Leichardt Falls

Before we departed Karumba we had to experience another sunset and another barramundi and prawns dinner. A full moon added to the beauty of the night.
The peace this morning was interrupted by the alarm Carolina has set to ensure we woke early enough to get underway by 8am. Why the early start? Because today we are heading for Leichhardt Falls and the free camp that overlooks the waterfalls. It’s a very popular camping area that requires a 4WD to get into the campsite and with limited campsites available we were advised to get there early to get a good camping spot before it fills up. So we hitched up and got underway as planned at 8am.
We were again driving on the Savannah Way towards Burketown. The Falls are about 200km away and are about 80km before Burketown. Along the way the bitumen ran out and the last 100km was red dust and a gravel road. The gravel road was corrugated at times and the dust a little thick so the first task was to pull over and reduce the tyre pressures. The lower tyre pressures help cushion the corrugations and help provide a smoother ride for the caravan, as well as giving more flexibility for the tyres to cope with the stones that can puncture or damage the tyres. On bitumen highway driving we run 40psi in the caravan tyres and the car front tyres and 45psi in the rear car tyres. On gravel roads with medium corrugations we run 30psi in the caravan tyres and front car tyres, and 33psi in the rear car tyres. On gravel roads with bad corrugations we run 20psi in the caravan and front car tyres and 23 psi in the rear car tyres. As we knew the 1km entry road into the Leichhardt Falls free camp was soft sand, lower tyre pressures would be required anyway.
The gravel road today also required several fairly shallow water crossings left over after the recent wet season flooding.
As we arrived at the Leichhardt Falls the narrow entry road opened up to a large sandy and rocky camping area overlooking a magnificent scene of the Falls and several associated pools. It was a truly lovely sight that took our breath away. Well worth seeing!!
We then found a good camp spot directly overlooking the falls. It involved a tricky bit of driving to get the caravan into the right spot but we were rewarded by having the whole vista of the Falls laid out right in front of us.
About 6 other caravans were already there and we chatted to some of them while taking in the views. It was at that time that we found out that across the other side of the main pool were two freshwater crocodiles basking on the sand bank. So at last Carolina was able to see crocs in the wild and to realise that they were some distance away and not able to get to our campsite to eat her, and she found out that yes it was actually safe to observe crocs in the wild, although she says she does not want to see any more!!
Shortly after we arrived a Nissan Patrol arrived with an unexpected passenger. On the back of the car perched outside on top of the Maxx Trax was a beautiful large macaw parrot!! Carolina was fascinated! She went over to chat to the couple in the car and found out that their parrot travels everywhere with them perched on the back of the car!! When they set up their camp overlooking the waterfalls the parrot perched on a branch just above the car. Quite a sight!!!
As the evening approached some of the other campers invited us to join them for drinks around their campfire, and this ended the day on a nice social note.
Having an off-road caravan parked in an off-road remote outback location requiring 4WD access and overlooking a spectacular scene of natural beauty is a special experience that leaves lasting memories.Read more