We allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep-in in the morning, and then had to make some phone calls to see what the road conditions were like etc. We decided not to take the caravan in, but to drive to the next town, Rolleston, and leave it at the caravan park there and just do a day trip into the gorge. Initially the lady we spoke to on the phone at Rolleston thought that maybe the highway between Springsure and Rolleston may even be cut off by floodwaters – we didn’t think there had been that much rain. After a few more enquiries, we decided to give it a try, and got through to Rolleston without problem. We parked our van at the site, packed our food and rain jackets and spare dry clothes into the car, and headed towards Canarvon Gorge. It was midday by this time, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to do any long walks, but there were a few short ones we could try. It was a 45min drive to the turnoff to the gorge and then 20 Km of unsealed road to the gorge area. After about 10mins driving along the road in, we came to what was to be the first of a few creek crossings. In the dry, they would be a levy, but with the rain, the water was flowing quite significantly. There were 3 other cars in front of us who we think were driving as a convoy and were checking out the crossing. One guy walked across to see how deep it was – about 30cm deep. Then cars came from the other direction and went across as we watched – some with trailers. So we felt quite confident then. We went across no problems. Another 10mins down the road and we stopped again at another creek crossing with a line of cars. Michael walked ahead to check out this one and came back saying ” You might all want to hop out. There’s a car stalled in the crossing and the guy 3 cars in front of us with a Landcruiser is going to use his snatch strap to pull him out.” We did so, which was probably the first time the kids had seen that done, so it was a learning experience. The people who had been stuck (a mum, dad, and 3 children) had only been in a small car – they had driven in 2 days earlier (before the rain I guess) and then had heard the rivers were rising so had been trying to drive out while they could – but got stuck on that crossing. Their car engine had been flooded so they were not able to continue driving out. They had been travelling with another family whose car was still on the gorge side of the river. They decided they would all go back to the bush resort they’d been camping at and stay another night and sort out what to do. So between the 4 cars who had been congregated there at the crossing, we were able to fit them all in and take them back to the bush resort, about 10 mins away. We had the mum, Nicole, and the youngest boy, Jarrod (5yrs) in our car. They were from New Farm in Brisbane and were quite friendly. They met up with their friends at the bush resort and we said goodbye to them there. Then we continued on another 5 mins down the road to the visitor and information centre.
It was now about 2pm, so our walking time would be limited, but we were thankful we had been able to get in safely. We found out then that the main track into the gorge had water across the very first creek crossing and was likely to have a lot of water crossing it. This would mean a slower walk and we wouldn’t have had time. But there were some other shorter walks at the mouth of the gorge. One we were able to do easily was called Baloon Cave – it was about a 15min stroll to an overhanging cave with some aboriginal stencil art on its walls. There were a couple of bridges with creeks flowing underneath, on which the kids enjoyed playing ‘pooh sticks’. There was a Nature Trail which only went a short distance before being blocked by a wide creek (which I think normally has stepping stones over it). Then we found a path which followed the creek and started along that. We came to a section which had a wide expanse of rocks and pebbles beside the creek and the kids wanted to stop there to skip rocks in the creek. We found a big rock to sit on for afternoon tea and stayed there about half an hour, enjoying the solitude and the picturesque setting. While it was misty, it wasn’t actually raining at that time. There were some very interesting rocks of all sorts of different colours, most of them quite smooth and some with pittings in them which made them look like ‘moon rocks’. Hannah and Beth started a collection of their favourite rocks, which by the end was turning into a huge pile and they wanted to take them all home! Sam was working on his technique of rock skipping most of the time. Lauren found some of the coloured rocks that broke down easily and used them as ‘chalk’ on white rocks, and then as ‘war paint’ on herself. It turned out to be a pleasant time there. We then walked back to the car and began the journey back to Rolleston.
We had no dramas with any creek crossings on the way back, and didn’t see many other vehicles this time. We did see a few wild pigs crossing the road and we also had to slow down to almost a halt for a herd of cows also crossing the road. It was quite funny seeing the back end of a cow trotting along the road just in front of the car, in an attempt to get out of the way. Back on the highway, then the 70km back to Rolleston. When we arrived back at the caravan park, we remarked that we were glad we had booked in early that morning, as it looked chock-a-block full, like extras had been squeezed in. Probably travellers who had been planning to go to Canarvon Gorge , but were unable to get through and so stayed at the closest van park. It was very wet getting into our van – mud and water everywhere! Hopefully tomorrow we could get somewhere dry and clean up.