Day 3: Carnarvon Gorge
12 September 2020
Another day of walking. This time only as far as the Moss Garden, another amazingly tranquil oasis of water and green.
A moth on the path
The Moss Garden
I sat down in the Moss Garden to enjoy the tranquillity, only slightly marred by the constant stream of visitors. I hauled water and a muesli bar from my bag and was surprised to find that the muesli bar—which had been at the bottom of my waterproof riding bag had been opened and munched on. So had another I dragged out. I'm not a greedy man and I'm happy to share, but I was mystified about how they'd been munched. I figured I hadn't adequately secured the top of the bag.
After leaving the park, I dropped in at a waterhole where people occasionally swim. A turtle clung to a tree.
And later in the evening, a real treat. The river running past the campground is home to a platypus, shy and seldom seen. The platypus and four species of echidna are the only surviving monotremes on Planet Earth. Two monotreme sightings in two days is almost too good to believe. (See how I got all the variants of 'to' into the preceding sentence?) Anyway, campground residents take a drink and their camera to the waterhole around dusk to catch a glimpse of this peculiar creature. We were not disappointed.
The final wildlife sighting was a black-faced wallaby, a relative of the kangaroo.
