Limmen National Park on the Savannah Way: Camps, Butterflies and the Southern Lost City

Oct 5

6 min read

The Savannah Way is one of Australia's great remote road trips. The road is rugged and unforgiving, but it rewards you with some of the most breathtaking scenery this country has to offer. Our stretch of it took us east from Mataranka and through Limmen National Park, with cracking waterfront camps, a very quick dip in some seriously cold water, a rockface covered in thousands of butterflies and a whole city made of sandstone.

Leaving the bitumen behind

When the bitumen ended east of Mataranka, the fun began. We dropped the tyre pressures, fitted the secondary filters to both snorkels and settled in for the dirt. From there it's unsealed all the way through Limmen National Park, and there are no services for 338 km between Roper Bar and Cape Crawford, so it pays to come well prepared.

Paul crouched beside his LandCruiser on a red dirt road, letting air out of a front tyre. — *The Savannah Way is notoriously corrugated, so it pays to deflate your tyres a little*

Our first night was at Munbililla, better known as Tomato Island. It's a popular camp, and with that water frontage it's easy to see why.

Drone view of a 4WD with its awning out at a bush campsite among trees beside a wide green river. — *Mumbililla / Tomato Island is one of the most popular campgrounds in Limmen NP thanks to its relative proximity to Darwin and boat access to the river.*

Lomarieum Lagoon

Heading east, we checked out a few of the smaller bush camps along the way. They're nice and quiet, but pretty basic, with no water views. Just past them, Lomarieum Lagoon was the first spot that really made us stop.

It's a big lagoon, and there are tracks heading off in every direction, so you could easily find yourself a nice spot to park up with a view of the water. Not in the water, mind you. It looked pretty croccy, so we stayed well back and put the drone up to have a look instead. It would make a cracking lunch or picnic stop.

Lomarieum Lagoon: Drone view of Lomarieum Lagoon in Limmen National Park, a long stretch of water lined with trees and patches of water lilies, with low ranges in the distance. — *Lomarieum Lagoon from above*

Towns River Campground

From the lagoon it was only about 50 km to Towns River Campground, and we rolled in around lunchtime with plenty of the day left. What a bloody nice camp it is.

Karleah and Paul in camp chairs in front of their two 4WDs on a low rocky bank, reflected in the calm Towns River. — *Camped perched on the banks of the Towns River*

Hot tip: if you're booking Towns River, book the overflow camping. The overflow camping is the waterfront. The four allocated sites (shown on the map at the campground) are about 100 m from the water, with no views of it. The overflow area is where the tracks run down to the river, and that's where everyone camps. There's also a boat ramp, which is great if you have a boat. We don't.

wo 4WDs with awnings set up on a sandy bank beside the Towns River, with savannah woodland stretching to the horizon. — *Boat ramp to the right of us for those travelling with a tinny*

The area had been recently burnt, so the track in was nice and clear and there was heaps of firewood on the ground. Paul went off to collect wood for the fire while Karleah got stuck into some uni work. We both know which job we'd rather do.

Camp oven bread

With an early arrival and a good fire going, it was the perfect afternoon to bake. Paul kept it simple and went with rough measurements.

Ingredients

Plain flour (the recipe called for 3 cups, but Paul used about 1½ and it worked a treat)
1½ teaspoons salt
7 g dried yeast
Warm water

Method

Mix the flour and salt so the salt is spread through properly.
Warm some water on the stove until it's about hot-bath temperature, then add the yeast and give it a stir to activate it.
Add the yeast mix to the flour and fold it through into a dough ball.
Leave it to rise for 2 to 3 hours.
Pull the dough up, roll it in a bit of flour so it doesn't stick, and into the camp oven it goes.
Heat it from the bottom for about 10 minutes, then add coals to the lid to crisp up the top. Check it again after another 5 to 10 minutes.

It came out nice and chewy, still warm, and the whole camp smelt like bread. That's a big bonus.

A golden, crusty loaf of camp oven bread on a wooden board beside the coals of a campfire. — *Paul's fresh bread tasted as good as it looked*

Red lentil dahl

Fresh bread needed a dinner to match, so Karleah made a red lentil dahl. It's a staple at home because there's next to no prep: one onion to dice and that's it. We don't carry measuring cups, so a mug did the job.

Ingredients

1 cup red lentils
2 cups water
1 brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
About ⅓ teaspoon cinnamon (or a cinnamon quill if you travel with one)
About ½ teaspoon veggie stock
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon turmeric
About 80 ml coconut cream

Method

Give the lentils a rinse. Normally you'd rinse them more, but water is precious out here.
Add the lentils, water, cinnamon and stock to a pot. Bring it to the boil, then simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until it has a porridge consistency.
While the lentils cook, fry off the onion.
Add the garlic and give it a minute.
Add the cayenne, garam masala and turmeric. Don't stress if a bit extra garam masala or turmeric goes in, but go easy on the cayenne if you don't like spicy food.
Stir in the coconut cream, then add the lentils and mix it all through.

It's not the prettiest meal, but the flavours are incredible. With fresh bread and a beautiful sunset over the river, it doesn't get much better than that.

Karleah in an Adventure Lifestyle cap and shirt, serving red lentil dahl from a frying pan onto a blue plate at the camp kitchen. — *Karleah's red lentil dahl tasted better than it looked*

Towns River to Butterfly Falls

We woke up to another beautiful morning, and a chilly one too, at about 10°C. Towns River is an absolutely cracking spot, super peaceful and right on the water. We could easily have spent a few nights there, and it looks like plenty of people do.

Our next campsite was booked at Butterfly Falls, about an hour and a half away. The scenery on this stretch really steps up, with ranges and hills lining the road. We hit our first water crossing of the day not long after leaving, and later the Limmen River crossing, which was nice and shallow.

Two 4WDs on a red dirt road with a flat-topped, tree-covered hill rising behind them. — *The topography between Towns River and Butterfly Falls gets more mountainous*

We also pulled into Limmen Bight Campground for a trip down memory lane. Karleah stayed there nearly eight years ago, on her first big solo overland trip. She drove this road in December and didn't see another soul for days. She wanted to recreate a photo from that trip, but it looks like the part of the campground she stayed in has since burnt and there are no campsites there any more.

Two photos at Limmen River Campground, one recent showing a white Hilux with a tray and canopy beside a fire pit and table, the other from years earlier showing a white Hilux with a swag and blue tarp set up beside it. — *Limmen Bight Campground Dec 2018 vs July 2026. Bit of a glow up on the old Luxy and camping set up.*

Butterfly Falls

Butterfly Falls Campground is probably the most picturesque campground on this stretch of the Savannah Way. Towns River is all about the river, while Butterfly Falls is all about the topography, with a rocky outcrop right next to camp. Both are epic in different ways.

The falls are only about 100 m from the campground, so we went straight down for a look. The waterfall was still flowing and the little valley around the plunge pool is gorgeous. The water was cold. Very cold. It was a quick swim.

Paul, seen from behind, looking up at Butterfly Falls trickling down a dark rock face between green trees. — *Very pretty and very chilly Butterfly Falls. The only official swimming hole in Limmen NP.*

Butterfly Falls is the only place in Limmen National Park considered safe for swimming, as there are saltwater crocodiles in the rivers and creeks. We'd heard the falls generally dry up around August, so earlier in the Dry is your best bet if you want to see water coming over.

The highlight was off to the right of the pool. If you sneak in slowly and quietly, there's a shady cliff face covered in thousands of butterflies. It's easy to see where the falls get their name.

A shady rock face covered in hundreds of dark brown butterflies with white spots. — *Literally thousands of butterflies on the rock face near the falls*

One thing to keep in mind: there was a snake around camp while we were there, and from the sounds of it, a brown snake. There are plenty of signs about crocodiles out here but not much about snakes, so keep your eyes open and use common sense.

The Southern Lost City

The Southern Lost City is only about 40 minutes from Butterfly Falls, and the drive in is one of the nicest in the park, with a lot more going on in the landscape. Then you arrive and it's like nothing else on the drive: a flat plateau covered in thousands of sandstone formations jutting out of the ground, wherever the rock hasn't eroded away.

The walk is 2.5 km and graded Class 3, so it's pretty easy. Karleah did it in thongs, Paul went for boots. The formations at the start are small, but they get bigger as you go, and some of them are huge. To top it off, there were butterflies everywhere here too. It was well worth the walk.

Karleah and Paul standing among white-trunked gums in front of the towering sandstone pillars of the Southern Lost City in Limmen National Park. — *The Southern Lost City has to be seen to be belived*

The Southern Lost City was our last stop in Limmen, and what a way to finish. There's no shortage of corrugations out here, but this park pays you back for every single one.

If Limmen's on your list, we've put together a free location guide with the best season, access, fuel, mobile coverage, camps and fees, all in one spot.