Variety is the spice of life!

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Day 114 - Lawn Hill to Burke & Wills Roadhouse

We'd like to wish our fellow bloggers, Kangaroojack, a very happy wedding anniversary today! Have a great time guys and we hope you enjoyed the chocolate!

We both remarked how ironic it was that now we only had the space in the back of the car to sleep ‘spoon like’ which is our natural sleeping position, we feel compelled to try and stretch out! It was an interesting conversation to have at 3am anyway! As you can tell, the 2nd nights sleep wasn’t quite so comfy!

The 6 o’clock dawn chorus was in full swing this morning and sounded beautiful, there’s something very special about waking up in the middle of the bush. We dragged ourselves out of bed just gone 7am and hit the walking trails! We’d already decided not to do the long walk to the Upper Gorge, instead we set off to the Indarri Falls.

It was already getting warm but the first section of the walk is flat and very easy going. We seem to get to the falls in no time at all and it was well worth being up there before the canoes because the mirror reflections in the water were glorious. The emerald waters of the creek glistened with the morning sun and the deep red rock of the gorge walls makes it all spectacular. We contemplate having a very early morning swim but decide to leave it a while longer and let the water warm up a little! The walk takes us higher up the gorge sides and the views from the lookouts are fabulous. We can spy a kangaroo on the other side of the gorge, he’s bounding happily around in the sun and making his way down to the waters edge but settles under the shade of a huge tree!

We get to the Duwadarri Lookout which gives us a clear view down to the waters of the gorge and the early morning canoeists. We have a great time pretending to be birds and letting out fantastic whistles all the while watching the canoeists looking around to see if they can spot this new species with the great vocals! We got caught out eventually though but let out a friendly wave and continued with the walk. There’s a steep descent to get you back into the campground and we were taken aback to see older couples choosing to walk up the steep climb rather than doing the walk the opposite way and coming down the steep climb like us!

The views back over the campground are great and we can see quite a few of the Variety Club Bash vehicles have already arrived in the day use area. As we walk along the side of the creek we’re met by Princess Fiona and Shrek! I kid you not! The Variety Club Bashers are on a day off today but that doesn’t mean they’re not having fun!

Our swim was great, granted the water was a little chillier but it just made it more refreshing!

And so our time at Lawn Hill had come to an end but we’re glad we made the extra effort to get out here, it’s truly something else.

With the car all packed, we got back on the dusty gravel track but popped into Adels Grove to catch sight of some more Variety Club vehicles. The cars are great and they’ve come in all shapes and sizes! The starting point for the Queensland group of 140 + vehicles and 500 + people was Townsville and they’ve made their way up to Lawn Hill over the past few days. On Friday they will reach Alice Spring where they’ll be joined by the Variety Club Bashers from all the other states of Australia! Oh my word, guess where we thought we would be on Friday!?! Not any more though, that’s about 1’000 too many vehicles and about 4’000 more people than we would like to be in Alice at the same time as!! Their ‘special guest’ last night was Leo Sayer and he was standing in the car park while we mooched around waiting for the Adels Grove tour bus to come pick his group up and take them off for the day. We thought he would be using his own limo (photo below!) but obviously not! It looks like heaps of fun and is all in a very worthwhile cause so please check out their website, it’s a great read. http://www.varietyqld.org.au/bash

The journey back out of Lawn Hill is a dusty one and once we’re through the gate we come up behind a cattle road train so drop back some considerable distance to avoid the stones and gravel getting thrown at us by the back wheels! We follow him through the heavily corrugated sections, even the road train gets jolted around a bit! He eventually gets to a break in the road where we can safely pass him. The road is long without any winding turns! No cattle to look at, no kangaroos to spot, just dust and grit and gravel! Finally we make it back to the bitumen and I’m just starting to nod off to sleep when we spy a road train in front of us. Darryl sat bolt upright in the seat and I do the same, with that we hear “They always wake you up a bit don’t they!” We thank the driver for the cheery call out and answer “Yes, you definitely woke us up! Thanks for that!” Meeting a road train bearing down on you when travelling along a single track road is an interesting experience!

Back at Burke & Wills our lovely, homely caravan is waiting for us. We unload, get the washing on the go and get chatting to the various people that are camped around us. Mid afternoon it’s like we are the visitor information centre as people were being sent to us asking about the condition of the roads to Lawn Hill and whether we thought their vans would be ok left here or should they take them in, whether they should camp at Adels Grove or the National Park and whether Adels Grove sold ice! We can only offer our opinion and our opinion is that it’s safe to leave the caravan at Burke & Wills, we did, and that camping in the National Park is a good option plus it’s cheaper than Adels Grove and you’ve got all the walks, canoeing and swimming right on your doorstop and that yes, Adels Grove does sell ice! We hope that everyone we’ve spoken to enjoys their trips as much as we did. The Wallaby Wanderers Visitor Information Centre also sent more people in the direction of Croydon and Bedrock Village, well they were very special places so it’s only right to share!

Lynne, this is not the place for you! There’s a green ‘you know what’ living in the drain next to our caravan and another one living under the rim of the toilet seat in the ladies loos! Even I squealed!!

We spend the evening chatting to our neighbours who are retired Salvation Army Officers. They’ve been stationed all over Australia but now live in Geelong. They’re heading across to Cairns so we give them the Croydon, Bedrock Village, Lake Tinaroo, Karunda and Paronella Park details whilst we chat!

While all the chatting was going on a road train pulled up on the highway looking like the coca-cola Christmas advert! It was lit up from nose to tail but as soon as the lights were out you couldn’t see it in the darkness of the night sky, scary!

Then we were caught in the midst of a near stampede! Ok, so not quite but two cows rushed the roadhouse and were herded away by a man on a quad bike!

It all happens here!!

Tomorrow we’re moving on to Mount Isa where we’re hoping to purchase some new hiking shoes for me, an Esky and maybe a tent!!

Hope you can cope with all this exciting stuff!

Dar and Sar

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