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That is what I would be saying if I were at my fortnightly Non-showers Anonymous (NA) meeting. NAs is a support group for those of us who don't subscribe to the need for daily showering. I am also a fully paid member of NSCOHPHP or No Shampoo, Conditioner Or Hair Products Here Please!
This recent lack of showering is actually not as bad as it sounds. Here at Lawn Hill National Park there is ample fresh water in the creek for swimming, canoeing, frolicking and washing. And that's exactly what I did - although to be fair only a small amount of frolicking.
All joking aside Lawn Hill National Park is my favourite part of the trip so far. If you can't read the map it is in north west QLD and sits on the NT-QLD border.
The scenery here is spectacular and made more so by the drive in from Karumba which is almost entirely flat, mostly treeless plains with not a hill or range in sight. Just the occasional cow, emu, eagle, crow, cat (yes saw atleast 2 of these) and pigs. There was a mixture of mobile and immobile varieties of these.
Interesting Side point 1 - part of the drive was on a dirt road (good quality as it leads to a large mine not far from the park) and we encountered our first real road train activity. We have a number of shots of the truck approaching at real pace with what looked like a think cloak of dust behind it. It is very difficult to explain what it feels like as the truck passes and your little car is swamped by the dust cloud so I won't attempt to.
Anyway why is Lawn Hill so spectacular? Well it's the hills and ranges after many miles of flat land, it's the sandstone cliffs on many of these ranges especially when a setting sun send it golden in colour, it's the gorges carved out by the Lawn Hill creek which has left 80m high gorge walls in some places. This creek is actually spring fed from a very large, actually massive underground reservoir which apparently reaches 800kms into the Northern Territory. Someone here did claim that this aquifer is so large that water which is pushed out of it may be up to 1000 years old. I was able to confirm or deny this fact - primarily as I have neither the skills nor training to complete such an experiment.
What does 100 year old water taste like? Well a touch too much calcium for me to be honest. But that is not really the fault of the aquifer. It comes more from the fact that the limestone the water is released through contains calcium which means as the water is released to the creek it is saturated in calcium carbonate.
Interesting side point 2 - once the water is in the creek the calcium begins to separate from the water and leaves an attractive thin film of calcium on the surface of the water. This film had also, rather negatively in my view, been referred to as 'scum'. The scientist reading this may wish to confirm whether this calcium would aid or inhibit any creek washing I undertook. I certainly felt clean - but they did advise not to drink it! There is a picture that shows the film/scum.
What's is there to do here - well you can;
· canoe up the gorge, see some water falls,
· maybe spot a croc,
· if you are lucky a turtle (I wasn't), see some fish (heaps Anne-Marie!),
· watch bats catching insects at dusk (heaps at sunset,
· watch the stars (with binoculars which according to Dad is not nerdy at all),
· listen to the local birdlife (at dawn was the best and I am annoyed at myself for not recording some as was actually very cool),
· see some fossils 50km south at Riversleigh - and I am not referring to the grey nomads,
· do some walks (all fairly short).
This spot was definitely worth the effort to reach it and would recommend it to anyone (note there are shower facilities provided but no hot water!).
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