June 14 - another magical day

After a relatively short walk we spotted the rock towers behind the trees.
Quite exciting! It was early morning and the air was still cool.

​Something magical about coming upon a place, having it slowly emerge bit by bit. It was like that yesterday. We visited Caranbirini Conservation Reserve and found 'the lost city'! A vast expanse of geological awesomeness (if that's a word) - 8 square K. A labyrinth of sandstone 'pillars' 20-30 metres high. Would you like a lesson in geology? Thought not BUT you wander and wonder! How on earth .....? It all started when sediment laid down in a shallow sea bed compacted into sandstone over millions of years. That was raised by forces in the earths crust and after simply eons and other magic processes .... voila! Giant pillars of compacted sandstone.

Note the ripples in this huge rock. Very much like the ripples you see in the sand at low tide eh!? This suggests that these rocks were formed in a fairly shallow sea.

Erosion by wind and rain with the help of lots of other forces big and small like the naughty little Rock Fig which relies on tiny wee fissures to anchor itself to the rock face. It's roots swell with rain and so the cycle goes on and on. And as with other forces, rock fractures slowly develop, more erosion and .... voila encore! So that's how the caverns and canyons form leaving towering edifices for us to marvel at. But what about the rest I hear you say, the towers? Thought you'd want to know!

This is a rock fig poking its roots into any tiny nook and cranny.
Tenacious little things ... and so the world was populated!

Well it seems that rain water seeps into the rock dissolving iron and other goodies. Then during the dry season the water slowly evaporates drawing the iron etc to the surface where it hardens to form a coating of iron oxide which reduces erosion. Simple. Remember the desert pavement, the gibber plains of the Coober Pedy, painted desert region? Well it's the same thing. Cool eh!? Actually hot as it needs the sun for evaporation and for the iron to bake.

I wanted to point out the delicate green grass so soft looking beside the solid rock-giants it fanned. But NO this innocuous looking carpet, stabs and pricks leaving a smidgen of poison in your leg - spinafex! Looks great but ..... it does however provide a perfect habitat for the spinafex pigeons and the rare and endangered Carpentaria grass wren. So there's a place for all things

Looking st this inverted triangle makes you wonder about the forces, strengths etc that hold everything together.

Bit like a crown. Many of the towers had caves like this one. Softer patch of rock once perhaps?

We clambered through secret caverns - ok not secret but one felt a bit like the girls in Picnic at Hanging Rock and were it not for the frequent little blue arrows one could imagine getting very lost.

Some were mere slits between sheer rock faces and yes, I did fit through in case you were wondering!
Note that thin ropey thing down the side? That's a tree root. There were trees and all sorts of plants and fern growing straight out from the rock faces.

We spent a few hours wandering and oohing and ahhing with me reading every sign - surprise!? Truly spectacular. I suspect on a par with the Bungle Bungles which we are yet to see.
As I wandered I decided that if I could choose 2 additional travelling companions (in addition to Lindsay, goes without saying!) it would be a geologist and a botanist. How wonderful to have the answers/explanations on hand.

I wonder who etched these hieroglyphs? Looks like some ancient manuscript.

Rows of holes like this had me intrigued. I've seen similar in the sandstone cliffs near Bondi. Of course I peered into them all to see if anything was lurking inside - as you do. But no, not a sausage

Aha I thought I'd found some rock art but alas no. This is the remains of a wasp nest. How terribly unromantic. But it does tell us that this magnificent rock city is home to many.

A little lace making had been going on prior to our visit. Exquisite isn't it!?

We spent the last hour of our visit in the cool of a bird hide watching birds dipping into a tranquil lagoon, hanging off the stalks of water lilies burrowing into the flowers from underneath after the nectar, Blue Wing kookaburras acting like the kingfishers they are, following the 'community' of Pygmy Geese busy having a wonderful time from one end of the lagoon to the other and ..... It was pretty amazing all round!

And after all that we emerged still saying wow!!

We spent an idyllic hour or so simply ogling