Day 13 - Adel's Grove and Lawn Hill National Park
Another beautiful day dawned in the Queensland outback and we welcomed it
with percolated coffee and a cooked breakfast. As our neighbours packed up,
they highly recommended the canoe trip through the gorge in the National Park
(10km up the road). I had been wanting to do this but didn't know how we were
going to fit it in as we were booked on the escarpment tour at 1pm. Anyway, we
decided to give it a go and drove down to the National Park, aiming to spend an
hour on the river, paddling through the gorge. Timing wise, this worked out
well and we were soon on the water under our own steam. The gorge is
magnificent. Tall red rock sheer walls occasionally give way to lush foliage,
filled with birds whose song was filling the canyon. It was so quiet and peaceful,
apart from the paddles (and birds!). We paddled through the main part of the
gorge until Greg could hear the waterfall marking the end of this level. For
the more adventurous - and those with more time - you can haul your canoe up to
the next level of the river and keep paddling. We weren't either, so we turned
around and tried to keep within the wall shadows, as it was much cooler there.
The sun was mostly shining right down the gorge and it was getting pretty warm.
We made it back home in time for a quick lunch before meeting our tour
guide John and another couple joining us (from Werribee!). We piled into the
troop carrier and headed off for a fairly rough old ride past Lawn Hill
Station, up into a part of the National Park that is off limits to the public.
Up we climbed, with John telling us interesting stories of the native
vegetation, the Station, mining history and more. We stopped three quarters of
the way up to take in this view.
Then we kept going right to the top, which although only 250 metres above
sea level, compared to the flat plains around, it looked like we were on top of
Everest. We settled onto rock seats for afternoon tea (scones and mud cake,
washed down with a cuppa (yes, I took my own coffee bag - no instant coffee for
this girl) and a few more stories and soaked up the amazing atmosphere, and
views. Imagine our surprise when the mobile phone of one of our tour buddies
rang! We were so high that we even had mobile phone reception!
The trip down seemed even more rougher but we made it down without dramas
and were pulling back into camp at 5:30pm. A quick drink on the bar as we
pondered which way to go tomorrow (having sussed out the river crossings we
would have to tackle tomorrow) before I ponder what we might have for dinner.
Then tomorrow we get to do it all over again - another day of adventures!
posted by Tracey @ 9:05 pm
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