Lawn Hill - Gorges, Barking Owls and a Near Disaster

The jewel in the crown of Lawn Hill National Park and the main attraction for the dozens of tourists who flock there, is the gorge – or, to be more precise, the series of gorges. These are filled with water and, with very little current, provide ideal opportunities for swimming whilst the more adventurous can hire a canoe and make their way to the absolutely glorious Indarri (?) Falls. We spurned the offer of canoe hire as, being super organised, we had our own boat – a three metre inflatable four man dingy. On reflection we would have been better hiring a canoe!

I had assumed when purchasing the inflatable that it would either come with a pump or perhaps an adaptor so that I could attach it to the compressor I had bought for inflating the car tyres. It came with neither. The only way we were going to get afloat was to blow it up using nothing but lungpower – it was a nightmare! Taking it in turns Sandra and I finally managed to get enough air into the damned thing for it to float – but at what a cost – strained lungs, hyper-ventilation and hallucinations – not a task for the faint hearted. Mind you, these things affect women differently – I needed a beer but Sandra felt the need to soak her feet!

However the reward came the following day when we set sail up the gorge - the sun shone, a cloudless blue sky and magnificent scenery. With a supply of cold beer and a picnic lunch, what could be better? When a slight breeze started up we were even able to use the umbrella, brought as a sunshade, as a sail to propel us up stream. One minor problem occurred when my sail holder, Sandra, got distracted (again!) and somehow managed to let go of the umbrella which promptly blew away. After some frantic paddling we managed to catch it only for Sandra to throw it into the river again so that she could take a picture “for the blog”!!

Arriving at the falls we had to carry the boat about 50 metres then onward to the upper part of the gorge. After another kilometre we decided to return to the falls for a swim – that’s when the next problem hit us.

An inflatable dingy is very light with no keel and has a lot of wind resistance. It is great for being propelled with the wind behind you, especially if you have an umbrella sail. However trying to paddle into the wind was well nigh impossible – we couldn’t get back down stream the current being negligible. So, it being a beautiful day and with beautiful surroundings, we gave up and moored ourselves to a handy tree to wait for the wind to drop. Whilst making lousy boats, inflatables are supremely comfortable – so Sandra got out her craft work and I got out a book and we spent several very pleasant hours relaxing under the umbrella, which had now reverted to its primary purpose of being a sunshade.

One drawback of Lawn Hill was the noise, particularly the barking of dogs throughout the night - Sandra was convinced it was the howling of dingoes. However in the morning a fellow camper, Graeme from Perth who seemed well versed in outback flora and fauna, told us it wasn’t dogs but Barking Owls. This was such an obvious wind up, on par with the Vampire Kangaroo in my previous blog, that I naturally treated it with the contempt it deserved. However, after consulting Sandra’s copy of The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds, Barking Owls not only exist but do make a dog-like barking noise. Graeme, if you do ever read this, my apologies for doubting you!!!!

After four days at Lawn Hill, and following a fabulous sunrise, we packed up camp and set out for Mount Isa, a fairly large mining town several hours drive south. I had been worried for the last few thousand kilometres that my tyres were getting rather on the bald side- and that’s putting it mildly. I had tried in a few places to get new ones but with no success so a trip to a tyre shop in Mount Isa was essential. The trip was largely uneventful with a brief but interesting stop at the Riversleigh World Heritage site to look at the fossils which appear in the rocks in great profusion. Our one bit of excitement however came as we crossed the Gregory River.

Perhaps I had a premonition that something was about to go wrong as I stopped to take a photograph of the sign warning motorists that the causeway was slippery and there were strong currents. The river crossing itself looked a piece of cake (see photo) and presented no obvious problems – so much so I didn’t even bother to engage four wheel drive. If I had had a good set of tyres, if I had engaged four wheel drive and if I hadn’t been too concerned about the drop to the left and had not veered too far to the right – all might have been well. However, we skidded off the causeway and into the river – only some magnificent (!) driving by me, and some skilful screaming by Sandra, managed to save the day.

Mount Isa is a mining area and the local mine totally dominates the town in a particularly unattractive way – especially “the chimney”. Towering above the mine and the town is an enormous chimney which can be seen from absolutely everywhere. I have no idea how tall it actually is, probably several hundred feet, suffice to say it has a flashing red light at the top to stop planes flying into it. However, despite the obvious drawbacks, Sandra liked Mount Isa.



So, with new tyres and provisions for a week, we set off tomorrow for ?