The road from Eidsvold to Monto was quite hilly but not bad. Some truck traffic but not too busy. We had a quick stop in Monto to pick up a couple of groceries before taking the last 20+ Km to Cania Gorge. The road was sealed the entire way but was a single lane for the last stretch. We checked in at the Cania Gorge Top Tourist near the entry to the National Park. We got a lovely large green site near the back of the park. The amenity block was dated but always kept clean. We booked for a week and got a free day. Only downsides of the park were not Telstra coverage and the dump point is only for septic compatible chemicals. There is Wi-Fi offered near the office but is very poor quality/speed.
A huge advantage of this caravan park however is that it is within walking distance of all the walks in the National Park. Sandra and I definitely got our benefit from this as we did walks everyday we were here. A few other highlights was the Friday night pizza offering and the bird feeding every afternoon.
Once we got settled in we took a short walk to familiarise ourselves with the two parking areas the walks originated from. One was about 500M from the caravan park and the other about 1Km. We stopped to see the "Big Foot" viewpoint on our way. We also got lucky with a few bird sightings and some beautiful fall colours!
Friday night was wood fired Pizza night at the park and I ordered one. We made Sandra a gluten free one as well. Both pizza's were wonderful and we had enough leftover for another meal.
Saturday morning we did the Fern Tree Pool & Giant's Chair circuit. This is a 6Km walk with a moderate amount of climbing. The Fern Pool was about hallway on the circuit (the flatter section) and was beautiful. We stopped for a snack break, some photos, and just enjoyed the peaceful environment.
Sunday morning we did the Two Storey Cave circuit. This is a short 1.3Km walk but from the farther parking lot so gave us an extra 2-3Km. The first stop along this circuit for us was the King Orchid Crevice. A short side-track and climb brought you into a large crevice where there were numerous Stag Horns and rock orchids growing on the cliffs. Quite beautiful with amazing rock formations.
The Two Storey Cave was the second highlight of this walk. The cave doesn't look like much from the outside but you can climb up into the second storey from the back of the cave which is neat. I was also able to climb from here to a ledge overlooking the starting point. Found out after that their may have been bats in the second storey. Just as glad I didn't see any as the cave wasn't that high. We completed the circuit and returned to the caravan park for lunch.
After lunch we took a drive through the park to the far side where the dam is located. Lots of cattle to be aware of on our trip but the road was good. We drove up to the lookout before finding a nice picnic area where we had lunch. There is good Telstra coverage at the dam so we were able to touch base with the girls re Mother's Day. The dam area is a local fishing and boating hotspot and all the parks were lovely and green. There are also some nice gorge escarpment views near the dam.
On our return trip we did a short 1.5Km walk to the Shamrock Mine site. This was a former gold mining site but there wasn't really that much to see. The walk was fairly open with a fair climb so we were both pretty warm by the time we got back to the car.
Monday we again walked to the second parking area where we completed the Dragon Cave, Bloodwood Cave, and Lookout walks. All told the walks added up to some 3Km but involved some steep climbs which challenged our calf muscles! The Dragon Cave was our first stop and features a black outline of a dragon on the wall.
Second stop was a steep walk with lots of stone steps to the lookout. Once again the actual lookout was somewhat disappointing as the gorge is primarily tree covered so you don't get the rock escarpment of say Carnarvon Gorge.
We returned down the steps and carried on to the last stop which was the Bloodwood Cave. This was named because of a Bloodwood tree's roots grow down through the cave. Really stretching it as only could see one root structure at the very back corner of the cave. The cave itself was quite low at the entry but opened up to a good height at the back which was interesting when I climbed in. Wouldn't bother doing this walk as was pretty much a waste of time and effort. We returned again to the caravan park via the parking lot/picnic area.
Tuesday morning we did some housework before taking a drive into Monto. We needed to use a dump point and do a bit of shopping. On the way to Monto we took a detour out to Hurdle Gully Lookout. This was a 4WD track about 11Km off the highway. The narrow road was good as was dry but would have been challenging with any rain as was red bulldust. The view was quite good when we arrived with beautiful green stretching out to the horizon.
Our first stop in Monto was at the Visitor Centre to use the dump point and to get caught up with our internet/Telstra fix. We managed to have a phone chat with both Stephanie and Justine while we were in town. Also caught up with Maureen and Carol briefly via the phone. We did a bit of grocery shopping and filled up the Jeep with diesel as well. We had planned on having lunch in Monto but didn't find any gluten free options that excited Sandra. We returned to the caravan park for a late lunch. We took an afternoon walk to the picnic ground to get a few kilometres of walking under our belts. It is a lovely peaceful walk with lots of birdlife at this time of day. The only challenges on the walk are dodging the cow pies and ant hills both of which are plentiful!
Wednesday morning saw us venture out on the last set of walks on our list. Dripping Rock and The Overhang both originate from the second parking lot so we got our extra 3Km in walking to the walk again. This turned out to be the highlight walk of our week! You follow the same trail as the Dragon Cave walk for the first 500M before veering left and making your way through fairly dense dry rainforest. The first stop was Dripping Rock which is a huge cliff face with moss and dripping water. Beautiful! Such wonderful rock formations and colours in this section of the walk.
From here we did a bit of climbing up and down before arriving at The Overhang. Another wonderful location where water has eroded the base of a sandstone cliff leaving a large overhang. Lovely peaceful water pools and beautiful colours again. We enjoyed a well deserved break enjoying the scenery and visiting with other travellers. From here we retraced our steps stopping again at Dripping Rock and another large rock formation in the creek bed. Completed the 3Km walk back to the picnic area before returning to the caravan park. This is the walk to do if you only have limited time at Cania Gorge National Park!
Wednesday afternoon we took another drive out to Cania Dam where we enjoyed a peaceful hour sitting at the waterside. Lots of bird life at the dam this time with very little human activity on a weekday. Sandra managed a couple of phone calls while I did some internet catch-up.
Thursday was our final day at this location and was spent cleaning and organizing for our next stage. Was a bit overcast but Sandra was able to get all the laundry dry eventually. We did a walk to the far parking lot again for our daily exercise. This has been a most enjoyable stay with lots of walks and sunshine. The only walk we didn't complete was a 22Km return Class 4 walk to Castle Mountain. Maybe next time with a few more people and a bit more planning! Cania Gorge is wonderful but not quite up to Carnarvon Gorge status in our minds. That being said the walks are varied and mostly shorter than Carnarvon so might be better suited for those less mobile.
