Gulf Country Day 59 - Kurumba to Lawn Hill

This morning we met Irene and Ken around 8.30am and walked the 100m or so down the track. Here in the clearning besides the river was a friendly gentlemen from Adels Grove (the private camping ground and store 10km or so out of the National Park). For a $20 deposit for each canoe we set off for a 3 hour cruise up the Lawn Hill Gorge.

The gorge is only about 60m wide and in places narrows right down to only the width of the canoe. There are a choice of either two or three person canoes and Ken and Irene took one canoe and David and I took another. The boys acted like 10 year olds all morning - splashing and having races. Thankfully we were carrying cameras so there was no canoe capsizing!

We started our trek at the Middle Gorge and made our way up to the Waterfall (Indarri) where there is a Canoe Portage. It is quite a good setup with floating marinas for the canoes and steps for the people to walk up whilst dragging the canoes up the ramp. The two guys actually rode down the canoe portage in their canoes like the "solo man" - it was pretty funny.

Once at the top you enter the Upper Gorge after following some windy, dense pandanas creeks. This gorge has a sandy bottom and almost a beach in which we swam and played like children. I am amazed when I remember being told by "Dorothy" at Escott station that Lawn Hill was overated. She obviously doesn't like the outdoors. We think this place is heaven. We haven't covered any of the many good walking trails here yet and there is so much wildlife to investigate. Smalls lizards are plentiful as are birds of many varieties including Comeras, bowers, finches and doves. In the water we saw many small bream and stripey grunter. This afternoon we might walk to the Ranger station and book another night and while we are there read up about the local inhabitants.

We are experimenting with our battery system for keeping the fridge cool. Ken is leaving his car at the designated area for battery charging as generators are prohibited in the National Park of course.