The Savannah Way...

Our outback adventure now truly begins. Steve wants to tackle part of the Savannah Way, from Mataranka via Roper Bar right through to Doomadgee and down to Lawn Hill in Queensland. This encompasses 850 kms of dirt, gravel and rocky roads, bulldust, corrugations and heaps of creek crossings!! Not to mention freshwater and saltwater crocs. Bring it on I say as we'll get to see one of the places on my bucket list...Lorella Springs.

After leaving Pine Creek ( & being kicked out of one bar half way through the State of Origin, luckily there was a bar next door although the result didn't make us happy) we set off back through Mataranka and then on to the Roper Highway.

Yes they call this a highway in NT!

We're now heading toward one of the most remote places in Australia... Gulf Country!

We pass by some beautiful billabongs covered in water lillies, I'm always checking for two little eyes and a long snout.

 We refuel at Roper Bar and cross the bar just to check it out. The Roper River is wide and so inviting but a no go for swimming.

This is the mail box opposite an aircraft landing where they pick up and deliver the mail???

We spent one night at Tomato Island, nice camp on the river but not much to do there so head off to Butterfly Springs. This spring fed water hole was just what we needed as the days have been sunny and in the 30's everyday, so good to wash away the dust.

I can't count how many creek crossings we've made. I use to freak out but now it's just an everyday event.

On the way to Lorella Springs we stopped at "The Lost City" We hiked a few kms around these amazing rock formations. We certainly are getting fitter. 

The Lost City was created by weathering. The foundations were built as sediment was washed into the inland sea 1,500 million years ago. Isn't that incredible. Once again I couldn't stop taking photos, these are just a few...

The hike led us up to this spectacular view above .

Below is a close up of the sandstone showing it's beautiful colour.

We finally arrived at Lorella Springs after travelling on one of the worst roads we've ever been on, leading into the Homestead. At that stage I didn't realise there was much worse roads to come!

Steve had already give the van a wash down..



Lorella Springs is a
million acre property bought by the current owners in the 1980's for $1000! That's .001 cents per acre!!!

   We camped along the river for 5 nights.There's so much to see and do including a thermal pool
 (36 degrees) about 50 metres from where we were camped, so naturally we swam and let the waters wash away all our aches and pains everyday, after a full day of extreme 4W driving to the see the sights.

 

We received a map and info on all the places we could explore such as other thermal pools, cold water spring fed waterholes, Billabongs,swamps & creeks that had boats tied up that we could use to further explore, rock formations, gorges and great hiking tracks. The only thing was to be able to see these places, we had to traverse the roughest 4W drive tracks and river crossings you can imagine but as they say that's all part of the adventure. Yes that's a road...

Here are some photos of  the wonderful places we visited: Unfortunately the photos just don't do justice to these magical places.

Wild Fire Gorge a beautiful cool spring fed water hole. We just had to go skinny dipping, one of many times...( no pics of me allowed!) This was our favorite!!

  Crocodile Springs, which we jumped in a boat to go exploring and saw a freshwater croc!

 

We took our lunch with us each day. This is one of our picnic stops! Yes in the middle of nowhere..

The Arch. A great walking track

The reflections are fantastic in the waterways.

Eagles Nest Billabong and another boat for exploring. 

One of my favorites " The Cascades" which was great for swimming in too, no crocs. This place is like a tropical jungle, then you drive a few kms down a track and it's a dry arid landscape..

 Two more favorites above the crystal clear waters of Fern Gully which was another cool swimming hole and below is Nanny's Retreat, where you could swim through two rocks through to another great swimming hole.

 

One of the many rough tracks we took to everyday! Now you can see why we needed the warm springs of an afternoon to relax our weary bones.
Other great places we saw were Nudie Hot Springs. Where the water bubbles out of the ground at 50 degrees then mixes with a cooler stream to a beautiful 40 degrees. Just like a nice hot bath!
 Monarch Rocks which Steve climbedto the top but the photos came out blurry! These large rocks were named after the monarch butterflies of which there are hundreds flying around! We  also saw aboriginal  rock art there.

Lorella Springs has certainly been a highlight of our travels. We want to come back here again, stay for a month and bring camping gear so so we can camp at some of the more remote parts of the property where we can't take our caravan and see more of this incredible place . Anyone want to join us??