Lakefield National Park

Leaving Charlie and his quirky camping ground an easy 2 hour drive brought us to Musgrave telegraph station, where we turned off the Development Road into Lakefield National Park. Shortly the terrain changed and the road closed in on us, in some places just two wheel tracks with coarse grass in the centre.

We passed through many creeks, mostly only a few inches deep, until we came to the turnoff to Low Lake, where the road became even narrower, with high grass and bush either side. The lake itself was about the size of Talkin Tarn, with lillies growing around it, obviously quite shallow, with a range of wetland birds feeding .We watched as a Rainbow Bee-Eater caught it’s prey on the wing and came back to the same branch above us continually to savour his meal.

Passing on we came across an expense of grasslands, the Nifold Plain. Flat for many miles, there were hundreds of tall anthills almost as far as the eye could see. In the far distance we could see Jane Table Hill, looking much like we remember Ayers Rock.

We stopped at two lagoons, the first the Red Lily Lagoon, which as it’s name suggests is a mass of beautiful red Lotus Lillies, completely covering the lake. This is one of only two places in Australia that these plants thrive, even the lake just a couple of kilometers away, the White Lily Lagoon, had none, but plenty of white lilies.

As we went along we came across a five foot snake, might be a King Brown, we stopped to snap him and he turned to face us menacingly. We moved on

The rivers gradually became wider and slightly deeper as we passed through the park, the North Kennedy River in particular was a difficult one to cross with potholes and rocks in the bed, but as always, Betty was equal to the task.

Eventually we arrived at our destination for the day, Kalpower campground. Situated on the banks of the beautiful Nornamby River, each pitch is well marked and contains a campfire and BBQ- all for just $11 a night!.

There has to be a snag- just below us in the river basks a huge Saltie- an estuarine crocodile about three metres long. There were some guys brave enough to walk across the river- call me chicken but maybe I can’t run fast enough to outpace a croc!

There are so many birds in this park, in particular birds of prey, we saw Black Kites, Wedge Tailed Eagles, Ospreys and at night we hear the Barking Owl, which literally sounds just like a dog. The other day we had a Blue Kookaburra fly across us, its beautiful wings flashing in the sunlight.

All good things must come to an end- tomorrow we have to reach Cooktown, and have Betty serviced and fitted with a new screen, before we tackle our next adventure.