Lawn Hill/Boodjamulla

A freshie we saw canoeing

We reached Indarri Falls

Ringed dragon on the walk this morning

Lawn Hill gorge

Indarri falls

The gorge from the walk this mornign

Lawn Hill creek

We’ve had a lovely day at Lawn Hill/Boodjamulla – thank you to neighbours Ross and Rachael for recommending we come here, it’s a beautiful place, with not only a nice gorge but lots of great walks, none of which are too hard. We were up nice and early to head out on one while it was still cool, and it was so lovely starting the walk along the side of Lawn Hill Creek in the shade of huge cluster figs (strong smell of rotting figs everywhere though!), and then climbing up on Island Stack which is literally quite a bit island in the river with a big flat top like a table that you can walk around on and with fantastic views out in all directions – apparently the place to go for sunrise and sunset, but still nice early in the morning. There aren’t many people here either so there are no crowds.

We finished that relatively early so kept going onto the Constance Range walk which takes you up a nearby hill with more nice views of the surrounding area. Then it was back to the tent for a rest, play and lunch in the heat of the day, before heading out for a canoe on the gorge this afternoon. Again there weren’t many people out on it so it was very peaceful just drifting along, with the occasional paddle. We saw a freshwater crocodile, a couple of snapping turtles both in and out of the water, darters drying their wings, archer fish and long tom fish (long and skinny) and lots of other birds. We just canoed up to the small falls for a look and came back, didn’t really have time to haul the canoe out of the water and carry it over the tow path to attempt the top gorge (that was our excuse). As we canoed along we also saw lots of bubbles coming up out of the water, which I’m guessing is the calcium carbonate fizzing down there – apparently this water has a lot of lime in it, which deposits calcium carbonate when it evaporates flowing over rocks and debris, which then forms a porous rock called tufa, which is what the Indarri falls are made out of. Anyway it was a nice way to finish the day, at least we feel that we’ve earned our dinner tonight.