[QLD] Emerald,Carnarvon,Barcaldine, Longreach

On 16 May we left Agnes Water and headed for Rocky. Had a one night stopover in Rocky and then headed inland via Blackwater, as we had already done all of North Queensland back in 2001 and our aim is to get to Uluru to climb the rock. Next we stopped at Emerald for two nights, staying at a nice caravan park near the golf course. No ... Coxy didn't get a game in! We took a drive out to Lake Maraboon and Fairbairn Dam (massive lake/dam). We crossed a cattle grid on the way and lost two of our hub caps which shot off into the long grass, we only managed to find one!

On Wednesday 19 May we both decided the 500km return trip to Carnarvon Gorge would be worth it - and it was (except for the 20kms of dusty dirt road). We camped three nights at Takarakka Bush Resort at Carnarvon, the first afternoon just doing a short walk to the lookout and then down to the creek to catch a glimpse of the local platypus (no luck there though). Next day we drove 4km to the Carnarvon Gorge visitors area where we set off on a 22km return walk on the main walking track along the gorge floor and gazing up at soaring sandstone cliffs (taking about 6.5 hours return). Criss-crossing Carnarvon Creek many times, this track leads to off-shoots that allow exploration of fascinating side-gorges, the last being Big Bend.

On our walk back we saw Boowinda Gorge, Cathedral Cave, the Art Gallery (featuring Aboriginal art engravings and stencils) and Wards Canyon (which was like a prehistoric world with beautiful rare king ferns). At this stage we still had a further two side-gorges to see but we were very tired and had aching feet, so headed back and decided to do the remaining two side-gorges the next day on fresh legs! On our way back however we heard a thumping sound and were then confronted by a rather large male kangaroo who stopped on our path and tried to stare us out - we froze and then looked for a big stick, throwing a small piece at him and thankfully he took off. In our panic we regretted not getting a photo of him - he was so BIG!

On the Friday morning Paulie cooked us an awesome big omelette for breaky and we headed off to do the last two gorge sites, being a 10km (3.75 hours return) walk. First stop was the Amphitheatre with a steep ladder climb to a 60m deep chamber gouged from the rock by running water, with great acoustics within. Coxy yelled a big HELLO and it echoed for ages. Then on to the Moss Garden with constantly dripping water from the sandstone walls supporting a lush carpet of mosses and ferns, and also a beautiful waterfall over a rock ledge. Carnarvon Gorge has been a real highlight for us so far. We highly recommend it! We returned to Emerald for one night to clean the dust out of the van and then headed off the next day to Barcaldine.

Sunday 23 May arrived at Barcaldine and camped at the Showgrounds for one night, which was nice and grassy and great facilities. There were several other vans there and when chatting with some people there, we were disappointed to find out we had just missed a race day there the day before. So to drown our sorrows, we decided to do a pub crawl that afternoon/evening to the many hotels lining the main street of Barcaldine, played a couple of games of pool at the Artesian Hotel and had dinner at the Shakespeare Hotel. There used to be eleven pubs but thankfully there's only six remaining now, most of which have burnt down at some stage over the years! We came across a cute green frog which we just had to photograph and also witnessed a colourful sunrise. The $8m Tree of Knowledge monument is huge but was under maintenance so we couldn't get a photo from right underneath it.

We are finding people are very friendly everywhere we go, always waving as they drive by and even kids waving on their way to school or wherever. Fellow campers are always up for a chat and Paulie even had some guy called "Bundy Bob" recite some bush poetry to him in the aim of hopefully selling him one of his CDs which he mentioned!!

We are noticing we are starting to do the Great Aussie Salute a lot more as we head west, it is still quite warm during the day and the flies can be a bit of a nuisance, especially when eating, but it's all part of the outback.

Our next drive was to Longreach and just before we hit town we crossed another cattle grid when another two of our hub caps came off but only found one again - so now down to two - these have been removed and stored away!! Longreach only had very dry and dusty caravan parks on offer, and with the forecast of rain and the upcoming State of Origin game, we decided to have a few nights at a motel. This proved to be a good move as after a night of heavy rain we heard many cars and vans had to be towed out of the muddy caravan parks. Spent several hours reading about our history at the Stockman's Hall of Fame, which was really interesting. On Wednesday 26 May we visited the Qantas Founders Museum strolling around reading about our aviation history and viewing the many displays. This was also very interesting and worthwhile.

To top off a great day, our evening was spent watching the State of Origin game ... QUEENSLANDER, QUEENSLANDER ... nice win!!