Boodjamulla

Sunday 05:

We have ended up only one hundred kilometers from our destination, a joyous feeling. With a short drive ahead the lust of a swim is ever growing with the building heat. We hit ‘Gregory Downs’, a small town and caravans and RV’s fill this place. We turn off at the sign Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill). As we cross a bridge, we notice down either side of the bridge in the dry river bed lies hundreds of more caravans parked up. What a sight to see. None of them expecting any flash floods then? We have seen it for ourselves, roads becoming rivers within minutes in the Western outback.

The thought of eight meter crocs floating in through the kitchen window is a rather humorous one.

Once again the road turns to gravel. The constant bombardment of caravans, RV’s, camper trailers behind vehicles and mining equipment frequenting this road has torn it up wildly. The corrugations are frequent and large. Out I jump once again and this time the rear is going down more. 36psi, and down to 26psi in the front. The road is brutal to drive on and we constantly pass caravans parked on the side of the road or just sauntering along, only kicking up a small trail of dust. We however, find it more comfortable to hit the corrugations with a bit of speed, roughly 85-90 kilometers an hour. This makes the roughness more bearable as we skim across the top of the corrugations. We try calling up caravans along the way on the two-way radio, but no one is answering. With this we fly past parked or slowing caravans with no mercy and leaving behind our presence in the form of a dust cloud.

Sorry, hopefully the nomads are wearing dust mask’s.

Having spent the last nine years in the bush I have somewhat a small amount of experience for off-road driving, and with that comes a few standard rules to follow;

1. Always drive with the windows up.
2. Turn the air vent circulation on in your cab. (unless you want to fill up your cab with dust and clog your aircon filter).
3. If you’re hot, or cold, use the aircon and adjust the temperature.
4. When you stop to get out, wait for the dust to settle before opening the doors.
5. Always drive with your lights on even in the day, to see and be seen. (You can actually see oncoming traffic in the day with their lights on, miles before you would see them if they had not had there lights on).
6. Drive with your two-way on. Keep it on channel 40, a national standard for on the road communication.
7. Use your two-way radio. No point having it, if you don’t use it. It could stop accidents and save lives.
8. Never overtake unless you make contact with the vehicle your overtaking – unless you can clearly see far in front of it, if no comms are made.
9. Get your wife to go to the toilet before you hit the corrugations.

Today not many of these rules were being followed, especially the two-way radio’s. For those grey nomads happen to be reading this. Please take note and take care out there.

Ahh, Adels Grove what wonders you give us. Set just off the side of a freshwater spring fed river system, it is a true oasis in the desert. Ferns, palms and bamboo grow on its shores. Almighty gum trees spread their root systems deep into the river bed and gorge on its turquoise waters, sending life high up and casting a blanket across the skyline, bringing cooler temperatures in its shadowy dwelling underneath. Relief from the heat is pleasurable for all creatures alike, and there is a cocktail of life flourishing within its reach. The pamphlet the lady in reception gives us sheds light on the many snakes and fresh water crocodiles who they share this oasis with. Warnings to parents to accompany young children around camp at evening as there is a resident python six meters long that comes out ever seeking wallabies and other prey of a similar size. The majority of the camp ground is a dusty desert environment, yet less than a stone throw down into the canyon is the lush tropical oasis.

The contrast is so sudden and spectacular, you honestly have to make this a place not to be missed.

We find out spot in camp, check the map and with a towel over the shoulder we head down to the inviting waters. We find a spot all to ourselves, they call it ‘the beach’. Cath dips her toes in and I notice the joy filling her face. There are a couple of inner tubes from an old car tyre, we both take it in turns lounging around in the crystal clear waters, taking in our surroundings.

This place is too beautiful to see in a rush. The rest of the afternoon is spent sitting in our deck chairs under the shade of our awning gorging on snacks and catching up on the blog. A well needed rest, but so much so it brought a guilty feeling as we should be doing something. When in Rome though hey!?

An old couple have a shack, literally a shack down in the oasis. Made from corrugated tin. Here they sell fish and chips. Cath can not resist the temptation and brings us fresh, home made battered hoki and chips. What a way to end the afternoon.

‘’Hello Michael speaking’’
“Testing, testing, one two three, do you copy?”
“Hello Michael speaking?”

We play ‘test the satellite phone’ for a while until we could hear each other. Great the sat phone works! A quick call to Mum and Dad to let them know we are still alive, followed by a trip down to the pub for a cheeky beer. Why not? Ends another fantastic day.

Monday 06

Cath says she will do the alarm in the morning as apparently I set it too early and we both end up falling back asleep. It goes off, then again ten minutes later, then once again a further ten minutes later. I open one eye to see if life has come over her, but she lays still. I fall back asleep.

Once we’re up, whilst packing up the awning, the tie rope pop’s off the rivet that once held it in place. “Darn it!”. I’ll have to see to that later. We head to Lawn Hill NP (National Park) today, only a short twelve kilometer drive back down the dirt road. A land cruiser without its caravan dordles along at around thirty kilometers an hour. I call up, channel forty. No reply. I try again. No reply once again. Seriously, a 100-thousand dollar vehicle with all the mod cons, and no two-way radio? Or not having it on? It is honestly frustrating. We sped past, back up to speed. The corrugations are too harsh at thirty kilometers an hour.

Pulling into the NP, I remembered I put a couple of plastic blocks that hold the RTT step at the perfect height (a long story), I have left on the back of the tray whilst packing it all up this morning. Bollox. They would definitely not be there still. That’s the third thing this morning that has not gone to plan. Hopefully where ever they have fallen off no one has picked them up or even worse run over them!

The car park is full of nice looking four wheel drives. Its like going to a four wheel drive show in the middle of the desert. This lifts my spirits and gets me in a exciting mood for canoeing. Yep were going canoeing up the gorge.

Cath stumbles around at the front with her ore, a couple of pointers and she’s got it. We are steaming along and straight into a head wind coming through the gorge ahead. The water is an iridescent turquoise and the prospect of seeing a croc makes it all very exciting. The gorge towers above us as we paddle further up the lower half – beautiful scenery that only can be seen to be believed.

We have heard this place is a true spectacle, and now we are admiring it with our own eyes.

The gorge system is tiered and at the end of the first gorge, we pull our canoe up 30m of steps to the upper gorge – not an easy task as it is an uphill struggle. However, once again we are rewarded with beautiful scenery. The wind is strong today and as we paddle into a headwind, we hope that in reverse – we’ll have an easier trip. The gorge narrows and we stream into an area with small waterfalls and kids swimming. The fish are abundant here, but alas still no croc sightings. We make note of the area and after our canoe, we definitely need a well-deserved swim!

We make our trip in reverse, and with this now tail wind, soak in the sheer amazingness of this place. The red rock launches itself out of the gorge with trees and mangroves lining the sides. We dip our hands in the water and small fish come swimming excitedly next to us – almost smiling. They’re looking for food. Like begging dogs, previous tourists have clearly fed these guys, and it’s a sad thing. This area of Lawn Hill is protected by Aboriginal land and it is well signposted to respect the area. We kind of feel sorry for the fish.

We return our canoe, and head along the path back to the swimming hole. The midday sun is hot and we can’t wait to cool off. The kids have now gone and we have this place to ourselves. Cath seemingly forgetting her usual flipper-instincts, is worried about what lurkes below, but with some encouragement – the reward is sweet.

The track loops back over the grand gorge and we climb high onto a lookout. The rocks are vivid red and cascade down to the water below – picture perfect!

On the way home, I am suddenly marvelled at the sight – my plastic blocks are lying on the road! Hurrah! Who would have believed it! With a smile on my face we pull back into Adel’s Grove and see if we can sort out our other problem – the awning.

There is a local mechanic here and he sorts us out with a drill. I cut off the pop rivet and drill a hole through a support beam, and replace it with a bolt and large washers. A more studier fix that we hope lasts! Double wammy, two issues addressed.

Tonight, we are shattered from today’s exercise – but truthfully, we needed it!

The Cooks.