Lorella Springs Station........1 Million Acres !

July 11, 2017

Lorella Springs Station........1 Million Acres !

Fri 7 - Tues 11 July

It was an early kick off from Mataranka ready for a new day of driving with what we knew would be a 6-7 hour drive to Lorella Springs Station.

It was incredibly foggy and damp, if you weren't standing outside in shorts and t-shirts it would have been easy to think it was 9 deg as it looked very familiar to home. The road to Roper Bar was a great run and the Leichhardt River a beautiful spot for some breaky.

Near the Arches at Lorella

Leichhardt River crossing near Roper Bar

40km or so after leaving the River the dust up in front of us stopped and so had Rob and Julie..... very abruptly! A U-bolt on their trailer axle had snapped off, the tyre had flicked back hit the rear guard and blown the tyre on a curving right had bend - they were incredibly lucky the road was a little rough and that they weren't travelling faster. It was great to be able to give them a bit of a hand, as they were fully loaded essentially moving house from Darwin to the East Coast somewhere.

Rob & Julie with almost a wheel off !!

So a couple of hours later - the boys had rigged the corner of a tarp on top of the leaf spring and some brake cable onto the axle and mounted a spare tyre on which turned stiffly on the axle and hopefully they made it back to Roper Bar to get some repairs at Mataranka. Buying our favourite Mataranka Pies for lunch ended up being an excellent idea that we sat on the toolbox to warm through after a few hours of repair work - I hadn't done much to help out and I was ready to crack a cold bevvie!

We still had about 280km ahead of us and so we just kept going and thought we'd see how far we got! Stu had been hoping to see a croc floating near the car or preferably over the bonnet to film with the sat nav in a Russell Coyte-esque kind of way (this idea was particularly to email to Rach- my sister!!) He wasn't too far off as in one of the crossings over the next few hours we saw a beautiful freshie about 1.2m long just sitting at the crossing. He didn't shoot off or anything and we got some great pics and a bit of footage as we cruised through.

A freshie sitting at a creek crossing

A bit after 5pm we pulled into Lorella and so thrilled we'd made it there in pretty good time. Incredible spot and with the Magical Springs just down the hill from the Bar (handy ;) ) the kids helped us set up in rapid time and we all had a great soak. With about 1000km of tracks around Lorella Station we weren't going to be short of things to do for the two full days we had there.

Lorella Springs

The Waterslide!!

Saturday was fun and we headed up the track to visit The Waterslide - this incredible rock feature..where as you can see above that with water flowing down it you can slide into the waterhole below. The spring above runs year round and if sloshed down a lot during the day by kids and adults alike will replenish over night. It was cracking fun - although some skinny bummed farmers felt it more than others !! It goes without saying the kids had a blast!

Native Hibiscus

Some of the beautiful flowers we found during our few days...some familiar and some are on the list to research.

Stunning 3-4m Wattle species of some sort?

A Flowering Gum up through the rocks near the Arches

We also explored the Musterers Cave where the stockys use to store their pack saddles and supplies during the Wet season...not far from here was the Arches and the Valley of the Springs.

Enormous friendship rock with our Off The Track Training ambassador!!

Given we had a couple of big days of driving coming up we went easy the next day and ventured up to Nudie Hot Springs - which sits at about 40 deg and 50m up the track is the source of where the water naturally has earthed this being 50deg. There was a beautiful yellow and purple flower up at this site that I didn't see anywhere else...The Walkers hadn't seen these either - so I'm looking forward to buying a great flower book and hoping to identify them and kick off their Flora Chart. Another traveller started there Bird chart a few years back - so will find a good book shop soon and get this cracking as I'd love to know what they are as well.

Nudie Springs ;) ;) our kit is on!!

At Nudie we met a Cruiser load of health practitioners from Borroloola about 2 1/2 hrs away from Lorella. A mix of Nurses and Doctors doing contract work in the Shire. From all over the shop New Zealand and Tenterfield to name a few. A lovely group who were all late fifties having a blast together and exploring the sites whilst working on the road.

Rosie's Rapids with Canoe ready to use on site

Stunning sunset colours

After the Nudie Springs we whizzed up to Rosie's Rapids and the canoe was sitting there ready for the kids to have a go on...so many beautiful places to check out and we did what we could in the time that we had. One neighbour nearby in a Van we didn't see at all in the 3 nights there...guessed they must have gone for a bit of a remote camp out to the coast perhaps - which is about 90km from the Homestead.

The BEST shower so far this trip - hands down...a hot water donkey and breezy open topped roof to the showers to watch the stars, moon, southern cross and anything else I could discern under the raining hot water...indescribable how good wood fired hot spring water is...seriously nourishing for the soul!

Cracking donkey set up

Best shower on the road so far - yes there's a shower curtain where I'm standing ;)

The passion and vision at Lorella is incredibly energising and palpable, not only coming from Rhett Walker and his adult kids, as well as from staff who work there and the people who are attracted to Lorella for a short or long stay. The generosity of those at Lorella is something I've never experienced before - there wasn't the 'Don't/No List' it was 'You cannot go with out seeing.....' the hospitality was fabulous the setting amazing. Trampoline out the front for the kids, near the Bar and Magical Springs...you could do as much or as little as you like with the hope from them being that regardless of what you choose - have a great time doing it! I would definitely go back, if we were going past on another trip and allocate more time so we could do some more drives further out. Proud to support and promote a family farming business of tourism and cattle in the NT Gulf country such a wonderful experience for our family.

It was a big day leaving Lorella for Hell's Gate Roadhouse..the chap from the pic below had an even bigger day, parked smack bang in the middle of this crossing. It made sense after we'd seen the ute loaded with a few bodies in the back 10 mins before hand that they may have been getting a lift back into Borroloola for some repairs!

Not the best spot for a collapsed ball bearing to happen !!

On the NT / QLD border !!

Sunset at Hell's Gate Roadhouse

A slow day of driving, whilst being safe on the roads 450km in about 7 hrs...not too much traffic and incredible country to drive through and witness. The following day we travelled through Burketown and Normanton to Karumba where we saw our first Sunset on the beach in Australia...sublime !! So lovely being on the coast and yes there are loads of people in this 300 odd populated town. 4 sleeps till the VIP arrives in Cairns too !!