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Published: June 27th 2010
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Natural waterslide
Thomas & Annelies ready to slide The road into
Lorella Springs Wilderness Park, although only 29 km, was a bit off the
Savannah Way route that we were travelling on. However, Mark had been in touch with the station owners who had been very helpful regarding the condition of Nathan River Road and had also made it sound like a nice place to spend a night or two, especially with the thought of warm thermal springs at the campground. The drive in was a bit bumpy with a few small creek crossings, but nothing too bad and it was definitely worth the effort when we arrived at the campground, which had lots of shady sites spread out along both sides of the creek with fire places - i.e. more camp oven cooking.
We set up camp, had lunch and then drove the 4 km to Emerald Pool and Wildfire Gorge. Emerald Pool had crystal clear water and a sandy bottom, while the children (young and young at heart) had fun jumping off the rocks at Wildfire Gorge. Even Alex, who is somewhat averse to cold water, got in there.
Back at the camp site, Alex and the kids hopped in the warm, aptly named 'Magical Springs' while Mark prepared
Magical Springs
Thermal pool at campground the fire for a marinated 'Black Russian' roast beef and vegies in the camp oven. When Annelies and Thomas finally dragged themselves out of the warm springs a couple of hours later in time for dinner, they had almost turned into prunes.
The next morning we drove out 12.8 km to a natural waterslide, another one of the park's attractions. We stopped off at Inkspot Hole along the way and although it was still quite cool, Thomas couldn't resist swimming there, which also involved more jumping off the rock ledge into suitably deep water. From the waterslide car park, we walked the 500 metres up the creek/gorge to the slide and although it looked very inviting and we were looking forward to cooling off, we decided to walk a further 500 metres or so up the gorge to view a waterfall that we had been told about. By the time we got back to the waterslide we were all ready for a swim and slide and also enjoyed jumping into the small plunge pools. We had lunch followed by another swim and the entire time we were the only ones there.
On the drive back we had a
Wildfire Gorge
Just to prove that Alex also swam in cool water quick look at the Muster Caves, which early station owners had used as a Wet Season store. Closer to the station we also took another track to drive past the cattle yards and along the billabong to see a large eagle's nest set high in a gum tree. Back at the campground, Mark, Annelies and Thomas took a canoe up the creek to the source of the springs where the water bubbling to the surface was quite hot. We then all went and had a drink during 'happy hour' with Annelies and Thomas making friends with Tristan and Claudia, two of the children of the station owner. We then did the short sunset walk to the top of a nearby rocky outcrop that had great views of the surrounds.
We had a great couple of days at Lorella Springs and we're glad that we made the short detour from our route to visit there. We definitely recommend it to anyone travelling nearby.
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