Charnley Station.....found our own peace of heaven, all to ourselves!

We had a wonderful nights sleep at Silent Grove and woke without the sounds of Bower birds thank god. We packed up and chatted with a few nomads before setting off on a short 200m walk along Silent Grove creek.  The girls drank from the creek as if they were cattle and l took some pics of the running water.  Very peaceful and tranquil, quite stunning really. 

Up and at em girls....breaky time!

The culprit who woke us up...noisy bugger!

Big Boab...

Glad your smiling....its walk time!

Girls a bit thirsty....

Love the Pandama Palm...

Back on the road we turned left and headed up the GRR, stopping off at Imitji roadhouse where we enjoyed a treat of homemade apple pies with ice cream.  We stocked up on a few supplies and fuel.  I headed over to the art centre to check out some paintings but they were shut.  I chatted with an old black fella who had travelled from near the Bungle Bungles to be with his grand daughter for her first b'day, he was really lovely and you could tell a real bushman too, shaded under his big cow boy hat.  Back at the roadhouse the local puppy was infatuated with the girls, he was so cute and apparently the manager said that he was totally adoptable!  Reckon if we had room we would have taken him...

Thru the wet...

...to the dry!

Imitji Roadhouse...

Marty pumping and Boo washing...team effort!

Pity it was shut!

No lie.....

Homemade apple pie on the Gibb...yummo!

Loved this pup....

Another short drive down the road and we made the turn off to Charnley River Station where we planned to camp for a few nights.  The 40km dirt road in was great and we ran over our first snake in a while, whoops.  We pulled up and were greeted by a very chatty Lorrie and her silent partner Chicko.  The campground was a AWC (Australian Wildlife Conservation) funded project, and after a long introduction on their work, we booked in for two nights at $40 per night.  Bit pricey, and that was with the girls for free!!!

Welcoming committee!

The campgrounds were virtually empty with two other camps set up, it still took Marty a while to find the perfect site to set up, circling the grounds a few times.  We did a quick set up and headed off to check out Donkey pools, which were 30km down the road.  On the way we past heaps of cattle, dingos and wallabies. We pulled up and did the short walk into the pools and were faced with a very uninspiring waterhole to swim in with twigs and sediment on top for the water.  We got to the last pool and Marty thought it looked a bit dodgy that crocs might be in and he decided that he would stay out and keep a lookout while the girls and l cooled off in the shallows.  It was a quick swim but was good to cool off.  Up on the top of the cliff in a tree a eagle sat and watched us the whole time, looked amazing!  Equally amazing to my eyes were the boab trees that surrounded the area, l am totally obsessed with these trees, love them!  After the disappointing swimming area, we headed back to camp, arriving back late arvo just in time for a nice hot shower and dinner.  We had planned on doing some school but no one was in the mood, so we gave it a miss.  The campground was nice and quiet except for a bloke running his generator all the time, which Marty was not a fan of.

Loving the country sign work!

Swimming hole....don't think so!

Should we.....shouldn't we???

And off we go to find a spot to swim...
girls so not happy!

The many dingo's we saw around the property.

Can we please go swimming dad?!?

Croc country??

Amazing what holds the rock boulders in place....

Yay....l'm going in!

Keep an eye out Marty!

Can you pick who are the shadows?

Cloud patterns....and boabs in the distance, can't get any better!

Meg not too happy we're leaving!

Yet another dingo!

Beeson camp....loving the tree!

Next morning we treated ourselves to bacon and egg wraps, Boo helping me with cooking alot of the meals along the way recently.  With our bellies full we set off for a bit of sight seeing, first stop at Glemont Hill lookout, which after a short walk was nothing spectacular.  A 360o lookout over the station which was dry and baron.  We promised the girls a swim at our next stop, Lily Pools, but when we got their the water was unswimmable.  There was slim and twigs on the dormant water, luckily the rock climb down was fun for the girls and they didn't mind missing out on a swim.  Marty and l reckon it would have been awesome in the wet though.  

Have these girls trained well!

Glemont Hill lookout view...

Girls unimpressed!

Gorgeous flowers in the middle of
the dry country..

Dumb and dumber!

Yet another unswimmable watering hole!

Girls loved the rock climbing,,,

See why it's called Lily Pool.....lol

God that hurt the legs!

The next stop was the last to win us over as so far this station stop was being a little disappointing. We had been recommended by so many people along the way to come here and so far there was unswimmable water holes and with no swimming, there was not much else to do.  We arrived at the start of Grevillea Gorge walk and grabbed out packed bag of snacks and headed off with little anticipation of greatness.  We knew the walk would be good though as we had to make our way down the 4m aluminium ladder, which was secured with dodgy rope ties.  We scrambled down the rocks to an old dried up waterfall which led to a dried up rock pool, surprise surprise!  Just over a few more rocks we were immersed in a wonderful feast to the eyes, 

a glorious full waterhole surrounded by huge rock cliffs on one side and palm trees on the other.  The girls and l jumped in, the water crystal clear and freezing!  But we didn't care, it was swim-able water and the last chance for us to enjoy this place.  We had this paradise all to ourselves for hours!  

Girls not too excited due to the continuing let downs...

Marty cheered them up!

Down he goes, trusty ladder in the bush!

Down they go.....

You'd think seeing we had found a beautiful spot to swim finally that Marty would be in in a heartbeat....but no it was too cold for him so he just sat with his feet in the whole time the girls and l cooled off!  There were heaps of huge dragon flies huddling under the cliffs which looked really cool.  

No the photo is not upside down, these dragonflies were just hanging around..

Lucky the girls are in fluoro!

Love this pic! So many colors and contrasts..

Drip...

...Drop!

Not too sure!

Oh what the hell!!

Bit cold girls?

That's me up the back!

Yes it is a photo, reminds me of a water color painting!

Any fish?

Love dragonflies!

After our swim we decided to scramble further around the cliffs and over rocks to find the aboriginal rock art that Lorrie had told us about.  The girls did a fabulous job scrambling over the rocks in their swimmers and after searching for a while we finally found it!  It was so impressive! So many artworks which have been preserved by the shelter of the cliffs.  Because l didn't bring the Nikon it was hard to get a close up of the artwork with the Go Pro, so what do good parents do?  We send our girl, Boo, up the cliff by lifting her up to get the close up photo.  She did well until it was time to come down when she became petrified and wouldn't budge.  Eventually she trusted us and let us support her down to ground, thank god, Marty and l were getting a bit worried about how things would end.  Anything for a photo!  On the way back to the swimming pool, the girls and l decided to swim back to the other side rather than scramble back over the rocks.  We saw a goanna sun baking on the rock which looked so relaxed and carefree.  It didn't even budge to our noises, totally ignored us!  Meg and l got in but Boo decided that she was a little frightened the goanna would jump in after her, again eventually she trusted me and swam to the other side!  You'd think after all this time the girls would be at one with nature and the creatures that live in it...... Marty ended up getting in for a quick dip, well only up to his waist!  After drying off and filling up on lollies and biscuits for a late lunch, we unfortunately had to start making our way back to the car as it was getting on in the day.  At the ladder we sent Boo up first who when getting to the top let us know that there was a brown snake crawling under the rocks, she quickly headed back down the ladder.  I was so impressed with her reactive skills, she didn't freeze or freak out, she just calmly got back down the ladder.  What a girl!!!!  Marty ended up heading up first after a few minutes, better to sacrifice him than me.  With the all clear, we all got up as fast as we could and made our way back to the car, bit hairy looking around keeping an eye out for any more snakes.  

Aboriginal rock art from afar!

Boo's pics up on the ledge....

She wouldn't come down!

Back at the gorge....

Butter wouldn't melt....lol

Bit cold Marty?

That's enough for me Marty reckons!

Time to head up...not looking forward
to scaling the rocks...

Bye paradise!

Pic seconds before the snake incident!

Thankfully we got to the car without incident and enjoyed the air conditioner.  On the way back to camp we were all transfixed with the cattle, especially Meg who has become fascinated in them.  Back at camp, we got the girls to do some school.  On my way back from the shower l noticed a few of Marty's batteries on the ground with the empty case.  I went to get into Marty for littering when he was so shocked that all his batteries were gone off the table where he had left them.  He reckons a bloody bower bird had stole them! Around 10 batteries, l couldn't help but crack up, Marty wasn't as keen for a laugh about it just yet...

Big horns on that one....

You looking at me punk?

Glad the bull's in the distance!

Local peacock showing off its beauty...

Love the kitchen sink for the bird bath!

Unique fencing!

Frangipani's....love the look and fragrance!

Boo and me mucking around at night...torches and camera...cool partners!

Bit eary!

Overall, we had a great peaceful two nights here at the station.  Probably could have done it in a day but it was still good to stop for a few nights to chill.  If it wasn't such a drive to the swimming holes it would be awesome.  Also if the pools weren't all dried up or filled with slim it would have been better. Still, we were pretty stocked to have found a piece of paradise and had it to ourselves for the day, made it all worth it! The campgrounds were nice and well kept with lush grass and wallabies that feasted off it every night. 

Bell Xxx