Carnarvon Gorge National Park

We have spent the past three days camping at Sandstone Park. It's a new camping site located approximately 6 km from the Carnarvon Gorge Visitor Centre, at the beginning of the gorge walking tracks. There are 41 very large sites offering 360-degree views of the surrounding countryside.
 
There are no powered sites available here; the only facilities include portaloos scattered throughout the site, a dump point, and fire pits located at each site. They have also removed the unnecessary rule of retaining greywater, allowing it to flow onto the ground where it is badly needed. Daily fees are currently $23 per site.

This new tourist venture is located on Bandana Station, which covers 43,000 acres and borders the national park. The station is now organic and typically has about 2200 cattle.
 
This is our third visit to Carnarvon Gorge, with our last trip in August 1997. At that time, camping was permitted throughout the year in the national park, but it has now been restricted to school holiday periods.
 
On our second day, we walked as far as Cathedral Gorge, which involved crossing Carnarvon Creek a total of forty times.

 

The return distance to the visitor centre is 18.2 kilometres. Of course, there are many interesting sites that branch off the main track, which increases this distance by quite a few more kilometres.

Some of the side trips include sites like Wards Canyon, which is a very steep climb that really gets the blood flowing with its hundred-odd steps, ultimately leading into a side gorge that shelters the world's largest fern, the king fern.

Then there is the Moss Garden, where water constantly drips from the sandstone to support the mosses and ferns that thrive here.

The amphitheatre is a 60-metre-high chamber carved out by running water over thousands of years.

On our final day, we paid what we believed was a very reasonable $165 for three of us to enjoy a twenty-minute flight over 'Bandana Station' and Molleyamber Gorge.

Towards Innamincka

After our unplanned six-night stopover in Longreach, we headed south along the Thomson Development Road. We made a brief stop in Stonehenge before continuing to the Swan Vale rest area, 40 km north of Jundah and 176 km south of Longreach.

We passed by this site many years ago, and it has remained in our memory ever since. It’s a great overnight spot with plenty of space, even for larger vans. There are sweeping views to the north, and the sunsets here are truly special.

 

A brief stop in Jundah before heading on towards Windorah. Our plan was to camp on Cooper Creek south of town, but the very strong winds made that impossible. The dust was uncontrollable, and we would have spent the rest of the day trapped inside the van.

 

A quick visit to the town to camp at the local caravan park in a non-powered site was really our best option. The park surface, similar to blue metal, offered some relief from the clouds of dust. The vans were positioned to avoid the setting sun and the powerful westerlies.

 

That afternoon, we wandered down to the local pub for several beers, and by chance, a couple I have been following on YouTube turned up to spend the evening. Here is a link to a series of clips they have produced. MrHunterjagter.
 
They were heading to Birdsville to cross the Simpson Desert. We will be in a small snippet they filmed outside the pub while we enjoyed our beers.
 
Camping beside the Kyabra waterhole has been on my bucket list for years. I have read threads about how beautiful it is, and we were not disappointed when we arrived. The waterhole is 45 km north of Eromanga, and the once dirt road connecting the Diamantina and Cooper Development roads is now fully bitumen.
 
Our group was the only one here that night, and whoever had camped here before left an abundant supply of firewood, which we gratefully used. Lamb cutlets cooked over the open fire that evening were certainly hard to beat.

Just under an hour after leaving Kyabra Waterhole, we arrived in the small town of Eromanga. This town of 400 residents claims to be the furthest from the sea in Australia. More recently, discoveries of the largest dinosaur bones ever found in Australia have been made on a nearby property.
 
We were just passing through, but we wanted to visit the Natural History Museum. The museum opened in 2016, and funds have now been granted to expand the facility with larger display areas for the growing number of discoveries currently being made.
 
Part of the expansion, which is hoped to be completed by 2020, includes upmarket accommodation and a caravan park with all facilities.
 
Dating has confirmed that this 'Titanosaur' is between 95 and 98 million years old. Its name is 'Cooper', and the following photograph shows its actual size compared to the Royal Hotel in the main street.

The Eromanga Natural History Museum offers guided, hands-on tours through its workshop laboratories and collection rooms. The hour-long tour, priced at $25, is both informative and enjoyable.

After finishing our tour, we continued southwest on the Cooper Development Road towards Noccundra. The pub is the last remaining building in this once small township. 

This is our fourth visit, and we couldn't believe how busy it was with vans lining the waterhole, although we usually pass through here later in the year. Even though it's almost in the middle of nowhere, it's just wonderful to have water views when much of the surrounding countryside looks half dead and lifeless.

On our second day, we enjoyed a few Cooper's Sparkling Ales at the pub before returning later that evening for a meal and a fine bottle of red. The pub has been serving beer since 1882, but I'm sure it wasn't as cold then as it is now.

 

From our Wilson River camp, we soon rejoined the Adventure Way, heading west towards the "Dig Tree' on Nappa Merrie Station, just across the South Australian border. On our way, we passed by the Jackson oil fields and Ballera gas fields. The oil produced at Jackson is transported to Brisbane by pipeline, and the gas from Ballera and Moomba in South Australia supplies up to 80% of the Australian population.

 

The Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-61 met a tragic end here when their support team left the "Dig Tree' site just hours before Burke, Wills, and King returned. King was the only survivor after being assisted by local Aboriginal people, and he was rescued several months later.

 

Our campsite along Cooper Creek is just a few hundred metres from the 'Dig Tree'.

Apart from the 14 km access road into the 'Dig Tree', our entire journey so far has been on bitumen, but that will change later today when we head towards Innamincka. Our first visit here was in 1994, and since then, we have returned many times over the ensuing years. In terms of infrastructure, there is the pub and trading post, showers for those who don't travel with their own, along with toilets and of course fuel. 

Camping on Cooper Creek beside the tall red gums lining both sides is truly special. The bird life in the mornings and early evenings can be quite deafening, especially with the thousands of corellas roosting in the trees.

There are many camping sites spread along the creek, including Cullyamurra Waterhole, Policeman's Waterhole, Minkie Waterhole, and Ski Beach, to name a few. Camping fees are $12.00 per night at these sites because they are within the Innamincka Regional Reserve.
 
After arriving, we drove a short distance to camp on the town common for just $5.00 a night. The only facilities here are drop toilets. The town common is located outside the Innamincka Reserve, which is why the camping fees are lower.
 
Rain fell over this area in early July, and it's impressive how the countryside responds in such a dry and dusty environment.

The evenings and early mornings have been very cold, with temperatures falling below zero. Thanks once again to our diesel heater, which makes camping so enjoyable.

Towards Yaraka

It was almost impossible to tear ourselves away from our three relaxing days at Lara, but it was time to move on.

Today's drive of just 94 km is the sort of distance we should do more regularly. We steered ourselves south to spend two days camped at Blackall. 
The Barcoo rest area is beside the town with a nightly fee of $8.00. This gets you toilets, drinking water, a dump point and within easy walking distance to town.

We stayed here in October several years ago with just three other vans, but this has now become a very popular campsite. This time we shared the site with upwards of thirty vans.

A tour of the Blackall Woolscour (wool washing) today. It operated between 1908 and 1978. After sheep were shorn, the fleeces were washed in water to remove dirt that had accumulated in their wool. Originally the wool was washed by hand in large vats then rinsed. You can just imagine how labour intensive that process must have been.

The wool scour process was fully automated using a steam engine and powered by the abundant amount of wood sourced from the surrounding area. 
The sinking of bores provided unlimited amounts of water, required to wash and rinse the fleeces.

Our two day stop at Blackall turned into three days and on our last afternoon the heavens opened up for about twenty minutes. The normally dry black soil that surrounds the Barcoo River quickly turned to mud. 

We eagerly watched several vans leave the site the next morning and even though I walked to the rubbish bins and came back with mud stuck to the bottom of my thongs we really had no trouble making our way towards the safety of the bitumen.

Another shortish drive today of just 164 km. When we first visited Yaraka, the vast majority of the road was unsealed but it's now fully sealed from the Blackall end. 
We stopped briefly at the Emmet railway station, to take a photo. At one time this busy railway siding was home to thirty people but sadly now there are just two living here.

Last year we camped behind the Yaraka Hotel and that's where we are going to spend the next three nights.
Camp fees are $3.00 per night, yes I know its hard to believe but this includes toilets, showers, water and even a swimming pool. 
Mind you the pool might be a tad too cold this time of year. The fees are collected by the pub on behalf of the Longreach council. 

Friday night is pizza night and because we enjoyed our pizza here last year we ordered one to be ready for us after we arrived back from the sunset tour to Mt Slowcombe. A gold coin donation to the RFDS gets you a bus trip to the summit.

Our plan was to head towards Windorah the following day but our travelling companions required some repairs to be carried out on their van in Longreach. We retraced our steps to Emmet before heading north through Isisford and onto Longreach.

We are booked in to the caravan park here for the next six nights waiting for some parts to arrive and be fitted.

Lara Wetlands Again!!

We arrived in Barcaldine to meet friends Deb and Hank who have recently picked up a 17' Zone RV which was built for them on the Sunshine Coast at Coolum. 

They are interested in a shakedown trip to test their van, so we thought we would introduce them to the outback and desert areas, that we love so much. 

It's guaranteed that their diesel heater will certainly get a work out fairly early during this trip as well.

This will be our fourth visit, so we have decided to introduce Deb and Hank to this wonderful area with its wetlands and for them to take a tour of the homestead built-in 1912. 

Our other visits have been very relaxing and enjoyable and I'm sure this visit will be no different. At this time of year, there are usually more people out and about, but we did stop here in October one year, and there were just three other vans here. Just the sort of numbers we prefer.

On our first evening, we camped several hundred metres away from the water and then moved the following day to spots that had been vacated earlier the next morning.

We were also joined by Peter, Vonnie, David and Wendy who both previously owned Bushtrackers but have now purchased  Zone vans. Both had relatively new 20.6' vans.

They joined us each night for drinks around our campfire and on one of those nights Peter and Vonnie supplied a lovely New Zealand smoked trout that their friends had bought over with them.