Adels Grove is right near Lawn Hill National Park and we
were determined to get up early and get to the park before it warmed up to
much. De set of to do the laundry while I fed the boys and got everything else
ready to go. We were ready to go, but there was no sign of De until an hour or
so later when she came back, not happy Jan! There are only three machines and
there was a bit of a line up....and then when it was her turn the water was
flowing so slowly that she had returned to get the bucket to help it along its
way.....a couple of hours after our planned early departure....I think we
should just stick to being one of the last out!
We headed up to the park where my cunning and devious plan
started to take shape. The best way to see Lawn Hill is by canoeing up the river...you can rent them for $30/hr
and we would need two of them for a couple of hours so it was out of our
budget. However we do have a small boat and even though you can’t use the motor
we have a set of oars! We looked quite the site carting Rufus the 100m down to
the river with her wheels making an almighty racket as their hard plastic
rolled over the rocks with each noise being reverberated through the tinny like
a guitar!
Once on the river we looked a little less cumbersome but we were hardly a match for the
sleekness of the canoes. One thing that may have something to do with that is
prior to leaving some 192 days ago I chopped the handles of the oars down to as
short a length as I reasonably could, for storage of course. While it didn’t come
back to haunt us I have the sneaking suspicion it may have been easuer if the
handles were just a touch longer.
About half way up the 1.5km paddle we entered the gorge part
with red sandstone walls leaping out of the water 50, 60 or 70m straight up. I
was amazed by their beauty but the boys were more interested in finding out if
I would jump of them! Some of them had pandanus palms lining the base of the
cliffs while for many there was nothing but sheer cliff. It reminded me of the
Forde at the bottom of the south island of New Zealand but it was just a touch
warmer! We tied up to a pandanus and had our lunch of sandwiches and then
continued to paddle up stream. The way up was hard work, not only because we
were going against a small current but there was a decent wind that was making
the going even tougher!
Eventually we rounded the final bend and had the falls in
sight. They weren’t as spectacular as some that we have seen but it was pretty
cool to be approaching them on the water. We paddled Rufus as close as we could
before being pushed back by the white water.
The facilities at the end a pretty
good with a place to tie the boat up as well as a slide to help those
enthusiastic enough to drag their canoe up the bank and over so they can paddle
the next gorge. From all reports the 1st gorge was the best so we
wisely left it at that and decided a swim and a few token jumps of the falls
would suffice!
Refreshed we turned and headed down stream, a much easier
run. At one point I had the beach towel up, with my feet and hands holding its
four corners trying to use it as a spinnaker while De and Jack paddled. The
journey up was a lot easier than the one up and it wasn’t long before we were
rattling our way back up the path and hitting the road back to the camp.
The boys had found a few new buddies in Mathew and Alex, who
we had originally met at the Bungle Bungles so while they tore around on their
bikes De cooked up an apricot chicken in the camp oven, on the hot coals! With
the boys safely tucked away we headed to the fire next door and had one or two,
or was it maybe three drinks with two wonderful woman, Sam and Sally. We sat
around the fire and had a great chat and it was great to go beyond the
caravanners trifecta and have a decent conversation about life rather than
where we have been and what we have seen. At around half past something we
pulled up stumps and headed off into a deeeeep sleep!
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