Day 44 - 49 27th May - 1st June 2012

27^th May

Left Mt Isa and stayed at the Terry Smith Lookout which is half way between Mt Isa and Gregory Downs.  Not a bad free camp – clean toilets but no water.  We had happy hour with a few of the other campers and it turned out a good afternoon.  The sunset once again was beautiful.  Too windy to have a fire so we retired early and read our books.

28^th May

Left the Terry Smith Lookout and headed for Gregory Downs.  At the Bourke & Wills Roadhouse we paid the most we have paid for diesel ($1.769) but we would rather pay that than run out.  The road into Gregory Downs is very narrow in places and we had to pull right off the road a couple of times to let the road trains go through.  It is great having the CB radio as the drivers let you know if there are any more coming.  We saw some big eagles on the way but unfortunately I was unable to get photographs.  They were making a meal of the road kill.  Once we got to Gregory Downs we were a bit confused as to how to get down to the camp by the river but found an entrance in the end.  We think that we came in the wrong way but it didn’t matter as the end result was the same.  There are signs everywhere that say no caravans or campers by the river but there must be about 20 vans in here.  It is a great spot right by the river the water is so clear that we are using it for doing the dishes to conserve our tank water for drinking and showering, although there is a shower in the “town” that we could use if we were short of water.  We will probably stay here at least four nights.  There’s a couple here that were at Terry Smith so once again we had happy hour with them. 

Entrance to the Campsite

Gregory River 

Gregory River

Gregory River

29 & 30^th May

Still at Gregory Downs.  On Tuesday we didn’t do much except go for a long walk and socialize with the rest of the campers here by the river.  The weather was not as warm and rain is threatening.

We decided to go into Lawn Hill on Wednesday.  We didn’t leave here until 10am and we got there about 1145am.  The road in wasn’t too bad until we passed the Century Mine site where the road deteriorated incredibly.  Some of the road was literally black soil.  We had been told the other day after the rain a road train and two caravans were bogged on the road in.  We saw a heard of about 500 Brahman Cattle being hearded on the road once again.  When we got in there we did a big walk to the Upper Gorge, unfortunately we missed the lookout as we turned right too soon.  Anyway the gorge was very pretty and then we weaved our way down the path and passed Middle Lagoon, Indarri Falls and Duwaderri Lookout.  When we got back to the picnic area we had lunch then unfortunately we had to cut our trip short as it started to rain steadily and Graham was a bit worried that the road might get muddy so we left there at about 4pm.  We did enjoy our trip in there even though it was very short at least now we have seen the beautiful Lawn Hill National Park.  It rained on and off all the way back to Gregory Downs. 

Cattle Herd

Indarri Falls

One of the Gorges at Lawn Hill

Indarri Falls

Upper Gorge

31^st May

It rained all night and most of the day today.  The road on both sides of the camp is very muddy but everybody thinks we will be able to get up the slope.  All the guys in the camp today decided that they should fix the road where there had been some subsidence so they carried rocks up and filled in the holes.  It was quite impressive how they all worked together.  Anyway the rain stopped at about 2pm and it was quite mild.  We spoke to one of the locals and he reckoned that we should wait a day or so before we leave Gregory Downs to give the road out to Bourke & Wills time to dry out, we will wait and see we were supposed to leave tomorrow.  We didn’t see many road trains today going into Century Mine today we reckoned they were all laid up because of the rain.  We had a fire with some of the other campers and had quite a nice evening.

Road Gang

Camp by the River at Gregory Downs

Gregory Downs Hotel

After the rain - Road Closed to Burketown

1^st June

No rain overnight but the sky looked very threatening so after talking to a few of the other campers we decided to leave Gregory Downs and head out towards Bourke & Wills along with our neighbours Mary and Richard.  We packed up and left at about 9am.  It wasn’t too bad most of the way but the side of the road was very wet.  We had been on the road about an hour when two road trains were coming towards us, Graham was just about to pull over when they came over the CB and told us to keep coming as they could stop in a floodway.  We were most surprised but very pleased.  Then about 20 minutes later we had to pull over to let a semi-trailer past, Graham had to pull right over and all the wheels were on the soft edge, the caravan did a bit of a fish tail but he was able to right it.  It was very scary.  (For those of you who have not been on the Bourke Development Road, it is only one lane for a lot of the time and you have to pull over to let the road trains pass).  


Tonight we are at a free camp called Bang Bang Rest Area. There are about 8 vans here and we have had a camp fire again.  It is a lovely mild night and the sky is clear so hopefully the weather will get better from here.  


On the road from the Burke & Wills roadhouse to Bang Bang there were so many massive Eagles - we had a few of them fly straight at the car Graham had to break to avoid them.  We met one couple who had had there windscreen broken when hitting an eagle.  They are such graceful birds - unfortunately up to now I have not been quick enough to get a photograph.