People complain about the dull drive from
Darwin to Alice along the Stuart Highway. But we chose to drive it twice because we
backtracked all the way past Tennant Creek to take the Barkly Highway east.
Still, with air-con fixed, the Harry Potter audio books and contact lenses back in,
the drive wasn’t so bad and we arrived at dusk at a place called The Pebbles, just
out of Tennant Creek. The Pebbles are like a mini Devils Marbles – and just as
culturally significant to the local Aboriginal people. Some whitefella fools
decided to pinch one of the pebbles and chuck it in a park in Tennant Creek to
amuse the tourists – a move that was of course highly offensive considering the
sacred nature of the place. Then when the local people next came to the site,
they discovered mining equipment had been left there ready for imminent work.
The people stepped up and voiced their anger by organising sit-ins and media coverage. They won and now the area is
nominally protected for their use. The traditional owners have set up a free
camp spot there, which was nice for us.
Next day, Kate’s eye was hurting again and
so poor Bill had to do all the driving. Shame for him because it turned out to be
one of the longest hauls we have done on the trip so far. We celebrated
crossing the border into Queensland with a big cheer and then decided to detour
North into Budjamulla National Park, famous for Lawn Hill Gorge and raved about
by many fellow travellers. We had heard so many good things about the place
that it was just impossible to drive past the turn-off and onto Mt Isa. So we
calculated fuel amounts and distances and decided to just do it. But we must
have misread the map because we just seemed to drive on and on and on. Bill was
exhausted by the time we arrived in the dark – and we were all very happy to
get out of the car and to know that the next day was drive-free. The next morning
we noticed that we were the only people in the campground – clearly not a popular time
of the year due to the intense heat. The campground was nice enough although
not spectacular and it was insanely hot. But just as we were beginning to
wonder whether we had done the right thing, we wandered down a path towards the
gorge and found ourselves gazing down onto paradise. Lawn Hill is often described
as an oasis in the middle of the Queensland outback – warm emerald water,
waterfalls, palms – but neither words nor pictures will ever do this place
justice. Needless to say we spent the day swimming, swimming and swimming. Each
time we got out and wandered back to the tent, we were ready to go back in
before a few minutes passed. The friendly ranger brought us a bucket full of
green tree frogs that make a nightly pilgrimage to the toilets – and let us
hold them and put them on our shoulders. We watched in anticipation for huge
olive pythons that hunt in the gorge – but sadly saw none. I gather that in the
cooler months the place is buzzing with tourists. We liked it just the way it
was. If you are ever driving past
that turn-off, please take it.
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