We stopped at the Burke & Wills Roadhouse for a break. We bought a bottle of Kirk's Ginger Beer for $5.20. Wow! Liquid Gold but needed something cold! From Burke & Wills we turned West on the Wills Development Road towards Gregory Downs. The road was in good condition with very little traffic for the 150 Km to Gregory Downs. As always in this part of Australia you need to be cautious re animals. Lots of road kill with Hawks/Wedgetails, and cattle that don't react predictably!
We booked into the Caravan park there for one night as we were getting conflicting information about the free camp area by the River. Apparently a lot of people do camp there but it is not an approved site. There is an approved site up closer to the road but we didn't discover it until later. The caravan park was empty when we arrived. $10/person was reasonable with drinking water on tap but no power. Sites were shaded and was significantly cooler than Leichhardt Lagoon. Amenities were of the en-suite variety but hadn't seen a cleaner in several days. 1 Star only which Sandra feels is being generous. Too bad as could have been much higher with a decent cleaning.
Stephen got out his generator in the afternoon to give it a test and we both topped up our batteries for an hour. We again got conflicting stories about the road condition and the open/closed status out to Adels Grove. We talked to someone who had been on it that day (without a caravan) who thought we would be OK as long as we took our time. We all went to the Pub for a cold drink in the late afternoon where we had a general meeting and decided to venture on to Adels Grove with the caravans in the morning. The Pub was an interesting place with interesting people but wouldn't be on our list for living locations.
Sunday morning we hit the road again for the relatively short trip (90 Km) to Adels Grove. The first half of the trip was on sealed roads of varying quality but easily passable. After the Century Mine turnoff the road was indeed marked with Road Closed indicators. We lowered our tyre pressures and removed our Sway bars before heading off for the final 45 Km of unsealed road. We took our time and didn't find any sections of the road that we considered too difficult or dangerous for us and our caravans. Arrived safely in Adels Grove around Lunch time.
We checked into a couple of caravan sites on the upper level. This area was fairly open with limited shade. On the plus side was good for our Solar Panels and generator usage was allowed. Nice camping area with individual campsites. We got adjoining sites so we could share generator. Water on tap but not recommended for drinking so we didn't hook up to the caravan. A couple of amenity blocks with one more modern than the other. Both were clean however so a 3 Star rating! We checked out the lower or Grove section of the campground during our stay and wouldn't recommend for caravans as crowded and very little sunlight. On the positive side was lovely and secluded and considerably cooler.
We got setup with Awning and Shade cloths to protect the fridge and ourselves as best we could. We ventured down to the swimming hole at the back of the Reception/Restaurant area to explore and cool off. A lovely shaded and shallow area in the creek was directly behind the Restaurant Deck. Another deeper and more open area was located at the back of the Grove camping area. The deck area of the complex also featured Telstra 3G coverage so we were able to catch up with some phone calls and internet access. Had been without both for 3 days so was good to reconnect! We all enjoyed a quiet afternoon catching up and keeping cool. Was very hot again but significantly cooler at the restaurant/swimming area which was shaded.
Monday morning we headed up the road to Lawn Hill National Park (Boodjamulla) where we were booked onto a 10AM Gorge River tour. The road in was fairly rough but easily passable. Arrived just in time to join another 2 couples and our tour guide, John on an hour long tour of the Middle Gorge. Is a really beautiful area with beautiful gorge and abundant plant life. We journeyed down as far as the Indarri Falls which are fed by the Upper Gorge. Only about 2 metres of height difference but large amounts of water spilling over in a number of locations. From there we returned to our starting position enjoying the views and colours of the Gorge from a different angle. Quite a reasonable tour at $75 for two of us.
Returned to the caravan park where we tried our best to keep cool in very hot conditions. All our fridges and freezers were struggling with the heat as well. Our's were working fine but working very hard and running down our batteries faster than the solar could replenish. The Ransleys were having the same charging issues and temperamental caravan fridge as well! We fired up the generator for a good session in the afternoon but still struggled to keep up with the battery drain. Sandra and I headed down to the restaurant/swimming hole again after lunch to keep cool and talk to the girls. Had a relaxing few hours before returning to the caravan to begin a BBQ Baked dinner. Not the most pleasant task at 40 degrees but we certainly enjoyed it when completed. Setup our table and chairs in another shaded site for dinner. The bugs here are fairly bad as well so had a variety of defenses trying to keep them at bay while we ate. Enjoyed a cold shower at the amenity block before sitting under the stars for awhile. We spotted quite a few Sputniks (satellites) and a few Shooting Stars. Still really hot at night and not a lot we can do about it with our power supply dwindling! We had a really poor nights sleep highlighted by realizing our portable Waeco freezer had gone off at 4AM. Relocated it to the car battery pack where it lasted until morning. Unfortunately, that didn't help our sleep or our neighbours who heard us rummaging around at 4 in the morning! Oops!
We had an early start booked for Tuesday morning as we planned to return to Lawn Hill and do a few walks along the Gorge. While we weren't in the best frame of minds at 6AM we carried on with our plans. We started our first walk by 7AM which was good as the temperature quickly heated up again. The morning colours of the Gorge and surrounding escarpments were beautiful. Our first walk took us back along the Middle Gorge to Indarri Falls. We made it in good time so decided to continue on to the Upper Gorge which was another 1.5 Km. Very nice walk along the base of the Gorge walls that was mostly shaded for the first half. The last half involved a bit of a climb to the top of the escarpment overlooking the Upper Gorge. Beautiful! We got a bit of a real life nature show when we looked farther up the Gorge from our view point. Saw a Freshwater Crocodile and a wild pig at a creek mouth. Also saw some large fish feeding on a dead bird. Great experience!
From there we headed back down the escarpment and returned to the Indarri Falls. We all enjoyed a welcome swim there as it had really started to heat up. Lovely swimming area where we were able to swim right up to and under the falls. Very refreshing as well.
Once again we headed back out on the walking trail. This time we completed a fairly steep climb to a lookout overlooking the Falls. Great to see it from a different perspective. Proceeded along the escarpment which had a number of viewpoints looking down into the gorge and back towards the Ranger residences and campground. Duwadarri lookout in particular offered a 360 degree view of the Gorge and surrounding area. We were all getting hot and tired by this point and our water supplies were dwindling. We continued on down a very steep climb before rejoining our original path from the Ranger Station. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the cars. That being said, it was a great walk and well worth the effort. Make sure you do it early and take lots of water especially when it is hot!
We had a quiet trip back to the caravan. We enjoyed a lunch at the restaurant as quite frankly no one had the energy to prepare a lunch! We all took advantage of the swimming area and restaurant area throughout the afternoon to keep cool and catch up with family and friends. Unfortunately, we discovered that the Ransley's generator wasn't functioning properly when we turned it on that afternoon to recharge. We think it may have cut out the previous evening but can't be sure. Motor runs perfectly but is not providing any power output! We all got a pretty decent Solar charge during the day so hopefully we will all last through the night as our battery levels are fading fast! Enjoyed a meal of leftovers cleaning out our fridges as much as possible before our next move. Another quiet and early night conserving energy and trying to keep cool. We are aiming for a very early start as we have a fairly long rough road to contend with getting to Camooweal which is our next stop.
We really enjoyed our visit to Lawn Hill/Adels Grove and would recommend highly. The Gorge is beautiful as is the restaurant/swimming area at Adels Grove. The downsides would be the lack of power, high costs, and the difficult roads into this location. You really have to want to see it! $18 per person/night for non powered with no drinking water is pretty steep as well! That being said, We would have probably stayed a few days longer if we had power as was a beautiful location. There is also a canoe rental at either Adels Grove or Lawn Hill which we would have done if we had stayed longer. Would be a repeat of the River Tour at Lawn Hill but you can take the canoe over a portage to the Upper Gorge to explore as well. You can use your own canoes as well if you have them which is good!
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