One stubby short of a six pack!

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Day 112 - Burke & Wills Roadhouse to Lawn Hill

Unsurprisingly the party mood went on long into the night, the cowboys n cowgals were certainly making the most of their well earned time off! There were some strange noises outside in the early hours but you just needed to push it to the back of your mind and nod back off to sleep!

The alarm went off at 7am so we finished getting ready for the road trip then went to grab a shower. Late last night I decided to put half a load of washing on and to my delight it’s a) still hanging on the line in one piece and b) bone dry already!

The dribble in the showers was hard work but we figured it was just getting us ready for ‘roughing it’ as the showers at Lawn Hill will most likely be freezing!

We said our goodbyes to the McAdams and wished them well with their heritage boat ventures and we called out to our old neighbour & his dog ‘Brother’ to say we hoped to see them in Lawn Hill.

The caravan is all locked up with the power on keeping the food left in the fridge chilled! Fingers crossed and touch wood that it’s all ok for the next couple of days but we’re sure our fellow travellers will keep an eye on things for us.

The Camp Draft had started again at 7 this morning so we drove over there to have one last look. Things are well underway when we roll up and we spend another hour watching and picking up a few more of the rules.

We’re not sure how long it will take us to get to Lawn Hill although one guy told us that the journey is probably the same amount of time as it would to drink 5 beers, thus it was about “1 stubby short of a six pack” but maybe further!! At just gone 9am we decided to get on the road and at that time of the morning it’s far too early for any stubbies at all!

The road is not bad condition, bitumen single track pretty much all the way to Gregory Downs and then the gravel kicks in. We’ve been told there’s another way to Lawn Hill from Mount Isa which is all bitumen but neither of us can find it on the map or in any of the leaflets, maybe it’s new but the locals seem to think that’s the best way of getting there these days. Something to look into for future trips maybe!

We moved from Cloncurryshire into the shire of Carpentaria with 102 kms still to travel before reaching Gregory Downs. There are herds of cattle out here, they must be very hardy creatures to live in the dusty, dry conditions at this time of year. The grass is yellow where it’s so dry, you wonder what they do survive on.

Flocks of brightly coloured birds fly out from the treetops and swoop over the road as we drive along, not sure what they are but one group were bright green and the other group bright yellow! Darryl is sure they’re budgies and as I can’t find anything in the bird book we’ll just have to go with that!

When we get to Gregory Downs we wave to our old neighbour from the roadhouse and 'Brother' gives us a wag of the bum (he's got no tail) in acknowledgement too! We're on to the gravel road now for 110kms.

The track condition gets much worse when you get past the mine turning, we figure that because the road trains don’t come this far there’s little need for the road to be constantly maintained. The corrugations are enough to rattle us and the car, Dar keeps a tight grip of the steering wheel because it gets a mind of its own in places! The red dust is all around us and when you meet oncoming traffic the scenery disappears for a while!

We stop to open the gate to allow us access to the National Park, there’s only the one gate but we seem to remember Kangaroojack having to do 23 of these when they travelled from Kingfisher Camp to Adels Grove! Lucky Caroline!

Hurrah, we finally make Adels Grove and find a nice little camp site with some basic supplies. We purchase some frozen burgers and pork chops figuring we can cook these in the camp oven on the fire tonight. We did try to book in at the campsite using their website but there weren’t any sites available for tonight or tomorrow so instead we’re booked in at the National Park. Chatting to the woman at reception it’s because the Variety Club Bash are due here tomorrow with 500 people and about 150 vehicles! Blimey, no wonder we couldn’t get it! We bid the lady a nice day and continue on to the National Park campsite.

The terrain going in is 10kms of gravel and dusty track, nothing too outlandish though and once we arrive we scout round for a shady spot. We’re sleeping in the car for the next two nights so where we camp is critical if we don’t want the inside of the car to reach furnace like temperatures! We find a spot and park up, waving to the neighbours as we go! One thing we notice immediately is the distinct lack of fire pits which could be a problem as having some sort of fire is our only method of cooking. We have a good wander around the site, the amenities are excellent considering the location of the site. There are showers which only have cold water but running the tap indicates that the water is being heated by the sun and they’re gorgeous! There’s also a good supply of fresh, drinkable water too. We set the car up moving everything out and laying down the cushions we’ve brought from the caravan seats! On top of those we place towels and then throw the pillows and quilt in, that’s the bed done! To keep the car as shaded as possible we threw the old bed blanket over the top to cover the side windows and luckily it’s got little holes all over it so with the car windows open it lets air in but not flies! Result! Another brilliant realisation was that all along we’ve had a sun cover for the front window of the car and never knew! We often wondered what this plastic sheet was for so it’s just been sitting in the boot being used to protect the carpet but now the penny’s dropped and we’ve figured what its real purpose in life is with perfect timing!

With the car set up we head over to the information shelter to see if it indicates where the fire pits are as we still haven’t found any. The information sign we find says there should be some and the booklet we’ve got agrees but we still can’t find any! The rangers station is unattended but we do find an updated version of the booklet, it’s pretty much the same detail as the one we have with one minor update; there are no fires allowed! Well that answered that then! It’s a bit of a blow to those of us whose only method of cooking is to light a fire but we come up with an alternative rescue plan! Andy from Kangaroojack kindly gave us the base of a gas cylinder which could be used to light small amounts of wood in and then you balance the camp oven on top to cook your food. We’ll see how things pan out early evening and make the decision then but until that point there’s a beautiful creek to swim in and walks to do!

The water is the perfect temperature when it’s a hot day like today, cold but with warm patches! There’s a few other swimming already so we get in down by the canoe point and then swim further along the gorge. Blissful, it really is blissful. The high red rocks and the emerald water make the whole place stunning. There’s plenty of fish in the creek including Archer fish and Long Toms so we share their space and float around for ages before deciding that we’re now cool enough to go for a bit of a walk.

Before we’d gotten very far we see a chap sitting at one of the picnic benches. He’s found a Bowerbird nest and is watching the bird up in the tree. He tells us that the male Bowerbird builds the best and most tantalising nest possible to impress the female! The bird is going mad up in the tree but as we sit quietly he does come back down for a split second before returning to his branch to protest at our presence some more! We leave the bird watcher to it and continue down towards the walking track.

We chose the Wild Dog Dreaming walk where we find the scenery is wonderful and with the day cooling off a bit the birds are starting to sing loudly from the trees. Lawn Hill is also known as Boodjamulla, the aboriginal name for the area and the Waanyi people welcome visitors to their country but ask you to respect this special place. The m Wild Dog Dreaming walk takes you to an aboriginal heritage art shelter where the taking of photographs is not permitted. It’s an interesting walk and the rock art has been naturally preserved over the years although sadly some little sh*t has added a noughts and crosses game to it. Honestly, there are some questionable humans on this earth.

The walk continues down to the Lower Gorge where we can clearly hear the Barking Owls, it’s a fantastic call and we search the trees across the other side for their roost but they’re difficult to spot! The sun is starting to fade now so we head back to camp to get dinner on the go. We bump into another couple camping here and they too have brought firewood expecting to be able to light a fire but they do have the back up of a gas stove which we don’t! We’re still a bit unsure of what to do but they suggest that so long as it’s contained that should be fine, they would do it in the same circumstances. Ok, well with no Ranger to ask we take a chance and light the fire within the base from Kangaroojack. Sure enough the camp oven is heating up nicely and soon we’re sitting eating a beautiful stew listening to the Barking Owls across the creek.

Dar got attacked by our camp ‘bat’ at one stage but he seemingly got used to us being there after a while and calmed down only for a cricket to join in the fun! We can’t believe how far they can ‘jump fly’, it’s really weird and they just crash into things!

Our neighbours from across the path come over to invite us for a chat after dinner so we do just that and in fact take our washing up with us as they’d kindly offered their hot water. Barry and Kath helped us out earlier by putting some of our food in their fridge which we’re very grateful for, they’re a lovely couple and very funny. Kath is originally from Detroit and Barry from Tasmania but they now live in Gladstone. We while away the hours laughing about one thing and another, they told us some great stories as all the travellers do! We get to talking about doing the canoeing tomorrow and Kath tells us they have a blow up canoe with them but that a guy in Darwin shook his head at them wanting to use it through the territories and referred to it as a Crocodile Teething Ring! Well, he had a point!! We thank them both for their hospitality and for keeping our food in their fridge, bless them, we’ll see them in the morning!

Time for bed so we tucked ourselves into the back of PIE and snuggled down!

Dar and Sar

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