Lorella Springs

The drive north from Borroloola to Lorella Springs is only 168kms, the road ranges from mediocre dirt to terrible dirt with lots of corrugations. The last 35 kms into Lorella is the worst. When we saw the sign telling us that the road had just been graded we were optimistic, but that proved to be either last years or even the years before sign!

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Lorella Springs is an amazing place to camp, there are natural Hot Springs to swim in, plenty of grassed areas to camp on, not crowded at all even though there were several hundreds of campers here with us, although they dwindled down to almost nothing once the school holidays finished. Their Happy Hour where drinks are $1 off (making a can of VB $8!) and is very well patronised by the campers.  We had some great laughs with an assortment of happy hour revellers over the days we stayed at Lorella.

When we pulled up we were pleasantly surprised to see Marie had stayed on from last year.  She's a lovely French girl but not the backpacker variety as she's 30ish and has a degree in commerce.  Last year we watched Rhett chasing after her on the ride on lawnmower and decided it was love at first sight - it seems we were right. 

When we arrived there were so many places to camp, Jayne had a real bother about picking just the right spot. I have to make sure there is sufficient sun on the van for the solar panels, so this rules out the shadier places. So while I was filling the van with water, Jayne was trekking around the various camp spots to find just the right one. She headed over to what was last year the nudist area, and established that it’s no longer nudist, and when she spoke to these guys camped there was told that they were leaving the next day. So we headed over there and found this great camp which we had to share with them for one night and for the next 4 nights we had the whole area pretty much had it to ourselves from there on.

There's a water tap right there for us to connect to with the best water for 400kms.

 We enjoyed a full day of relaxation, just doing nothing, I made some minor repairs to the van and Jayne washed a few things, but nothing too strenuous. We spent a day getting out to “Nudie Hot Springs” which aren’t nudist at all, but are very warm, and another day going to “Nannies Retreat” which is a fantastic mini gorge with pristine clear water in it. It’s a bit of a hike to get into there plus a 25km drive along a track.

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Lorella Springs is 1 million acres of magnificent country filled with billabongs, waterfalls and gorges.  Rhett has created hundreds of kilometres of tracks through the property so we can access all these great spots.  It's such a beautiful place that some visitors volunteer to help out and stay on for weeks or months at a time. 

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Using our trusty chainsaw to cut the firewood to just the right size.

Out here it's hard to remember what day it is. We were certain it was Thursday, however while we were basking in the hot springs a couple were telling us it was actually Friday. They informed us to go check "the spades" in the office to confirm what day it is.

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Today is Saturday!

When we were here last year they had only just bashed a track through to Nanna's Retreat, about 1.5 hours by 4WD from our camp, plus a hike of 45 minutes. But it's definitely worth the trip as the water is crystal clear.

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Nanna's retreat.

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To show the path through the bush, there are these conveniently spaced yellow signs. Thankfully!

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View from Gateway Gorge.

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Happy Hour drinks at the bar.

While we there, 95 BMW motorbike riders turned up riding from Darwin to Cooktown. They were extremely well behaved, which was helped due to the fact that they were exhausted. We enjoyed talking to them and listening to the plans for the next day, when they were off at 6.30am to ride to Hells Gate.

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Jayne liked these bugs, we think they turn into Butterflies.

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Another day we headed out to the natural "Waterslide" which was only just flowing, but definitely enough for a slide or two.

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 The water was a bit chilly when you plunged into it.

We stayed at Lorella Springs for 6 nights, our longest stop so far.   Next time we visit we'll definitely do the 80 km trek out to the Gulf and camp out there for a few days.

We headed north, passing through the Lost City, which has a really good 1 hour walk around these incredible rock formations, a geologist's dream.

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We stopped for a night at Towns River. A really good free camp where we can put the van right on the river.

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Towns River Camping.

We headed to Tomato Island, where we are camped now. www.tomatoisland.com.au. There's mobile phone service here, which is a pleasant surprise, with compliments from the Aboriginal community across the river.

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