Days 78 - 88 of trip with no particular destination (Limmen National Park to Hell's Gate Roadhouse)
Days 78 - 88: Limmen National Park to Hell's Gate Roadhouse
Day 78: Katherine to Limmen National Park (Marra and Yanyuwa country)
We did not hurry off this morning as we had to wait until PO opening hours for my camera battery charger and new batteries. We left in time to arrive to the water-filling station at the Katherine Visitor Centre where Pete could fill the camper up with water while I went to the PO. Well, at 9:05 I tried the front door – no good. The Katherine PO operates only from a side service roller door. They only do mail – the first PO where I have seen this for a long time. Security problems I guess… Anyway, my parcel was there so we could get moving again!
Today it was off to begin our adventures in Limmen National Park, first stop a small camp called Yurrlmundji. The start of the Savannah Way, which is what this part of 'Highway No. 1' is called, is basically one lane of bitumen up to the start of the national park. There are mining B-quads (?) that also use the road - that means anyone else gets off!
Finally, at the start of the national park and for the first time this trip, we let our tyres down in anticipation of a rough road. It was certainly quite badly corrugated in places, but otherwise a straightforward drive. You cross a number of creeks, some with water, most without at this time of the year.
A bad start to the day when I realised, after we’d packed
up, that I did not have my prescription sunglasses. We looked everywhere. We opened the camper back up then spent the
best part of an hour trying to retrace my steps in my wanderings around the
campground. That was an impossible task. We had no luck finding them – I can
but hope that some other wandering person happens across them and hands them
into the ranger station. Not much chance of that I’m afraid. Luckily I also have my old pair which I will use, despite their scratches.
We then shook ourselves down the corrugated road for about
120km towards Butterfly Falls. We crossed Towns River and Limmen River and
enjoyed stopping to wander around these oases in what is otherwise a very dry landscape. A sure sign of water are these beautiful, tall weeping paperbarks.
Butterfly Falls is the only swimmable area in Limmen National Park but by the time we reached there, the falls had long stopped running and the waterhole was looking decidedly NOT tempting. Rather green and obviously visited by stray cattle etc for drinking. Not an alluring area for a swim. However, the spot is pretty with beautiful trees.
There were plenty of birds and even a day-time feeding flying fox to entertain us. So many Silver-headed Friarbirds and Greater Bowerbirds squawking their way around, feeding on flowering grevillea.
Day 80: Western Lost City
Today we headed out to the Western Lost City, a 1.5 hour
28km 4WD trip to one of the most amazing rock formations I’ve ever seen. A code
is required from the Ranger Station to access the gate to get into this area
mostly, I think, to stop AWD vehicles or non-4WD from going in there. The track was slow going but nothing hairy.
On the way we stopped at a creek where there were
stromatolites, fossilised algae basically.
These were amazing and we stopped again on the way back to see if there
were more upriver (no water around). There were even better examples about 50 m
from the road.
The Western Lost City itself cannot adequately be described either in words or in photos. These monolithic rocks have been carved out by millions of years of erosion after layers of sandstone formed under the sea at great pressure, cracked when the land levels rose and were pushed up out of the sea. Wind and water erosion ate away at the cracks forming this amazing landscape. Limmen is home to four such ‘lost cities’. Tourists are able to visit two of them.
The formations at Western Lost City are mostly huge. There
is a wonderful archway that leads into what I imagine would have been an
important place for someone in ancient times.
We spent most of the day out there – a really special area.
We also happened upon a bowerbird bower while we were out here. There is not much blue in these parts so white is the go – snail shells, bones, white rocks.
The lost city formations are only in one area. You turn around and the landscape changes suddenly.
The Western Lost City was absolutely alive with birds, mostly Red-collared Lorikeets, Silver-headed Friarbirds, Greater Bowerbirds and many types of honeyeaters. The one pictured here is a Yellow-tinted Honeyeater. They sung us around as we walked through the place.
Day 81: Butterfly Falls to Southern Lost City (Marra and Yanyuwa country)
Today we started with a short, much smoother (road had
recently been graded) drive down to the Southern Lost City campground. There
would have been four or five groups of campers here last night but they were
all leaving by the time we arrived and for a while we had the place to
ourselves. This campground is right next
to the Southern Lost City so after morning tea we took the walk around.
Again, words and photos don’t adequately describe the place.
The rocks here aren’t as huge as at Western Lost City, but the track allows you
to wander in and around them. They are also generally more eroded and so
everywhere you go there is another of nature’s miracles to be astounded by.
Day 82: Southern Lost City to King Ash Bay(Yanyuwa Country)
We began our early morning walk around the Southern Lost
City at a perfect time. The light was beautiful and there were no flies! We were glad we had gone early because by
morning tea time, two small group tour buses had rolled in for their ½ hour
visits. I’d be sooo frustrated, but I guess many of the people on these tours
were elderly and would otherwise be unable to get to such places.
Late morning we headed off, not sure where we would stay the night. We decided to backtrack a little on our way to Borroloola to Caranbirini Nature Reserve, which we had heard was home to another lost city. I’m so glad we did. We had hoped to camp there but no camping is permitted in the reserve. Nevertheless we went to the waterhole to birdwatch for a while then did the track around the base of this lost city.
I think this was my favourite Lost City and in fact it is the most accessible (although probably the least known about). There are some huge rocks and spaces similar to the Western Lost City, but you can walk around it as you can in the Southern Lost City. In some ways it is also the most city-like of the three. There are little alleyways everywhere and some of the rocks reminded us of the beehive-looking houses in Alberobello in Italy. This area is still used and considered sacred by the local Aboriginal people today and you cannot access particular parts of the formations.
After enjoying our walk here, we decided we better head off
towards Borroloola and possibly, King Ash Bay, which sounded like a better
camping venue.
King Ash Bay it was. When we arrived it looked as if we had happened upon fishing
central, with campers and caravans lining the river (the Macarthur River).
However, we managed to find a nice little spot to chill for a couple of days.
Without a boat (we do have our kayaks but they are not what I consider to be
croc-safe) that is all we would be doing.
Day 82: King Ash Bay (Yanyuwa Country) Today our
neighbours moved on and we had a lovely open and private spot to camp in. It was so peaceful that we decided to extend our stay by another day. Despite the fact that there were obviously many people out on
the water fishing, the campground no longer seemed overrun with people.
We thoroughly enjoyed a day of reading, quilting (Diana),
doing puzzles and generally mucking around doing nothing much. We enjoyed being
serenaded all day by pardalotes, bee-eaters and whistling kites. These photos are of quieter birds.
Day 84: King Ash Bay to Borroloola (Marra and Yanyuwa country)
We first stopped off at a billabong on Batten Creek to see myriads of very flighty whistling ducks but not much else.
After a disappointing trip out to Bing Bong to try and see the Gulf of Carpentaria but being prevented to by a mine loading site (NO PUBLIC ACCESS PAST THIS POINT – we had been given a bum steer – there was supposed to be a boat ramp here), we headed back to Borroloola with a bit less diesel in the tank.
The first thing we did was go to the Borroloola cemetery. We were going to pay our respects to an aboriginal elder Annie whom we had read about in 'Singing Saltwater Country' by John Bradley, a book about the songlines of the Yanyuwa people. We were already enjoying seeing the country that this book spoke about. However, we couldn't find Annie. I had never thought about it before, but most of the headstones in this cemetery, even the new ones, don't have names on them. I guess that this is related to the Aboriginal custom of not speaking the name of someone who has died recently???
A checkin to our campground revealed that life in Borroloola is not quite what you may expect. This, and a couple of others behind it, was in the little reception shop.
After checking in, we headed
down to the Macarthur River Boat Ramp to view the river from up here. Once upon
a time, Borroloola was a major port but no longer. The river is beautiful, lined with trees and
teeming with fish – we could see a number of varieties just from watching on
the shore. If only we had a croc-proof boat!
Once back in town, we visited the museum housed in the old Police Station. A fascinating history into white settlement in the area, with a little bit of aboriginal history thrown in (that was a bit disappointing). In the late 1800s and early 1900s this place was diabolical! This was where people who wanted to escape the law came to. It was known for its sly grog and other illicit trades. An on-the-run Maori blackbirder was a regular visitor as were cattle and horse thieves. Apparently the sly grog was of the worst kind that made people do violent and stupid things when they had had a bit too much. The township was made official in 1894 when a police was stationed here to try and clean up the place. What a task he must have faced! In addition to the outlaws, there was constant battling between whites and aborigines, with many people killed intentionally on both sides. Early graziers lost most of their herds to the locals and who could blame them – the Borroloola township was built on so-called ‘wastelands’. How awful it must have been for the aboriginal community to have these filthy, lawless whites come and destroy their way of life.
These days there is no pub in Borroloola. Much of the aboriginal community is alcohol free, and the only alcohol that is sold in town is mid-strength beer and that only after 2:30pm. No wine, no spirits.
We also visited the local art gallery that had a number of
pieces I’d cheerfully have on my walls at home but, we didn’t buy.
Our late afternoon and evening were spent planning a little
ahead and booking a camp at Seven Emu Station and also at Lawn Hill Gorge in
Qld, where at last our kayaks will be able to come off the car and be used!
Day 85: Borroloola to Seven Emu Station (Yanyuwa country)
Borroloola is home to three groceries and so we went to two
of these during our day in Borroloola to top up pantry supplies to last us
until after Lawn Hill Gorge. The food is
mostly so expensive – check out the price of a 150g bar of chocolate! Pete has to do with chocolate biscuits for
his supper – they were more reasonably priced.
A small bottle of olive oil was $11!
Eek! And yet some food was
reasonable. Surprisingly carrots were one of these foods, at $2.50/kg.
I did my usual moth watch in the evening and found an interesting assortment of critters. The link is (will be) here.
During the night there were many odd noises of animals down
at the river. I’d bet my bottom dollar that some of them were feral pigs having
an argument, but there were other strange noises besides. If only I’d had a good spotlight (only needed
one that shone a couple of hundred metres!!)
Day 86: Seven Emu Station (Yanyuwa country)
We started the day with a 6km bike ride along the river where we found an island we couldn’t get to some reed beds and a Barking Owl. That was very exciting and I even managed to get a photo.
It is
interesting seeing the changes in the riverside as it wends its way towards the
Gulf of Carpentaria. I spent the morning wandering the river flats, looking for
little creatures.
Apart from the Barking Owl, other birds eluded me in the
morning. I spent a lot of time looking at river rocks, imagining or actually
finding quite a few fossils – what look to me like stromatolites and other
things that look like ancient coral now transformed into rock. Being no geologist, I am probably wrong but I
had great fun rock-combing along the river bank (but away from crocs).
There were a number of plants in flower and I have no idea (apart from Acacias) what most of them are. There was one weird looking tiny herb, where the ovary, style and stigma seem to be falling out the side of the flower.
My afternoon highlight was finding a range of spiders three of them jumping spiders. Most, if not all were on what I think are Ghost Gums. The first lot were almost white and very difficult to see against the bark. They were quite timid and hid away in their little cocoon-like structures, the moment they thought they could get there. The second lot were perhaps my favourite jumping spiders that I have ever seen because of their beautiful patterning. They have two sets of eyebrows – one for their rear eyes and one smaller set for their front eyes. I thought the third lot were the same as these, but younger, but I’m pretty sure they are a different species.
Seven Emu Station is one of the huge outback runs of one
million acres or thereabouts. Today we
decided to go as far as we were able along the river track and ended up going
another 33 km from where we were camped.
Only approximately another 2-3 km before we theoretically hit the Gulf
of Carpentaria (still on the property) but the track suddenly changed to very
soft sand and without any communication equipment or special prowess in
attacking soft sand we decided to leave it.
It was fascinating travelling along the route as the
riverside vegetation changed. Where sometimes it was low-level woodland
savannah, sometimes (presumably where there were ephemeral creeks during the
wet season) the trees suddenly became taller. Sometimes the savannah grevilleas
appeared. We crossed one mudflat which would be impassable during the wet
season.
Once near the end of the drive, the river was more obviously
close to the sea. It was choppier and
you could start to smell the sea air. Would be a perfect place to go fishing,
if one knew how to and was willing to brave the crocs. We met people camped just on the right side
of the soft sand who had been there for a month. Fishing.
On our way back we were lucky enough to see a young, but
still huge, Black-necked Stork (aka Jabiru) who stood still for long enough for
me to get a couple of shots.
On our return to camp, Pete noticed that one of our storage pods on the truck (behind the passenger real wheel) had fallen open (we had forgotten to lock it) and that we had lost all the contents. This amount to a bag with tools and other bits and pieces, two chocks that had come with the truck, firestarters, WD40, two pole feet, a piece of timber we use under the wheels sometimes and a sponge. I had heard a funny noise quite a way back but thought nothing of it … aarrgggh! So, we backtracked. 2 km from camp we found the first of the missing pieces, 15 km on, the last! The bits and pieces, all found, were spread over 13 km. All, bar one, fell onto the track. A pain in the neck to retrieve them, but all’s well that ends well. Next time I hear a funny noise, I’ll stop! This funny noise was probably the WD40 can hitting something on its way out – it sounded sort of tinny …
Day 88: Seven Emu Station to Hell’s Gate Roadhouse (Gangalidda country)
Time to pack up and head east and out of the NT. When we farewelled the person at the station
office (you have to sign out so they know they haven’t lost you!) we said that
it was so tempting to take our kayaks down to the river and we’d seen no
crocs. Their response was, ‘You would’ve
seen them if you had taken them out!’ I
guess our decision was the right one.
The road out to Hell’s Gate Roadhouse is all gravel, except for a few kms east of the NT/Qld border. There are a couple of river crossings but nothing deep – we are well into the dry season, and we were lucky that except for a couple of patches the corrugations weren’t too bad either. I think we have come at the right time – a couple of weeks after school holidays when the traffic along this stretch of road would be far greater, I suspect – because the graders had been at work on most of the NT section.
We saw lots of cattle on this patch of road, a few creeks with water in them, and long stretches filled with these beautiful silver trees.
We stopped briefly just before the Roadhouse at a place called Dilldoll Rock, having noticed the rock formations. There is no signpost here and I’m not really sure whether we should have gone there or not but we did. We walked around the road track for a bit to places where you can get a good view (despite the smoke which was pretty bad) across the plain towards the hills around Lawn Hill. We also happened across this stunning little tree. I could see it on some rocks and had to get through some spinifex to see it better, but it was worth it. It was like a bonsai, absolutely perfectly proportioned. The colour of its flaky bark was a beautiful orange. I guess, growing up through rock it was nature’s own bonsai tree. My now favourite tree.
We were also stunned at the price of diesel but filled up
one of our tanks anyway, not knowing what would be available elsewhere. Can’t
believe that it can be so differently priced here from anywhere else we’ve been.
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