Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park and Riversleigh

Next day we unloaded all of our camping gear from the caravan onto the 4WD, loaded up the caravan with inessentials, left the caravan at the caravan park and began the long, bumpy trek along the endlessly corrugated road to Adels Grove, Riversleigh and Boodjamulla National Park (home of the Lawn Hill Gorge).  This is easily the roughest road that we have been on yet - about 2.5 hours on gravel and dirt - and no-one told us that the Gregory River was in our way...

 

Yes, the dam wall that you see is the road!  About 0.5m at the deepest point.



Another of the three river crossings on the way in

Kel's 4wd prowess brought us, including Flynn the newly named car, through unscathed.  On the way we stopped at the Riversleigh World Heritage site to check out the in-situ crocodile and bird fossils and for Kel to reminisce.  

Upon arriving at Adels Gorge, we found a lovely shady campsite and set up camp. Discovered an unfortunate packing fail - the plug had become separated from the airbed :((( The kids explored "the island" and we finished the day with dinner and a campfire.  Rich started getting hot and cold sweats while cooking the sausages, climaxing with a huge burst of vomit (away from the sausages) before going for a lie down.  He emerged a little later a little more lucid – put this event down to a bout of heat stroke.

Had a day of rest at the campsite, including some dreaded schoolwork.  We went for a swim in the crocodile infested rapids (well, one stationary freshwater crocodile anyway).  The kids enjoyed floating down on the rubber rings.

Rich was given the mission by Kel to find a solution to the missing airbed plug – which he did by sculpting a potato.   Would it pop out in the middle of the night???. Another dinner by the campfire and then gingerly climbed into bed.

We woke up on a still inflated airbed – Rich is a dead set McGyver legend! Our third day at Adel’s grove consisted of more swimming, Rich getting a massage from a senior citizen and then an afternoon walk around Lawn Hill Gorge where we bathed in the beautiful cascades before taking the trek to the other waterfalls. Rich went for a swim there – everyone else was a bit too chicken due to the resident freshwater crocs. Got back in time to cook dinner, again by the campfire.  Potato plug had shrivelled during the day - but wait, there's a carrot - fit for purpose!  Woke up to an intruder overnight - a feral cat that got into the tent through a hole (about the size of Kel's foot) and went berserk.

On our final day, got up early and headed back to the gorge where we hired a canoe and paddled us and the kids upstream. Upon arriving at the waterfalls, Dylan and Ariel jumped overboard and enjoyed a swim amongst the waterfalls.

Packed up camp in the morning and took the long corrugated drive back to Mt Isa, having a close encounter with a couple of Willy Willys along the way.  From a distance they looked like smoke from a fire.  Up close their size and fury was seriously impressive!