Some of the group had decided to back track and visit the Western Lost City before heading to Lorella Springs. Jenny and I left a bit later and headed directly for Lorella Springs with a side trip to the Southern Lost City (so many lost cities – you would think someone would have found them by now!) on the way. We arrived at Lorella Springs at around lunchtime to a quite busy campground, Lorella is expensive but it is popular. Lorella Springs is a cattle station but only runs limited numbers of cattle as the land will not support large numbers, as a result the owners have diversified into tourism in the dry season to supplement their income – although it is probably now their main source of income.
We were camped only about 50m from the hot springs at the campground, they are called hot springs but they are only about 27 degrees which is warm enough when it is around the mid thirties through the day. The rest of the group arrived later in the day.
Over the next two days we travelled to various highlites on the property – and there are plenty as you may imagine given that Lorella Springs is a one million acre property roughly 60km north to south and 100km west to east. Everyone did their own thing with some of us taking a helicopter flight over the Southern Lost City, this was expensive but it was a great experience because apart from seeing the lost city from the air you got an appreciation of the vastness of the property and it’s scenic beauty.
Jenny and I travelled to Nanny’s Retreat, the Fern Gully and Le Spa. Three beautiful spots, quite remote from the main campground (about a 1.5hr drive each way). Nanny’s Retreat was the pick of the spots even though there is a 40 minute walk from the car park to the rock pools. There is so much to see that you would need to be there at least a week to see most of it. To drive out to the coast where the fishing is at it is best is best done by staying out there for a day or so given that you need to travel almost 100km each way. After the two days we were very tempted to stay longer but it would have made the rest of the trip a bit tight so we chose to move on with the aim that we will be back some time in the future.
Lorella Springs is a busy place even though the access road is fairly rough, many people tow off road or semi off road caravans into the property taking it pretty slow over the rougher sections of the track and there is evidence of damaged vehicles and trailers at the workshop on the property.
We only had two days at Lorella Springs but if we didn’t have plans for a return visit we would have amended later sections of our trip to get another day or two there. Tomorrow we are off to King Ash Bay via Cape Crawford and Borroloola with an overnight stop at Cape Crawford.
