Day 4

Day 4 (Destination - Hann Crossing campsite, Lakefield NP)

Only a short drive today, Six Mile Waterhole to Hann Crossing, still within Lakefield NP. The road wasn't too bad, bit corrugated in places but otherwise not too bad. We stopped at Red Lily lagoon and walked the 50m from the car park to the viewing platform which was set out into the lillies with strong fencing along all sides to make it croc safe (waving your hands over the edge is probably not recommended). I can imagine it would be really spectacular when the lillies were all flowering, however apart from the odd couple, it was not the red carpet of flowers we were hoping to see. There was plenty of birdlife though, magpie geese, brolga's, storks and the odd ibis that we could see.

Red Lily Lagoon viewing platform with croc proof fencing

Magpie geese & brolga

Stork

Lily pod (or shower head as Brett calls them)

We also stopped at the Breeza Plains Outstation which would have provided a roof over the drovers heads once upon a time.

We reached our destination before lunch. The site is not as dusty and sandy as 6 Mile but not a lot of shade. Only one small tree to park under and so we set up camp again. It was extremely hot and I was once again able to get a small load of washing dry in no time.  We were camped beside a creek again, this time with a high rocky ledge separating us from any snapping handbags around. We tried our hand at fishing again - unsuccessful except for 2 turtles which got thrown back. We threw in two red-claw pots to leave overnight.

Our camp at Hann Crossing

There is a causeway about 100m from our camp, we had to drive over it to reach our camp and we'd noticed it looked like a safe spot for a quick dip. So off we went to have a closer look. The water was quite clear and shallow, running rapidly over a very rocky section before cascading down a ledge into the river below, so we decided it was unlikely to be negotiated by crocs and we'd have plenty of opportunity to see them coming if they did. It was a like a little oasis in the middle of a hot dry and dusty camping area.

Cooling off near our campsite

There was no one else around, except for one bloke who pulled up at our site asking if we'd had any luck with the fishing. By dark though, several other campers had set up in the sites either side of us. There is about a 50m distance between sites so there were never any problems with noise.

The landscape here is interesting, there is volcanic rock ledges running along the edge of the river and patches of moon crater-like sections of volcanic rock nearby. Big holes filled with pebbles that you can almost disappear into.

We tried spotting red eyes with our torches and think we saw one but couldn't be sure - there was only one 'eye' and it didn't move.

Curried sausages on the camp fire for dinner tonight - yum!