PART 1 RAVINES, RIDGES & RUINS

THE WALK was steep, the 200 or so steps along the way letting you know there were muscles in your legs that hadn’t been used for a while. But it was worth it. The gorge, a sharp-edged narrow defile, comes as a surprise to most first-time visitors to this region, the red, raw rock closing in as you wander down the creek that cuts through the range here. Sunlight only makes it into the narrowest part of the ravine during late morning or early afternoon, and you can be excused for thinking you are at other more famous canyons in Australia such as Stanley Chasm west of Alice Springs, Echidna Chasm in the far away Bungle Bungles, or even Claustral Canyon in the Blue Mountains. Water nearly always trickles through here, even though it is underground in places. Ferns and other cool-loving plants dot the chasm walls and floor, marking a startling change to the sun-bleached plains and rugged hills outside the hidden recesses of this abyss.

We wandered down the gorge and then out across the low intervening rise to Blue