Day 7 - Longreach to Porcupine Gorge National Park (70km north of Hughendon)
The alarm had us up early although pack up takes longer when you're in a
caravan park so it was still 8am before we were on the road. The 175km up the
road to Winton (the true birthplace of Qantas) was nice and easy and we were on
a roll so we turned off to Hugendon for the 214km from there. Lots of road
works took us on detours which were quite rough but the road was quiet. We
passed through two tiny hamlets - one "Corfield" where they even have
a racecourse and hold the Corfield Cup.....!
The second, Stamford, had a pub
but there were no people to be seen anywhere. No life at all except for the
horse in the middle of the road??! We arrived in Hughendon at 1ish and thought
we better fill up with fuel, as 175km of tomorrow's drive is on a remote dirt
road. As the lady filled our tank, we
learned about Hughendon. Including that this weekend is the Hughendon Show and
that today is a public holiday so no shops were open. Which was a problem, as
we needed bread - and lunch! She went on to say that Hughendon was a dying town
- it had a population of 2,000 ten years ago but these days only had about 800
and there was no sheep farming left, which took most of the occupations that
kept the town thriving. A sad story, and not uncommon across all of Australia
but even more so out here, so far from anywhere else.
Filled with diesel, we headed up the Kennedy Developmental Road to the
Porcupine Gorge National Park. Upon arrival, we discovered a caravan in
"our" campsite so I kindly asked them to move. Which they did and we
were very quickly set up and I had hamburgers cooking for our late lunch. After
lunch, we made a few adjustments to the car in preparation for our big day of
dirt roads tomorrow before I hiked down into the gorge.
Now, they call this
"Australia's Grand Canyon" which might be a bit of an exaggeration.
It is certainly spectacular, and with quite steep walls in parts. The rocks
through the various levels are very interesting and make the view worth the
walk. The walk down was easy enough - coming back up was another story! At one
end, the canyon wall forms a pyramid like hill, hence the name of our
campground Pyramid Hill Campground.
Above: The rock walls of the gorge inside the canyon
Above: Inside the gorge
Abve: Pyramid Hill - from inside the gorge
posted by Tracey @ 6:19 pm
1 Comments:
Scenery is fantastic
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