The drive from Karumba to Burketown proved quite interesting. Mel and Gill had warned
us about M Creek crossing which, when they crossed it a few weeks earlier, had a broken
bore and caused them a sudden, sharp dip into the river where a causeway should have been.
We kept a close watch for it as we neared the area but were dismayed to find they road was
closed and we had to take a bypass road. We'd been driving at around 90-100km per hour on
the main road but we hit some heavy bulldust on the bypass which soon slowed us down. We
can't seem to keep out the bulldust even with a new set of rear door seals. Just past the
bad patch of bulldust we came across a young couple in a trayback with a caravan sitting
in the ute. We stopped to ask if they were OK but they were only readjusting the load.
Apparently, the caravan had shifted when they hit the bulldust.
A little further along the track we came to the intersection at Floraville. We wanted
to head towards Burketown but I had heard that nearby were the Leichardt Falls although
they were not on my Hema map. We came across a German couple in a 1980 green Troopy with a
yellow kangaroo painted on the doors. They had a Lonely Planet guide to Australia and a
different map to ours so together we found the falls.
I think it was becauase we had company that we made the mistake of venturing just a
little too far off the beaten track. The road took us along a deep gully with walls of
sand 6 metres high on either side opening out to a long causeway. The falls were said to
be just off to the right. The rocky surface was too hot to walk on so David drove us
across to where we thought the falls must be. Unfortunately, we didn't bank on the sand
being so deep and so soft and with the trailer on the back we didn't make it very far. We
had to unhitch the trailer, let down the tyres on the car and even still we had to dig it
out. Thankfully, Herbert our new German friend drove across to help David push and pull
the trailer into a position where we could hitch it back up and drive it out again. We
then had to stop and top up all the tyre pressures of course without a tree in sight. All
this in the midday heat of the Gulf county! After all the excitement we didn't even bother
to get out of the car to explore the falls - they were dry anyway.
We pulled into Burketown around 4pm and the first thing we saw was the pub - hooray!
The second we walked into the dark and dingy place the locals swiveled around and
commented on seeing a female. The barmaid quickly told me that the ratio of guys to girls
is 10:1 so a blonde like me was bound to raise a few eyebrows. She looked a little too
neat and tidy herself which I later discovered was because she had only left Melbourne
6mths ago. Jennifer was her name, and she had spent a year working in New Zealand
previously and then saw an advertisement in the Age stating "Outback Adventure -
barstaff required" and she and her boyfriend packed up and left. Jenny told us some
funny stories about the locals in town and then added that she'd had enough and was
heading back to Melbourne as fast as she could. One of her stories was about the change of
ownership in her first month of working at the pub. When the new owners took over they
started to go through the stuff in the shed and came across the landsailers but couldn't
find the sails for another 3 weeks. When they rigged them up they took off down the main
street until the local Police suggested they should find a better location. We noticed a
photo up on the wall of the 4 landsailers on the saltpans and Jenny concured that they had
some great times out there.
We continued onto Escott Station just 13km out of town and discovered paradise. Escott
is a working cattle station with it's own airfield that not only attracts touring pilots
but gliders with the hope of capturing a photograph of a Morning Glory. While we were
there the army brought in 5 helicopters for a "mission". It was here that we
heard of a 4wd track out of Lawn Hill that would bypass Burketown via Kingfisher Camp. We
will check it out as we get closer because it will give us a 150km shortcut.
DAY 57 Friday 18th September
When we arrived at Escott we met up with some of the same guys who were drinking in the
Burketown pub - they were workers for the Pasminco project. Escott was fully equipped with
its own bar, silver service restaurant, rodeo ring, marked 4wd tracks, boat hire, great
fishing locations and of course camping both powered and non-powered with good hot
showers, toilets and even a laundry.
We arrived fairly late in the afternoon on Thursday and so left the exploring until
Friday. First thing in the morning we went to Christians Camp and threw our lures in the
salt water river - we were advised that the salt water was biting better at the moment.
David didn't think there were enough trees here so we moved on to another site. This was
not a difficult thing to find here as the property was at least a few thousands hectares.
We explored a few fishing sites with no bites until midday and returned to have a
leisurely lunch.We found the swimming pool to be quite refreshing and were able to observe
the stockmen unload a Palomino stallion, saddle up 3 other stockhorses and load them all,
saddled up, into a truck and take off for a ride. After our lunch break we headed off to
the other side of the property and explored the full reaches of the salt river. At Darby's
camp David slipped down a muddy embankment, dropped his reel in the mud and consequently
caught his lure in a branch that was almost submerged only 5 metres off the bank. He
fiddled and yanked and broke his line just trying to retreive his lure but in desperation
took off his clothes and in croc infested waters waded out to rescue his $10 lure - much
to my disgust and verbal disencouragement. Once the lure was retreived we left that site.
A little further along the back David spotted a large croc just as it submerged hearing
our approach.
The next few sites were inappropriate for David to throw in his line but when he did he
slipped in the muddy embankment again and burried his reel in the mud. I tried to help
matters and took the rod and fully submerged it in an effort to clean it - opps! I'm a bit
new to fishing you see. Our day ended with no fish, a broken ego and a set of muddy
clothes.
DAY 58 Saturday 19th September
We left Escott at 9.30am bound for Lawn Hill. I suggested we needed to stock up with
more supplies so we made a slight detour of only 3kms or so into Burketown again. We
bought a case of beer, a cask of red wine, some UHT cream, broccoli, soft drinks and
forgot the most important item - bread. The road out to Lawn Hill via Gregory Downs was
extremely good - we travelled at over 100kms per hour the whole trip. We stopped in at
Gregory Downs for a drink at the historic pub and tried to buy bread but was told to go
over the road to the general store.
Much to my disgust we drove across the road to the store, bought our load
of frozen bread for $3 and then noticed the rear nearside tyre was going flat quickly. We
pumped it up using our air compressor but it was deflating faster than we could inflate it
so a quick tyre change was made. We ummed and ahhed whether to continue on to Lawn Hill to
repair it there but thought the best place to make repairs was in the cool. The dirt road
was only 100kms long and was almost a highway. Along the way we read signs suggesting we
should bring our own firewood into the National Park and so at my insistence we stopped to
collect some wood. Unfortunately it is my fault - but as we slowed down to stop, we
flicked up a stone from the trailer onto the back rear door window and smashed it
entirely. A quick roadside repair with cloth tape and we were on our way again.
Arriving at Lawn Hill was like arriving at an oasis. The rolling mountains
on the approach are spectacular in themselves yet alone the delightful cool green swimming
water that awaits at your campsite. The rangers station is quite polatial and lies besides
the gorge. Campers can enjoy swimming, cannoying and walking in perfect safety.
We arrived knowing we would meet up with 2 groups of friends - Herbert and Iza (our
German friends) and Ken and Irene from Ballarat. Sure enough, we are camped right between
the two and shared a swim and happy hour with Ken and Irene this evening.
DAY 59 Sunday 20th September
This morning we met Irene and Ken around 8.30am and walked the 100m or so down the
track. Here in the clearning besides the river was a friendly gentlemen from Adels Grove
(the private camping ground and store 10km or so out of the National Park). For a $20
deposit for each canoe we set off for a 3 hour cruise up the Lawn Hill Gorge.
The gorge is only about 60m wide and in places narrows right down to only the width of
the canoe. There are a choice of either two or three person canoes and Ken and Irene took
one canoe and David and I took another. The boys acted like 10 year olds all morning -
splashing and having races. Thankfully we were carrying cameras so there was no canoe
capsizing!
We started our trek at the Middle Gorge and made our way up to the
Waterfall (Indarri) where there is a Canoe Portage. It is quite a good setup with floating
marinas for the canoes and steps for the people to walk up whilst dragging the canoes up
the ramp. The two guys actually rode down the canoe portage in their
canoes like the "solo man" - it was pretty funny.
Once at the top you enter the Upper Gorge after following some windy, dense pandanas
creeks. This gorge has a sandy bottom and almost a beach in which we swam and played like
children. I am amazed when I remember being told by "Dorothy" at Escott station
that Lawn Hill was overated. She obviously doesn't like the outdoors. We think this place
is heaven. We haven't covered any of the many good walking trails here yet and there is so
much wildlife to investigate. Smalls lizards are plentiful as are birds of many varieties
including Comeras, bowers, finches and doves. In the water we saw many small bream and
stripey grunter. This afternoon we might walk to the Ranger station and book another night
and while we are there read up about the local inhabitants.
We are experimenting with our battery system for keeping the fridge cool. Ken is
leaving his car at the designated area for battery charging as generators are prohibited
in the National Park of course.
DAY 60 Monday 21st September
Today David and I set off fairly early (9am) for a walk to the Island Stack which is
the highest peak in the area. The walk was a steep rock climb and I was amazed that I made
it to the top before David. However, once at the top with the sun bearing down on us I
lagged behind as we completed a 1.7km circuit track that took us to various lookout points
of spectacular views of the gorge below. On the return journey down the stack we took a
detour to the Cascades which are small rapids and had a quick dip to cool down and
refilled our water bottle. We returned to our camp about 2 hours later and headed straight
back into the gorge. We were having such a wonderful time at Lawn Hill that we enquired at
the Ranger Station if we could stay another night. Although it was school holidays and
they were in fact booked out from Wednesday to Saturday they allowed us to stay put for
one more night. We planned to go canoeing up the gorge another time.In the afternoon I
pulled out our game of Mahjong that we haven't used yet and together Ken, Irene, David and
I got the rules sorted and even started scoring our games. We had a lot of fun.
DAY 61 Tuesday 22nd September
Ken and Irene left this morning to begin their trip back home to Ballarat. We have been
invited to drop in and stay with them on our way through although we haven't planned if we
are even going to Victoria yet.We all got along well and its great to meet new friends on
a trip like this.
By the time we arrived at the canoe hire all the two-man canoes had been taken. We were
given a three-man canoe for the same price but they didn't have any double paddles. David
and I became so frustrated with our paddling it almost became funny. Usually the heavier
person would sit in the back of the canoe and lighter one in front. We started off like
this but my seat was in the middle of the canoe and the seat was so wide I couldn't reach
my arm and paddle over both sides without shifting my seating position. Consequently, each
time I did this the canoe would make a sharp and sudden dip to the other side almost
placing David in the gorge! Finally, we switched places but it was such hard work paddling
from the back that sometimes David's strokes would overpower mine and we would end up
zig-zagging across the gorge and colliding with pandandas and tufa.
We kept the canoe for 3 hours and then returned to lazing about in the
tyre tubes. We perfected somersaults and barrell rolls with no hands whilst having our
butts jammed into the tyres. Silly.
To keep our fridge battery charged we needed to take the car for a spin and it was good
to explore some of the tracks and take in the spectacular scenery. We found some ruins of
a mine and took a few photos and then tried to setup a drive-by photo of the car spewing
out bull dust with a typical gulf savannah backdrop. David would drop me off by the side
of the road with the camera and then drive off a few kilometres, turn around and then send
up as much bull dust as he could as he raced towards me. I took quite a few of these
photos so I hope they turn out because they would really show what its like to be out here
driving.
