Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland, Australia
We decided to self cater for breakfast and lunch, so after packing lunch we set off, arriving at the Carnarvon Gorge National Park Visitor Centre around 8am with the temperature at 13 ℃. We had been expecting early mornings to be up to 10 ℃ lower, so that was pleasant. The temperature would however climb to 31℃ later that day.
An excellent website (https://www.carnarvongorge.info/tracks-trails) provided us an idea of what we could reasonably do each day, so using its input we focused today on the lower gorge. This is a 14 km (in total) walk featuring a number of possible 'side trips' to specific attractions.
The track up the gorge criss-crosses Carnarvon Creek, requiring some agility on the stepping stones, but the proximity to the creek means that it is a very pretty walk. In fact the track would be justified as a day walk in itself i.e. without any 'side trips'. There is a bit of up and down but in general the track is very well maintained, which makes for relatively easy walking - till the end of the day when the steps seem so much harder than they did at the start! It was also especially nice that since this is not school holidays, there were not a lot of people about so it was mostly tranquil.
First stop for us was the Art Gallery, an indigenous ceremonial, sacred site about 350 metres mostly uphill from the main track.
The site contains over 2000 individual motifs, made up of around 1350 engravings, 650 stencils and a smattering of freehand art. Some of the stencilling techniques are considered to be the most sophisticated in the world, demonstrating adaptations that have only been found in Central Queensland, giving Carnarvon Gorge's rock art sites international significance.
The site is truly amazing and amongst the best indigenous rock art any of us have ever seen.
As it was already getting hot, we skipped Ward's Canyon, which is famous for it's King Ferns, but can only be accessed via a fairly steep climb of approximately 200 steps,
Our next stop was The Amphitheatre - to which photograph's don't do justice. It is accessed by a narrow, elevated slot canyon - reached from a steep ladder! The slot canyon opens out into a substantial vertical hole in the sandstone - a real 'wow' moment - showcasing the impact of erosion on the Gorge's geology. Once again, JD felt it compared favourably with more famous sites, for example in the Kimberley.
Unfortunately, today was the day when GR thought it would be good to go off road, hmm - face plant, skin missing off arm. Certainly made the walk more interesting!
We subsequently passed on a side-trip to the Moss Garden, famous for it's ferns and spring water.
This left us time for a relaxing afternoon (and GR to recover for the next day) before another nice dinner at the Wilderness Lodge restaurant.
2025-05-23