North West Qld trip July 2021

[Big Red]

Saturday 17th July:

This morning we were invaded by the Environment and Heritage Department who where were there to rehabilitate the area [which had not changed in the 30 years since I had first camped in the same spot]
They bought in a wheel loader to cut in some tracks for a fence then moved some huge boulders in to stop people camping in there. My ute was camped on the other side of the creek so they couldn’t block me in and Brett’s wagon was camped in the creek bed so they couldn’t block that area so we decided to stay put and climb up to the top of the quartz ridgeline above the campsite to see what was on the other side where the creek flows through into the cleft above the waterfall.
We headed off up through the spinifex and loose boulders passing an unusual shaped termite mound on the scramble up to the steep bits.
We kept looking for a way up the sheer cliff faces and spotted a likely route only to get stopped a mere couple of metres from the top by a bare section of sheer vertical cliff that my head would not let my body try.
Probably would of made it but there was nothing to stop the fall so we climbed back down and traversed along the base to another likely route where we finally found a safer route to the top.
So happy to be standing on top of the ridge 170 metres above our camp!
We walked out to the sheer drop above where the waterfall has carved a narrow cleft through the ridge and managed to get phone signal so sent through a few pics.
The land on the other side of the ridge is not much higher than the top of the waterfall and would have been a fairly large dam until the water worked its way through to the other side then dropped into the waterhole.

We headed back down the way we had come up arriving back at camp after a 4½ hour mission.
We were too buggered to drive anywhere so just relaxed and recuperated around camp for the rest of the day, plus we didn’t want to give the Dept a chance to block more off.

The Dept was still moving rocks around and had to pack up and go without being able to block off the best campsites so we had a small win … no doubt they will bring a loader in again and block it off in the future sometime.

They removed the road closed signs on the way out and several carloads of people came in soon after with a few of them setting up camp for the night.
Once again we gad a great campfire and BBQ but an early night was called due to exhaustion.

[Big Red]

Sunday 18th July:

We were up early and gone from camp passing a truck and bobcat on their way in so I presume after today there will be no more access to the eastern side of the creek to camp … such a pity!




We had a look around Bellara ruins




then stopped at the Cemetery; no one died of old age around here!


We stopped at Hightville then turned left then veered right at the Wee McGregor turn off and followed the rail line up to the Tunnel where we walked through to the other side as you cannot fit a large vehicle through due to the mounds at either end.




We retraced our tracks back down the mountain then turned right towards Wee McGregor mine and climbed up and over the pass to the other side. I turned right just after the sign then right again up a hairy incline and scooted round on to the old rail line and made my way to the other end of the tunnel, no wonder no one has driven up there for a while because one you start there is no turning round until you reach the Tunnel.




I headed back down to where Brett was waiting and checked out some of the old infrastructure from the old mine.




We had a look around below and picked up some interesting rocks before heading off along the track to the Maltese Cross Crystals deposit where we scratched around for a couple of hours to find a few specimens.




Another person who died from "Stoppage of water" ... seems to be a lot of that!!




We continued on past the strange formation that looks like a constructed stone wall


We then made our way back to the highway and headed west to the Lake Mary Kathleen turnoff and headed out to the south eastern end of the lake finding a magnificent campsite so called it early and set up camp on short grass beside the lake and relaxed around the campfire watching the birds hunt and a nice sunset.

[Big Red]

Monday 19th July:

We decamped and backtracked to the highway then headed west until about 5Km before Mt Isa and took a track out to Warrigul Waterhole to check out the Aboriginal art on the rock walls surrounding the waterhole … nice to see it hasn’t changed in the 30 odd years since I first found it.

[Big Red]

We then drove up to the towers overlooking Mt Isa for a great view over the mine and town.

[Big Red]

We headed to the supermarket and restocked then refuelled before the long drive to Adels Grove crossing a couple of slimy slippery causeways and set up camp down on the waterfront section along with hundreds of other campers.







At 40 bucks a night for an unpowered site they are raking it in but they have the market cornered as Lawn Hill is booked out for months. [even though there were only a few campers there]
It was bloody nice to jump in for a swim even if it was a touch on the cool side.
As usual we had a nice little campfire to sit around for the evening while looking up at the stars.

[Big Red]

Tuesday 20th July:

Bright and early, before anyone else had got moving, we hit the road to Lawn Hill and launched our canoes before anyone else. [apart from the Rangers Tinnie]
We had smooth still water for most of the trip up to Indarra falls taking pics all the way of the early morning light on the gorge.

[Big Red]

We dragged our canoes up into the second gorge and enjoyed a people free run up to the entrance of the third gorge and again had a people free trip to the end of it.

[Big Red]

We had taken our time to get up that far and finally other canoes started to appear so we drifted slowly back to the start after about 3 1/2 hours then left the canoes there and drove back to camp to rest up for the afternoon canoe up the main gorge so we could see it in a different light.

[Big Red]

We had a bit of an explore on the way back down.

[Big Red]

We mosied on back to Lawn Hill at around 4 pm and headed straight up to Indarra falls passing all the hire canoes heading back down so by the time we got there we had the place to ourselves and had a swim under a couple of the falls before taking our time heading back down whist taking more pics.







We reloaded the canoes then headed back to camp to light the fire and cook dinner before a chat around the fire and hit the swag.
Both of us are feeling the pain of all that paddling but it was a great day out.