Heading to Gulf Carpentaria and on to
Lawnhill National Park. Camooweal to Julia creek.



July 6-7 -Leichhardt Lagoon

 

We are parked right on the waters edge
and there is plenty of birds for Larry to go see and take photos of .
We walk from here to the Norman river about 800m away. The lagoon is
filled when the Norman river is full and there is rain run off in the
wet season-summer here. The river has plenty of resident fresh water
crocodiles and a very grumpy salt water crocodile. He is grumpy
because his area of the river is getting smaller because of the not
so good wet season, and now its drying out even more.
 
  The camp at the lagoon warns any fisher men about him and not to fish too close to
the bank of the river . They say that none of the crocs are in the
lagoon but I suppose in the wet they can get here but as it starts to
dry up they head back into the river. Too many people around and

water not deep enough for ambush predators.



Leaving here we head to Normanton and
stop in for fuel and bread/ milk. We also get our permit to park
beside the river just outside town. You are allowed 2 nights there
but we will not use the first night as we are heading to Karumba on
the gulf to see the sunset over the ocean. The information centre
advised us to get the permit now as they only hand out 16 a day and
spaces are all gone early. We will take a while to get back from
Karumba , this way we are assured of a space even if it is for only
one night.
 
Karumba has a live cattle export port.
Shipping to Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea,and Vietnam.
This has happened here since 1900 and only stopped during WW11,
starting again in 1950's and still goes on today, always in the dry
season only.
This town is also for fishermen, all
the caravan parks are full and crammed in like sardines. Fishermen
come here every year for up to 6 months at a time.
The sunset is good so we are glad we
came here for the night but we are also glad to leave in the morning,
too many people too close.
Its back to Normanton to spend the
night beside the Norman river. Yes the same one that goes past
Leichhardt Lagoon but here it is still tidal from the gulf so still
has heaps of salt water crocodiles. Years ago some people tried to
set up a croc farm here and a replica of the largest ever killed croc
is in town. We took photos of it last time here . When you get your
permit to stay you have to read this pamphlet about the salt or
estuarine crocodiles here. While I was sitting outside the van
trying to get photos of the mud skippers being left on the bank as
the tide goes out I looked across to see this very large croc on the
other bank. 




 So each time I went outside the van I checked on he/ she
was still there and did not go outside close to the bank as it got
darker because they go back into the river at night.
The next night was spent in the
Normanton caravan park to make sure we had full batteries, do some
washing before heading across to Burketown then down to the national
park.
There is an artesian bore in the park
that supplies the hot water for the showers. This bore was put down
in 1896 to a depth of 2040 feet with a flow of 300,000 gallons per
day. By 1998 the flow was down to 140,000 gallons per day and now
only supplies natural fluoride to the towns water and hot water
showers in the park. Experts say it may take 100 years for the
artesian water to reach the surface .
We head out towards Burketown and
decide to stay the night at the Leichhardt falls. These are not
flowing because of 2 years of not much rain. Interesting rock
formations where the falls would be and a heard of goats pass by. We
are parked where the water would be at the top of the falls and
there is lots of tadpoles in the little puddles in the rocks. We hear
frogs in the evening until late into the night but can not find them
so do not what they are.

The scenery on the way to Burketown
changes to flat not many trees, then it gets even less trees and
plants . Anything growing is not very tall at all. We stop on the way
into Burketown at the Albert river bridge and have a look around. The
area used for camping is not big only room for a couple of vans but
there is a new potable toilet cubical. The shire cleaner was there
when we returned from our walk across the bridge which is set up with
a couple of shelters and seats overlooking the river. The cleaner
told us about the artesian bore on the edge of town and that because
the caravan park was full of telstra employees working on new lines ,
people are staying out at the wharf with their caravans. So we go and
take a look at the artesian bore.
Burketown artesian bore was established
in 1897 and was expected to supply good stock water but proved no
good . It was no good for humans as drinking water nor was it any use
for irrigation as it contained too much minerals. It comes out of the
ground at 68 deg c with 598 mg/litre of salt.
 
It comes from a depth of 702.3 metres
with a flow rate of 707.19 litres per day . Hope you can see flow on
photo and it is hot we touched it. It now flows out into a wetland
area which brings in birds.
Burketown is 25km from the Gulf of
Carpentaria on the Albert river. It is known for its barramundi fish.
 
It is also known for what is called the
Morning Glory. This is a unique cloud formation that rolls in across
the sky in a tubular shape, it only happens in spring so we miss out.
It can be up to 1000km long and this place is one of only two places
in the world It can be seen. Hang gliders surf the cloud wave.
We go to the wharf area for the night
with half a dozen other vans. It rains during the night and is very
windy. We move to Taranna roadhouse to plug into power to keep
batteries up for the Nation park – Lawn hill. We end up here for 2
nights as it is cloudy and raining turning the roads very muddy.
We decide to have dinner one night in
the roadhouse , they do not cook vegetarian so I have a massive salad
and chips. Larry has a big pork chop and veggies and chips. Not bad ,
lots on plate all for $34 for everything.

 
 
We leave and start heading for Lawn
hill and get to Gregory, this is now a sealed road. At Gregory we are
told the road into Adels Grove and the National park have been closed
after all the rain.

We pull over in a roadside camp to wait
for the road to open ,after a few hours the police say the road is
open to Adels Grove so we pack up and start heading in very slowly to
our booking at Adels grove for the night. We should have just stayed
in the free camp as it is $36 at Adels grove for no power and
horrible showers and toilets a long walk away.
 
We had arranged it this way as its 73
km from Gregory to Adels Grove on a bad dirt road and then not far
into the park and we thought we could boost battery power at Adels.

We finally get to our camp in Lawn hill
Np to find the system has changed and instead of booking and paying
for a set site before you get there you get there and park where you
like. There are 20 sites some for vans some for tents but we find the
large site we had booked is taken , lucky though we manage to get
into the one beside it. As its Saturday there are no rangers around
and people are parking where they please.
After settling in we go for our first
walk. It is warm but cloudy so not much solar going in.

The walk is 7km to the Upper Gorge and
is classed as difficult. I thought oh good this will test me, I was
not missing the lookout the creek , the falls or the wildlife. So the
pamphlet says walk it in a clock wise direction so you come down the
very steep bit instead of up it. It is quiet easy to start out along
the track and up to the first lookout we see some little dragons and
some birds. 
 
 Then its across the top down to the river and along to
the falls, we will be coming back on a shorter track to snorkel and
swim in the falls another day.
 
  Its then up to the falls lookout and
then on along the top to the Duwadarri lookout, this is the difficult
bit. Well even going clockwise this is some climb up and after a few
minor stops we made it.

  Beautiful views of river , area, camp along a
very steep ridge with nothing to stop you if you fall, just a couple
of places a small fence as you are walking on a slope of slippery
rock face. 
 


 Then you have to come down a very steep decent with some
rock steps cut into the ground without any guards into the other
side of camp. We started out at 12.30 after an early lunch and got
back at 5 minutes to 5pm. I was very sore and stiff and stood under
the shower for awhile and its cold showers here. I thought the next
day I will fill the solar shower bag and put it out , at least I can
have a warm shower at night.
The weather gets bad again overnight
and we can not use the generator in this park, so Larry hooks up the
car to the van via the electronics lead and runs the car for an hour,
at least we will get some charge. This of course upsets some in the
park but most are in the same boat and if their not leaving some
people do the same.

We woke up very stiff but we still set
out after breakfast to walk to the Constance Range lookout.
It is supposed to have good views of
sunset and sunrise but who would go up the climb in the dark I don't
know. The whole walk is only 4 kms but 1.5km is nearly straight up.
It starts beside the creek which is a nice walk then it starts going
up with a sign to tell you it is a difficult walk on a worn path on
the dirt and rocks no made path just follow the worn bits and a few
arrows.
Well we were defiantly practising to be
mountain goats I think, but what views across the area and the track
into the park.



When we get back we check out the creek
crossing to the island and the other walks. The pontoon bridge was
washed away and is still not been replaced when it was supposed to be
repaired in April. I think Adels Grove have a say in this because
they hire out canoes here and you are told to hire one to go across.
Well $27 an hour for a double or $25 single . Paddle across do walks
paddle back that will be at least 2-3 hours pretty expensive to go
walking. Some of the people have been crossing by walking or shinning
across a fallen tree trunk I tried Photos.

 




And some just wade across which is what
we decide to do . Falling in water full of rocks and sharp plants
would not be good and we need to keep cameras dry. Larry wades across
to find best spot for us latter. Some places the water is running
fast and the rocks are slippery and others to deep you need to swim.
Thats ok if we could keep cameras dry. He finds a spot were we can
wade waist deep across just up from were the canoes leave and were
people with their own canoes leave from.
 
We do find a fresh water crocodile here
, only a teenager going on its size. Larry said stand close to him so
we could get a size comparison in the photo.
 





The next day we put bathers on put dry
clothes and cameras in our back packs and wade across. The mud was
pretty deep in places and lots of water lilly roots and sticks and
logs to negotiate without falling over and getting cameras wet. We
got to the other side dried , changed and left our stuff in a tree
out of site for our return.
Fist we do the short walk to the
cascades which we find are not running ,the water is not deep enough
at moment. This would be pretty when they do. Next its double back a
bit to the walk up to the top of the Island stack and walk around the
top for the views of river and area. This is another straight up to
the top then 1.7km walk around the top. Well I got half way up , its
a goat track for sure, narrow no passing large boulders to get up. I
thought I want to see everything from up top but even if I make it up
I have to come down . The big steps you need to take to climb up I
can manage if given time but coming down with nothing to hold onto ,
I am not strong enough in my joints. So Larry struggles up walks
around takes photos while I make my way down and just hang around the
base looking for anything to take photos of.
 
The last walk over on the island is
called Wild dog dreaming, it is a loop at the other end around the
rocks and Aboriginal paintings and shelters then around to a lookout
across the creek. Paintings very faded and people are asked not to
take photos , there are fresh water crocodiles usually seen sunning
themselves on the creek banks , we do not see them here. This is
around a bit to where we found the one close to the crossing tree.



The following day we drive down to the
Riversleigh fossil site. Not only to see the fossils but to check on
the road and creek/ river crossings as this is the way we will leave
the park to go to Camooweal. While I walk the fossil site Larry
drives down the road a bit to check the worst of the river crossings
. Most of the fossils from here are on display at Mount Isa , we saw
them 3 years ago, and I wanted to see the fossils here and the site.
We are only allowed in part of the site but it gives you an idea at
what they find here. The students from universities of QLD and NSW
come here once a year digging for more.
While i'm walking around I find a
snake. When I first saw the tail close to my foot I thought it was a
lizard as I had just seen one disappear under a rock. I did manage
some quick photos this time before it was gone. I don't know what it
is every time I go walking without Larry I find snakes.

 


When we get back to camp I take the
photos of both my dragons form the last couple of days and my snake
to the rangers. On the list for this area they have dragons ,snakes
birds and other wildlife . The dragons we have been seeing are not
what is on the list , I find them in my book for this area but the
snake I can find close to it but not exactly it and not in this area.
So with there books and mine we agree on which lizards we have been
seeing. It was not until the fourth ranger saw my snake photo did we
find out what it was and that was only because the week before a man
had taken a photo of a similar one and the ranger had contacted QLD
parks and wildlife. It appears it is a new sub species to the area of
a whip snake . Some whip snakes are found here. This one is a sub
species of either a yellow head or a sombre whip snake. Demansia
psammophis or quaesitor. Yes even though they are not more than a
metre and very skinny all whip snakes are venomous. I am only the
second to person to report and photograph it here.



Well Larry's report on the river
crossings is that even though they are fast flowing we will be ok
crossing with the van. Photos are a bit further down the page.
Because of the bad weather we had
early on during the week and the days even though quiet warm are
cloudy most mornings. This brings up the old trouble of no sun no
solar power and no generators in the park. So the following morning
Larry hooks up the van and takes it just outside the National park
entrance and puts on the generator while I sit on our site so no one
tries to pull up there. The rangers say leave a chair there will be
ok, but with all the people coming in and not reading signs that this
bit of track is a no through road and then getting very upset with
the people next door as their camp is at the end and it looks like
the road continues through their camp and of course it does not . Its
a silly idea this pull up in any site.
Would you believe it while Larry's got
generator going the sun is shinning and as soon as he returns and
parks and, we need to collect this solar ,it clouds over. Latter on
it did improve so we walked to the falls and went swimming and
snorkelling until it got to many people and canoes for us.
We got back had a cuppa and then went
for another walk along the creek the fresh water crock was there
again so we took more photos. Some of the people canoeing have seen
up to full size , which is 2 metres, fresh water crocodiles just
laying on the banks trying to get some sun.

One night we took torches down to the
creek to see what we could find all we found was turtles.

There are 2 types of turtles here these
I think are Gulf snapping turtles.



The road to Camooweal out past
Riversleigh is all dirt and when you get to the junction where it
divides for Mount Isa or Camooweal it gets worse and looks like a
stock track across the paddocks with the occasional road sign warning
of flood ways or very bad bends.
It is 47km to Riversleigh fossil site
from camp Lawn hill, then 33km to join the road down from Gregory to
Mount Isa,then 61 along this then 92 high clearance into Camooweal so
all up 243km which took us 7 hours with a short lunch break.
Travelling average 40km per hour.


Camooweal is 14km from the Northern
Territory border with Queensland with a population all up of 300. We
stay just out of town on the Georgina river at one of two lagoons
called Lake Francis and Lake Canellan. We stay here four nights only
supposed to stay 3 but lots of people here longer than us.Bird
watches from all over Australia come here so we know what Larry was
doing while most my time was spent looking for good pieces of Ribbon
stone even when out walking with Larry. I found some beautiful pieces
but much too big for me to handle, I have no way of cutting and I
have to shape and polish using wet & dry sand paper by hand .


We went out one day to see Camooweal
caves and waterhole 24km south. Also called Nowranie cave and creek.
You are not allowed in the underground caves unless you are a cave
specialist as they go underground a long way.



We head for Mount Isa and spend 2
nights in the Top tourist park as we need to do a very big Woolworths
shop. We have not seen a Coles or Woolworths for over a month , just
a few little supermarkets that only carry the basics. So nearly $400
latter the freezer and cupboards are restocked and we have fresh
fruit and veg again. The last couple of days have been lunch of cup
of soup with dry salada biscuits and night time instant noodles and
then custard.



I also washed sheets, towels as we and
nearly every other traveller does when they stay at a caravan park.
We awoke to find the transformer is
still working hard and it should not be. As soon as you plug In
240volt are system senses it and gives it preference to the solar or
12 volt from the car, so we use 240 in the van and the transformer
uses it to charge are 3 batteries. So after taking a look at things
Larry finds that things have got a bit hot in the wire and fuse from
the transformer to the batteries and fused the fuse in its holder so
nothing was getting to the batteries. The fridge only runs on the
12volt from the batterie, this of course means we had drained
batteries and a transformer trying to do its job but could not. So we
had an auto electrician fix it and he put in stronger wire no welds
like before but a circuit breaker able to carry more amps just in
case. $ 295.
Our problem over the past couple of
months could have been the wires in and out of fuse holder were
soldered and taped and these could have been not connecting all the
time , go over bump and some little bit not connecting. It was hard
to tell as the tape on top of the joins was well and truly melted
on. Everything appears to be working well now , but we will see when
we are relying on solar again for a couple of weeks.
So we head out towards Cloncurry with a
stop at Fountain springs rest area for the night. We unhook the van
and leave it so we can go and have a look at Clem Walton park and
Corelle dam. We wanted to camp here but everything you read says
small vehicles only , well we could have stayed there was heaps of
big vans , campers and buses in there. We walked around took some
photos and Larry walked the dam wall. It is a decommissioned dam, it
is only allowed to get to a certain height now, then the water is
sent down a very large spill way into the lake. This is where
people camp in the dry season only.
After lunch we drove out to Fountain
springs past a couple of old mining towns. Fountain springs is 24 km
from the rest area along a dirt track , no caravans allowed, passing
through private properties.. Fountain springs is a permanent
waterhole that has a waterfall in the wet season and has probably got
underwater springs too. Can fossick here if you have a permit ,I
looked around put did not find anything. We did not go into the old
historic mine town sites as it warns you, Enter at your own risk,
unseen mine shafts and debris. So you will have to read the signs
outside each and photo of the track sign.



With an over night stop in Cloncurry
where nothing much is done we head to Julie Creek.