Carnarvon Gorge had been on our agenda for a few years. We almost got there in 2020 but there were no sites or other suitable accommodation available, so we set off on our Wing-it Wanderings road-trip instead. (While staying at Rolleston during that trip, we chatted with other travellers who had just been into the Gorge. They spoke of the many mice they'd encountered - due to a mouse plague at the time - and we felt better about "missing out")!
There were other false starts but everything finally aligned for visiting in April. Nick had leave approved and we booked several months ahead. (Our initial booking was for six nights but we were able to extend an additional night once there).
We bought hiking boots as our anniversary gifts in January and started to break them in soon after. (I was also getting used to new orthotics). I actually started the year very well, increasing my walking to 30 and 35 kilometres for the first two weeks in January. And then I got Covid, followed by some other issues - which set my physical activity back considerably. Nick had hurt himself when packing (possibly cracked a rib), so neither of us were in prime condition. Given how long it had taken to get leave etc lined up though, we decided to just go and do our best.
Plenty of bloggers have written about Carnarvon and there is a lot of YouTube content also. Although we read tips and watched some footage before arrival, it was still awesome to experience such stunning country first-hand. I took many, many photos while there. We managed to walk 70km over the course of our week-long stay, saw everything we wanted to see and even made it all the way out to Big Bend, Cathedral Cave and Boowinda Gorge in one huge 24km/12-hour day!
When viewing the caravan park's intro video and reading various descriptions of the walks, we felt a bit daunted by all the numbers. After studying the rated walks, we decided to get up super-early and view sunrise from Boolimba Bluff. It was one of the level 4 walks and once we'd finished that one (the first hour in darkness, with just the light of our headlamps), we were more confident about doing others. We had done a level 5 hike close to home the week before heading out to Carnarvon and that experience was good to compare to the sunrise Bluff walk.
A few days after our level 5 hike, we bought much better backpacks from Anaconda, in preparation for Carnarvon. I also bought a water bladder to use instead of a drink bottle, which was a great choice. Nick found my hiking pole when packing and that was so very handy for all the creek crossings we did.
Some people didn't stay long at the caravan park and tried to do all the walks in one or two days. We took a far more leisurely approach and spent time at each of the sites once we reached them, to fully appreciate all there was to see. Nick went up to the office the day after our 24km stint and was able to extend our booking, which meant we could have a rest day before our Moss Gardens and Amphitheatre finale.
This is how our week panned out. We were very chuffed with our efforts - and how wonderfully everything fell into place.
Day 1 ( 3.0km) - Arrive late afternoon
Day 2 ( 6.5km) - Visitor Centre Nature Walk and Mickey Creek
Day 3 (10.5km) - Boolimba Bluff and Rock Pools
Day 4 (13.5km) - Art Gallery and Ward's Canyon
Day 5 (24.0km) - Big Bend, Boowinda Gorge and Cathedral Cave
Day 6 ( 4.5km) - Warrumba Creek Gorge (Mickey Creek), caravan park lookout
Day 7 (12.0km) - Moss Gardens and the Amphitheatre
Day 8 ( 5.0Km) - Departure ...
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