Big Bend Campground to Gadds Walkers Camp (Carnarvon Great Walk Trip)

 https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/carnarvon-gorge

Monday 11 September 2023

Day 2 Carnarvon Great Walk

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/carnarvon-great-walk/walking

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/164159/carnarvongw-topo.pdf

Today began as a tough walk along the base of Boowinda Gorge on rugby league sized boulders. This was slow going and having the hiking poles helped a lot. Travelling through the gorge you are surrounded by its high walls and I was amazed by the actions of nature over time to carve it out of the surrounding rock.

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/carnarvon-gorge/journeys/boowinda-gorge-walk

There are several arrows, showing where to turn right and climb up out of the gorge.  And it is close to straight up.  We packed our poles down and attached them to our packs before beginning the ascent as it was obvious hands would be required.  The ascent also required knees in some spots – literally crawling up. At the top of this section it was not as steep, but this is definitely only a relative statement and I was grateful for advice to this effect from other walkers. It was still solidly uphill the majority of the way to Battleship Spur Lookout. The track was generally round and rocky, with areas of shale.  The track was also very narrow in places and supported with retaining timbers. For the ascent particularly, it is important to get the centre of gravity low in the pack.

https://bushwalk.com/j/mb92cz/

The view from the lookout was worth every bit of effort – fantastic!  We had genuine Telstra coverage at the lookout but did not have Aldi Telstra coverage.  We sat and enjoyed the view while having an early lunch at the lookout.  It was just before midday despite being less than 5 km from camp.  It took us three hours from camp to the lookout.  Each of our watches had different and slightly crazy numbers when we left Boowinda Gorge, probably because the steep gorge walls caused patch GPS coverage.

The remainder of the day was not as steep.  There were some sections of easy walking, but most of the day was fairly technical due to the rocky surface.  There was one point on the track where an arrowed pointed left and the tree had “Turn Left” carved into its trunk and yet the track appeared to continue straight ahead. This track appeared very well used, but did not have any further arrows. Crossing the creek on faith at the “Turn left” sign, we were then able to see the arrows as we came out of the creek on the other side. Lesson learned – have faith in the arrows. During the day we saw quite a few kangaroos, plenty of water and old lava flow.  The track was predominantly single track, with grass up to 4 foot high in places. We arrived in Gadds Walkers camp just before 4:30pm, very tired.

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/carnarvon-great-walk/camping/gadds-walkers

 17.90km, 7 hours 20 minutes, 1188m ascent