Lawn Hill here we come - days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5 (Tuesday 7th April 2015)

Woken by a neighbourhood rooster, we once again packed up and headed off. We were intending on getting on the road early but decided to take the time to look around Croydon first. We drove out to Lake Belmore and stopped at Diehms lookout.  Then back in town we stopped at the old court house and police station which are now set up as museums with lots of the towns history on display.

Heading on our way again, this time planning to go all the way to Kingfisher Camp. Unfortunately our plans went awry with a bit of vehicle mishap. We deviated briefly into Normanton to get some supplies, re-fuel and take an obligatory photo with Krys the giant crocodile, before continuing on. We also stopped at the Leichhardt River crossing to have some lunch. We were (luckily) only about 10km out of Burketown when Brett noticed the front end felt a bit floaty. Stopping we discovered the front passenger side shock absorber mount had cracked right off the chassis.  The shock absorber was just flopping around and luckily hadn't done any damage to anything else. We unbolted and removed it altogether before driving (much slower) into Burketown looking for a welder.  Luckily, Nowland Engineering was open and welded the mount back onto the chassis. "Can't give you any guarantees - it might last 5 minutes or it might last 12 years"..we were told. Brett will have it fixed properly with high-tensile weld when we get back but hopefully this will hold.  It appeared to have an existing crack - possibly a casualty of our Cape trip a few years ago.

As it was late afternoon already and Kingfisher Camp was still a few hours away, we decided to stop overnight at Burketown. Staying at the caravan park, we were soon joined by the same couple who had camped beside us in Croydon the night before. We enjoyed a good chat and a few drinks into the evening. 

Lake Belmore, Croydon

Overlooking Croydon

The old police headquarters, now museum - Croydon

The old courthouse - Croydon

Krys the giant croc, Normanton

A dead freshwater crocodile

A strange contraption on the banks of the Leichhart River

Removed shock absorber

Broken mount

Our campsite in Burketown

Day 6 (Wednesday 8th April 2015)

Apart from several neighbourhood dogs barking all night, Burketown was a redeemable sort of place - perfectly adequate for an overnight stay.  Still feeling a bit uneasy about the stability of the shock absorber, we farewelled the other couple (who were heading to Darwin) saying "if you see us pulled over on the side of the road, stop because we might need help".  Twenty minutes later we had stopped to empty the diesel in our gerrican into the Rodeo's fuel tank when who should drive up... lol

The drive into Kingfisher Camp was fairly good, a little rough in places (all dirt), but we just took our time. We arrived early afternoon to find we had the place to ourselves.  A terrific spot, green grass and lots of trees and wildlife around. Bordered on one side by the Nicholson River and a small creek on the other, we got our fishing gear out and wet a line. There was a boat ramp and a small boat that guests could hire which was initially offered to us at half price because we were the only ones there. The caretakers explained it had a new outboard on it which hadn't been started yet. Long story short, Brett got the motor started but it wouldn't go into gear so the caretaker gave us an old outboard to try. By that point the caretakers had said we could use it for free because we'd spent so much time trying to get it to work, however after ages playing with it and Brett couldn't get that one to run properly either so we gave up.

No luck with the fishing, although we did spot a small freshwater crocodile in the creek. By late afternoon, we were surrounded by wallabys, lots of birdlife, a few cows, and "Malcolm" the giant goanna. The mishaps continued, with me in the process of chopping up firewood, ending up with a log landing on my foot which caused a huge swelling like I've never seen before. I was to spend the next couple of days limping around and my foot turning a shade of green.

The amenites were reasonable with hot showers. Dingoes howled in the far off distance but otherwise we slept very well....until we were woken by the sound of very loud grass munching and found the cows were now only a few metres from the tent. By morning they had all moved on.

This trailer aint going nowhere - An extreme case of tyre burnout

Our campsite at Kingfisher

Day 7 (Thursday 9th April 2015)

Upon checking our yabby pots we found we'd caught a huge yabby...that is one huge yabby. We kept him for awhile but when we didn't catch anymore we let him go. We'd left 2 fishing lines in overnight and found one was snagged but the other had a small catfish. 1-nil to the girls!

We had made the decision to bring the legs for our camper on this trip, so we could detach it from the back of the ute and leave it when we wanted. This turned out to be a good decision today because we decided to do the drive out to Hedley's gorge.  We headed off, the rodeo pleased to be free from about 2.5 tonne on its back, taking several hours to get there and back to camp. It was an interesting drive, very rough and overgrown in places, we even passed a fully loaded cattle truck negotiating a narrow creek crossing, but we made it to the end of the road. There was some very pretty scenery with tall rocky escarpments either side of us in places.  We then had a 1km walk into the gorge. There wasn't a lot of water because it's been very dry across most of North Qld this year, but there was enough for a swim. We also spotted more small freshwater crocodiles.

We stopped to collect more firewood on the way back to camp, which led to my 2nd mishap with timber and resulted in a very swollen right hand. I was officially taken off firewood collection duties at this point. Back at camp we found we had another couple who had joined us at the camp grounds. Two more cars followed later in the afternoon. We had a bit of restless night, not because of other campers but because the cows visited us again around 3-4am. This time a huge bull got a little too close to our awning ropes. Brett, fearing it might get a leg caught and take off dragging us behind him, called out to scare him off. It worked and they left us in peace again. 

Escarpment near Hedley's gorge

The road in to the gorge

Hedleys gorge

A 'freshie' in a waterhole near the gorge

Taking a dip in the gorge

Kingfisher camp

Kingfisher camp

Lawn Hill here we come - days 3 & 4

Day 3 (Sunday 5th April 2015)

Woke early to have some brekky and pack up before the Undara caves tour. The tour bus took us into the national park again, to a section where several caves are accessible. After a short walk from the car park, we went down into the area which is like one long ancient lava flow that has formed tunnels, collapsed in some sections allowing rainforest-like growth to sprout up in between the cave sections.

Not sure what I was expecting but there were no stalactites or stalagmites, just big cavernous tubes of rock. Much of the tunnel is segmented, seemingly made up of large pieces of rock stuck together. Evident everywhere are the pieces that have fallen down over the years and now rest on the ground.  Our tour guide assured us that none have fallen recently and that various movement checks are in place to hopefully alert them to any instability. Nevertheless it was still interesting and worth the visit.

The walk to the caves

Down into the tunnels

A section of the tunnel

Inside one of the caves

Following the tour, we were on our way again - this time turning off the Gulf Development road to go through Einsleigh and Forsayth, before making our way to Cobbold Gorge. We  stopped briefly at Einsleigh to look at the Copperfield Gorge. A short walk from the carpark across a vast expanse of rock before looking down upon a small gorge area which was full of people swimming.  There was a rodeo on that weekend which explained the crankiness of 2 police officers that Brett almost had a run in with.  Apparently we were not 'in the bush' enough for public urination to be considered acceptable.  Moving on we pulled into the Forsayth pub for some lunch. Nice place which looked like it had been recently renovated - although the pool table didn't work and took our $2.

Walking to copperfield gorge

Copperfield gorge

About 40kms south of Forsayth, Cobbold Gorge was not somewhere I'd heard of before I started preparing for this trip. The road in was a bit rough and very dusty but no more so than much of the road after we left Undara. The Gulf Development road still has large sections of dirt road to traverse.  Arriving early afternoon, Cobbold Gorge is like an oasis in an otherwise rugged part of the country.  A cattle property upon which they discovered this magnificent gorge. Driving up to the office, we past the newish 'infinity' pool overlooking a large dam and bar/restaurant area. Everyone was immediately impressed.  Similar to Undara, you have to book & pay to do a tour of the gorge, you can't just go in on your own. This was booked for the following morning.

We set up camp (again the campsite was full as it was Easter Sunday) and immediately made use of that fantastic pool. They have a 'swim up bar' too so we had a couple of beers, served in a plastic cup but only $5 each so who cares. The dam has a couple of canoes for free guest use so we had a paddle around in these too.  The amenities were excellent - the prefab demountable type with a number of ensuites (toilet & shower combined). Despite the number of campers, everyone was fairly well behaved and we had another quiet night.

Our campsite at Cobbold

The pool and dam in background

Relaxing in the Cobbold bar

Day 4 (Monday 6th April 2015)

By 9am it was like a mass-exodus as about 90% of campers packed up and headed presumably back to their respective homes as the end of the easter long weekend had arrived.  We did a sort of half pack up but didn't rush as we were booked to do the tour at 10am.

The tour bus, a large 4x4 type, took us through some rough terrain and across the wide, currently dry, expanse of the Robertson River before stopping near the gorge. First we went for a 'bush walk' with Stephen our guide, who very enthusiastically pointed out the bush tucker, flora & fauna, geology & historical aspects of the area. We learnt about the Leichhardt breadfruit tree and the soap bush as well as many more. There was a rocky outcrop where evidence of past aboriginal use could be seen. There was the gravesite of John Corbett, an early pioneer from the late 1800's, who had died back in the days when this area was considered the 'highway' to Darwin and was nothing more than an overgrown track by todays standards. Reportedly murdered by aborigines but more likely to have been the gold hungry publican or associate. We walked up to the escarpment which overlooks the gorge, and then finally we boarded the purpose built boats which are just wide enough to traverse the narrow gorge. Spectacular!  Well worth 3 hours of our time. There was also a filmcrew there for the travel show 'Getaway' so expect Cobbold will be covered on their show sometime in the future (no, we didn't get our mugs in any of the filming).

We got back to camp around 1pm, finished packing up and had some lunch at the Cobbold bar before heading off to our next destination.  When we set off, we didn't really have a definate idea of where to aim for, but by the time we reached Croydon we were buggered and decided to stop here. Glad we did because it was a pleasant little caravan park. Not many other travellers so we camped by the camp kitchen and the kids enjoyed some television for a while. There was a big pool and the area was shady with lots of green grass (a nice change from the fairly barren dirt camp grounds at Undara & Cobbold).

Waiting for the tour

A suspected aboriginal historic site

Looking down on the Getaway filmcrew

Above the gorge

The beautiful Cobbold gorge

An interesting rock formation - about the closest we got to seeing a real crocodile.

Lawn Hill here we come - days 1 & 2

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.

Our campsite at Undara resort

Undara sunset

The 'Night Tiger' brown tree snakes in the trees above us

Tawny frogmouth on the road in front of the tour bus

Not the best photo but an attempt to capture the 'blood moon' eclipse