The road to Gregory River was excellent and we had a tail-wind. Gregory river has a rusty iron and timber pub, one diesel bowser, a public loo and enough bitumen to park a row of road trains. A number of vans were parked down by the river which is apparently a popular spot but we have since heard you're not supposed to stay here. The road to Adel's Grove was pretty good until the Century mine turn off but the last 40k or so was all gravel, corrugated and rough in places. We worked out a speed that seemed to work and took our time.

The landscape changes as you drive along this way. At the start, it's dry and rough scrub with lots of sad looking silver box and wattles. Then there are huge open grass plains of the cattle properties. The horizon is completely flat and goes on forever. As you approach Adel's, it starts to show some hills and the spinifex takes over, which is always at least a little green. The appearance of little hills covered in green grass gives the place its name - Lawn Hill.

Adels' Grove is impressive for the rather grand scale of the operation. There's a lot of staff and an equally impressive number of campers for such a remote place. They have a restaurant - set menu; a shop; several different tours to the mine, the gorge, the fossils; a mechanical workshop; an airstrip; their own pair of generators; donkeys for hot water. The RFDS comes once a month for a clinic. It's 45 minutes for them to get here in an emergency (from the Isa).

The camp ground is set on a stretch of the creek. It's awesome. The water is amazingly clear, apparently because it runs from a limestone spring. There's no rain at this time of year to make it murky. You can see the fish in the water along with water lilies complete with pretty purple flowers. Tall trees to set up camp under and birds everywhere. A pontoon and dodgy rope swing entice you down the steps for a swim, even though it's a bit cold.

Picture: J & C and the view from the top of Riversleigh D Site