After leaving Lawn Hill we headed north again. The week ahead would take us into the Northern Territory and follow the Gulf to the border of Arnhem Land. This is a long blog post as we had no real reception for over a week.
The first day was a 100km hike through various cattle stations and eventually arrive at Bowthorn station.
Part of Bowthorn is setup as a camping ground along the banks of the Nicholson River. The owners have named it Kingfisher camp or "KFC" for short.
KFC is definitely one of the best spots we have found so far. Nice grassy areas (instead of dirt), with showers and toilets, boat hire, and an awesome river to explore.
We set up next to Geoff and Maryan who we had met at Gregory Downs. The following day we hired a boat (so did Geoff and Maryan) and went for a cruise up the river in search for fish, red claw and cherubin.
We managed to catch a heap of catfish (Silver Cobbler as the locals call them), Red Claw, and cherubin.
That night we sat around with Geoff and Maryan, Jeff and Heather, and another kiwi couple (sorry I forgot your names) and Maryan and Heather cooked up a storm of Curry catfish, garlic red claw and cherubin. It was all amazing including the catfish that the locals swore was great eating despite our obvious reservations. It rivalled many good reef fish surprisingly. Lol
As it turns out Jeff and Heather were neighbours of Kristy's grandad in Bungundarra. What a small world.
The following day we set off again along side Geoff and Maryan who were heading along the same track as us for the following week. Today's mission was to cross the NT border and camp at King Ash Bay fishing club which was on the McAuthor River around 400km north west of KFC near Borroloola.
Not far from Hell's Gate (still in QLD) and we finally make it to the NT border.
N for Northern Territory (apparently lol)
The road was rough, dry, and for the most part pretty boring but we were getting used to these kinds of roads by now. A few creek crossings broke up the day which was good.
Lunch time!
After a long day we finally made to to Borroloola. Not much to see there apart from the usual servo, store, and bottle shop. Definitely into Aboriginal country now!!!
Approx 40km east was King Ash Bay fishing club which was actually a full on camping area with amenities and licenced club house/public bar.
Great camping spot beside the river.
Gropers bar (the club house).
We had a well deserved pub feed and a few beers and rums before having a pretty quiet night.
We woke up the next morning to Million dollar views and spend day working out how we could sweet talk one of the hundreds of boat owners to take us out for a fish.
After we had given up on a fishing trip we sat around the fire and settled in for a few beers.
Maryan, Geoff and us above.
Just before we called it a night, We couldn't believe our luck when Rick (the bloke camping beside us) strolled over and offered us (Geoff and me) a full day fishing with him the following day as he was there by himself for 5 days from Adelaide. Stoked!!!
Well we tried all sorts if baits, lures, river mouths, deep holes, trolling the banks etc etc... and caught one small catfish for the entire day. Wow! Some of the best fishing in the country (apparently) and we catch nothing. This is pretty much the story most people tell around here as there was no rain this year the rivers are dead. Pretty disappointing.
With not much point hanging around, the next day we set off for Lorella Springs Wilderness park on the eastern border of Limmen National Park and part of Lorella Station. If we were to believe the brochures and all the road side signs this would be an amazing place with hot and cold spring fed creeks, awesome fishing in the rivers, 4x4 tracks, waterfalls, remote camping and the whole package.
By this point we were on the Nathan River road (4x4 only) which eventually joins up with the Stuart Highway some 400km north west of here.
We arrived with high hopes and after an impressive computer presentation of photos and videos at the reception showing off an amazing 1 million acres of paradise we were happy enough to pay the $34 for an unpowered site which is the most by far we have paid for an unpowered site the entire trip.
First impressions were good with nice grassy camp sites beside a warm spring fed creek.
We set up on the hill not far from the creek but to our amazement we had unwillingly given ourselves front row seats to the nudist camping area on the opposite side (photos not included). Seriously, what are these people thinking. Setting up a family camping area right beside the nudist area.
The following day we set off to explore the vast amount of 4x4 tracks leading to waterfalls, swimming holes etc etc. Disappointment was an understatement. Despite the few photos below showing a couple of very small swimming holes, most of the places we were shown on arrival were dried up creeks and rivers and very badly signed (almost none) walking trails. Not even close to being worth the $34 per night. Perhaps $20 per night (after a heap of rain) might be getting closer to the mark. Even the bar had crazy prices. $11 for a can of Bundy (and that was happy hour prices). We expected and have experienced the high prices of these kinds of remote places but this was ridiculous.
All in all we were pretty unhappy here so after just one night and day we decided at 3:30pm to pack up and head 45km north to the Southern Lost City which was inside Limmen National Park.
This place was great. Hundreds of ancient rock pillars right beside a great bush camp and only $6 per night.
After a great night under the stars we left around mid morning as we had arranged to meet up with Geoff and Maryan at Butterfly springs around 11am (they had stayed at Lorella a second night). We met up with them as discussed and ended up driving all day passing quite a few nice rivers and sandstone ranges but there really wasn't too much through Limmen National Park and the surrounding area apart from the Lost City.
Not long after passing the Towns River we started to head west along the Roper river which was by far the best river in the area. It is partly the border of Arnhem land and flows east to the Gulf. There were several awesome free camping spots along the river but unfortunately they were all taken so we continued a bit further down the road to Tomato Island (not an actual Island) which is also beside the Roper river. This was a great spot but once again, unless you have a boat and the fish are biting there isn't much here.
The following day we continued west with our next destination to be Mataranka.
Finally back onto the tar we made it to the Stuart Highway. Just 7km along the highway is Mataranka.
Around lunch time we arrived at Mataranka and headed for the Mataranka Homestead which borders the Elsey National Park.
