Overseas Walks: Carnavon National Park walks were magical
Judy Simpson relates her experiences of walking in Queensland’s Carnarvon National Park and gorge, with photos by Duncan McDermont
If you drive for a whole day due west of Caloundra on Australia’s Sunshine Coast you reach a town called Roma. With an overnight stop here, visit the largest “Bottle Tree” in Australia? and admire the “Veterans’ Bottle Tree Walk”.
The next morning drive north for four hours until you reach a turn off to the Carnarvon National Park.
Be sure you arrange your accommodation (The Wilderness Lodge or camping) here because there is nothing else for another two hours drive in either direction. A stuff up over our booking meant we had to drive 140 kms each way every day, but that’s another story.
The drive isn’t exceptional. It’s absolutely straight. Sometimes we had a slight rise. The big event of the drive was to have to slow down for a huge herd of cattle being driven in a north east direction and right across the big State Highway.
How the drovers kept track I’ll never know. They, the cattle, seemed to be everywhere and all over the place. They had no fear of us. We just had to slow right down and let them have their way. Dribs and drabs, not like trying to push your way through a NZ herd.
The countryside is beautiful if you are
Carnarvon National Park walks were magical
a fan of Australian outback. We are and have loved driving through the different gum trees. Nothing dense here. Lots of space. Oh so dry. Most of the billabongs are empty or pretty dry looking.
One cattle to a NZ paddock, with just nothing to eat. Some of the paddocks look grey they are so dry, with only 5 mls of rain last week. That was a month’s supply.
We just had to stop to photograph an emu family. The babies were like big ducklings and very well camouflaged and the cattle around the feeding stations were worth a stop too.
Therte was 50,000 acres for sale down the road, if you’re interested. Lots of road kill, so it pays to keep off the roads between dusk and about 8am. We saw
the result of a car / kangaroo hit and it wasn’t pretty.
Past the lodge where we were supposed to stay and then the magic begins. Suddenly you are in a changed space. Lots of green ferns and cycads. Even the air smells different.
There is an excellent National Park Centre with really great displays, exhibits and montages and of course, maps.
Nine months ago a forest fire had roared through this area. However, the regrowth was amazing. Charred trunks with green sprouting tops. The cycads in particular looked quite comical. Almost like charred pineapples?
To appease us for the cancellation of our accommodation the owners paid for us to have a guide for the day. He was a pleasant bloke who seemed to know his stuff and he certainly opened our eyes to things we would have missed as we blundered and chatted along.
You do have to be quiet if you want to see wild life. You also have to stop absolutely still if you want to catch a platypus feeding.