Hiking 90 kilometres is understandably not high up on most people’s bucket lists. Especially not when the destination is an eight-hour drive to the middle of nowhere, and you have 20 kilograms on your back.
Where the drinking water is questionable, the grounds mice-infested, and a sunburn is guaranteed.
Sold yet?
I had the pleasure of doing this incredible hike called Carnarvon Gorge, located south of Emerald, Queensland.
Over five days, myself and friends from my ultimate frisbee team, Casey and Corey, carried our food, shelter, and ukuleles across this Queensland Great Walk. To spend so much time in nature was an incredible refresh, with each day offering a unique buffet of scenery.
Being my first major multi-day hike (I’d previously done a relatively easy 3 day and a few overnights), I did my best to prepare.1 That meant dehydrating my own meals, packing and repacking, studying the topographic map, and coming up with a rough plan for each day.
Our first night we drove six hours, reaching the small township of Injune to set up our tents at the unpleasant hour of 2am.
Sadly, camp consisted of a gravel pit 100 metres from the highway, road trains (massive freight trucks) barrelling by every few minutes. Casey also had two mice crawl into his tent to wish him goodnight.
Quite the start to a vacation!
Day two was where the fun really began.
A short while after sunrise, a pickup truck sketchily drove up to us at our camp. Thinking we were about to get yelled at (or shot) for trespassing, a man missing a few teeth hollered at us, asking if we’d seen his runaway dogs.
Oh Injune, you magical place.
After another two hours of driving, avoiding cows on the road and spotting some wild emus, we finally reached the trailhead and excitedly planted our hiking poles in the ground.
Over the first 15 kilometres of the Great Walk, we crossed streams, wandered through caverns, and found waterfalls. It was on one of these side trips I got mistaken for a ranger (turns out my grey shirt and green pants were the uniform of the gorge’s authority), and earned my trail name, Moose Ranger.
Having never had a nickname before, I gotta say it was fun introducing myself as Moose.
Surprisingly, a lot less people calling me Jeff on the trail.
One of the biggest highlights of the area is the 4,000 year old aboriginal cave art which depicts the history of the land. A showcase of animals, tools, and interestingly, vulvas, these sacred art sites represent the creation of the gorge and all the flora and fauna within it.
Arriving at our first campsite, Big Bend, it was great to throw around the frisbee and swim with the lonely turtle in the stream.
I also received an excellent tutorial on cooking dehydrated food, using a camping stove for the first time.
After a good night’s sleep, we still had a lot of walk ahead of us.
The next days were tough, but rewarding. Walking +1,600 metres in elevation, trudging through a 33 kilometre day, and battling feral pigs, it was both a physical and mental challenge day by day.
Okay, we didn’t actually ‘battle’ feral pigs. But we did see a few of them and they’re apparently dangerous if they’re hungry.
By day 5, although our packs were at their lightest, our spirits were nearly worn, and we happily finished the walk with a good long foot soak in the creek.
Blackened socks and happy hearts.
We couldn’t wait to sleep in our own beds, but also couldn’t believe how lucky we were to have the opportunity to explore this oasis.
With that in mind, we hopped in the car and began our long drive back to Brisbane, breaking it up by visiting a frisbee golf course in Roma and playing a quick round.
Unsurprisingly, not the most popular sport in Outback Queensland.
With this hike being such a good time, unfortunately it’s opened up my world, and there are now a ton of walks in Australia I immediately want to go on.
If you’ve been on or are planning any big hikes soon, I’d love to hear about it.
Especially if you have a favourite dehydrated meal.
Hope life’s been great and as always, would be great to hear what’s new.
Zev
1Part of preparation included accidentally giving blood (for my first time) the day before the hike. While giving blood/plasma is an excellent thing to do, would not recommend doing it before a very long walk. First-hand research shows you will probably be a tired fella.
