A normal day in Barron Gorge
28th October 2021
Our destination for the day.
Most days that I take a late afternoon walk into the bush I do not see anything spectacular but enjoy myself none the less. Sometimes I do not take any photos at all.
On this day I decided to take photos no matter what to record the day. I visited a spot that is close to where I usually see Gilly the Goanna or one of his relatives.
The track there.
I make my way there via an old track that winds it’s way along a much wider old rocky road down to the water.
An old piece of machinery on the track.
At some stage I imagine that materials of some sort were taken from the river and hauled back up to the road using carts or some sort of machinery. This very large piece of steel appears to have been there for a very long time.
More recent traces of humans.
More recent signs of human impact are old tyres that have been thrown down over the side of Barron Gorge Road and bounce down to the old track. This and about 5 others are on my list to take out.
A huge root structure on the Gorge side.
As those tyres rolled their way down to the track they would have passed the massive root structures of the trees that line the slopes of the Gorge. This root is as thick as my body.
Colours deepening as sunset approaches.
As the sun lowers the appearance of the Gorge changes dramatically. Reflections start to appear on the water, the birds start to arrive and the colours in the rocks begin to pop.
Once that harsh light fades the shapes, colours and lines on the rocks reveal themselves.
A bolt protruding from a rock.
Another reminder of human presence in the Gorge is the bolts and metal structures that you see from time to time. Either old machinery from the hydro plants or in this case a bolt into a rock I am guessing put there by one of the rafting ventures.
Dry rocks coming to life with water.
Most days late afternoon the hydro plant releases water and the river level rises below the bridge. As it rises water starts to splash over the rocks highlighting their shapes even more and wetting the silt that so often covers them making them very dangerous to walk on. Eventually many of those previously dry rocks become fully submerged.
The end to the day.
Like most of my days in the Gorge it is dark when I leave. Minutes before I took this photo, kayakers as they so often do, made a late pass weaving through the rocks shown above. After this refreshing time in the bush I headed back to work and finished about midnight.