Day 233. Gregory Downs to Adels Grove

An Oasis in the Gulf

It’s today we leave the van here at Gregory Downs, and head into Adel’s Grove situated on the fringe of the Lawn Hill National Park. It’s 90km’s of powder-like bulldust road, with dry creek bed crossings and heavily corrugated road. So we have decided it best to leave the van here, and stay in the eco-tents out there for a couple of days.

As we headed out of Gregory Downs free camp, about 100mtrs down the road we crossed a second river crossing and this time it was filled with lovely clear running water, shaded by lush green trees and a heap of caravans lined the banks - all free camping. I was so angry with myself for not venturing a little further and finding this lovely spot yesterday. Instead I had us camped last night in the hot dust bowl up the road. I just knew there had to be more to that camp, as it had come so highly recommended by other campers. Oh well, we know where we will be moving the caravan to upon our return from Adel’s in a couple of days.

The road wasn’t too bad, but it would have filled the van with bull dust and shaken it to pieces had we of towed her in. I was glad it was only an hour trip, and not the three hours it would have taken had we been towing. We passed some road trains on the one lane road in, where the only place to go was off the road and into the bush to let them pass. They threw up so much dust, we had to wait a minute before continuing on as visibility was zero. Also at one creek crossing, we came around the corner and had to slam on the breaks to avoid a huge Brahman bull standing in the middle of the road.

Bec and Scarlett 'floating' on inner-tubes

When we arrived and set up camp in our great eco-tent, it was straight down to the river for a beautiful cool swim. The river here is flanked with Pandanus Palms, River Gums and the edges have pretty water lily’s floating on top of the surface. It was a little oasis, with the water so clear, and a small waterfall for the kids to play in. We ended up floating about on tyre inner-tubes, and relaxing in the cool water for hours.

Come on in dad!

Further upstream the water opened up to a deeper swimming hole, which had a pontoon floating out in the middle. An overhanging tree had some ropes hanging down that the kids had a fantastic time swinging off and into the water from. Scarlett was so game in the end, that she was running the length of the pontoon and swinging off with the rope and dropping out into the water. It was nearly 5 o’clock by the time we were able to convince her to get out and come back for some dinner.

The park seemed to fill up quite a bit this afternoon, and word spread quickly that Lawn Hill had been evacuated due to a bush fire with everyone moved to here. We are hoping that it doesn’t get too bad, and we are still able to go in and check it out in the next day or two, as the gorge is the whole reason for coming up this way.

Scarlett lining up for a turn on the rope swing

We showered, and cooked our dinner of steak and veg in the camp kitchen. This was followed by some toasted marshmallows on the fire (cooked by Scarlett) for dessert. The temperature has dropped to a more reasonable level now, making our eco tent with all its windows open quite a comfortable stay. It was after reading for about 20min I think everyone fell asleep with exhaustion from the full day’s swimming. Tomorrow if we can’t get into Lawn Hill, our day will probably be filled with much more of the same.