Heading upstream from Casuarina Creek, we come to the Berkeley River Gorge. Scoured out of the sandstone plateau by years of monsoon rain, the gorge is about 10 miles long. The bottom is rocky and unsuitable to anchoring, so our next stop will be where the Amphitheatre Creek runs into the side of the gorge, and provides a spot of muddy riverbed that is suitable to anchor on. It’s just as well that is available, because further upstream, the gorge narrows to the point where it becomes impassible at a rock bar.
We used the flooding tide to help carry us upstream and reduce the amount of fuel we had to burn. Depths were not a problem, with the bottom in excess of 10m deep, and in the narrowest parts of the gorge, more than 20m.
Trees cling to every little crack prossible, and feed their roots down over the edge to locate a layer of water in the seams of rock down the cliff. After about 2 hours of motoring, the gorge opened out into the Ampitheatre, where we are now anchored.
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