Ah Karumba!

A long drive today across to Normanton then Karumba. Other than my hair misbehaving, we have just tonight rudely discovered our bed is partly wet from our water supply! We carry it in a tub to prevent exactly this scenario, but it sloshed out a bit unawares to us. We have put the bedding including the mattress cover (good old zip-off Ikea mattress cover) into a big dryer so we should be ok. Anyway, we also came across the most fetching termite mound dress-ups we have seen to date (and we've seen a few). The fields of termite mounds we extensive and impressive. The Normanton railway station (1889) was a treat, being where the 'Gulflander' is based. We had dinner at the Sunset Tavern in Karumba seeing (of course) the sunset - over the Gulf of Carpinteria. All in all a surprisingly eventful day!

Lawn Hill Pt. 2

Our day was split in two. In the morning we did the southern walks which had great views into the gorges. In the afernoon we did canoeing up the middle and upper gorges. We had to carry our canoe between about 50m. It was quite spectacular and had great reflections. We had a swim at the twin falls midway between the gorges. That made 2 swims for the day - including the one back at camp midday to cool down after our walk.

Lawn Hill Pt. 1

We walked one part of the National Park today. It had been badly affected by the big wet season. An access bridge was missing so we had to shimmy  over a big log instead! Up on the plateau there were great views including amazing palm forests lining the gorges. We also saw a little bit of interesting indigenous art and middens. Tomorrow we visit the gorge proper by walking and canoe.

Lawn Hill via Riversleigh

We had a great drive on dirt today from Camooweal to Lawn Hill National Park. Country ranged from ruined cattle deserts to greener bushland to lush creek crossings. Riversleigh is the world renowned fossil site on the World Heritage list, but what visitors can see is pathetic: literally 3 bits of bone fragment in rock. Just as well it was on the way. it did provide some elevation for views though (see pictures). We are staying at Adel's Grove campground just outside the National Park, where we nabbed the last site on the river. We had a swim and are enjoying the facilities, including watching the Olympics on their deck!

White Line Fever Pt. 2

A big 6 hour drive today back into Queensland. Began with an interesting visit to the historic Tennant Creek telegraph station, which had explanations and was very atmospheric set against termite mounds and a wide open landscape. Not much more to report other than no-one stopped us at the border (even though we had our Covid Declarations done), and we did some lake viewing near our stop tonight at Camoweal. The weather is good and we are having a pub dinner later on. Off to Riversleigh and Lawn Hill tomorrow.

The Devil's Marbles

We had a very nice stay at Alice Springs with lots of free drink vouchers! After necessary logistics in the morning we headed north for the third 'leg' of our trip back to Queensland. We stayed 4 hours up the highway at the Devils Marbles National Park campground. It was bizzarely busy but it didn't matter as its very well organized and not too big. The marbles were awesome, particularly in the afternoon light. The ranger gave a campfire talk in the evening which was very interesting. We went for a few walks around the marbles and really enjoyed it.

Petroglyphs and a Ghost Town

It was a fascinating end to the East MacDonnell Ranges. First up was the cold...brrrr! Under 3 degrees in the morning. Then N'Dhalia National Park which has 6,000 petroglyphs from 2,000 to 10,000 yeas ago (ie. markings on stone), telling the 'Caterpilla Dreaming' stories. Each photo has them - look hard. There were also prolific flocks (squadrens!) of Budgies - many hundreds. And almost as many Zebra Finches. Then we headed to Arltunga Historical Reserve, which was the first European settlement in Central Australia, in the Middle of nowhere! It was a gold town and there are quite a few buildings and old mine workings (under metal grates for safety) where you can see the shafts. What a hard life! Fab scenery on the way back to Alice Springs.

East MacDonnell Ranges

The East MacDonnell Ranges aren't as speccy consistently as in the West, but far to the East it gets close. The landscapes are great and there were some excellent walks around and above Trephina Gorge. We saw a splendid Ghost Gum which is registered as the largest in Australia. We camped at Ross River Resort with a lovely view of red rocks in the sunset. After dinner we went up to the historic homestead for a drink and enjoyed the rustic architecture and First Class seats from the old narrow guage Ghan!