After our not so quiet time in Kakadu, we were so happy when we visited Umbrawarra Gorge just out of Pine Creek. This gorge is some way down a dirt road and for some reason not too popular. When we arrived at the carpark we were the only ones there. The walk along the gorge wasn't too hard either and after only maybe a bit over 1K we were in a gorge with lots of magnificent trees and palms and it was quiet, we could hear the birds and we watched butterflies flutter about. It was glorious. As we were making our way over rocks and through shrubs, another couple came along, found a spot on a rock and laid out their rug before slipping into the waters for a quiet swim. We continued further before finding our rock to sit on to just sit and watch the fish, spiders, butterflies and nature do its thing around us.

After a while another couple came along to chat about travels and life, before leaving us to go for a swim too. On our walk out we met another couple that had a disabled son, the three were enjoying the shallow waters without making a racket to upset the wildlife. The son was having a great time.

After Pine Creek we stopped in Kathrine for supplies before continuing on to Mataranka where we visited their brilliant museum before going out to Elsey National Park where we spent a quite night before going back into Mataranka to get to Bitter Springs, a thermal pool/creek where the water temperature is around 34º, too hot for a refreshing swim, though it didn't stop the hordes of people that were there. The waters are an incredible colour, very hard to describe, so I'll post photos.

We were now keen to seek out the less traveled parts of NT, so we headed to Roper Bar. Roper Bar is at the end of a single lane road that turns to a rough corrugated dirt road for the last 50K or so. When we arrived at the campground on the bank of the Roper River, there was only thee other campers there, so we were able to find a quiet spot before taking a walk to the old Police Station ruins. The station operated from 1885 to 1980.

That night Michael was to find out why this campground wasn't so busy, when he went for a shower he found there was no lighting and no hot water, fortunately it was a warm night!

In the morning we called into the Roper Bar store, the only place in town. We called in to pay our camping fee and to top up with fuel at $2 a litre! Only we found they didn't open until 11am, fortunately we didn't really need the fuel and we didn't really think the campground was worth the $10 each they were asking.

Our route today was south through Limmen National Park. First stop was Tomato Island, a beautiful campground on the bank of the Roper River. As we made our way though Limmen we called in at the numerous campgrounds, ruins of a station homestead and billabong before arriving at Towns River campground. Here we found a lovely shaded campsite with no other campers in the campground, it was destined to be a quiet night. After setting up we took the short walk down to the river where we found three camps set up along a rock bar on the rivers edge. I'll point out now that there are crocs in this river and a boat launching ramp which means that crocs can get out of the river. Later in the afternoon another couple set up camp near the boat ramp and said they had seen a croc just on the other side of the ramp, about 5 meters from where they camped. We don't get people.

Back at our camp we discovered a path cut through the scrub that lead about 5 meters into the bush where people had been using a clearing as a toilet, there are perfectly good, clean composting toilets a short walk from where we were. Why???

In the morning as we packed up we had so many little birds flying around in the bush near us, some we hadn't seen before. It was great.

Today we called into the Rangers station to pickup the code needed to get through a gate on a track that takes you to the Western Lost City, another rock formation. We then continued just down the track to Butterfly Falls campground where we were able to find a nice spot to setup before visiting the falls and waterhole. The falls were only a trickle now.

We had a nice quiet night with the campground only half full.

In the morning we headed to the Western Lost City track where we unlocked the gate and signed in in the log book, where we found two others had already gone in ahead of us. This track is only 28K long, but the ranger had told us to allow 2 hours each way and it turned out he wasn't far off, particularly as we stopped at a few points of interest on our way in.

As we got close to the Lost City one of the couples ahead of us was heading out, so when we arrived there was only one other couple in there. This lost city was amazing and well worth the effort of getting in. We spent and hour looking around and having lunch before making the trip back. On the way out we passed one more car heading in. When we signed out we wondered why the couple we had just passed heading in hadn't bothered signing in.

In the after we had a cool swim in the Butterfly Falls waterhole, when were walking back to our camp we spotted a Taipan snake about 1.5 meters long crossing the path. More nature.

After another quiet night we continued south, stopping at the Southern Lost City, yet another rock formation which people had told us to check out. While we had thought about not visiting another rock formation, this was different again to the others we had seen and well worth the visit.

Our destination today was Borroloola, another town not known as a tourist destination. We arrived mid afternoon and had no trouble getting a spot in the caravan park.