SAVANAH WAY – NATHAN RIVER HIGHWAY, LIMMEN NATIONAL PARK WESTERN LOST CITY
After a cool evening it was a surprisingly warm night last night.
It was an interesting day today. Very interesting scenery and we met interesting people. We met the owners of the Oka that is also here. Their set up is totally different to ours even though both are pop tops.
Passed wetlands we went
onto Marla Lagoon just before Limmen Bight Fishing Camp. This road was better than Nathan River Road. However, Marla Lagoon was a station not a lagoon accessible to the public. So we enjoyed the view of Limmen Bight River instead.
A new burn off was underway on the road when we back tracked on it. It sure was not burning when we went up the road. apparently they drop incineries from a helicopter to start the fire.
Then over the causeway at Cox River, cows,
and termite mounds
before we got to Nikantyrra Waterhole.
Limmen Bight River was just beautiful. We met an interesting couple from Araluen at the river.
This is wattle country at the moment. Wattles are in bloom everywhere.
We went to the Nathan River Ranger Station to get the key to get into Western Lost City. Just loved the fence from rail sleepers and tracks.
We nearly missed the track to the lost city. If it wasn't for the locked gate not far from the road we would have missed the track. We only noticed the track after we passed it so we had to turn around and come back to it.
It is a 28km rough track to the lost city. It takes 2 hours to drive the 28km. My husband referred to it as ‘rough as guts’. It was rough in a different way to the tracks we had done at Gregory National Park recently. The track was of hard baked soil with lots of hard baked cow tracks.
There were several rocky creek crossings.
Limmen River Crossing was very sandy and reasonably steep on entry and exit and the base was pebbly. The river flows north east for 80km about where it enters the Gulf of Carpentaria. A bit further on, at another creek crossing there were some Stromatolites. I just loved the patterns on them.
We went passed a clear permanent waterhole and a Jabiru took off as we approached. There was a string of waterholes for a section of the track.
Two cows confronted us on the path before taking off into the scrub. We saw two water buffalo as well.
A section of black soil and hints of previous pastoral history were seen before the last stretch of road leading to the lost city.
Hubby was getting doubtful whether it was worth taking this little trip the further we went especially as towards the end of the track it was quite tight going.
We were collecting wattle flowers, twigs, leaves and branches on the front windscreen and inside the car as we had our windows open.
The lost city was just AWESOME. Interesting rock formations growing in size the further you went in. As we weaved through the formations we felt as small as ants in comparison to these gigantic sandstone pillars.
Apparently they were formed 15000 million years ago as part of an ancient seabed that cracked and split as it was exposed. Then the wind and water have carved the incredible shapes.
The colours are interesting too and are a result of different mineral composition of the sandstone.
Another of nature’s wanders.
We took our time looking around and then headed back along the track we came in.
We frightened a bull that was drinking at a waterhole. He suddenly turned when he heard us and took off across the road then stopped and stared at us.
We returned the key and it was getting late by the time we got to Butterfly Springs for the night.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment