North to Barra country

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Lawn Hill and Karumba

In the last entry we left you at a free camp called Wonarah Bore, just east of Barkly homestead. We camped there rather than the homestead (which is more of a motel/roadhouse) as on our last trip through here in 2008, we swore that we saw Ned Kelly standing by the fuel pumps, and had no intention of filling his pockets with our hard earned! It was the best of an ordinary lot en route to Mt.Isa.

Mt. Isa was not on our itinerary, but we had time to kill before arriving at the Lawn Hill National park which we had booked (and postponed) whilst in Melbourne. So we decided that there was no real alternative but to stop over there. We did find a far better caravan park than we had last time and pulled in to refill the water tank, charge the batteries do the washing, phone Lawn Hill to move the booking (again) forward a day, empty the porta pottie and not forgetting having a real shower; I think we got our money’s worth.


The next day Terry Smith’s lookout just north of Cloncurry beckoned us to pull off the road early. It was already very busy with other free campers and it was little wonder with its wonderful new flushing drop toilets and multiple sheltered table areas. OK, we are a bit odd getting excited about the toilet arrangements, but we have come to learn that they are a critical part of planning your trip if you want to be free of the 240 volt umbilical. This stop is on the main road to Lawn Hill, Burketown, Normanton and Karumba and therefore carries a lot of road trains. Most are prime-mover and 3 x 40’ trailers, but some can have 4 x 40 trailers. You can hear them coming for miles in the stillness of the outback. A young couple and their 3 kids pulled in just after us and they gathered a heap of wood for a campfire later in the evening. We couldn’t work out why the truck drivers were giving us a blast on the horns as they roared through, but soon realised that the kids were lined up on the side of the camp waving at trucks as they thundered past. They stopped tooting at dusk, probably giving consideration to those who may have been trying to catch a bit of sleep early on. Dusk bought with it one of the most spectacular sunsets that we have seen. With some high cloud in the west, the sky turned a vivid fiery orange/red that words really cannot do adequate justice - a photo will have to do the speaking for us.

On the subject of road trains, it was the general view of those around the fire that night that they (the road train drivers) are a very courteous and considerate group. I have to say that keeping 3 or 4 semi trailers in line on roads that are not much wider than the trailers, would not be an easy task. We all agreed that it was smart to find somewhere to pull over and let them get on with their job when they approached from behind

After dinner we wandered over to the campfire as we heard music and singing. There was a couple there - woman played piano accordion and husband guitar. They were marvellous and played almost anything from Celtic to Aussie bush ballads. A good night was had by everyone and some people even got out of bed to join the campfire.

The next night we stopped at Gregory Downs pub where they have caravan parking behind the pub. If we had gone a few hundred yards further on we would have found a wonderful free camp on the side of the Gregory River. When we went past in the morning there were at least 30 vans in that area. The ‘Camps 5’ book (read bible) put us off by saying that there was no camping on the riverbank, however there were rubbish bins down there which the council regularly cleared. Who knows, but it is definitely a lovely spot to camp.


The road out to Adels grove is mainly dirt and it was our luck to meet the only 2 road trains on the single lane road out to Lawn Hill (there is the Century Mines zinc mine half way out) on sections of road that had no verge. I think Geoff’s eyes were the size of dinner plates on both occasions! Geoff forgot to mention that he did a U turn to go back to a dead tree for the wood and we were nearly bogged in very deep bull dust on the side of the road and only by revving the hell out of the engine and steering up a steep slope onto the roadway was he saved from stopping and putting into 4wheel drive! Having collected some wood for our camp fire and survived the rest of the dirt road trip without losing any of the wood tied to the roof we finally arrived at Adels Grove camping site.

Adels Grove is a privately held parcel in the National Park and takes its name from Albert de Lestang (Adels), a French botanist who purchased the lease from the government in 1930. He experimented with growing tropical trees and fruits in the area although he lost it all in 1950 when a fire escaped from one of the small mining ventures to the south. We chose a generator site and we have made good use of ours in the two days we have been here. When Margaret went inside the van after we had pulled into our allocated spot everything was covered in red dust. Even after sweeping and mopping the floor there was still dust everywhere. All surfaces had to be washed down and Marg’s blanket had to be beaten to get out the dust. That dust invades everything, even with all windows and door closed, it still gets in. It also has to be said that we work on the principle that whatever appears not to be broken does not need fixing… more later. The campsite is split into 2 parts, the generator section and those who prefer to live without 240 v power in the area known as “The Grove”. It was interesting to see a number of caravans in this section, although they were vastly outnumbered by camper-trailers and tents. Camping in the Grove was a lot more intimate that the well defined and separated sites for the gen set. We had established fireplaces and running water for each site, and neither was evident for individual sites in the Grove - just communal ones.

An 8 page guide was given to campers with their receipt and it was very comprehensive, covering all the usual regulations and features such as walks and canoeing in the area. It left one in no doubt about what was meant in many of the directions -

“YOUR FIREPLACE is the only spot where you may light a fire…if this doesn’t suit you then do not light one. To dig holes for camp-ovens will incur great wrath from management. DOGS…your dog…does not enter the amenities block and does not bark all bloody day and night. Your dog will be asked to remove itself from the property if it contravenes these few simple rules.” I especially liked the section headed FAUNA - Reptiles… you may see a number of different species of Whip snakes (all poisonous), maybe a Western brown or an Ingram’s Brown both dangerous) or our Common tree snake (quite harmless)

” Their Black-headed python, Macleay’s water snake and the Arafura File snake were also mentioned as well as the nocturnal Olive python. You could certainly say we were warned, but it is never enough when you make one trip to the amenities in the dark and almost stand on the Olive python!😱 In fact the Olive python was quite a friendly character and later on the same night, in the amenities block (which was divided across the centre into Men’s and Women’s) a woman who was apparently having a shower yelled a warning to the men that there was a snake crawling along the rafters in the men’s section. Despite the fact that it was headed for the women’s section, the ladies present thought it was a hell of a joke. Sad to say the men (hunter-gatherers, defenders of the fairer sex) did not see it the same way and one who had been showering directly under the snake’s path left wearing only his hastily raised jocks!!😊

On day two at Adels grove we packed a picnic and headed for the gorge which is about 10 km from the caravan park. We went for a few walks and then had our lunch. We had debated whether to hire a canoe ($20 for one hour) and ended up deciding that it would be worthwhile. It really was the only way to see the gorge properly and we duly paddled up to the first set of waterfalls. They are only about 6 feet high, but there are about 3-4 of them and it was quite pretty. We didn’t see any fresh water crocs, but they are there. The day was overcast so perhaps it wasn’t worth their while to sunbake on the rocks. The next day we took a trip to Riversleigh fossil centre and were a bit disappointed at what they had on display. You could only view one area and there were only about three bits of fossil to see and one had to use quite a bit of imagination as well (unless of course you count the two old fossils who were viewing the scene). Marg went for several swims in Lawn Hill Creek - (we would call it a river in Victoria) the water was an amazing turquoise colour and very refreshing. Many people were swimming, but Geoff would not - think he was afraid of the freshies. About this time the big car fridge freezer decided that it wasn’t going to work properly on 12 volt, so we had to run the generator most of the day for a couple of days. At least we have discovered that it will run for 12 hours with one fill of petrol. We have nearly lost a second lot of frozen meat and will have to have it looked at when we get back to civilization again.

We left Lawn Hill and had to go back via Gregory Downs and Burke and Wills roadhouse to head north to Normanton and Karumba. It was a lot of backtracking, but avoided many hundreds of kms of dirt road. As it was when we pulled up at Gregory Downs for morning tea there was disaster inside the caravan. The door of one of the cupboards towards the back of the van had come off and things from within were scattered all over the floor, along with half an inch of dust and all the spice jars. Another door was almost off its hinges. However the most calamitous thing was that a stone had gone through the plastic water tap on the side of the water tank and nearly all of our precious water had leaked away. Geoff bandaged it with tape and we continued on. When we pulled up that afternoon for our night time stop Geoff was kept busy putting things back together again. We were fortunate to find a plastic tap that would work for us when we stopped at Normanton next day.

We had a bit of excitement before arriving in Normanton en route to Karumba, and this time it was not a misfortune happening to the Ritchies. We had noticed smoke in the distance and rounded a bend find many caravans and campervans pulled to the side of the road and a bit of a grass fire. There were people everywhere with wet towels and water cans beating at the grass to stop the fire getting away. We duly pulled over, Geoff put on his boots and got an old towel and our only remaining water which was in a bucket and went to help. Fortunately the fire was put out and we found out what had happened. Just behind us was a Toyota ute pulling a small off-road caravan which had a very bad lean to one side. It appears that someone had not packed the wheel bearings too well and the whole hub, brake drum and wheel had said enough was enough at that point. The van had dropped its left side suspension onto the road, causing a shower of sparks that had ignited the roadside grass. We had arrived possibly 10 minutes after the event, but the heat was still radiating from the hub in the grass on the side of the road! Not that we wish ill on any fellow traveller, but we were sure glad it was someone else.

After restocking the larder at unbelievable prices and getting a replacement tap for our water tank - how amazing, we left Normanton and headed for Karumba. Karumba is unbelievably busy with nomads and other desperate fisher-people. The barramundi (main attraction) have left for the season, but there are still plenty of other fish to catch in this area. It was originally established as a centre for the prawn fishing industry, but that has moved largely to processing on the sophisticated prawn trawlers, so much so that the produce is shipped direct to market from the boats. Nonetheless, there are many folk that visit here and there is a local fish merchant that sells good Gulf prawns for $15/kg. We feasted last night, and will probably do so again tonight, and tomorrow and the day after… The 3 caravan parks are full to the gunwales and if it was possible to stack caravans vertically, they would! The town itself is very much a fishing village with an assortment of fibro (shudder) shacks, converted caravans, steel sheds and modest concrete block houses. You certainly do not come here for the glamorous accommodation.

Anyway, enough for this entry. I will try to update the map for this edition.

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Photos

Cascades
Lawn Hill creek - end of the Cascades walk

Lawn Hill Nat. Park
View from Stacked Rock Island in Lawn Hill Creek

Lawn Hill Gorge
View from the canoe

Lawn Hill Gorge downstream
Paddling back to base

"Clinging to life"
Small Eucalypts clinging to the rock-face in the gorge

Sunset from the free camp
Terry Smiths Lookout view of day's end.

Comments

[Eug]

Cheers
Some lovely photos - looks like you have nice weather too !! Eug