6
th October, 2015
Time to pack up and move on. We've had
a nice restful couple of months at Walkamin Caravan Park but before
we head south we are going to spend a couple of nights at Granite
Gorge – a small gorge about 30 kilometres away. We pull into the
caravan park and set up camp. It's not long before we are visited by
one of the resident peacocks intent on trying to attract one or more
of the peahens.
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| Peacock on display at Granite Gorge Caravan Park |
The caravan park and gorge are on
privately owned land and a fee is payable by day visitors if they
wish to access the gorge. Our camping fees allow us access to the
gorge any time we wish and there are different grades of track that
can be hiked. The main tourist season is over so there are only a
few other campers in the park – just the way we like it. We set
off to tackle one of the less difficult tracks
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| Wok on the trail at Granite Gorge |
which takes us to the dam above the
gorge.
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| Wok checks out the turtles in the dam |
We then follow a trail along the top of
the gorge
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| View over part of the gorge |
before making our way down the steep
boulders bordering the water course.
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| Walking amongst the boulders |
Along the way we run into the
inhabitants of the gorge – they blend in well to this rocky
landscape.
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| Spot the rock wallabies .... |
The rock wallabies are one of the main
reasons people come to the gorge and they are very used to people.
Food for feeding the wallabies can be bought at reception and it
doesn't take long for them to come around once they see the paper bag
in your hands.
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| This adult rock wallaby was keen for a feed |
The wallabies aren't very big but they
can certainly get very demanding and pushy when it comes to getting a
handout. There were a few juveniles around and this little tyke was
hard to resist.
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| My what a long tail you have .... ! |
You can see how small he is by
comparing him to Wok's hand.
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| This little guy is just way 'TOO CUTE' |
We spent a very pleasant couple of days
at the gorge. Because it is off the beaten track there is no traffic
noise – just the sounds of the bush.
It was time to head south following the
inland road through Charters Towers, Clermont and Gayndah before
stopping in at the Sunshine Coast to get the car and caravan
serviced. Then it was further south to Newcastle where we caught up
with some friends and rellies before pulling up and freecamping in
the reserve beside our son Trent's home at Lake Munmorah. We had a
specific reason for being here. Our son was treating us to a live
Fleetwood Mac concert at Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley. We have
never been to such an event before and all we can say is that it was
an experience we will long remember. Along with thousands of
enthusiastic Fleetwood Mac devotees we arrived at the open air venue
which is set amongst the vineyards of the Hunter Valley.
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| Monster stage at Hope Estate for Fleetwood Mac |
The weather was not co-operating at all
and the previous night's performance had been plagued with rain. We
had come prepared though – with ponchos at the ready. Our seats were not far from the stage and we had a great view of the performers. Luckily the
rain stayed away for most of the night – just a slight drizzle
about two thirds the way through. Nobody seemed to mind though with
everyone singing and moving to the music. The members of Fleetwood
Mac may be getting a tad old now but they can still put on a
performance that some younger bands would find hard to keep up with.
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| Fleetwood Mac rocks the stage |
We had an awesome time and didn't even
mind having to wash all the mud off our shoes the next day. After
visiting with Trent we returned to the Sunshine Coast where we will
be spending Xmas with our daughter and her family. We're camped in
Tina and Paul's backyard where we have lots of company – the
alpaccas, chooks, ducks and lots of native birds. We hope everyone
has a safe and merry Xmas and finish this year's blog with a Granite
Gorge 'photo bombing' rock wallaby. See you all in 2016 …. !
