Butterfly Springs and the Lost Cities of the Limmen National Park - Part 2

The next morning we were up early to head for the nearby Nathan River Ranger Station.  We need to pick up the key to the locked gate which will give us access to the track leading to the Western Lost City.  This time access is not quite so easy - a 28km 4WD track to the carpark.  The trip will take about 4 hours and the key must be collected between 7-10am.  We're first in at 8am.

We've zeroed our trip meter at the gate so we can follow the printed directions from the Ranger.  At 2.2km we come to the first of many river crossings and at 5.1km we cross the Limmen Bight River.  At 14km we are at Clearwater permanent waterhole.  Home to many bird and animals.  We saw a saurus crane and a small herd of water buffalo in the distance.  There were many waterholes, in various stages of drying up, along the way and we saw several water buffalo as we drove along.

Finally, at 28km we began to enter the lost city.  Just as impressive as the Southern Lost City, but a bit different.

The sandstone land forms were formed about 1.5billion years ago when the land rose up from the sea and cracked open.  Erosion over the millennia has widened the crack so that pillars and arches remain.  The rock really looks like layers of brickwork and the sandstone is very fragile.

At the end of the track we climbed to the top of the ridge to look out over the nearby valley before making our way back to the car.

As we drove out we noticed this tree with a very tenuous hold on life - and you thought you had things tough!!  We also saw many tracks in the sand as we walked around.  Looks like the small snakes were busy in this area overnight.

On our way back along the track we paused at a creek crossing to see some stromatalites.  These ancient fossils, which can look like anything from cow pats to tubes - these look like boulders, were formed 3.5billion years ago from algae on the sea floor. They are some of the oldest formations on earth.






After returning the key it was time for lunch and another swim  amongst the fish at the waterhole.  This morning we've driven about 150km to the north-western corner of the Limmen National Park.  We're camped at Tomato Island (Munbililla) and hope to reach Katherine in the next day or 2 where we're looking forward to restocking our cupboards.

It will be great to see a bitumen road again!

We tend to rate what we see as scenic (ranges from ok to stupendous), WOW!, and OH MY GOD!!  The Lost Cities fall into the OMG category.

Butterfly Springs and the Lost Cities of the Limmen National Park - Part 1

The Limmen National Park was proclaimed in July 2012, so it's just celebrated its 2nd birthday.  It's in one of the most remote parts of Australia, in eastern Northern Territory.  After our relaxing 2 days at Lorella Springs Station, we were back onto the corrugated access road and an hour later re-joined the Nathan River Road heading north.  Another hour and a half and we pulled into Butterfly Springs campsite.  The main reason for staying here is so we can visit the Southern Lost City and the Western Lost City.  The road is what we expected - travel at about 50-60kph maximum, sometimes dropping down to 30kph and slower still over the many creek crossings.

After we set up camp,we drove back the 23km to the Southern Lost City carpark.  There's a well marked trail to follow for the 2.5km walk around and between the giant sandstone pillars.

The guide information says the walk takes about 1.5 hours.  I think the time estimate depends on how often you stop to take photos.

We stopped often!!!!








The walk took us between the pillars, formed about 1.5billion years ago, to the top of the escarpment where we had magnificent views of the  surrounding countryside.

Then it was back down through more pillars and back to the car.  We took the full 1.5 hours, and managed to drink all of our water too.

Back to Butterfly Springs and it was time for a swim in the crystal clear waters.  A bit cooler than the water at Lorella Springs it was "brisk and refreshing".  The hardest part was immersing - once we were wet the water was lovely.

Nature's swimming holes are magnificent.  We swam among the fish and watched a large water monitor basking in the sun.  At this time of year the waterfall which feeds the pool is just a trickle.

After our swim we walked to the nearby overhang to see how Butterfly Spring got its name.  There are thousands of butterflies just hanging out on the rock face - wonderful!

Lorella Springs Station

For the first few kms out of Borroloola we had the luxury of a sealed road - the last we would see for a few days.  We drove through flat savannah country and through the southern section of the Limmen National Park before turning north-east to our destination.  The understory of the gulf savannah country is managed by fire - and the annual floods.  There are really 3 seasons in this country - wet, dry and underwater!

Lorella Springs Station is an oasis in this dry, dusty country.  We had 30km of narrow corrugated access road - there's a sign that indicates "1,000,000 corrugations to go", not strictly correct, but it feels like it - and it was graded only a couple of weeks ago.  When Cherryl got out of the car to open a gate a couple of kms from the station she noticed water pouring out of one of our water tanks, and something hanging ominously loose.  Not much we could do here on the side of the road so we drove the few kms we had to go and booked in and found a site.  Robert climbed under the caravan to inspect and found that several of the bolts holding a watertank were non-existent and the tank had fallen down, severing the inlet pipe.  We were able to get some bolts from the station mechanic and we'll operate on 2 non-potable tanks until we get to Katherine in about a week.

Lorella Springs Station is 4,000sq kms/1,000,000 acres and stretches 60 km to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north.  It's bounded by the Limmen National Park to the west and aboriginal land to the east and south.  It's a popular holiday destination with visitors from all over Australia staying for anything from 1 night to a few months.  There are many camping areas on the station land and plenty to do.  On our drive around we saw plenty of flowers.  The orange grevillea was dripping with nectar.  We also saw a bat-wing coral tree and purple kimberley heather/turkey bush (calytrix).

Many of the billabongs and creeks have a small tinny available for use - just tie it up and leave it how you found it when you've finished paddling around.  This one was at Crocodile Springs and while we didn't see any crocodiles here, there are billabongs with plenty of the fish eating "freshies" around.  

We paddled around for about half an hour under the trees, trying to catch some fish (not even a nibble).

There are plenty of swimming holes and we stopped off to look at Inkspot Pool.  We could see the sandy bottom and could see plenty of small fish swimming around in the crystal clear water.






Back at the main camp is Lorella Spring with a wonderful clear swimming hole with water at a very comfortable 34C - just what we needed every day.  Some of the pools are much hotter, up to 52C.  Another highlight here is the on-site bakery.  Crusty Dick bakes bread every afternoon - order by noon, pick up after 5pm.  Beautiful fresh, crusty bread.  A change from the shop bought frozen bread we've been having since we left the Atherton Tablelands a few weeks ago.

Through the Bush to Borroloola

After 4 fantastic days at Adels Grove we packed up, hitched up and were on our way again.  We followed the signs to "KFC".  No we're no having the well known take away chicken for dinner, we going to Kingfisher Camp.  It's only 113km away, but it will take us about 4 hours to get there.

Our first challenge came at our first river crossing.  It took us a few minutes to work out where the road went and Robert waded along the river to find the road out.  The farm road through Lawn Hill Station was in good condition and we continued to negotiate the river crossings without any problems.  We passed through several gates before we reached Bowthorn Station.  More gates and the farm roads here were not as good so we slowed down and "drove to the prevailing conditions".  About 5km from Kingfisher Camp we arrived at the Nicholson River.  This river would be very wide in the wet season.  At this time of year it's easy to negotiate.  More of a problem is the BULLDUST!!!  About 5kms of it and sometimes it seemed bottomless as our wheels were spinning and we were enveloped in a cloud of fine red dust.

Eventually we arrived at the campground.  It was as good as we expected and we had a relaxing couple of days camped under the trees.

Back to the Savannah Way and our first stop is Hell's Gate Roadhouse.

Hell's Gate got its name because in earlier times this was the place that the Queensland Police would guarantee safety to. West of here and you were on your own.  Luckily not the case these days.

We were spoiled by about 20km of sealed road then we're back to the dirt.  The next town is Borroloola in the Northern Territory, about 315km away.  We've got plenty of river crossings on this stretch.  We stopped at Calvert Creek for lunch and then proceeded on 70km to Robinson River Crossing, 95 km from Borroloola to camp for the night.

When we left the car, Cherryl discovered her keys are missing.  OOPS!!  They must be at Calvert Creek because she had them there.  Nothing we can do about it now so we'll camp the night and sort it out tomorrow.

In the morning we get all ready to leave and discover - FLAT TYRE!!  It's really not our day.  An hour later than we'd planned and we're on the road to Borroloola.  We've checked into the McArthur River Caravan Park for a few days.  Once set up it's back into the car and we travel the 300km round trip back to Calvert Creek.  The keys are exactly where Cherryl left them, on the ground where the caravan was parked when we had lunch yesterday.  We're very relieved - the last lost car key cost $800 to replace!

We feel like we've got to know this bit of the Savannah Way.  It's a really beautiful stretch of road with picturesque river crossings.  The grevilleas are in flower - bright orange, yellow, cream and red flowers abound.  There are also many purple kunzea and yellow/gold acacias in flower.

Borroloola is 300km from just about everywhere.  We've cycled our batteries, had the tyre repaired, filled the empty gas bottle and stocked up the food cupboards because we're heading back onto the dirt roads and into the bush tomorrow.  There's not a lot to do here.  The King Ash Fishing Club about 40 km away is a popular camping and fishing area, with many fishing clubs based there.  Across the road from the caravan park is the Waralungku Arts Centre which is worth visiting to see the paintings and other art works from all of the language groups of the Borroloola region.

We'll be out of communications contact again for a few days as we head through the Limmen National Park on our way to Katherine.  Watch this space for the next instalment in a week or so.