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.

Father's Day

sunrise calvert river

Father's day pancakes

Happy birthday mum, and happy father’s day to all you dads out there, especially to mine and Peter! Calvert River was a lovely place to wake up for father’s day, the kids had made cards which went down well and I made pancakes which were great, if I say so myself (particularly because I usually burn them). Even with all that we were very impressed that we were on the road by 9.15am and driving East along the Savannah Way. We crossed the border – hello Queensland! – changed my watch, crossed some more rivers, seeing only one little baby freshwater crocodile, and passed through Hells Gate roadhouse to refuel. Apparently Hells Gate is named this because it used to be as far as the Queensland police would go in providing support to those droving cattle over to the lucrative NT market. They would go this far and no further, so after Hells Gate, you were on your own, literally in the wild west! I think there weren’t any police until Borroloola which is a fair distance, leaving lots of space and time for getting done over.

From Hells Gate the next stop for lunch was Doomagee, a small aboriginal community which was almost all closed up (being a Sunday) still had a table in the shade where we could have sandwiches. Three brothers came up while we were there and had a chat – they were fascinated to have a look at the kitchen on our camper trailer, there was even a viewing session of the fridge. It was funny that the oldest one, who must have been 10 or 12 or so, carried around a pram with him which he sat in, kind of like having his own portable armchair. They were interested in where we’d been and asked if we’d seen any goanna as we came, telling us that they are good to eat. We asked how they go about catching them, expecting something resembling a traditional method, but no, they said if you see them in the middle of the road, you just drive over them. I don’t think they were joking either – modern food sourcing method. They were very friendly anyway, although a bit hard to understand sometimes because they spoke very fast and with a bit different pronunciation to what we’re used to.  They directed us around the corner to a post box where Conor could post his letter to Santa (nothing like getting in early) and gave us a big wave when we left.

Pretty soon after Doomagee we turned off the Savannah Way to head down to Lawn Hill NP. This is when the road became smaller and smaller, and rougher, until it was almost like a goat track towards the end. Not that it was small as such, just looked like it isn’t driven on much, and had quite a few river crossings, one of which even went around a corner (although very shallow), so I can see why. I think most people come down on a different angle from Burketown, but we still got here fine. We took only one wrong turn (the signposts were few and far between) and went past Lawn Hill Station where they were mustering cattle, with a big truck waiting in the yard – real cowboys on horses! It was a long driving day for Nick anyway, so it’s nice to set up here for 3 nights – from what we’ve seen before it got dark it looks lovely, and after being a bit scared off by having to book online or over the phone with Qld National Parks before being allowed in here, it’s not even full. We’ve had a nice dinner – the first of the three different pieces of fish that the nice caravan park people in Borroloola gave us, and early to bed.

Borroloola

Other photos from Limmen NP

Butterfly Springs in Limmen NP

Daniel lighting the first ever fire he made entirely himself (Conor did one the night before)

Cane toad trying to hitch a ride East

A casualty of the Savannah Way

For some reason it doesn't seem to be working....

Today we saw quite a few feral animals – cane toads, buffalo and wild horses, and that was all before 9am on the way into Borroloola. The cane toads must have all been sitting under out trailer unbeknownst to us, and when we packed it up they all jumped around and hid under wheels, one of them trying to throw himself into a hole in the wheel (didn’t quite fit). They’re obviously repenting of their evil ways and trying to hitch a lift back to the East coast. On the positive side, we disturbed a pair of big beautiful jabiru on one of the creeks we crossed and they flew off right in front of us, looked great.

We got into Borroloola and it was a busy Saturday morning for a small town – there was much jostling to get to the water tap at one of the servos as we all queued up to refill (we were all more interested in the water than the fuel), and then we restocked with a few things in the store. It was still early but of course it was already stinking hot, so we drove past the public pool which had a big closed sign outside, but I could see the head of someone swimming so went for a closer look as a whole lot of local kids were hanging around outside like they were waiting for it to open up. A guy who was coaching a soccer game on the field next to it said that we could go in no worries, he just couldn’t open it at the same time as refereeing the game, so he couldn’t be lifeguard. So we had a lovely swim, joined soon by the local kids after the game had finished, and there is no entry fee! It’s a very nice pool, can’t be very old, and was a great relief after a few hot and smelly days with no shower.

We had a chat to the guy afterwards and he turned out to be a Kiwi (with English accent!) who has come there with his English wife and two kids to be the PE teacher/soccer coach. There is a local benefactor, apparently an Indonesian businessman, who I think pays for him to try and get the local kids really into soccer, because his own adopted indigenous child is really good – so good in fact that he and some other local up and comings have recently been to Singapore for to a talent scout camp, and Singapore is very interested in the businessman’s son. He will be flown back there towards the end of the year apparently, hopefully to be signed up. The idea is that he will act as an inspiration for the local kids and give them something to aim for. It would just be amazing I think – this is a tiny town of a couple of hundred people seemingly in the middle of nowhere and they might be churning out soccer stars! The coach is very dedicated and determined, he has brought his wife who is working with getting kids into school, and his two kids, one of whom is home schooled and the other who has cystic fibrosis (although apparently this climate agrees with her much more than in the UK).

After that we went in search of a block of ice for the esky, being pointed to the caravan park on the road in. We hung around and waited for a while because the managers seemed to be nowhere in sight, had lunch and tried to book Lawn Hill NP online. They eventually came back from town and were the nicest couple imaginable – not only did they sell us a block of ice but they opened up a watermelon for the kids to get into, and then as we were leaving they got 3 big pieces of fish out of their freezer caught by the husband to give to us! We’ve been very spoilt what with them giving us fish, and on top of that the last two nights we’ve been having frozen mango for dessert – thoughtfully provided by Jamal out of their freezer. The caravan park couple moved to Borroloola from Bundaberg last year and were just a lovely – it turns out that their daughter is at the moment in Canberra on a soccer camp herself, auditioning for the AIS! She’s only 12 but her mum was adamant that if she gets in she can go to boarding school there – the mum doesn’t like the cold!

Finally it was time to drag us away with very fond memories of the people of Borroloola, and keep on heading down the Savannah Way. We’ve stopped at the Calvert River crossing which is a lovely bush camp, up on a hill overlooking it with a lovely breeze and a little creek running past to provide us with washing up water as well.

Limmen NP

Sunrise at Limmen NP

View of Western Lost City

Southern Lost city

Just a driving day today, and a relatively slow one, because the road isn’t great. We started on the Carpentaria Highway heading East for a change, which is mostly a one lane dodgy tarmac road interspersed with potholes and short sections of dirt, which made it kind of slow – you have to pull to the side to pass cars so you both have one set of wheels on the tarmac, or pull over completely in a hurry when you meet a big road train! We only saw one of those though. We had lunch at Cape Crawford roadhouse and then took the Nathan River Road north to where we’ve made a roadside camp in Limmen NP. We decided it would be easier to camp a little way up (this road is all dirt and supposed to be pretty bad), then tomorrow we’ll just take the car up to see the Southern Lost City (which is why we’re here) and then hitch up again to drive into Borroloola. It feels pretty remote out here, once we turned onto the Nathan River Road I don’t think we met any cars, although now another one has turned up to bush camp with us. It also might be because we’re in the very southern end of the national park, and I think most people come in from the top end, via Mataranka. Very peaceful though!

Today we explored a small bottom section of Limmen NP – and it still feels remote out here, even though we passed a few cars today. We left the trailer here by the river (its colour is perfect camouflage and means that it doesn’t stand out) and drove in the car and it turned out to be a good idea – it wouldn’t have been impossible but there were lots of river crossings and the road was pretty bad so it really would have slowed us down even more. We went first to the Southern Lost City, a site of towering sandstone formations that were first split by being pushed up from underneath and then weathered away to tall tapering columns and towers, some of which have a lean like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They look pretty cool anyway, and the walk around them takes you up to a ridge where you can look out at the Western Lost City, which apparently is much harder to get to (you have to organise getting a key and the road is even worse).

We left so early in the morning that it was still early when we were done there, so we kept going a bit further north to Butterfly Springs, which the people sharing our campsite last night recommended. It’s a lovely little pool fed by what is now a trickle of a waterfall, where we gave our hot and smelly feet a wash before having lunch at a picnic table there. True to name there were lots of butterflies there, plus lots of red dragonflies, bowerbirds and cockatoos. It’s really pretty hot here, even at night, so we’re rocketing through the water – drinking it that is, as there’s no way of washing ourselves, you’re not allowed to swim anywhere except Butterfly Springs because of the threat of crocs. Tomorrow it’s in to Borroloola to get supplies – mainly fuel, water and ice and keep heading towards Lawn Hill NP.