This post takes us along the Savannah Way through quite an isolated part of the north as indicated on this map.
Boodjamulla NP (formerly known as Lawn Hill) is home to a fabulous gorge system and just 10 kms away from Adels Grove, an almost equally beautiful camping location on the Gregory River. Good hiking, great swimming and just beautiful tropical landscapes – one of our favorite stops in 2017, so a 3 night stop this time as well. Unfortunately the office/reception building at Adels Grove burnt down two weeks before our visit. The fire was front page news around Australia. We really wanted to stay at the NP but they have limited sites and you need to book from 2 weeks to 1 month in advance, which of course we can’t do, due to our ‘flexibilty’ approach. Adels Grove were open to self-contained campers and they seemed grateful that people continued to visit. In fact the staff were nice and helpful and managing well without all their admin, records etc which burnt.
The trip out from Adels Grove took us through a number of cattle stations, some river crossing and eventually took us to Hells Gate Roadhouse where we had lunch.
The next morning we thought we were in for a long day of solitary driving, but what a day we had! As we left our free camp we ended up having a two hour chat with our neighbors by the creek, so didn’t hit the road til 11:30. Just crossed the border and within an hour of leaving we came upon a guy bogged on the side of the road.
Dick got out the Maxx tracks, put them under the back tyres and did some digging, and Duncan was able to drive out. He is planning to drive around Australia but did not seem well prepared for the conditions, so we wish him well. After that episode we went a bit further and then met another Explorer Motorhome like ours, so we stopped to have a chat with Ted (#203). A bit later we met Duncan again on the road so told him where we were stopping for lunch and he joined us there. Then as we continued on our way we drove past a group of seven aboriginal women and children by the side of the road. They waved us over so we stopped. They had a flat tyre and were worried about their jack, so Dick had a look. They actually had it under control and were quite strong and capable and managed to get it changed. So after all those incidents we finally got to our destination, Seven Emus Station, where we had a long chat with the aboriginal owner, Frank Shadforth. We then drove 5 kms through his property to our campsite (the same one we had two years ago) and got settled in just before dark. For doing a four hour drive in the middle of nowhere, we met a lot of people on a long, hot (34C) day.
After a fair bit of negotiation we had arranged to do a bush tucker tour with Frank. We weren’t really sure what to expect when he arrived at our camp in the morning. For almost two hours he walked us around the camp pointing out specific plants and telling us how they used to be used; including paperbark, lemongrass, tea tree and pandanus which he is currently harvesting or planning to harvest. There was some talk of a bush tucker venture with a woman in Darwin. However his main message to us was that the land is dying for two reasons: 1- European bees are wiping out the native bees who pollinate all the plants and 2- aboriginal people no longer harvest the bush food and care for the land as they used to do. He has been featured on ABC Landline in 2017 & 2018 and produced a documentary with the NT Environment Centre in March. All this can be found on his facebook page ‘seven ems station’.
Frank’s father was the first aboriginal to buy his own station. It is 4300 square kilometers and goes all the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria and includes 55 kms of coastline there, between the Robinson and the Calvert Rivers. We decided to drive through the property to the Gulf and 34 kms (1.5 hours) later we were almost at the gulf. Seven Emus was badly hit by a cyclone in March and we could see lots of fallen trees as we drove the rough tracks.
After we left Seven Emus we got back on the Savannah Way, stocked up in Borooloola, and had lunch at the Heartbreak Hotel roadhouse/campground at Cape Crawford. Decided to stay the night in a free camp for a change, and that put us closer to our next destination, Bitter Springs.
