Lawn Hill Gorge

Lawn Hill Gorge
3 to 7 September

This was on our original itinerary. Lots of people had told us “you must go to Lawn Hill Gorge”. We felt we had worked hard to get there.
The first thing we noticed when we woke up was an abundance of new birds. Our bird list grew rapidly. The next thing was the beautiful green water of the Gorge teeming with tropical fish – archer fish, rainbow fish, salmon catfish bony bream, sooty grunter, coal grunter – the kids were very excited by this. The water is green due to the calcium in the water.

From Lawn Hill Gorge

The gorge is a beautiful place to swim and canoe, but the camp ground is quite hot and dry. Being the end of the dry season, it was looking a bit brown and drab.
While the kids swam, I gingerly drove 10km to Adel's Grove in search of a spare tyre. They had a used tyre that was the same size as the ones on the cruiser, and Doug could pick up 2 new tyres in Mt Isa on Monday. Not quite the same as what we had but same rolling diameter. After more discussion about tyres, tyre pressure and spares, I undertook to buy the tyres plus another rim so we would have two spares.

I did some consulting work (as there is full next G reception on the lookout beside camp) but also lots of swimming, li loing and bush walking. The Gorges is big and beautiful and whenever we got hot, we just jumped in for another swim. At Indarri falls, we had fun being shot by the Archer fish and being pummelled by the cascades.

From Lawn Hill Gorge

Maggie began her weekly linocut – yet to be completed.
Fabian managed to catch a Gulf Snapping turtle and also picked up an Olive Python near the amenities block.

From Lawn Hill Gorge

We met a Victorian family who had 2 sons around Fabian's age so that was a plus. We ended up staying an extra night to allow enough time to get the new tires fitted. All up very pleasant and memorable.