Hughenden - Porcupine Gorge

PORCUPINE GORGE
Today we were heading out to Porcupine Gorge - and yet again we find ourselves on a long and bumpy dirt road. The Gorge was 70kms from Hughenden, but felt alot further on the rough roads.

The first stop was the Lookout and wow!!!! What an amazing view. We tried to show the kids just how far down the bottom of the gorge was throwing rocks down - but I don't think they really comprehended just how far it was. We had picked up an info sheet on the Gorge before leaving town, which listed points of interest on the trip to the top of the Gorge. We soon found that some of the "points of interest" were a bit dodgy - like the "Whistling Bore" which was supposed to whistle - but was really only a pipe sticking out of the ground with a hole in it. We actually felt pretty silly because we had got out of the truck, walked to the bore and put our ear down to the hole only to hear nothing!

We finally made it to the top of the gorge and parked the car ready to walk down into the gorge. Before we did that we decided it would be wise to go to the toilet first. The kids found this fascinating because it was an old fashioned "dunny" - toilet seat over a hole in the ground. I was the only one who had to go but of course the kids all decided that they wanted to have a look at the toilet and took turns in going in to have a look. Typical isn't it - we are at the top of a magnificent gorge and the kids want to look at a stinky old dunny!

The walk down to into the gorge was very exciting. The track was well worn, although it was fairly rough and steep we all managed quite well. As we got further down the track we started catching glimpses of the gorge. Finally we made it to the bottom and were standing in the gorge that we had not long ago looked at from the lookout. The bottom of the gorge was made of large sandstone rocks and pools of water. The kids were so excited by it all, they were all running in different directions, yelling "Come and look at this".


We walked around and explored for a while - the pools of water were crystal clear and some of the bigger ones even had fish in them. We met a young guy who was looking around on his own and had a chat to him, but not long after he left - so we were the only ones in the gorge which was an amazing feeling.

Chris decided that the waterholes were safe to swim in so the kids stripped to their undies and were in in a flash. They had a ball jumping and splashing and Chris even talked them into bomb diving off the side of the rocks.


After swimming the kids dried off and we were walking around some more when we saw the young guy we had been talking at the top of the "pyramid". The "pyramid" was a mountain at the end of the gorge that had been cut and worn by the water gushing through for many years and what remains looks like a pyramid.



The walk back up out of the gorge was long and tiring but we got their in the end. The kids were champions - they didn't complain at all.


We were all happy to be back in the truck and heading home - it had been a long and tiring day. All of a sudden......from the back of the truck comes a yell..........E M U......!!!!!!!!!! Chris slamed on the brakes and turned around and there were two emus beside the road which the kids were amazed to see.


It was a great day for us all and was very much worth the long drive out to see Porcupine Gorge. For more photos chek them out here - http://picasaweb.google.com/travellingoakeys/PorcupineGorgeHughenden?feat=directlink