Route: Carnarvon Gorge Great Walk

Location
Queensland, AU
Distance
86 km
Vertical Gain
2,320 m
Description

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/carnarvon-great-walk/

86k loop of remote technical single track in central Queensland, Australia. 

Comments

User Picture
Profile picture for user tamyka

Planning on spending this weekend doing the trail solo, through the gorge and visiting all the side tracks. Start time will be around sunrise on Saturday 18 March 2023. Forecast is sunny to and going up to 35°C, so quite pleasant. If things start to go awry I'll bail out early (sorry). I'm not particularly fast, so don't check the map too  often: https://tamyka.maprogress.com/carnarvongorgegreatwalk

Hmm, that didn't go as planned – the trail is exceedingly overgrown up top (actual route finding required), making for very, very slow progress. Even after I was coming back out, I lost the trail at night (and got very wet in the long grass). Those in the know say it's not normally so bad but who can be sure?

I backed out somewhere between Gadd's Walkers Camp and West Branch Walkers Camp (after turning off the vehicle track), finally accepting that it probably wasn't going to get better and worried about running out of food if my progress continued this slowly. Took a nap at Gadd's on the way out, recharging my headlamp's batteries and my own (shame I brought the cable that doesn't fit my phone).

Got up around 3am and 

I noted that staying on the vehicle track heading north of Gadd's might be a shortcut for a lower distance variation, but would be a longcut of a leg requiring more water carried from Gadd's. Something to think about. Do you reckon we should add a variation of the original route with all the side trips? They are the star of the trail. And for those who want something shorter, perhaps just a short route, from the start to Big Bend Walker's Camp?