23/8/2012
Corfield Sports Club to Porcupine Gorge via Hughenden Sue and Marg both drove and were lucky to get good road conditions and not much traffic. In Hughenden we decided to have a coffee at the F J Holden cafe before hitting the Flinders Discovery Centre. One thing is for sure, the FJ Holden cafe staff need a customer service course - burnt raisin toast, scruffy surroundings, over priced ordinary coffee and then to top it off a refusal to give the $2 change in $1 coins - ready for our laundry chores, any how refreshed, we enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit (Muttaburrasaurus) and the porcupine gorge formation movie at the Flinders Discovery Centre.

For an RV friendly town the overnight stay option at the show ground without facilities was not what we expected, so we headed out on the sealed road to Porcupine Gorge National Park, about 62 kms from Hughenden . First stop was Bottle Tree Lookout, a steepish climb up to a bottle tree which had a view of the surrounding plains. We met a nice couple who were staying at the Porcupine Gorge camp site, they thought we might get in, so after a stop at the very picturesque Gorge lookout we drove the 10 kms to the camp ground.

Except for 6kms of road works, the road is sealed all the way. The camp ground has pre booked sites with red numbers and first come first serve sites marked with white numbers, it is an honesty self registration system. Some sites are supposed to be for tents only, and are well set up with a raised level area to pitch your tent. We managed to get both Bertha and Dora onto site 5, the only remaining "non tent site".

It is a pretty camping area with well laid out paths between the well spaced sites, 2 bush toilet blocks, and some water near the day picnic area. You cannot see the gorge from the camping area, it is about a 400m walk to the lookout spot which has quite a good view (not as good as the previous one, mentioned here) but you can see the Pyramid Rock formation which the camp ground takes its name from .

Marg,Tony and Sue headed down the fairly steep rocky path, with the intention of hiking to the bottom of the gorge, the path got steeper and we still had a way to go, so Sue abandoned the mission leaving Marg & Tony to complete it - Marg took some good photos showing the sandy bottom, flanked with gorgeous multi colored rock formations. We had learned at the Flinders Discovery Centre, that the various rock colors and textures have been formed over millions of years, and as each era laid its sediments down, the colours and textures changed - river action, inland sea action, glacial action then back to river action, all left their mark.

The walk back burnt off a few calories, and needed several stops. By now of course we are hot and sweaty in a camp spot with no showers, no problem - Bertha was transformed into a "free camping ensuite" and we all scrubbed up quite well before enjoying our usual Happy Hour followed by Winton Rump Steak. Then we had the first rain since we left home.

24/8/2012 Pyramid camping ground - Porcupine Gorge
A lazy day enjoying the campground and nature, catching up with photo downloading, reading and ending the day with a Bangers and Mash.