Cania Gorge - Road and paddling trip.

[hairymick]

G'day guys,

Miz Robin and I have been kinda busy doing lots of road trips these past few weeks so my posts here have been few and far between. We got back from exploring another part of this area last week and if anybody is interested, i would like very much to share the story and a few images from our little adventure.

Robin has never been very far from our east coast and she thinks 50 miles west of the beach is the outback. Where we went doesn't constitute genuine outback, but the countryside is pretty similar and it is way further west than she has ever been before. Cania Gorge is only about 3 hours by car frm the coast and about 5 hours drive from our home so part of the adventure for us was to travel through some back roads and country neither of us had ever seen.

If nobody minds, I will start with the road trip which was an adventure in itself for us.

We set off from home bright and early, loaded with kayaks, hiking and camera gear for the short drive up the coast to a small town called Childers (pronounced chill ders ) A lovely little place that was originally settled for its very rich, red volcanic soil and sugar cane farming. many of the farms there now have converted to vegetable and fruit crops that employ thousands of international back packers fruit picking every season. backbackers seem to becoming an industry in themselves here.

The main street of Childers.

Then we turned lefT an headed to the next small town, aout 30 miles away called Biggenden (pronounced Big'nd'n ), another small farming town only this time the main produce it beef cattle. Population, a couple of thousand, maybe and a real nice rural atmosphere. We stopped here for a comfort break and my battery died @#*&%! but it had been on the way out for a little while and I had a spare onboard so not to worry , a quick change over and we were off again I forgot to get piccies of this town by Robin got a few of the countryside through which we passed.

This is again fertile, volcanic soil, only the unreliable rainfall in the area makes most crops pretty unviable - hence cattle.

untill we came to a very small community caled Coalston lakes. There is no lake here, only a volcanic crater nearby that SOMETIMES (very rarely holds some water) Peanuts and sorgum are the main crop here.

 

[hairymick]

Continueing on another 30 miles or so, the next small town is called Gayndah (pronounced Gay nda) This is the heart of the citrus growin area of our state with vast orchards of oranges and mandarines stratching as far as the eye can see. Another huge backpacking industry here.

Of course, we were doing the tourist thing and called in to a road side fruit stall and got some fruit - dirt cheap. there is an honesty system here, where the fruit is displayed in a stand of some sort on the side of the road with the price asked per box or bag and the customers simply help themselves and leave their money as payment in a box on the stand

We love ongas

A little ways further and we just couldn't resist this place

A sort of fruit shop/cafe place that also sells locally made arts and crafts and such where we had a coffee and a snack while Miz Robin again engaged in her favourite pass time.

Meantime, we got talking to the very friiendly owner and his wife who, just out of the blue, offered us both jobs working in his fruit packing sheds on an hourly rate not much less than we are being paid now. :shock:

He told me that even with all the international back packers coming through - all the time, they still had more work than people to do the jobs and desperately needed more workers All the growers in the area had the same problem. - hence the very attractive pay rates. This is freaking absurd. Australia boasts an unemployment rate approaching 10 percent, There are litteraly hundreds if not thousands of jobs going on offer here in Gayndah and nobody to fill them. I don't understand this at all. I really want to smack the next whining welfare bludging maggot I meet in the mouth.

 

[hairymick]

End of rant - sorry

After saying our good-byes to our new friends, we continued our journey north and west another hundred miles or so to the farming town of Monto (pronounced Mon tow) where we stopped for a burger and coffee and more petrol - errr gas )

then on into Cania Gorge, only about another 15 miles away.

This countryside is not unlike the country much further west, with the dry grassland between towering rocky outcrops and our images can in no way do the place justice.

 

[Steve]

Mick, my friend, you do good reports, I swear to ya. . .

I especially love the piccies of dem burgers you seems to throw in more and more. . . makes me hungry. . . :lol: :lol:

 

[tx river rat]

Mick
Your pic could have been taken in Texas, Your country and Texas are very simular. Really enjoy the reports keep them coming.
Ron

 

[Wannabe]

Ain't that the truth Ron. Texas is big enough to have someting for everybody. Did you know
Mick, you and Miz Robin are very lucky to have the time do take these little trips. Keep them up because we really enjoy them.
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

Mick...
Your pictures made me think of the times I would go out west on vacation , sure looks like some of the territory that I drove threw. Only thing different is the food , mine was Indian Fry bread topped with some green chili. By the way the green is hotter then the red chili.

That hamburger , I saw bacon , eggs , onion , lettuce and a few items that could not identified besides the buns.

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Nice stories, Mick, thanks. I'm glad that you and Mz Robin are enjoying yourselves like that. Damned shame you have such meager tucker.

 

[Steve]

Mick, I just noticed. . . you like your burgers the way I do. . . I just seen a fried egg and bacon on dat burger. . . I IS DEFINITELY ADDING PENNIES TO THE COIN BOX FOR THAT TRIP TO QUEENSLAND just to have one of dem burgers!

 

[Wannabe]

Thought that looked like a fried egg. May not be. They have stuff down there we don't have. So what's the verdict Mick, egg or what? :?
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

Probably was the Aussie version of Vitameatavegamin.

 

[Steve]

Dat an egg. . .

 

[hairymick]

:shock:

Thanks guys, That is what we would cal a traditional hamburger.

From memory, in addition to the beef pattie and bacon, there was a fried egg, cheese, lettuce, beetroot, carrot, onion and a slice of pineapple.

It was one of the best burgers I have had in a while and was similarly priced to what Mcdonalds call a fillet. I had one of those abominations a short while ago for the last time. pissant little things.

Will continue the trip report when I get home tonight.

 

[Manjimike]

Pleeeaasse Mick,
Don't tell them anymore about our HAMBURGERS WITH THE LOT !!! :lol:


Cheers Mike

 

[jdupre']

Probably was the Aussie version of Vitameatavegamin.

LUUUUUUUCCYYYYYYY! You got some 'splainin' to do. :wink:

Nice, humble little burger, there Mick.

Joey

 

[Wannabe]

Joey,
What Mick needs to 'splain' is how ya eat em. :? Read what was in it, went back and looked at the picture and it appeared that the beet was probally pickeled if I was looking at the right thing. :| Even with the beet (pickeled or not), dang if I wouldn't like to try one.
Bob

 

[hairymick]

LOL,

g'day guys, I am not sure what a beet is but what we call beetroot is a bulb like thing that we pickle and boil then slice and use mostly in salads or in burgers (if they are good ones)

Re eating the burgers - no problem.

Mike, don't sweat it mate. I won't divulge any more of our national secrets.

Back to my little story,

As we progressed up the gorge, or canyon as I think our American cousins might call it, the walls got progressively steeper and higher and ever more impressive until we came to a little picnic area where we stopped for a cuppa and to just have a look around. In no time flat, Robin had found the starts to some walking trails and there was just no argueing with her. We were going for a walk. On with the camera packs and walking shoes and away we went, up the first trail we came to.

While there is fine cattle grazing land in the bottom of the gorge, the hills to the sides are covered in dry eucalypt scrub - typical of much of our Australian bush and not very special to walk through.

as we approached the escarpments, the tracks became progressively steeper and more rugged

and occasionally there were steps cut into the rock faces of the escarpments themselves as we worked our way up.

Over the coming days, we were to do many walks like this but these few images will give an idea.

 

[hairymick]

Eventually we came to Dragons Cave,

Where we stopped a while and just tried to get a feel for this amazing place and to try to understand how the original inhabitants might have survived here for thousands of years.

As the day wore on, we decided to head to our booked accomodation and check in.

we were booked in here,

http://www.caniagorge.com.au/index.asp

after hearing very good things about the place from friends and we had yet to find it.

Much more about this place to follow.

 

[hairymick]

We arrived in the park, tired, dirty and very thirsty only to find that they had no record of our booking but the very nice staff assured us they had vacancies and soon settled us in to a cabin 8)

where we got quickly cleaned up and prepared for the evening feeding session. (ot what you think :lol: )


Will post more in the morning, very tired just now,.

 

[Steve]

Mick, Mike, I have plans to make that burger tonight. . . been thinking about it all night and daggumit I like the sound of them beets (the same thing as your beetroot) and pineapple on there with the bacon egg and pepperjack cheese of course I'm gonna add my ususal thick slab sliced ham to it too. . .

Susie tells me I's gonna get fatter than 'ell if I keep eatin' like that. . . Me, I just point at dem mountains and claim I's just keepin' me strength up. . .