Lawn Hill National Park & Gregory Downs

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Our journey to visit Lawn Hill National Park and Adel's Grove led us to a free camp site which so many travellers had recommended, Gregory Downs. There are three options for camping here, the designated free camp area above the Gregory River (a dusty, uninteresting spot), behind the local pub (not very inspiring) and the preferred and extremely popular area down below the bridge and alongside the beautiful, flowing Gregory River. One problem,,,,it is unbelievably popular and hard to get a spot! We were fortunate in that several campers had vacated a matter of hours before our arrival and so although we weren't able to gain a creek front spot, we had a wonderful overview of the whole area with the added benefit of full afternoon shade provided by the large gums and local scrub. During our three-night stay here, we enjoyed having our own campfire (as did many other campers), and met some really lovely people and had a very relaxing experience. The water is beautifully clear, clean and refreshing and many people enjoyed a daily dip with several children spending hours being carried downstream and returning back to their starting point to do it all again. A peaceful lagoon is to be found not far upstream, where as many campers as possible, had set up their camps. Water for drinking and bathing is plentiful, and comes from the Barkly Tablelands in the NT, flowing out of the ground and into the Gregory River at the rate of 5 cu.metres per second. Les thought it worth noting, diesel is $2 / litre here!

From this spot, it is about 1 1/2 hours drive into Lawn Hill, with Adel's Grove the first stop prior to entering the gorge area. Adel's Grove has on offer a large camping area for all types of caravans, motor homes, campers, tents or even on site cabins. Not too any people are taking their vans into this region because of the very rough, corrugated, sandy road, but those who do, have a pretty spot in which to relax between their walks and visits to the gorge. They'd need to after the bone-shaking, kidney rattling drive!

We took a tour up the gorge on a very new electric motorised boat, which has only been in service for three weeks. The only other alternative is to hire a canoe! I preferred the safe option, enabling the opportunity to take lots of photos and also receive the wealth of knowledge provided by the Parks Tour Guide. We undertook one walk after we'd had our sandwiches, which was to the lookout overlooking the whole of the gorge we'd just glided along. The last 400 metres of this walk involved climbing up the side of the pretty sheer rock face, with the and return descent along the same path! Amazingly, we discovered, full mobile phone cover here, as I received a call from Katie while we were in the process of this climb. I managed to walk down a meter or so to a safe spot where we could talk briefly.

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