Thierings on Tour

The girls were up early to squeeze maximum playtime with their friends in before we had to drive to the next destination today.

It was noticeably cooler also away from the coast and some 1,000 south of the Cape. So all the jumpers and longs came out – finally, as we have been lugging them around for too long.

We hit the road a bit later than planned and set off towards Cobbold Gorge as we had an afternoon tour booked. The last 80kms of road were pretty bad – dusty, corrugated and very unpleasant so made for slow travel, especially with some incompetent drivers ahead of us. It meant that we arrived in the car park to Cobbold Gorge at 1.15pm for a 1.30pm tour. Needless to say I was frazzled trying to check us in, get everyone into their runners and throw a bag of supplies together. We simply had to dump the van on the side and deal with setting up layer…

Once we were on the tour, all was forgotten though and after learning a bit more about the family and local history, we were off on a little boat through the gorge. To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement! So yes, there are a lot of photos to follow, apologies in advance.

At first it’s a wide area and as we pass there is a fresh-water crocodile sunning itself on the banks. Apparently there are about 20 around the forge, with some males getting as big as 3m and the largest female being 2.5m. 

Then the gorge got a lot narrower and windier and the views got better! 

It was interesting to hear that the gorge was only discovered in 1992 despite the land being farmed for cattle for centuries. However given what cattle need and the barren landscape around the gorge, it is probably unsurprising. 

We saw archer fish in the water, that can shoot streams of water up to 2m high in the air to hunt for insects. The spider webs that we passed had an unusual design on them and Ethan our guide explained that the spiders had evolved to camouflage their web from the archer fish with their doily design patterns so that it didn’t appear as such a target from under the water. 

As we made our way through almost 1km of the gorge we also saw a black darter bird drying its wings. Apparently it has been seeing trying to attack some of the freshwater crocodiles that inhabit the gorge. Now that’s confidence! 

The sandstone absorbs so much water during the wet season that it provides enough to feed the gorge all year long and certain patches of the gorge walls were truly soaking wet still. There are also some incredible patches of moss and carnivorous plants growing on the sandstone in places.

We hopped off the boat and went for a guided walk exploring the many native trees and bushes. We tried some Leichhardt breadfruit tree berries, which did taste like bread and also learnt about a number of plants such as the gidgee gidgee, which when crushed poisons fish enough to kill them yet not to affect their flesh so makes for a great fishing assistant. 

As we climbed higher we got to the recently built glass bridge, which takes you across the gorge. Everyone had to wear protective shoe covers so as to not scratch the glass (Scarly loved hers and wanted to keep them 😂). It was a really amazing view from the top and also a touch scary looking 19m below you. 

We also saw live termite tunnels and more amazing geological formations such as rock pancaking and bread topping (someone must have been hungry when naming these).

As we finished our tour we let the girls jump in the infinity pool back at the resort. It looked very tempting but was absolutely freezing. Chris and I enjoyed a drink poolside instead and then it was time to set up the van and make a fire before it got too dark

The girls managed to find some lovely rocks and with a bit of strength Jazzy cracked one to find her first bit of “gold” specks inside. It was another lovely spot to spend a night and with no neighbours behind us, we enjoyed a fire and a full sky for night gazing.

Kms travelled – 229