Injune > Bauhinia > Moura > Biloela > Cania Gorge (~480km)
Note: Kerry’s comments in this colour.
Getting there
After the disappointment of being unable to get into Carnarvon because of floods, we are heading East to visit another gorge – Cania Gorge, not far from Bundaberg.
We traveled the Dawson Highway between Rolleston and Biloela. This is a cow of a road pitching us all over the place – so it is slow travel. But it is very interesting and pretty countryside – not the flat lands that we had expected. A nice drive, other than the road.
We stopped for lunch at the Dawson River crossing, and were immediately besieged by some of the biggest mosquitoes we have seen. Kerry was quick to run for the repellent. There were a lot of free-campers there, we don’t know how they put up with the mossies.
Near Moura we came to a large open cut mine which looks pretty awful, but not nearly as bad as the mines we saw driving up through the Hunter Valley. These are appalling.
The campsite
It way a long day driving, 480km, but when we got to the Cania Gorge Tourist Resort we are absolutely delighted. It is a beautiful grassed area surrounded by high cliffs and trees. The sign on the office door tells us to pick a site and come back to the office at 3:45 PM to register/pay.
We choose a wonderful site with loads of grass, looking across to a sandstone cliff only 50 meters away. It is so peaceful, this really is a beautiful place. I want to come back even though I have only just arrived. Most of all it offered that quintessential quality espoused by the amazing Oz film The Castle: “we could feel the serenity”.
The facilities are on the rustic side of the scale – everything is there and clean, but it has a bush feel to it – which we appreciate. There are open fires in the non-powered sites and you can hire a brazier elsewhere ($15 incl. wood).
It was after 4:00pm when the manager came out, apologising to all the birds waiting in the trees for their late meal, carrying a big bucket of seeds. There was a brilliant mass of colour as the lorikeets dived onto the table and seed trough squabbling over the food.
There were other animals there as well, 5 or 6 pigs, lots of chooks and “Snowy” – the 5 month old Santa Gertruda calf who still has a bottle of milk every morning.
We made a little video of the camp including some dronage – click here.
Day 1
We awake to a cloudless sky – makes a nice change. We decide to get into the National Park early to avoid the worst of the heat. We divide the walks into those that we will do today and those for tomorrow, then drive the very short drive to the car park to start the day’s walks (there is a walking track to the car park as well).
First up is the Fern Tree Pool / Giants Chair Lookout walk. This is listed as a 5.6km walk. We had been advised by the park manager that we should walk this in an anti- clockwise direction, visiting FernTree Pool first, then the Lookout.
The walk follows Doctors Creek upstream, initially fairly high above the Creek, but then dropping down to the creek level and crossing the creek many times. We say many exotic looking mushrooms on the way.
The Fern Tree Pool is lovely with plenty of water running over the falls. Very peaceful.
At the pool we then begin the climb to the ridge – quite steep. We walked about 2km along the sandstone escarpment to the Lookout, passing some massive rock outcrops.
The view from the Lookout is over the Cania Valley, with high sandstone outcrops in most directions. The final leg of the walk is a 900m track down to the carpark.
Next we drove to the nearby picnic area to do the Two Storey Cave circuit (1.3km). The circuit meanders upwards around some massive sandstone monoliths.
Some of these massive rocks have cave like caverns at their base. A short side track took us to the King Orchid Crevice, a parting of the cliff that has created an ideal haven for king orchids and silver elkhorns. These stones are monsters.
We think the Two Story Cave has a wide open cave entrance, then one small cave at floor level off to the right and another similar cave at roof level off the left. At least that is what we made of it.
After that we had lunch at the picnic area and drove back to enjoy the peace of the camp site. In this lovely bush setting I thought it would be a good idea to get a fire going in the evening. We have a fire pit but have not used it yet, and are unlikely to in the immediate future, so we decided to use one of their braziers with timber supplied ($15). However, when delivered, there was not a lot of timber which is a bugger as the camp has been cleared of all timber. Still it should last an hour or 2.
Day 2
We went back to the picnic area around 8am to get the walking in before the heat of the day. But is was already muggy.
All of today’s walks start at the southern end of the picnic area where you cross Three Moon Creek. The Dripping Rock / The Overhang are listed as 3.2km return. It is indeed a pleasant easy walk initially winding through a eucalypt woodland and dry rainforest. This may be a better walk to do in the afternoon as the sun was shining from behind the escarpment across the Creek making photos difficult. At the base of Dripping Rock, waters seep and drips from the sandstone cracks and crevices creating an enclave for ferns and mosses. Way above us is a massive overhanging rock.
The track continues on past weathered caves of vivid yellow and red ochres, and we see lots of hand imprints set red into the yellow of the sandstone. We also see a cane toad. As well as Aboriginal hand-prints, there are drawings of goannas and wallabies Unfortunately, also some graffiti.
The track ends at The Overhang, where over centuries water has eroded the base of the sandstone cliff. A creek runs through the areas creating a pool and providing the lovely sound of a babbling brook. Its a really nice place to be.
We walk back to the turnoff for the Dragon Cave etc, near the picnic area. The Dragon Cave / Bloodwood Cave walk is listed as 2.6km return. It is hot and Kerry elects to return to the picnic area.
It is disappointing to see Prickly Pear, Wandering Jew and Lantana sprouting up in a lot of places in the park.
A moderately steep track leads me up to the cliff face, actually walking the base of the escarpment. Before long I get to a side track branching up to Dragon Cave, only a short distance up. Here, the guide says I will see the natural black mural of a ‘dragon’ highlighted against the white sandstone wall. Nope, did not see that.
The main track leads to a point where there is a turnstile (for what purpose can it be here?). Just past this, the track leads down towards Bloodwood Cave or I can head uphill for the Gorge Lookout. I take this latter option to get it over and done with, and it is a steep climb of about 250m to the top of the escarpment. But the views are spectacular with sandstone cliffs in every direction. Well worth the climb up.
Back on the track it is not far to Bloodwood Cave, so called because the roots of a bloodwood tree can be seen at the left-hand side of the cave – not that I noticed. Again, the cave leads off a large weathered opening in the sandstone.
Back at the picnic area we returned to camp to get some milk for Kerry’s coffee and then drive up to the Shamrock Mine walk, listed as 1.4km return. it’s about a 7km drive up.
There is very good information about the mine, and the life here when the goldfield was at its peak, at the start of the walk. The track is a dirt road heading uphill; there is no shade and it is now quite hot. Eventually we get to what is the first exhibit – some mining equipment in a caged area with only minimal interpretive signs. This is very disappointing and we see that the other points of interest are up another steepish track. It’s too hot and the presentations poor so we go back to the car.
We had lunch at Lake Cania (a damn dam) after first going up to the lookout – great views across the valley.
For lunch we were joined by 2 or 3 Blue Masked Honeyeaters – such a strikingly beautiful bird.
On the way back to camp, we collected some more firewood and got the fire going again. Out near neighbours joined us for a natter. A good finish to a great stay.
To see photos for this blog click here
To see the video of the campsite click here