The Long Way to Adels Grove

Sunrise through the mist at Tomato Island

We safely negotiated all the water crossings along the Savannah Way!

Sadly most of the rivers are dry or just large puddles.

Butterfly Springs

 26/6/16

I was right the generator went all night and a rooster started crowing from 3.15am, so not much sleep to be had. 

Today was about retracing our steps to get to the turnoff before Cloncurry, towards Burketown so a lot of driving today and a free camp about 70k from Barkly Homestead, that is very, very popular but quiet.

Sunset at free camp 

A howling southerly came through in the night and cooled us right down but the temperature continued to rise to about 21, just nice for travelling.

The roadside changes every few kilometres

It was like this 360 degrees every now and then on the Tablelands

Wattle lining the road

Close up of the above wattle

We called into Mt Isa and tried to find a caravan parts dealer to repair our hot water service and get a new catch for the door without success, so continued on. We’re having bucket baths, having to heat the water on the stove. Makes you wonder why we paid so much to get an off road van! Stopped at another lovely spot 60k from Cloncurry, though it was down beside the highway and noisy when we arrived, the traffic wasn’t bad at all. No photos of this as we've deleted them!!

28/6/16

A freezing 7deg this morning but soon warmed up in the car and the temp rose again as we continued north but the wind the last 2 days has not done our fuel consumption any good. We’ve gone from 14litres/100ks to 24/100 so finding ourselves filling up a couple of times in a day to make sure we have enough fuel out on the remote roads.

This formation of clouds as we neared the Queensland border
very interesting

Overtaken by a plane

Got an early start this morning, catching the sunrise on the road. Seemed a very long drive but we got to Adels Grove, as recommended by so many people, for a late lunch. We were fortunate enough to get a spot for 3 nights so hope to explore a bit tomorrow. No hot showers here either and the water pressure is practically non existent and we are surrounded by people with generators. Ray had his campfire tonight and all have settled down now for a quiet night.

Burke & Wills fuel stop

29/6/16

We decided to go hire a canoe for a trip up the gorge at Lawn Hill NP. Stunning! We were on the water by 8am to avoid the heat….it was freezing again but we were into the sun at the beginning and Ray did all the paddling (I don’t think I was doing it well enough for him) so he warmed up though got pretty wet from the paddle and I was the photographer. Such a beautiful gorge, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, though I was using the Gopro and didn't really know what I was doing or if I was aiming it properly.

We then got the proper camera and set off on the long walk to the top lookout. Lovely and cool in the dappled shade as we followed the river up the gorge we’d just paddled and further as we didn’t port the canoe into the second section. I don’t think our backs could have handled it anyway.

Lawn Hill National Park