Lorella Springs - Wow!

I thought I’d add a few notes about Lorella Springs for anyone searching the InterWeb for info – it might save them the effort of reading the story of our holiday and just cut to the chase with the important bits.

1) Lorella Springs is a fantastic place that we loved and we will be going back there at some point.

2) It is NOT for the likes of people who want smooth roads and all the trappings of civilisation. Grumpy grey nomads go elsewhere please – one woman was heard to complain bitterly to the staff about the state of the road coming in and the fact that they hadn’t warned her that she’d need her walking boots to just get across to the toilets.

3) This is a 4WDing destination. You need to drive a 4WD to get anywhere on the station and if that is not your thing then don’t go. You could get in there in a normal car, but the road in is not good and it isn’t recommended.

4) $20 per person per night for an unpowered site. It may seem expensive, but when you consider that this includes access to all that this place offers it is actually pretty cheap.  They offer flushing toilets, hot showers (donkey boilers but wood is provided) and shady camp sites.

Now – read on! 

Well Karen and I took advantage of the Territory’s public holidays - Friday 25^th July was Show Day and Monday 4^th August was Picnic Day (a holiday for the running of the Darwin Cup) - which meant that taking the 5 working days in between as holiday allowed us to organise an 11 day break and get away to Lorella Springs.

We also had our brand new 4WD, a Mitsubishi Pajero, to test out and to see if it doe sthe job as well as our Nissan Patrol. With only 250 klms on the odometer when we left it was certainly a new vehicle!

And here it is:

As you can see, we have fitted a bull bar in case of any errant ‘roos, a dual battery system to run the car fridge, and also we have transferred the roof rack from the Patrol across to the Pajero. 

There remains a lot more work to be done on this vehicle including a storage drawer system for the rear, together with a drop down fridge slide, a winch, a long range fuel tank, a water tank (to be fitted in the conveniently large space left once we remove the third row seats), spotlights, a snorkel and a heavier duty suspension with a 50mm lift.

We set off from home on the Saturday which gave us the Friday to pack and make sure we had all the food and everything sorted out.

We were trundling down the Stuart Highway happily, having stopped for coffee at Katherine, when all of a sudden I realised that while I had packed my rods and my tackle box I had forgotten to pack my reels. Damn! No fishing for me this week. 

First stop was at the Daly waters pub. As we were tenting it for this week we booked a room in the pub - $70 a night for a clean and tidy room. Great value. This is the front of the pub with its trademark bougainvillea and Karen sitting down waiting for brekky to be served. 

This pub is one of our favourites and even when swamped by southern tourists it still manages to do everything well and with good humour. Dinner was my usual threadfin salmon which was up to its usual very high standard, but the best meal was breakfast which was the best Eggs Benedict I have ever had. The eggs were perfect, the ham was superb and the unexpected sides of wilted spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes were excellent. 

Highly recommended!

We set off from Daly Waters and turned onto the Carpentaria Highway to Cape Crawford where we topped up the tank and then went north along the old Savannah Way to Lorella Springs.

The road was generally pretty good and the Pajero handled the corrugations like a champion. We are both impressed with the way it soaks them up and the comfort improvement over the Patrol. 

However, the road off the Savannah Way and into the property is much more demanding. The owners have a sign up just off the Savannah Way that says "Yippee! We have had the road graded!", but I can tell you that they are either joking or that sign is more than a couple of years old! 

It has corrugations to shake the car and you risk losing the fillings out of your teeth, there are bull dust holes that simply explode dust around you as you drop into them - it is worth slowing right down too as some of these holes are a drop into them and then a sharp edge to climb over to get out again. 

We arrived at Lorella and checked in and then found ourselves a spot next to the creek.

It is probably worth putting in a little information about Lorella Springs that people might find useful:

• Size - Lorella Springs is a million acre cattle property although they don't run many cattle now.
• Cost - they charge $20 per person per night and there are only unpowered sites available. Expensive? Not when you consider what else is on offer for the money.
• Facilities - There are flush toilets and donkey** heated showers (wood provided) all over the place.
• Bar/Restaurant - Yes, they have one. The grog is expensive ($9 a can for VB or Tooheys New and $9 a glass for wine), but at least it is there. The bar provides a focal point for people to gather and chat as well. They serve food, but the selection is limited and the skills of the cook are . . . . limited. Steak and chips and salad are $29. 
• Tracks - They have miles and miles of tracks that run all over the property. They provide you with some excellent mud maps of the tracks and the various sights and destinations around the property. You could spend a month here and not see it all! 
• Billabongs, Creeks and Rivers - There are lots of small creeks and a couple of decent rivers around the place and catching a wild fish should not be a major ask. As long as you remember to bring all the relevant tackle. 

 ** For the Poms reading this, a donkey boiler is a simple way of heating water. The cold water pipe is run through something that will allow you to build a fire underneath it. Simple, but effective, way of heating water.

Monday

Well after just about the best night's sleep we have had for what seems like years we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast before checking out the mud maps and deciding upon the destinations of the day.

As it turned out, we decided to hit some of the closer destinations and not over do things. Well, we did have happy hour to look forward to down at the bar! 

So, we trundled off, with Karen opening and closing the gates, and wandered off around what they called the Crocodile Springs Loop. First port of call on this track was the Crocodile Springs themselves where the park provides a small boat for anyone wanting to paddle themselves up and down the billabong.

Given the name of the place, Karen was a little nervous and besides, the boat looked a bit on the small side for two so I jumped in (well, grunted and carefully heaved myself in) and set off for a paddle up and down the place while Karen took lots of embarrassing photos.

These are a few!

The billabong does have a fair old growth of weed and mosses, but the water is crystal clear and it was fun messing about in the boat, but not so much for Karen who was waiting on shore, half certain that I was going to be attacked by some large lizard and end up as its lunch.

Not to be I'm glad to say. 

The next stop along the track was a spot known as Tristan Pool. There is a bit of a car park under some trees and a rough old track down towards the water. It is easy enough to follow though - they have orange streamers tied in the trees to show you the way.

You follow the rocky creek bed until you hit the pool and this is what you see:

Again, there is a fair bit of weed growth but clear, cool water. We weren't looking for a swim just yet though as we wanted to walk on, around Tristan Pool, and on towards the romantically named Wildfire Gorge.

Yep - they have signs like this at most places - a nice touch.

Wildfire Gorge is a clear, open stretch of water that looked very inviting, but we wanted to get on and see a few more places so we headed off to wards Emerald Pool and Fossil Fern.

Emerald pool was a bit TOO green (no surprise with a name like that) and the track to Fossil Fern started to get a bit too overgrown for a brand new car's paintwork.

I don't mind getting bush pinstripes myself (after all, i am going to get them some time) but it was too much for Karen to bear so we turned back and headed off back on the Loop track until we reached Inkspot Pool where decided that we'd get into our togs and take a dip. 

And yes, that's Joe taking a dip. Karen had spent her time in there but wanted to get out before the sun bit too hard while Joe wore his Akubra to keep the UV off his thinning locks and fooled himself that he'd be OK.

The views up and down the pool are below. It isn't an Olympic sized pool, but it is crystal clear and a beaut temperature.

Beautiful isn't it? taking a swim there was also just magical.

<sigh>

So we ended the day by heading home, collecting some firewood on the way, and having a beer at our tent before heading over to the bar for the happy hour and chatting to some nice, friendly people there.

Back to the tent for a delicious meal and another beer around the camp fire before crawling into bed, happy but tired, for another fantastic night's sleep.

Tuesday

Having sat on our butts in the car for most of the previous days we thought we'd take in one of the walks - this one was called the Bower Bird Walk.

it winds alongside one of the creeks and is shaded by lots of trees so it is a pleasant and easy bit of exercise to take in and one that we enjoyed. No pics though - someone forgot to carry the camera!

Eagle's Nest Billabong was the next destination - yet more gates for Karen to open and close - but again this was a beautiful spot to while away a few hours and maybe catch a fish or two. if you have fishing gear that is.

We took advantage of the boat that the owners have tied up there to row up and down the billabong in a leisurely fashion and to check out the eagle's nest itself.

Here are a few images to give you the idea of what it was like:

After being soothed by the time honoured practice of messing about on the river we headed off to see Snapping Handbag Billabong - a place whose name suggests more activity.

As it turns out, there wasn't a croc in sight which was a shame. this bit of water is permanent and as the dry season progresses it becomes home to all the freshwater crocs in the surrounding river systems and apparently you get to see hundreds of them lined up everywhere, just waiting for the wet season to kick in.

It must be quite a sight!

The owners have a boat secured here as well and you are encouraged to head off out on the water to explore, but it was a bit too hot out there for rowing, so Karen and I contented ourselves with sitting in some shade with a beer from the fridge and just drinking it all in. 

We headed off after that and wandered back to the camp site, collecting firewood and chucking it on top of the roof rack, where another couple of pleasant experiences awaited us.

First of all, we ducked down to the hot springs and wallowed around in the warm water (water was about 32 degrees) until we wrinkled up, just chatting to the other campers in there and relaxing.

The second joy was heading off to the bar afterwards and meeting up with Ingrid and Lothar - a very pleasant couple from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. We compared notes on all sorts of things and found that we had a great deal of interests in common and that's always a great start to any friendship. 

I hope we get to catch up again.

Wednesday

Well, after the water borne joys of the previous days we just had to head off to a place called The Waterslide. After the drive there we were faced with a half hour walk up some broken country to get to this place and it was fun.

The slide is basically a section of water smoothed rock where a small section is continually fed by a small spring and provides a very slippery, smooth surface that you can slide down into the pool at the bottom - just like a water slide in an amusement park. We were accompanied by a few other people and it all added to the atmosphere.

I'm not allowed to show you a picture of Karen sliding down the slippery slope, but this is one of her in the small top pool just above the waterslide itself.

And this is Karen in the bottom pool after she screamed her way down the slippery slope.

We climbed up the slopes behind the waterslide, just to get an idea of the panorama from up there:

And here are the obligatory pictures of the two of us as well.

From the Waterslide we headed off to see Musters Cave and then The Arches.

As you can see, it was pretty hard country, but when we got to The Arches they were really special.

Here's Karen enjoying the shade under one of the arches.

After that we headed back to camp, collecting firewood along the way, and met up with Ingrid and Lothar for a very pleasant couple of ales before having the staff there cook dinner for us (steak, chips and salad), chatting to the staff and the owners and then heading off to sit around the campfire (yes, again!) 

Thursday

Today was going to be our last full day at Lorella (sob, sob) so we decided to take it pretty easy all round and just do some splashing around in somewhere pretty  - Nudie Hot Springs was the name of the place we chose.

Before we got there we explored a side track at the camp site where we found this sign.  Hmmm, intriguing eh?

We, of course, drove past the sign and went in to have a look expecting to find a place chock full of fat German blokes of a "certain age" and small, skinny and wrinkly women of a similar or older age.

What we actually found was an empty camp site with a whole heap of ready cut firewood and open air toilets and showers - yes, the nudism extended to no walls around the showers and no doors on the toilets. 

No people there though, so I nicked half the ready cut firewood and took it back to our camp before we trundled off to Nudie Hot Springs.

Which looked like this:

The water emerges from the ground at over 50 degrees, but by the time it gets to this pool it has cooled to 38 to 40 degrees so it is just like wallowing in a hot bath. Quite a weird experience really, all that hot water and surrounded by tropical forest, but very pleasant. 

As you can see, I stayed in the water a while to soak it all up. 

And while I was in the water  we were visited by a number of birds called Rainbow Bee Eaters. We used to watch these flying around in the back yard of our last apartment, but seeing them out here was even more spectacular and when they started dropping into the water and then flying back to land on a branch and fluff their feathers out - basically having a wash in the warm water, it was a really wonderful sight.

You can see where they get their name can't you?  They flare their wings like this all the time - it must be something to do with the way they hunt insects on the wing. Perhaps the brightly coloured wing and body appearing in front of an insect drives it one way and the bird can catch it more easily? 

So, after lounging around in the pool and being enthralled by the bee eaters we headed back to camp where we cooked dinner and shared our camp fire (great logs from the nudist camp!) with a couple of old soldiers before off to bed and another great night's sleep.

Friday

Heading home, we left Lorella with heavy hearts, but I am sure we'll be back - we have only scratched the surface of the places to see there and it is just so relaxing a place we'll always remember it.

We headed off, north up the Savannah Way and the first stop off was called the Southern Lost City. The turn off took us down a 4km long track that dropped us off at a camp ground with views of this lost city. Like so many others in the area, this lost city is comprised of sandstone spires that have been weathered into unusual shapes. 

Check them out:

The Lost City looked pretty spectacular and there is a walk that takes you all the way around it, but we were on a mission – we wanted to get to Mataranka before it got too late in the day so we left this walk for a future visit and continued on.

The next stop was in Butterfly Springs – the place is a camp ground located near a virtually permanent water source – a spring that is fed by rain collected in a range of hills and filtered through the sandstone. Being a permanent water source it has developed its own local ecology and birds and butterflies dominate. At least during the day. Time pressures meant we left this one for the future as well, but it should be a fun time exploring it. 

The Savannah Way from this point turned into a bit of a dirt super highway and we were able to cruise along at 90 to 100kph easily enough. There are half a dozen river crossings, but they all have early warning signs, to negotiate but at this time of year the water levels are low with the deepest ones having concrete causeways that kept the water depth to maybe 20cm. There were a number of well marked “Dips” as well and most of these would hold flowing water in the wet season but were dry for our journey. 

Unfortunately, the road deteriorated after the first hundred klms and became much rougher. Not anything like a challenge, but corrugations (especially those you find just before and after corners where the peak to trough measurement was up to about 12 to 15cm) are uncomfortable and annoying. The ‘jero handled it all very well although the dash started to dance around a bit. It did slow us down a fair bit though and it was getting on for 3:00pm by the time we rolled into the Roper Bar store for a rest and a coffee.

I added air to the tyres as the road from Roper Bar to Mataranka is bitumen (of the single central strip variety) and I expected to go a bit faster. I considered buying fuel, but the ‘jero seems to be quite economical and the $2.20 a litre price turned me off a bit so we left it alone and headed off to Mataranka, hoping for a cabin or motel room for the night.

The road was OK heading that way and I was able to cruise at 110kph comfortably enough although knocking off the speed and going two wheels onto the dirt was a regular enough feature of the drive as we met people coming the other way. The odd road train forcing us all the way off the road and to a stop as they thundered by.  Still, we hit Mataranka just before 5:00pm and got on the phone looking for somewhere to stay. Bear in mind that this was a long weekend in the Territory (Monday being the Picnic Day holiday) and it was no surprise that everywhere seemed to be booked solid. We did eventually find a cabin on a van park down near Bitter Springs that had a last vacancy - $120 for the night in a cabin – so we grabbed it and flaked out for a while. Dinner on the small deck area was good and afterwards we flopped onto the bed and fell asleep watching the first TV we had seen for over a week. 

We tried to extend our stay for another night, but they were booked solid so after a flop into the hot spring waters of Bitter Springs (so much nicer and so much less crowded than the Mataranka Homestead hot springs) we got back into the car and drove north.

We stopped at Katherine to fill up and found that the ‘jero was using about 10.4 litres per 100 klms since we last filled up and as that included days of 4WDing followed by 370km of dirt road driving (soft tyres) with a full roof rack followed by some reasonably high speed cruising with a full roof rack and all done on a brand new and very tight engine I have to say that I am very happy with that indeed. For the Poms reading this, that figure equates to about 27mpg.

I also stopped at the car wash in Katherine and used the jet wash to remove what seemed like a cubic metre of dust from the ‘jero. It still wasn’t clean, but at least I won’t be wading through a metre of dust and sand down in the car park each time we want to use it! 

Then home and tired, but very happy.