Bodjamulla (Lawn Hill NP) 29/8/15

Contrary to the previous story of green grass in Burketown, the surrounding countryside is very dry and the cattle are in very poor condition all the way south to Lawn Hill. However, the NP is quite an oasis due to spring water fed gorges. The NP is so popular with campers now, booked ahead for months and almost impossible to book a site short term. The new conveniences, beautiful showers and toilets might have something to do with that!! Adel's Grove about 7.5 Km back where we are staying is equally as nice. Lawn Hill Ck runs through the property and right to the edge of the Grove. Canoeing 6km return was great fun on the gorge and we were able to swap canoes from one gorge to the next. We met another couple half way for the swap but we unfortunately got the raw deal!! Their canoe was so heavy !! It still paddled well and we spent some time at the upper gorge where there were springs and Indarri Falls. Very refreshing so we pulled into an alcove for morning tea and that's when many archer fish ( spitting fish) milled around the canoe thinking they may be fed! The water colour in the gorges is a beautiful Aqua with backdrops of paper barks, pandanus and orange/ red rocks in the background, so different to other gorges we have visited. We have travelled roughly 20,000 km to this point and only a few km's out from Adel's Grove when the unexpected happened - a flat tyre!! We managed to locate the tools under boxes of various kinds over the back seat area without too much disruption then Steve proceeded to play around in the dirt and rocks to release the spare tyre. As we pulled into the Grove, the workshop was conveniently open where Steve negotiated either a repair or to purchase a used tyre for backup. No way was the tyre repairable and fortunately ( out in the back of beyond) after much searching around the shed, they found a reasonable used tyre of the correct size.