Awesome Aussie Life: Lawn Hill here we come

Finally the day arrived, after months of planning and preparation, we headed off on another big trip....

A round trip of just over 3000kms, the plan is to drive north to Kennedy and then up the Kirrama Range staying overnight on the Herbert River. Then continuing west, next stop will be Undara Resort and the Undara lava tunnels. We will then continue to follow the Savannah Way west almost to the Northern Territory border before heading south, stopping at Kingfisher Camp and into Lawn Hill National Park. Continuing south into Mount Isa, we then head east again along the Overlander's Way until we arrive home again.

Day 1 (Friday 3rd April 2015)

We left home early, heading north we stopped at Cardwell for lunch before turning off the highway at Kennedy (just north of Cardwell). The Kirrama range road was only recently reopened after being closed for several years following Cyclone Yasi. A smooth but long windey road, we climbed about 800m in a couple of hours and reached the top in the early afternoon.

We passed through the Blencoe Falls camp ground (which seemed fairly full - not surprising considering it was Easter long weekend) and diverted briefly to the Blencoe Falls lookout. Continuing on we passed Goshen station and finally reached the Herbert River crossing where we planned to stay the night. There were a few other campers there when we arrived, but by late afternoon the place was full. Luckily we found a spot on the other side of the river which was a bit rocky and uneven but we had it all to ourselves. A beautiful spot, and being so high up it was safe swimming (no crocs).

Nice smooth new road up the Kirrama range

Several one-lane bridges to cross

A couple of small waterfalls on the way up

Spectacular view from one of the lookouts

Another beautiful view from Kirrama range

Blencoe Falls lookout

Blencoe Falls

Valley below the falls

Enjoying a dip in the Herbert

Past water levels evident

Our campsite on the Herbert River

Herbert River crossing

Day 2 (Saturday 4th April 2015)

Woke to a cool misty mountain morning. Had one final swim before heading off. The road took us north into Mount Garnet before heading south westerly again toward Undara. Not a big drive so we arrived about lunch time, set up camp and went for a swim. We were booked on a 'sunset tour' which left around 5pm and basically took us into the National Park where we walked up a 'bluff' and watched the sun go down while eating cheese and crackers and sipping champayne. About the only interesting part was going to the entrance of a cave to watch the microbats emerging upon nightfall, and seeing all the snakes (night tigers) in-wait, hanging from the tree branches hoping to catch a bat-meal.

Perhaps we would've enjoyed this tour more if we hadn't been left with a sour taste following a miscommunication with the Undara office. Basically, we'd been told Annieka couldn't come on the sunset tour because she didn't have closed in shoes. She stayed back at camp while Brett, Brodie and I went on the tour. That would have been fine had it not been for the fact that when we got on the tour bus, so did 4 other people with thongs. The tour guide said it would've been fine, but by then it was too late.