Week 4: (Part 4) Lawn Hill (Boodjamulla) National Park
Today we headed into Lawn Hill (Boodjamulla) National Park. We were feeling energetic and decided to walk to the Upper Gorge Lookout and make our way back via Indarra falls and Duwadarri Lookout. It’s approximately a 9km round trip so it doesn’t seem far but the temperature (approximately 34 degrees) combined with the exposure to the sun means you work up quite a sweat.
On the first leg of our walk we walked to the Upper Gorge Lookout. It has amazing views looking down into the green water of the upper gorge. Not many people walk out to it so it is quite peaceful. Along the way we were greeted by plenty of little lizards (Gilbert’s Dragon) and flowering Grevillea.
We made our way down from the lookout where the track weaves itself between the river and the hills eventually to Indarra Falls. Indarra Falls is an amazing natural weir where the water flows over in several places forming waterfalls. It has very green water and plenty of fish hanging around. There are sitings of freshwater crocodiles in the area but plenty of people swim. It was a great place too cool off and refresh ourselves before we finished the rest of the walk. It would have to be one of my favourite swimming spots I’ve been to.
After a long swim we made our way up to the Indarra Falls lookout which gives you an even better look at the river and water falls. From this lookout you realise that is is truly an outback oasis.
We made our way back to the carpark via the Duwadarri lookout which looks back over the river and campground in the National Park.
We had lunch in the picnic area and then headed to Wild Dog Dreaming. As the floating bridge has been removed by National Parks we found a fallen tree and crossed the river over that. Wild Dog Dreaming is not far and has a small amount of rock art and engravings.
We continued the circuit and went down to the Lower Gorge lookout where we waited in hope of seeing a crocodile. Unfortunately we didn’t see one so we left and walked up to the Cascades. We were quite disappointed by the Cascades as the water was stagnant and there wasn’t a lot to look at. We made our way back to the main gorge. This time we swam across the river and cooled off again in the main gorge. After a nice swim we went back to Adele’s Grove for the night.