DAY 11 - OUR LAST FULL DAY AT CANIA GORGE - OFF TO EXPLORE TWO STOREY CAVE

 Our last full day at Cania Gorge this morning.  Our day started as it usually did with breakfast all together and again we had the beautiful King Red Parrots visiting.  We seemed to have quite a few come to visit us this morning and they were just eating out of our hands.  So special..

 

Steve decided that he was going to have porridge this morning.. Thankfully it wasn't as cold as it had been, the weather seems to be warming up just a little...

Hand feeding the beautiful King Red Parrots

Eating out of my hand...

We had a good dozen or more of the birds hanging around, mostly males but this was the most we had seen around our van at any given time.  It is times like this that I wish we had our grandchildren with us...

Other than the 22km hike through Cania Gorge we still had one more walk that we wanted to do and that was to hike  the Two Storey Cave Circuit..

It started across the road from the picnic area, Two Storey Cave Circuit is a 1.3km return walk. It doesn’t take long for the uphill to begin. Basically, the circuit runs along the base of the sheer cliffs. Once you get to the base of the cliffs the path kind of levels out but there are still some ups and downs along the way.

Again we did this walk clockwise, but it doesn’t matter which way you go. On reaching the base of the cliffs, they tower above you. Parts of the cliff are broken off in large blocks like someone has pulled out a Jenga block.

The first major structure we came across didn’t have a signed name. It looks as though a large chunk of the cliff broke and started to fall away at the bottom and then stopped. It has left a wide and high path in between it and the cliff and makes you wonder how it all stays that way.

All the way along there are sections of fresher rockwith beautiful red colours showing in the sandstone, contrasting with the older weather blackened cliffs.

Our firt real stop was The Two Storey Cave.  I am pleased we came to this one was, as although I thought it was pretty good, it was no where near as beautiful as the King Orchid Crevice.  If I had seen this second, I wouldn't have found it as spectacular.  However, I couldn’t see how it got its name so maybe I missed something. There was an Aboriginal handprint painting in the cave, although I’m suspicious of it being fake. The national park’s website mentions there are Aboriginal painting but none are accessible to the public.

Cooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

From the Two Storey Cave we continued our circuit walk past incredible cliff faces stopping constantly to admire the views and wonder at the beauty.  We took quite a few photos also...  This has to be one of my favourite walks, as it really isn't that long but there is lots to see and marvel at...

We came across this interesting beetle like creature sunning itself on the rock.  Not sure what it is but would be interested to find out a little more about it...

The highlight for me was the King Orchid Crevice. The crevice is signposted along the trail so it is easy to spot, and you can climb up into the crevice and walk along it. The colours of the underside of the rocks above are stunning, and rocks that appear to be casually stacked on top of each other like a child stacking stones.

 

The rest of the walk continues along the base of the cliffs for a while before descending back to the road across from the picnic area.

We were well and truly ready for lunch when we got back down off the track. 

 We just had to walk across the road and we were at the car park and more importantly the picnic area where we planned to have lunch all together today.  We had packed a picnic lunch before we left this morning...

We were all feeling a little tired so from lunch it was back to the vans for a half hour nanna nap before we played our last game of "Five Crowns" for this trip away.

Today the boys joined us in playing also...

It was a good game... it seems to be our all time favourite at the moment.  The good thing about 5 Crowns is that there are only 10 rounds and then the game is finished, so you can play for an hour or an hour and a half and then it is over...

Whilst we were playing though, the Red King Parrots came in to visit again.  They must be getting used to us as they are hanging around an awful lot these last couple of days.  Some campers loathe them, but I love how they come to spend time with us....

As it was our last afternoon here, I decided that for one last time, I wanted to go down to the bird feeding.  I have really enjoyed walking down most afternoons for when they all flew in to feed.  Pete and Maria had just facetimed with the boys, so I was also keen to take Theo down to show him the birds as he is quite fascinated by them.  He wanted to know why the bird was sitting on my head.....

We have really loved our week out here... It has been a much more relaxed holiday as we haven't been on the move so much.  There is something to be said for holidays like this and we really  need to do  them more often.  

There is no fire tonight,  dinner was basically left overs as we were trying to deplete our fridges, and Steve had packed the fire pit away earlier in the day in readiness for departure in the morning...