Swans at midnight

The road in to the campsite

Yes, I did really get up after midnight to sit on the bank of Carrawine Gorge to listen to the swans feeding and bugling. It was cold but I was well rugged up complete with quilt wrapped around me. Scorpio hung in the sky above the gorge wall opposite me and the moon was not yet up. From the darkness came the sounds of water lapping on the shore, gentle liquid sounds as the swans pulled up water weeds and their calls in duplicate, echoing back and forth across the pool. Occasionally a grebe dashed dashed across the water or the more strident duck's 'warrk, warrk, warrk' interrupted the tranquility of the night.

Swans feeding 

Carrawine Gorge at sunrise

Carrawine Gorge on the Oakover River  is more or less on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, just off the Woodie Woodie Rd. One side of the gorge is a tall rocky cliff and the other has a little grass beneath trees, a wide expanse of deep stones surrounded by an arid stony landscape. The best way to get through the expanse of stones was to let your tyre pressure down - a bit like going through deep sand. Obviously the deposition of a few decent floods.

Carrawine Gorge at dawn

The pool is huge, wide and long, and supports a wide variety of wildlife. Camped on the edge it simply invites relaxation: one can sit for hours just looking and listening. The colours of the gorge and waters changed dramatically through the day. Hopefully the photos will give you a taste for the colours!

Reflections 

The most surprising sighting was a white bellied sea eagle flying along the gorge as we were about 200km inland. There were a number of reed warblers feeding in the reeds beside our campsite - I hadn't seen or heard them before at such close range. We were of course visited by cattle feeding on the grasses beside the water. They were red, just like the dust, with the conformation typical of tropical breeding.

Camp visitor