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.