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We departed the very pleasant Lake Maraboon around the usual time of 10am and headed into Emerald for a fresh juice for Renee & Eamon, some petrol, and a new bladder for mum's camelback. We stumbled upon the world's biggest Van Gogh 'Sunflower' painting located in a park on an easel - it's 25 metres high (Emerald was once famous for its reputation as a major sunflower producer!).
We turned right off the Capricorn Highway onto the Gregory Highway heading south. There was a few minutes of rain on the trip but it cooled things down and we had a pleasant roadside stop for some lunch. The road into the gorge was pretty good - 30kms of bitumen and the last 10km dirt road was fine. We arrived at Takarakka Bush Resort mid afternoon and it was pretty quiet - only a few campsites used. We were allocated a site in the 'Echidna Circle' and a bunch of kangaroos enjoyed watching us set up.
We had time to do the Mickey Creek Gorge walk (about 4km return). When we came to a fork, we went to the right, and although the 'formed track' of the Warrumbah Gorge ends at a very pleasant spot, we're so glad we were advised to keep going, as the next 500m is the most interesting, rock-hopping back and forth over the creek until the gorge was only 1m wide. We returned back to the fork and went left to follow the creek to the end and it was a lovely green oasis of small rapids in the creek, mossy boulders, tree ferns and high cliffs.
It was getting late now, so back at the campsite, we checked out our surrounds, including the 'Beach' - pleasant but not that inviting for a swim as the water's a little stagnant. Up at the Platypus Pool we spotted some baby turtles in the water, but none of the elusive platypii - the big downpour of rain perhaps didn't help either.
We spent some time in the evening preparing for a big day tomorrow - we have a massive Carnarvon Gorge walk planned, so we got our hydration packs cleaned up and filled, and agreed on what snacks we needed to take along.
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