We left Julia Creek early (on the road by 7am again) - it was a beautiful outback sunrise this morning from the back of the caravan park out across the paddocks behind.
We turned off the Flinders Highway just west of Julia Creek heading NW to Burke and Wills Roadhouse on the Wills Developmental road.
We saw virtually no other vehicles on our journey this morning - passed only 1x road train with sheep (this driver gave us a very big wave as we pulled off to let him pass by)- and 2 cars in 238 km.
But there was plenty of wildlife and we had to be very vigilant for the first couple hours as we were seeing quite a few wallabies and roos. Had one wallaby come out across the road but we saw it coming as we were taking it easy (75-80km per hr).
Having to take it slowish gave us the opportunity to spot quite a lot of wildlife.
* a 6ft red roo off the road by the fence line
* wallabies
* a wild pig family - mum, dad and the kids heading for the road
* lots of feral cats - first time we have ever seen these any where in our travels before
* and we had to keep slowing down so as not to hit Eagles feeding on roadkill.
* Also saw lots of Australian Bustard birds and also a couple of emus and lots of beautiful wild budgies.
Sometimes even the road is designated as en "emergency airstip" - no parking for next 1.5km
The price of Diesel fuel is starting to hurt now at $1.75 per litre at the roadhouse - we saw that the price at Gregory Downs pub was $1.89 a litre.
The Burke and Wills roadhouse was a nice stop - fuelled up -
and had a chat with the friendly staff - a girl from Finland who landed in Oz 3 mths ago and has been working at Burke & Wills roadhouse now for 2 mths - says the days are very busy and she is loving it.
Ths was painted on the wall on th veranda of the roadhouse.
We headed west from B&W
to Gregory Downs where we had lunch near the pub.Some of the 'locals' wandered by and said "hi" - on there way to hang out under a tree by the river.
After lunch - chatting to a couple out by the pub
(which is pretty much all there seemed to be at Gregory Downs) -- we discovered that had we kept going past the pub we would have come across a great spot on the Gregory River and could have had nice picnic lunch by the river.
It is apparently a very popular free camp site and so we took their advice and a drive down through there to check it out.
The advice was - just follow the track and drive down ignoring the sign that says "no campers or caravans past this point".
There were heaps of travellers and caravans down along the river
- some had come to this spot specially on this trip as they had passed through and stayed here before.
It was a great spot with a great swimming hole and a nice flowing section of the river.We have hit the dirt now and the first half of the trip to Lawn Hill we were passing several road trains from the local Century Mine.
Basically we just had to pull over and pretty much stop to let them pass - and eat the billows of dirt they threw all over us.
Our rig now looks like we are in the outback. - covered in dust!!! - the spare tyre cover at the front of the camper that was black is now light grey.
We made Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) NP campground by 2.30pm
and setup camp.
We then went straight down to the water hole for a swim and float on inflated tyre tubes - these are provided for use for a gold coin donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
We are now starting to see the RFDS donation tins everywhere - its such an essential service out here.
The water is a beautiful green and is cool - but not cold. The whole area is just a beautiful oasis.
This is a great campground - not too big and with with basic but well setup facilities - the cold showers are perfect as it is pretty hot here even though it is winter and the water from the shower is really just pleasantly cool.
They even provide hooks above the showers for you to hook up your bush shower if you want as well.
it is also a very popular campsite this time of year - and as soon as a site is vacated it is occupied again.
They even have a Telstra tower there now - so coverage was pretty good.
We have met lots of people here already and it is a very easy going friendly and comfortable atmosphere around the campground.
Weather is around 30 max and the nights are quite calm and almost balmy here at the moment.
Day 9:
Today we were up early to hire a canoe to go paddling up through the gorge - before too many other people started heading up there. This was just so beautiful and peaceful and 2 hours gave us plenty of time for a reasonably leisurely paddle.
You paddle for about 20 mins - then porterage the canoe up around behind the 'Tufa' dam - this was not that easy as getting the canoe up onto the access platform and out of the water was pretty hard work - but happily we managed without losing anybody overboard. Then it's a short walk to the next point to launch the canoe again - but the canoes are not light and the track is over rocks - so it required a couple stops to reach there. Another 20 mins paddling takes you through the upper gorge. Then you turn around and come back the same way.
We did see a couple of "freshies" - one was about 1.5 metres and was trying to quietly slip out of view in the reeds as we passed by.
Swimming was on the agenda again when we returned and a wander around to check out the information boards provided at the ranger station.
Late in the afternoon we took a walk to the site of some aboriginal artworks (the aboriginal people ask that you o not photograph these).
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