Limmen NP - Lomarieum Lagoon

Wed (7/8) we left Towns River heading for Tomato Island, a new caravan park about 40km east of Roper Bar. Everyone that has been this way is raving about it - grass, hot showers and Telstra coverage courtesy of a nearby aboriginal community town - nirvana!

It was only about 80km down the road. On the way we stopped at St Vidgeon ruins - the ruins of an old mission. We drove down a track at the back of the ruins and stumbled upon this gorgeous lagoon. We stopped and had some morning tea and then headed on to nirvana.

Well nirvana turned out to be yet another dry, dusty campground with some tired looking clumps of grass, humming to the tune of generators, our least favourite native animals. We stopped long enough to check our emails, get some water and chat briefly with our young friends who were heading on to Mataranka. I love how you keep running in to the same people along the way - not too surprising when you think about it.

Anyway we decided that nirvana was not for us, so turned ourselves around and high tailed it back to the lagoon.

We have a beautiful campsite under the shade of trees, with grass all round and a ready supply of cool water. Mike rigged up the shower and we cleaned off the dust with a view. And all for free!

That's a blanket of water lilies you can see on the surface of the water. There are ducks floating peacefully all over, so we figure there are no crocs, although we are keeping an eye out. It would be such a shame to be munched in such a beautiful spot.

We went for a late afternoon walk to the end of the lagoon and explored some ruins on the way back.

Here is happy hour watching crocs, pigs and birds on the other side of the lagoon. So much for Mike's theory about no crocs! But we think they are fresh waters, not salties. But given our track record on assumptions so far we are taking no chances.

Mike playing big game hunter with his slingshot. The pigs on the other side are in no danger at all.

Pigs have now spotted crocs and are heading around the top of the lagoon to our side. Mike is saying "oh for a 308". Maybe pork chops for dinner, but probably not. We have the whole area to ourselves - we have found our silence at last.

We woke to a thick blanket of mist over the lagoon - eerie and beautiful.

Limmen NP is amazing. We are having trouble leaving it. This is our 5th night in the park. We've also now been driving on dirt roads for 11 days, I am fully expecting to sneeze a kidney out of my left nostril at any moment! One more day tomorrow and I think we'll hit sealed road again. Yahoo, I might be able to hear what Mike is saying again.

All in all a stunning adieu to Limmen NP.