which was nothing short of hilarious. They had ten redclaw per heat and the winners got small prizes, with the proceeds from the event going to M.S. Both Christian and Mariah’s entrants won their heats. Following the races, the redclaw entrants were auctioned and yours truly was the top bidder, ensuring that the heat winners would be released to swim another day and the balance would be enjoyed at an evening meal or three. It also provided me with good experience at cleaning the critters, which is a handy skill to have mastered.

On Saturday we went into the town of Emerald and again learned new and interesting things and saw some eye opening sights. The tourist information center is actually built of straw, and then rendered. There is a cut away in one of the walls so people can view the straw inside. I guess they did not read about the three little pigs but they tell me that the straw structures are strong with excellent insulation characteristics, and it felt so standing inside on a hot day.

We decided to picnic near the botanical gardens and were overwhelmed by the size of it all, spanning across both sides of the canal and the roads. There were beautiful birds including these cockatoos. They also had a monorail with cars that you pedaled.

In the Botanical Gardens there was Centenary Display, complete with a "yarn circle" where people sit around and have a "yarn".

They have a series of mosaics they built as part of the Centenary celebrations that leads from the tourist information centre to the largest Picasso replica in the world. Have a look at the pic and you can see the children at the base of it.

On Saturday evening the Lake Maraboon crowd had a sausage sizzle in the camp kitchen followed by live music. On Sunday they had an Easter egg hunt for the children and then a pancake breakfast. Talk about a well run show! We met some lovely people and really enjoyed our stay.
We headed to Sapphire, Qld around 10am following the pancake breakfast and spent the day mining sapphires. Very surprisingly to me, we actually found a few. We also toured an underground mine and it was very informative, providing quite a comprehensive presentation of the different mining methods, how to detect the areas where sapphires are found, and how to find the little fellas amongst the big piles of rubble that come out with them.

That wraps up week 2 and again my apologies for the poor picture quality this week from the i-mate but I was pleased to at least have it to use. Next week we are going to Longreach and beyond, (with the benefit of my new camera).