Out of the Wilderness

At last, finally into some sort of civilisation - well, its a decent internet connection anyway.  This post will be a very long one as it has been a week since I last wrote anything.

As planned, we spent last Thursday doing some washing and general maintenance on the Turtle in preparation for a long haul.  The Captain decided that even though the Savannah Way as open to Burketown we didn't need to punish the entire "Team Turtle" excessively.  We therefore drove back down to the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, then west to Gregory Downs for an overnight stay.  No mobile phone coverage or television so we missed out on 'the wedding' (damn shame).  The Gregory River runs besides the little village and has remnants along its banks of a time when the area was tropical and not dry savannah. Last weekend was supposed to be the annual Canoe Races but they also fell victim to the recent heavy rains as the river level was still very high and running too fast.

The Gregory River at Gregory Downs

Saturday - we headed out to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park for a three night stay.  Absolutely beautiful place - no mobile phone, television or power.  There was running water - taps, not just the creek - flushing toilets and showers.  The nearest public phone was at Adel's Grove, ten klms away.

This section of Boodjamulla was also part of the ancient tropical landscape, lots of cliffs and canyons and a lovely creek.  We put the Li'l Pussy in the water for the first time this trip and rowed all the way up to the top of the Gorge - even to taking her out at the waterfall and carrying her to the other section.

Middle Gorge

Indarri Falls

Upper Gorge

 

Upper (and final) Reaches of Gorge

On Monday we took a walk up to the Island Stack Lookout - an island of rock surrounded by two sections of Lawn Hill Creek and 200 metres straight up from the floor of the Gorge.

Island Stack

And straight up it was!!!

The Cascades

After lunch (and recovering from our early morning hike) we put Li'l Pussy back into the creek but this time with the electric motor which made it so much easier.  We only went as far as the waterfall this time and had a very refreshing swim in the gorge.

Swimming at Indarri Falls

The Deckie steering Li'l Pussy

 
Tuesday we were back on the road or, as it turned out in some parts, third world goat tracks!  All unsealed roads from the National Park thru to nearly the Barkly Highway - about 150 klms of them and took us about five hours to travel.

The best stop though was the Riversleigh World Heritage Mammal Fossil Site. There was a small area that the public could access and also to climb a small mountain (thank goodness we are fit people) to view ancient rocks and fossils.

Riversleigh Mammal Fossil Site

Part of the view from the top at Riversleigh

We also had to cross the Gregory River (again) but this time it was a causeway.  All very well and good except that the water was still flowing very, very fast and was about half a metre deep.  Both of these, combined with a slippery causeway, made a very interesting ride indeed.

And guess what?  For something different, "Team Turtle" had another little mishap!!  Actually, it was only poor old Tuf Cat's trailer - it broke a leg and only about five kilometres from the bitumen road - ggrrrrrr!!
It obviously ran over one too many sharp rocks and just totally shredded.  The skills of The Captain came to the fore once more and within a short space of time we were heading off again.

Rotten B....... Thing!!!!!!!

All better!!!

 A planned stopover in Camooweal saw us replace the tyre, and nice hot showers washed all of the red dust away.  This morning (Wednesday) we headed further west and into the Northern Territory where, so far, it is not much different than Queensland!  We are staying the night at Barkly Homestead Roadhouse about halfway between the border and the Stuart Highway.

Tomorrow we are heading north to Cape Crawford and then on to Borroloola (back towards the western part of the Gulf of Carpenteria).  Research has shown that these places are also non-existent in the Telstra Mobile Network so I will be unable to update you on our (mis)adventures for at least a week.

In the meantime, please be safe wherever you are.