The Amphitheatre is a deep chamber inside the walls of the gorge. It is open to the sky with a small stream feeding a pond and ferns. For traditional owners of the land it was a place of quiet contemplation, but some visitors did not respect this with one idiot rattling the staircase as his wife was struggling to climb down. 

There are many great walks in the national park. Most of our group walked up the main gorge and visited the notable sites off the main track. The scenery changes often from creek bed to rainforest to white sandstone cliffs. There are several creek crossings involving stepping on strategically placed rocks. A pair of walking sticks decreases the risk of slipping and injury. On Tuesday we walked to the Art Gallery which is a magnificent overhanging cliff decorated with Aboriginal paintings and engravings. Unfortunately there is also graffiti but camera surveillance has now been installed. This is at the end of the main track and on our return walk we visited the magnificent Ward's Canyon, the Moss Garden, and my favourite which was the Amphitheatre. To reach this we had to climb steep steel ladders. 

We all arrived at Carnarvon Gorge yesterday. There are 8 of us in total staying in one caravan, two camper trailers, one campervan and a tent. For 6 nights we will be at the Takarakka Resort which is a couple of kms from the national park. There are good facilities but it is a culture shock not to have mobile phone coverage. Three of us walked the Boolimba Bluff track - 6.4 kms, 300m climb over 900 steps. One crazy friend ran up and down the track twice in less time than it took the rest of us to walk it once!

We already knew that driving home from the Sunshine Coast through Brisbane back to the Gold Coast on the Thursday before Easter was not a good idea - but we hadn't anticipated the series of issues that would arise that day. The first was losing the second key to the Jeep. We assumed it was somewhere in the van but it could have been lost around the resort. Two days later we did eventually find it in hte van as the key had fallen into the back of the stove.  Our rear vision camera was interfering with the Jeep's navigation system so we diverted to Nambour to have the technician check it out. Fortunately we were able to park the Jeep and van a couple of hundred metres from the workshop, but had to wait for the expert to return from another job. When he arrived it was disconcerting to see him pull the Jeep's dashboard to pieces to be able to take photos of the wiring to send to the manufacturer as the problem could not be fixed. The unscheduled delay meant we were caught in st

We returned to the Rivershore Resort the night before having the first 1000kms service on the van. We were able to stay hooked up which made it easy in the morning when we drove back to Bushtracker at 7.30. There were a couple of issues such as a water pump that runs when it shouldn't, and interference on the TV. We had managed to solve the challenging task of logging onto satellite TV at the Rivershore Resort. Our earlier problem was probably caused by trees interfering with the line of sight to the satellite.  While we were waiting for the van to be serviced we explored a new Marketplace IGA that has a great variety of fresh foods, including an in-house butcher. We had lunch at the very popular vegan restaurant next door. We were told our van would not be ready when planned so we went for a walk in Buderim Forest Park. The waterfall was brown because of the recent floods. It is normally clear water as depicted in pictures on the internet.  When we finally collected the van we wer

On our last day near Agnes Water we visited a market at 1770 but left without buying anything. We drove to Agnes Water and walked the Discovery route to enjoy the view of the most northern surf beach on the east coast of the Australian mainland. It extends 5km to the north ending at 1770. After lunch at a local cafe we braved the mossies and midgies and followed the boardwalk through the Paperbark Forest. In some parts the boardwalk was replaced by stepping stones through the water. The forest was very interesting and picturesque.

The ensuite is a combined toilet/shower with a decent sized basin and large mirror. Storage is provided in two water tight cupboards. We had a diesel heater fitted and there is an outlet into the bathroom for when we travel to places like Tasmania. There are only two appliances that require 240 volt power to operate - the air conditioner and the washing machine. Everything else runs on  the 12 volt system which comprises a complex array of equipment in the cargo bay and solar panels on the roof. We invested in lithium batteries which hopefully will be reliable. There are three water tanks under the van - two for non potable water, and one for potable water. All water going into the potable tank is filtered three times by the filtration system in the cargo bay.

The interior of our new Bushtracker is comfortable for two people. The queen bed is at the front of the van. A slide out step is needed to get up to the bed. There are large windows all round, each with a blockout blind, flyscreen and curtains.  The kitchen has a large fridge/freezer, an oven, sink with draining board and a pantry. There are plenty of cupboards and drawers. I wasn't keen on towing a full size van but the benefits are not having to wind up the Eco Tourer or raise a poptop roof. We can just stop for lunch and use all of the facilities. Packing up is also a lot easier and not so time consuming. We have managed to operate most of the equipment except the satellite for the TV. This has been a frustrating exercise but we will get a second lesson when the van is in for service next week.

After months of being without a caravan we have finally picked up our new Bushtracker. It is only 15 foot long (plus the drawbar) but it has heaps of features. We spent most of the first day being shown how things work before towing it to the Rivershore Resort only a few kilometres from the Bushtracker factory at the Sunshine Coast. Resort staff helped us back the van into our site as they are used to having new Bushtracker owners stay at this park on their first night. Unfortunately for us it was school holidays and the park was very busy. The hardest thing the next morning was lining up the Jeep with the Hitchmaster off road towing hitch. The eye in the hitch is only about the size of a 20 cent coin and the tow pin on the Jeep has to be positioned exactly below the eye. Even with a reversing camera on the Jeep this is challenging as there is no scope for giving the van a bit of a nudge as we could with our old Eco Tourer to get it onto the traditional tow ball. The benefit of the Hit