Carnarvon Gorge

Where is Carnarvon Gorge National Park?

After dropping off Mel with our dogsitter we headed out on the road towards Injune. From Roma it’s 246kms north up the Carnarvon Highway before turning east at Rewin to drive into the Carnarvon Gorge National Park Visitor Centre.

Carnarvon Gorge Camping

We would be staying at the Breeze Big 4 Holiday Park. It’s one of four accommodation options but ideal for us in our caravan. The most adventurous is to hike into Big Bend with a tent and camp there.

As we approached Injune we were happy to see the road ahead was open.

At the far end of the town we filled up on fuel. This was the last petrol station until we returned, which would be about five days time. We had already filled up with 20 extra litres of fuel in a fuel canister back in Roma, where fuel was cheaper.

Back on the road we passed a sign welcoming us to the Capricorn region.

Soon after we started to glimpse some higher ground to our left.

Finally we came to the turnoff into the national park.

The road was much narrower but well sealed. We could see more hilly terrain to our left.

Along the way we came to a number of dips in the road which were flood crossings.

It was mostly crop farming in this area.

Occasionally we came to a grid in the road so we slowed down. It was a good thing we did at this point. We weren’t entirely sure these cattle would stay off the road.

The drive continued in similar fashion for about an hour.

Eventually we came to the turnoff to the caravan park.

We made our way in slowly along the gravel road and particularly slowly over this ford.

After checking in we set up the caravan and had lunch.

Keen to see what we could find out we drove into the national park and had a bit of a look around their information centre.

Then we headed off on the first of their short walks, the Nature trail. It started with a rock crossing.

The trail made its way through a well treed area.

A couple of times it came to ponds in the creek. Even though we were quiet and kept still we didn’t see any of the elusive platypus which can be spotted.

Back on the trail

we enjoyed the wide variety of flora. Here’s a native hibiscus.

After returning to the information centre we drove a short way to another walk. This was called Rock Pool.

Again it started with a rock hopper crossing. Fortunately some other walkers had kindly left sticks which we took advantage of to keep our balance.

After walking over a rocky path

we finally came to the rock pool. The reflection of the large rock was lovely

but we didn’t see any platypus here either. To the end of the pool the water was very still also and a good reflection could be seen.

After making our way back to the car we drove back to the caravan park. At their cafe bar area we enjoyed watching a short video about the different walks within the national park and some strategies about how to tackle them which confirmed what we had already researched. Once the video finished we walked down to the creek which runs along the edge of the caravan park.

In their video we had learned that platypus are easiest seen late in the day or early in the morning and that you have to be extremely quiet and still. Clearly there were lots of places they could hide.

However after about ten minutes Karen noticed movement. Just across the creek from where we were standing was a platypus making its way along the edge of the creek foraging for food. Sadly I didn’t have my camera with me but we did manage to briefly see it before it dived down into the water.

Here’s a teaser though. I did get lucky about four days later in the morning so keep checking my Instagram feed to see that video.