In Normanton we stopped at Krys the Croc. This is an actual size replica of the largest crocodile ever captured and killed in the world! It measures 8.6m long and was estimated to be over 2 tons! We continued on our way and visited Camp 119 which is the most norther camp reached by the Burke and Wills expedition. Burke and Wills left the expedition party there while they tried to make it to the ‘water’. They made it to the marsh lands of the Gulf but were not able to see the clear waters of the ocean. While Burke and Wills were away the surveyor blazed no less than 14 trees to prove they made it this far north. Most of the trees are no longer standing but there are markers to show where the trees were. The next town we visited was Burketown. At the town boundary you can go and see the bore that was sunk in 1897 that once supplied the town with hot water. It still flows today at a rate of 707,109 litres per day with a temperature of 68 ̊c! This bore was once at ground level but with the amount of minerals it produces it now stands almost a metre above ground. We then went to see the Landsbrough tree where the expedition party looking for Burke and Wills buried some supplies with the work DIG blazed on the tree. Unfortunately, it is believed that vandals burnt the tree down so you can now only see some of the tree. They were able to save some timber from this tree and made a court gavel.
We then made our way
to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park.
This is a lush green natural spring fed oasis in the middle of nowhere. We stayed at Adels Grove and enjoyed the
shade of the ‘Grove’ at our campsite.
Adels Grove was once a botanical garden planted by Albert de Lestang (his
initials make the name Adel) in 1920. He planted many trees and shrubs and
supplied the Botanical Gardens of the world with the seeds his garden
produced. In the early 1950’s a fire swept
through (some say deliberately lit) and destroyed everything including the
trunk that stored all his information and research. They say he died a short time after of a
broken heart. We enjoyed a very fresh swim here and Emmalisa was fascinated by
the birdlife. The next day we went into
the national park and thought we would just do a quick short walk, which turned
into a combination of three of the walks there…in our thongs! One of the walks was very steep and meant for
people with bushwalking experience only.
There is nowhere thongs can’t take you!
After our ‘quick, short’ walk we had a lovely swim in the Gorge, and the water was still very fresh! We enjoyed the sites
from the lookouts so much that the next day we went back and hired some canoes
to row down the Gorge. It was a very
different perspective seeing it from the water.
We even got to see a freshwater crocodile and we rowed up close to it! Back at camp we managed to make a chocolate
cake from scratch and cook it in the camp oven.
Dessert was enjoyed by all that night!
When we left Adels Grove
we stopped off at Riversleigh Site D.
This is Australia’s most famous fossil location and is recognised for it's well preserved fossil deposits. This site is heritage listed and is said to have some of the richest and most extensive range of mammal fossils in the
world. We all learnt a lot and were
amazed to see some fossils along the short walk.
That night we found a beautiful camp at Camooweal by the side of a billabong. It was full of bird life that we enjoyed watching through the binoculars. The sunset there was amazing and then we were dazzled by the sunrise the next morning.
We are now feeling the
warmer weather and are heading towards the NT boarder to continue our
adventure!
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