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| Along Rewan Road, on the way to Carnarvon Gorge. |
We've just come back from nine days of exploring some of Queensland's national parks in the Central Queensland Sandstone Belt in a kind of circuit: from Cania Gorge NP to Expedition NP, Carnarvon Gorge and Mount Moffat, both in Carnarvon NP, and then via Roma back home. (Google Maps won't let me connect the whole trip so just imagine the Expedition NP leg, we went right through the park.)
... and 2,400 km later, we still only skimmed along the outskirts of the Queensland Outback and hardly even left the south east of Queensland... my goodness, I've got a new perspective on what big means.
The people we met on the way thought us a bit crazy, I think, cramming so many places in. And in hindsight, we did cram too much in and would have liked to spend an extra day at Expedition and Mount Moffat (mind you, they were the spots we had the least expectations of and they turned out to be among the best).
A large chunk of our nine days was thus spent in the car, just getting from one place to the next. Having lived in Victoria for many years, I can't say I'm unused to vast distances but seriously, Queensland is a different beast, especially when you get off the main highways and start travelling on dirt roads. They are long. And take time. A lot of time.
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| Along the Glenhaughton-Bauhinia Road, coming out of Expedition NP. I fell asleep at some point... |
Highlights of the trip included buying some massive oranges on the way at Gayndah (Queenslanders like everything big, I think), taking a sneak peak down into Robinson Gorge in Expedition NP, hiking into Carnarvon Gorge and staying at the Big Bend campsite, being awed by Aboriginal rock art at Carnarvon Gorge but even more so at Mount Moffat, and enjoying stunning vistas from our Mount Moffat camp site.
I also have a new measure for how expensive a place is: I will now travel around Australia and indeed the world measuring it by how expensive a 1 kg block of tasty cheese is. Rolleston so far tops the board with $17.55. Injune isn't far behind with $15.60. You'd have to be madly in love with cheese or be on a cheese-only diet before anybody bought that... I kept talking about it for two days...
I'll leave you with my obligatory sunset photo though I've been assured I haven't seen a proper sunset yet. In any case, I was impressed. :)
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| Sunset at Starkvale Camp, Expedition National Park. |
Read more: Cania Gorge National Park (Day1-3); Expedition National Park (Day 3-4); Carnarvon Gorge, Carnarvon National Park (Day4-7) (Part 1); Carnarvon Gorge, Carnarvon National Park (Day 4-7) (Part 2); Mount Moffat, Carnarvon National Park (Day 7-8)Labels: 4WD, Australia, bush, camping, itinerary, national parks, QLD, road trip
