Lawn Hill Gorge

Peter:

The drive down the Savannah Way is a hot, slow and dusty one. Yesterday we took three hours to travel only 150km from Kingfisher Camp to Lawn Hill Gorge – through the many gates of Bowthorn Station, countless creek crossings and many rough or stony patches of bush track. The dust infiltrates the car and leaves a layer on every surface. The day before yesterday was one of our most challenging driving days – 440km from King Ash Bay to Kingfisher Camp across the NT/Qld border. There is little to see and few places to stop en-route. The highlight was a gift of food at Hells Gate Roadhouse – donated by a couple of young German tourists who had hit bulldust at speed, become airborne and hit a tree. They were leaving behind everything they couldn’t carry including, of course, the car. I took them into the roadhouse to buy them a beer in appreciation. Hells Gate Roadhouse doesn’t sell beer.

Every kilometre we have travelled over the past few days as we’ve traversed the Gulf of Carpentaria has been worth it to arrive at Lawn Hill Gorge. In our National Parks Guide the gorge is described as follows:

“In Queensland’s arid far north-west lies a place of such unexpected and arresting beauty that its remoteness appears to be no impediment to travellers. Lawn Hill Gorge, with its multi-coloured sandstone cliffs, towering over a palm-fringed, emerald-green river, is the oasis-like centrepiece of Boodjamulla National Park”

Canoeing up Lawn Hill Gorge

Lawn Hill is a genuine oasis both in providing a picturesque, cleansing retreat from the past few days of dusty driving, and a place to take a breather from our routine of setting up and packing up every day or two. We are booked to stay here for three nights – our longest pause in the trip aside from Broken Hill and Darwin. This morning we hired a canoe and a couple of tyre tubes and made the 3km journey upstream to the top of the gorge. It was one of the most beautiful, tranquil experiences of the trip. Marilyn, having floated back down the gorge on one of the tubes, was glowing with pleasure by the time she reached shore.

Marilyn

We have walked through many gorges in our travels.   From the West MacDonnell Ranges to Kakadu to Katherine, gorges have been a popular spot for us to visit.  From our research Lawn Hill National Park promised to be something special.  What I had not expected was my delight at the physical experience of paddling up the gorge and floating down in an inner tube.  The thing about floating down a river in an inner tube is that your eyes are at water level.  I watched a snake swim across. When flipped over onto your back you look up the sides of shear red cliffs to the blue sky beyond.

The river is a magnificent green, water reacting to the presence of lime.  It is a constant 25 degrees. It supports many plants and animals.  Trees growing at the top of the gorge have amazing exposed roots that line the side of the cliffs, plunging into the water many metres below.

I have had many extraordinary experiences on this trip, each time thinking nothing will beat what I have just done.  This morning was such an experience.  Canoeing and floating in an amazing place.