Sun, 12th Aug, 2018 Saltwater Creek to Dingo Waterhole, Lakefield National Park, Qld (exploring)

Cool night with a lot of dew in the morning. Clear sky. Warmed up quickly.

Headed off again. This time through Nifold Plains.

Lots of vehicles heading north through the national park. Onto Hann River Crossing. Stopped at the information board and chatted with a couple from SA. All the names have now been given Aboriginal names again. Maybe they want to change the name of Australia too.

On the other side is the old information board.

Parked near the river below the waterfall and took our chairs down to have a cuppa under the shady trees.

Spotted another orange lure past the end of the big trunk of the tree. With the help of some rope and good balance Steve scored another one. I took a video as he had to walk out onto the tree branch and throw the rope to try and get the hooks to snag in the rope. Same type as the one before and brand new. Someone didn’t have a good time fishing if he kept losing his lures.

We walked over the lava area to the waterfall. Downstream then upstream.

The falls. Someone has cleaned a nice size barra here going by the size of the scales.

Margaret had been using her Smart phone to take panorama photos so I got out my Samsung Android that I use for Wikicamps and had a go. Came out well but is very thin when I reduce it for my blog.

Steve walked over to the other side and had a go. Didn’t get the panorama shot happening but took a couple of other nice photos.

Crossed the causeway over the top rapids of the river.

Stopped at the old Breeza Homestead site. Huge mango trees.

Walked down the track to the lagoon. Lots of birds at the other end of the lagoon.

Came to an intersection – left to Bizant etc and right to the rest of the National Park. Further along we pulled off to check out Red Lily Lagoon. The Lotus Lilies open at daylight then drop their petals by midday so we got to see them in all stages as it was just before midday.

We continued on then checked out White Lily Lagoon. No boardwalk here and the lilies are out in the middle. A few Magpie Geese were resting by the water’s edge.

On to the Lakefield Station which was the ranger station for the National Park. Unfortunately you don’t get to talk to rangers anymore as all the bookings are online now. We drove down to the lagoon first to see if we could spot the resident crocodile. The poor old windmill has seen better days.

Nice lagoon with some closer white lilies for me to photograph.

Zoomed in on the white crane on the other side then Steve spotted the croc as it edged closer to the crane. You can see it below the crane’s legs.

Then he raised his back out.

Steve drove over to the main building while I walked over to photograph one of the old buildings.

An old grader.

Checked out the information board. Lakefield Station was established in 1881, by Donald McKenzie.

We went up to the Ranger Station to make our booking. Two chaps from Austria were on the phone trying to make a booking and were having trouble with the lady understanding them and visa versa. I offered to help and spoke on their behalf. The computer world now means they have to create an account so they can make a booking and she has to read them all the terms and conditions etc which to them was gobbly gook – is to me too. After we sorted out their account and that they wanted to book one night for two people at Hann Crossing she then said they have to choose a site and suggested they have a look and come back to let her know which one. I said we are in the bush and they would have to drive 30km and back. Then I asked where she was - Brisbane and she had no idea what was up here. I said to put them in Camp 9 which was where we had a cuppa. Honestly there has to be a better system especially for our travelling internationals. The chaps were most grateful and offered us a drink etc but we declined and they headed off. Now my turn to book our site at Dingo Waterhole. I used the computer screen and that was hard enough. Finally got our number and off we went.

Drove down to Kalpowar Crossing first to have our late lunch and top up our water tanks. The old ‘day use only’ areas are now campsites so we pulled in beside the first bollarded area to make our lunch. Just as we were getting sorted a car pulled up and out of all the sites he had the one booked where we parked – we all laughed as we had said years ago it was a waste to have these sites as day use – now that has come back to bite us. They were fine to wait till we got our lunch made. They were heading up the top so we gave them tips on places to see and camp. We moved to the picnic table in the middle of a grass area in between the two tracks and ate our lunch with cars zooming through heading to Bathurst Bay or Cape Melville – no respect as they didn’t slow down as they came into the campground.

The old toilet and shower block is now only cold showers and there is a new toilet block on the other side and one further down the campground. Bob and Margaret walked down to the causeway which has water flowing over it.

Headed back out and down to the turn off to Mick Fienn and Dingo Waterholes. Dingo was one of our old haunts. This track ran beside a fence line but it has disappeared now.

A few kangaroos were jumping across the road.

We drove up to where we originally camped but the road is rutted now. They moved the camp site further along where Steve and Lindsay used to follow a track up to so they could fish further up the waterhole. One time they were there the ranger came by with his slasher and cleared the track for them and now it is the campsite. It is well back from the river but you could go down under the trees by the river if you wished. We chose to stay out in the sun as we needed solar power for the fridges.

After we set up we walked down to the water which is part of the Normanby River which also flows out to Princess Charlotte Bay. We have caught stingrays etc in here when they have come in with flood waters.

Our route for today.

A whistling kite was hovering over us while we enjoyed our cuppas. He settled high in the tree – good vantage point.

Steve went for a wander for firewood so Margaret and I went down to the river to try and catch some bait and so she could practice casting the bait caster reel. Got nothing!!

Had drinks then Steve put in the prawn pots to get some bait for tomorrow. After dinner we all went with him with our torches to see what we caught. We got some huge Cherubim prawns – Steve said Bob can eat them if we don’t catch any barra. We don’t have our usual live bait container to keep them alive so Steve drilled holes in one of the plastic clip-lock boxes and tied on a rope so they could swim in the water overnight.

Checked a couple more times and got enough to hopefully get us a barra to eat.

Had a lovely long hot shower as we have lots of water to use.