Borroloola - Seven Emu Station - Borroloola - Lorella Springs - Borroloola

You could be excused for thinking we like Borroloola so much that we stopped there three times - don't get me wrong, it's a nice place. But maybe not nice enough for three visits in the one holiday. We went to two different places just south and then north of Borroloola, so it's a stop-over for food, fuel, washing etc in-between these adventures.  It's an Aboriginal town and we noticed a big change from our last visit 4 years ago.  Most people had something to do during the day (like work), and the pub has closed it's doors as there was a lot of fighting between the 3 different clans.  There are even locals working in the supermarket as check out chicks and shelf packers.  The locals say it's a better place since the pub has closed.

 More importantly, most kids are spending the day at school.  They get a free healthy breakfast in the morning at 7.00am if they don't have one at home.  The end of term ball is another reason to turn up, because if you don't go to school at least 80% of the term, you don't get to go.  Unfortunately some kids still have no respect for their "country", and the mess around the supermarket and take-away shop on Saturday was a disgrace. 

Borroloola "Boat Ramp"?

Bing Bong

Bing Bong, besides having a really cool name, is right on the Gulf of Carpentaria and has a loading port but nothing else

It used to be a loading port for the Town River Mine, which is north of Lorella Springs just before Roper Bar. But that's now closed. Now the loading facility is used for a new McArthur River Mine which is just west of Borroloola.

Seven Emu Station

This is a million acre cattle station owned by an old established aboriginal family. Frank the son now runs it, but it sounds as if he's in the throws of passing it down to his son.

The station has the Robertson River running through it and offers cliff top camping. We've been here twice before and the scenery at the campsites is spectacular to say the least, but for $50 / night you don't get any amenities except for the shelters.

Jayne had to build a wall of timber along the top so Bailey had a barrier before he went tumbling down the cliff. But he's such a good dog he didn't go anywhere near the cliff edge.

Can you see the spelling mistake in the sign?

We were treated to a helicopter flying up the river gully below us towards the homestead. He was out locating the cattle as they were mustering the next day.

Mustering the cattle just past our campsite

Bailey the "dirt dog"

The sunsets here are always something special

View from the river up to our campsite

Because we're now in "croc country" we didn't dare to go anywhere near the water and kept Bailey on a lead.  But that afternoon we saw a car towing a boat pull up right at the rivers edge where we'd just been.  They jumped out of the car and walked straight into the water.  Out jumped their dog and also wandered into the water.  We were scared for them, but they didn't have a care in the world.  Eventually they backed their trailer about 50 metres into the water until it was deep enough to float the boat off the trailer.  They must have been locals, and not afraid of crocs or just plain stupid or a bit of both.

Lorella Springs

Lorella Springs is another million acre property owned by Rhett and his family. They've turned it into a Wilderness Park with lots of water holes which you can swim in, a treat for this part of the world.

The main camping area at Lorella is huge and has new flushing toilets and hot showers. We were able to be connected to water here and with plenty of sun so we didn't need much else to keep us Happy Campers.

Lorella Springs - "Magical Springs"

Lorella's main campsite is next to their Magical Hot Springs. Very nice for a dip, just a short walk away, or in our case a short bike ride away.

It sure does rain around these parts

Because Lorella is such a huge property, to get anywhere takes a long drive across rough roads.  A combination of corrugations, washouts, sand patches and giant boulders. 

Lorella Springs - "Nudie Hot Springs"

Nudie Hot Springs. A very nice place to soak after a bone rattling drive

Jayne assured me its "just a name" so we had to keep our cozzies on.

We had the place to ourselves which is always nice and found out that afternoon that a busload of 22 people came in just after we left

Lorella Springs - "Flying Fox Swamp"

Flying Fox Swamp. Lorella provides a free canoe for exploring the swamp

Such a beautiful place

Lorella Springs - "Helicopter Pool"

On the way driving into Helicopter Pool, we came across a very steep section in the road. We stopped and looked at it thinking "We'll never get up that!"

Then a car appeared at the top and proceeded to drive down.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it's much steeper than it looks here

So after we watched the other car come down they assured us it was too far to walk from here, so we decided to give it a go. The LandCruiser continued to impress us as it drove up there as if it was made to do it - wait ... it is made to do these things!

We crawled to the top without as much as even a small tyre spin or any slippage. Jayne was quiet relieved when we got up there.

The walk into Helicopter Pool

This was a bit of a hike to get into here. Poor Bailey struggled with the scramble down the cliff face into the pool

He really needed a swim after that

Lorella Springs - "La Spa"

Just near Helicopter Pool there's another swimming pool, La Spa. It has a really deep hole in an idyllic pond.

Time for a swim

Lorella Springs - "Alaska Pool"

We stopped here for Morning Tea on our way out to the "Secret Fishing Spot".  We had all the ingredients, including freshly baked Rock Cakes. But no tea bags! They never made it into the picnic hamper!

So it was Rock Cakes with water, either hot or cold.

When we pulled up here our Satellite Phone started to ring, which was very strange as it wasn't even turned on! It was Justin and Mel wishing Jayne a Happy Birthday. So sweet

Alaska Pool is a man-made pool, from a natural hot spring. They just dug out a hole for the water to pool in. It's good warm drinking water. Alaska is Rhett's youngest son.

Lorella Springs - "Secret Fishing Spot" on the Gulf of Carpentaria

Just a short 3 hour (6 hour return) drive from our campsite is their newly opened Secret Fishing Spot or beach camping.

 Did I mention that this is a big property?

A very scenic spot for Jayne's birthday

Lunch at the river mouth. What's that moving in the water?

Hang on to the dog, he's just bite sized around these parts

It was then back to our van to start the celebrations for Jayne's birthday in earnest. Lorella now offer dinner of either rump steak or chicken. We both opted for the rump and it was quite good.

Happy Birthday Jaynie, with our "world famous Harvey Wallbangers"

Some Blog editing in progress

Lorella Springs - "Yellow Springs"

What more can I say?

We were hoping to meet Luke, Megan and the boys here. What a shame they had car issues at Ayers Rock and couldn't make it. We had to celebrate Jayne's birthday without them.

We only got to about 35% of the waterholes / scenic spots / waterfalls that are on offer at Lorella. We've been to many of them on previous visits so there was no need to repeat them all, and there are still about 40% that we haven't been to at all. Yup, it's a big place.

One the way into Lorella Springs Jayne and I weren't impressed with the road, The Savannah Way wasn't the best. We drove around Lorella for 320kms, and their roads ranged from rough to very rough. After a big day's drive there it was very hard to get out amongst the corrugations the next day, requiring a days "rest". We we left Lorella we found the Savannah Way to be quite smooth and we were both left wondering why we thought it was so bad on the way in.