Cobbold Gorge, Queensland, Australia
The village was just so beautiful early in the morning. Amazing reflections on the pool, lots of birds everywhere. At 8am it was time for our tour to the gorge. The water continues to run under the Robertson River all year. During the wet the water is of course running over the sand but in the dry a well is dug and it provides crystal clear filtered water for the resort.
It's the very end of the season and as it gets hotter what was a number of trips per day becomes just two early trips. Zee was our tour guide and the trip into the gorge was amazing. The small number meant that there was only one boat in the gorge at a time. It was perfect.
The narrow electric boat is recharged by a solar system built up above the creek.
The gorge was just stunning. The pictures tell the story.
There were beautiful spider webs everywhere. Zee told us these were St Andrews Cross spiders but that due to the archer fish in the waterway they had changed the design of the web to confuse the fish. The cross had made them a target so they wove a scramble.
True? We have no idea.
There are a number of freshwater crocs in the gorge and then further down the creek past the gorge. A couple made an appearance for us, one not far from the boat. A beautiful lace monitor was interested in something beside the boardwalk and a very large (close to two metres) specimen was seen just up above the track.
After the gorge boat ride you walk up to the glass bridge. I hate glass anything that you step onto so this was interesting. It was explained how strong it was blah blah blah but it was still glass and I could see right through it. Everyone is given a pair of those blue surgery booties to try to cut down scratching. Al just wandered out onto it. I took a deep breath to overcome my mounting terror and gingerly stepped onto it. It was fine and I hope going forward I’ll be ok with any we come across. The glass bridge is followed by a metal bridge that flexes, andI like metal structures just a little more than glass.
After lunch Al went in search of some black cockies that were making a racket not far from the pool.
He got some amazing pictures because they were as interested in him as he was of them.
We went up in the helicopter mid-afternoon. It must be such a boring thing to do - repeating a spiel and flying the same route over and over. SOme are good at making it sound like you are the first customer of the day, some aren;t. Amy, our young pilot, was the latter. Nevertheless Amy was a great pilot and after noticing I wasn't actually videoing when we circled the gorge Amy flew around a couple more times. It truly is the most amazing landscape around Cobbold.
When we got back we decided we’d do one of the shorter walks. We signed out and with hats and water headed out. It’s 38 degrees when we head out. We missed (I missed) the turn for the short walk and instead we headed up, and up, to the lookout. It was bloody hot, and steep, and we should have had two water bottles, not one. If anything had happened we weren’t on the trail we said we would be. We will not ever do that again. It’s how people get into trouble in the bush.
Luckily the ‘down’ was much easier and the sun was getting lower. It was a long and hot 4.5km.
If we could have we would have just walked straight into the pool but we did at least have a quick shower before we jumped in, cider in hand.
Another nice dinner with a couple of bottles of $30 wine (every bottle of wine was $30, and kept in a fridge - white and red) that we finished off with an excellent, and gigantic, cheese board.
2025-05-23