We are into the last week of the school term here – yippeeeee! I love school holidays and can not wait to have a break from lunch boxes, uniforms and after school activities! Of course there will be some fighting and far too many ‘I’m hungry’s’, but I really am looking forward to having all the kids at home for a big break from routine! We don’t have a lot planned for these holidays as Matt will be very busy with Mango Madness here on the farm, but we have a visit from the Townsville cousins and the Perth cousins to look forward to, as well as a week away at the beach in January, so still lots of fun to be had!
I am so behind with my blogging that I haven’t even posted about the great day out we had at Granite Gorge, just outside Mareeba, with the Brissy cousins last school holidays at the beginning of October! So, here’s the details now in case you want to make a visit out there these holidays.
I had heard about Granite Gorge from the backpackers that had stayed with us on the farm last year and I also vaguely seem to remember going there for a school camp or something many, many years ago. Everybody I had spoken to about Granite Gorge had raved about the rock wallabies out there and I had seen some cute pics on Instagram, so I was very keen to take all the kids to check it out for ourselves. We had a ball!
Fealy cousins do Granite Gorge
Feeding the rock wallabies.
My ex-sister in law Bel (I know – it’s a little odd, but she’s really great and family is family in my book!) and I loaded all the kids in the car pretty early (before 9am), packed a cooler bag with some muffins, water, bread, butter, ham and cheese and set out for our adventure! We wanted to get to the gorge before the day got too hot and too many other people were about.
Granite Gorge is located 12km’s west of Mareeba on Chewko Rd and is very easy to find, just follow the signs. There is a little bit of dirt road to travel on but it is easily accessed by all vehicles, no 4wd necessary. There are day use and camping fees to pay upon entry to the park, you can find them here. Although the entry fee is a little off putting I do think it was worth it! The Mareeba unadorned rock wallabies (Petrogale inornata, Mareeba race) are rare and endangered and can only be seen up close here. The kids had a ball feeding them with the small bag of feed we purchased with our entry ticket. They were definitely the highlight of our visit!
The Mareeba rock wallaby
The wallabies were just so friendly – we spent a good hour at least patting and feeding them!
We eventually dragged the kids away to try out one of the short walks in the park. It was getting hotter by the minute and we ended up really only doing a very tiny walk as it was a bit tough going in thongs and carrying a baby. The kids loved all the rock hopping and climbing but we were really not prepared for that sort of walk so had to call in quits much to the kids disappointment. We will definitely be going back again in the cooler months next year and taking Matt, plus sneakers and backpacks with us to finish the walk! The small amount we did see of the actual volcanic rock formations which make up the gorge, was spectacular!
Our crazy bunch off for a walk!
Up we go!
Look at the view!
Granite Gorge walk
This is where the walk started to get a bit tricky!
Lex was a little scared but managed to use the handles on the rocks no problems.
I did leave Kipp with Bel and went with the kids as far as the Dinosaur Footprints in the rocks, but it was a lot of rock clambering and I didn’t feel comfortable going any further with the five kids on my own – definitely next time!
So we turned around and went back and patted the rock wallabies a little more and then headed in to the picnic shelters for some shade and morning tea.
One last stop to pat the rock wallabies!
Holidays hooray!
The outdoor reception area at the entrance to the gorge campground – really lovely!
Morning tea time
You can camp at Granite Gorge and we did a small drive around the campground. There are some really nice spots along the creek/weir area where you can camp, canoe (bring your own) and swim. There are full amenities there too! There are also spots to swim (with care) along the gorge walk too, so stay tuned for another Granite Gorge post when we get back there next year!
It is definitely a great little place to visit, but if going in summer I would say go as early in the morning or late evening as you can to avoid the heat that radiates off the rocks out there! What have you got planned these school holidays? Anything exciting?
I would love to visit Granite Gorge, probably a little hot when we visit in January?
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Thanks for posting.
These wallabies are so lovely. We had great time when we visited and enjoyed being with these beautiful creatures. It’s amazing to know that the Mareeba Wallabies are a species of wallaby limited to this environment around Granite Gorge.
We found the campsite to have extremely basic amenities and certainly could not cope with a busload of tourists and other campers.
We had a lovely time camping at Granite Gorge. As well as the fabulous wallabies, we also saw two gender and species confused turkeys ( they both played both gender roles with each other and with a resident chook!!); two white horses, and a group of birds building communal spherical nest (i forget what they were called); and parrots. Almost a mini zoo … Except most were wild or at least uncaged!!