WEEK 4 8-14 June

A short drive to Katherine with lots of vans on the road this morning. We have been on lesser roads over the last week and certainly noticed the extra traffic once we hit the Stuart Hwy. Our allocated site was a nice shady spot under a tree at the caravan park and thank goodness it was as it was very hot and humid. We went for a swim at the thermal springs down behind the caravan park. These were great as they seem to be not as well known as those at Mataranka so therefore there weren’t as many people. Found a great little spot where there was a natural spa thing going on with bubbles galour. When we finally dragged ourselves out of this little piece of heaven we decided to try out the park pool. Not such a smart idea as it was freezing. Stephen braved the cold but I decided a better plan of attack was to climb aboard a lounge and read my book. Once again the park was full by the end of the day. A weird night with smoke from the backburning hovering over the camp ground all night.

The following day, Wednesday, we drove to Timber Creek. One thing I haven’t mentioned before is the decorated termite mounds which have been seeing along most of the NT roads we have travelled. These have had undies, t-shirts, dresses anything you can think of, even hi-vis tops have made an appearance. I can’t imagine when you are travelling such big distances that you could be bothered stopping, getting out then ‘dressing’ a termite mound. However there are so many that Stephen amused himself by yelling “undies” everytime he saw one. I’m getting pretty sick of hearing him call “undies”. Once again it was fairly hot on arrival at Timber Creek with very little here to see or do so we settled for a swim in their pool which was still fairly cold but not heart attack cold like Katherine.

Today is the day we cross into WA. We were both a little nervous of what Smirk would throw at us at the border so we pumped up the music and enjoyed some Beatles, Enya, Led Zepplin, Kate Miller-Heike (does anyone know why “Ducks don’t need satellites”?) and of course our fav, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. A very different landscape today with lots of kapok and boab trees and eagles, kites and brolgas (why are brolgas always in groups of three?) and a huge herd of cattle, literally hundreds of them. The Pinkerton Range kept us company on our right for most of the day. With 35 kms to go before we arrived in Kununurra, there it was, Smirk’s line in the sand. With slightly trembling bodies we joined the queue and awaited our turn to be grilled. Strangely there didn’t seem to be any interogation lights glaring at us, instead we were approached by a friendly masked policeman who nicely asked for our G2G passes, scanned them and invited us across the border. OMG, was that it!! As we crossed into WA we high fived and proceeded to Kununurra. We were finally in our beloved Kimberley. After restocking our fruit and veggies we settled into the Lakeside Caravan Park for the next 3 nights. Of course a trip to Kununurra wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Ivanhoe Crossing and a drive through the water to the other end of the Crossing and back. Why, because we can. A visit to the sandalwood display and the Hoochery where we purchased a bottle of Kafir Lime Gin rounded off the afternoon.

Friday we were up early as the sun rises as 5.30am. Smirk doesn’t realise that his state is very large and the northern most part of WA is in a different time zone to Perth hence the early sunrise and very early sunset, 16.54pm. I’ll complain about this in more detail later.

Our last visit to Kununurra we went for a walk in the Mirima NP. We were not more than 15 minutes into the walk when I fell and twisted my ankle resulting in 5 weeks on crutches. Stephen was keen to complete this walk, myself not so keen. This time there were no dramas and we enjoyed a lovely walk into Hidden Valley which is a mini version of the Bungle Bungles. The rock formations were great but the view at the top was less than expected. Who wants to look over the industrial area of Kununurra, not us. Unfortunately nearly all of the NP now have entrance fees and they are not cheap,which is a new thing for us. Back to the car and onto Wyndham. Along the way we called into the Grotto thinking it would be a quick stop. There are 144 steps down to the Grotto where there is a magnificent waterhole where people were swimming. We didn’t know about this little gem so were not prepared to go swimming. We’ll know next time though. So of course there were 144 steps back to the top which required a slow, steady pace. One of the members of the party could have gone at a much faster rate of ascention but the other member of the party wouldn’t let him. The road to Wyndham has been significantly improved and the drive a lot more pleasant. We went to the 5 Rivers Lookout and were surprised at the number of people at this spot. You can’t go anywhere without hordes of tourists. Twelve years ago we had a delicious counter meal of barra and chips at the port in Wyndham. Let’s do that again!! Sorry, the pub has been trashed and I mean absolutely derelict so we had to settle for a pie at the bakery. Not quite the same. Our next stop was Marlgu Billabong and beautiful wetland area. A serene place in the middle of nowhere. Surprise, surprise there was no-one else there so we enjoyed watching the magpie geese, waders and an elegant crane among others. We had a quick stop at Parry’s Lagoon Resort then drove back to Kununurra. We decided on a night out at the Pumphouse for dinner. We had previously been here and had a great night but it was with NBFs we had met and we were in party mode. This time we went alone and it was underwhelming both in atmosphere and culinary offerings. This is when I get back to the time of sunset. Because sunset is around 5pm you find yourself eating dinner at the ridiculous time of 5.30pm. Seriously when are we supposed to have nibbles and drinks??? I’m starting to feel like a pensioner!

Saturday morning Stephen was up bright and early to climb Kelly’s Knob. I chose to be far more sensible and stay in bed with a ‘well done you’ when he returned, while thinking ‘well done me’. At 11.30am we were picked up by Triple J Tours for a day on the Ord. Our guide, Maryna (pronounced Marina), was born in Nome, Alaska. What a personality! She was a demon boat driver and took us on an exciting ride over the next 5 hours. The Ord River irrigation scheme was designed by Kimberley Durack. It started with the diversion dam being built in Kununurra then the Argyle Dam Wall forming the Argyle Dam which holds a large number of Sydney Harbours, like 22 or something (in the dry season)!! This was all very interesting but the part of the tour I liked best were the beautiful birds that inhabit this amazing eco system. You had your ospreys nesting, your rainbow bee eaters racing the boat, purple fly catchers, crimson crested jacanas, whistling kites and a rare black bittern and finally topped off with a number of fresh water crocs. We also had a wanka from South Africa and a bunch of know all poms. The grand finale was the 4.54pm sunset!! Great day.

Sunday started with an agonizing hour of Macca. Thank God the radio reception failed midway through the show and we amused ourselves with our own music, toe tapping Beoga, Afro Celt, America, the Bangles and Baaba Maal. The Cockburn Ranges were on our left for most of the day. Today we hit 6,788 kms for anyone that cares for stats. I have become obsessed with checking out creek beds, most of which are dry but occassionally you get one with water. You can imagine my surprise when we passed one with water and a man fishing in it. The surprising thing about this event was there was not a car in sight, so where had he come from! We also passed the entrance to the Purnululu NP (commonly known as the Bungle Bungles). Loads of caravans had been left in the wayside stop near the entrance and the owners then drive into the Bungles. Not a great road to take a van. Spent the night at Hall’s Creek where some others had stuff stolen.

The drive to Fitzroy Crossing was just another day in the car. We did see the start of the Tanami Track and the Ngumban Cliffs which were quite spectacular. The caravan park at Fitzroy Crossing was lovely and grassy and Stephen again plunged into the ice cold pool. It was 30 degrees after all.

Tuesday we arrived in Broome where we will be in residence for the next 8 weeks. Our site is better than we expected. They have done some work on the park and our site was one that had been extended and upgraded, so we have plenty of room even though we are right at the back of the park. It means we have a very long walk to the beach although the pool is very nice and I can visualise us spending quite a lot of time there. No, I won’t bore you with details of us sitting on the beach everyday but I will write every now and again just to let you know if anything exciting happens while we are here.

So its goodbye from me and its goodbye from him.

ps.  Stephen has finally uploaded some photos and you can see them here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nvyab4ZJHEKhG1t49

you may need to copy and paste this link into whatever browser you use.

WEEK 3 1 - 7 June

Monday night we spent at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse at Fourways. Had dinner at the pub, bad move again as the food truck had broken down and they had limited supplies. It was a lovely balmy evening and we were looking forward to a good night’s sleep before heading to Gregory Downs. Huh, the truckie who parked his roadtrain, outside the CP, but right next to our van had other ideas. After running the engine for 30 minutes after he stopped he finally switched it off and all was quiet. But not for long. He then started up his gennie so that he could sleep in his airconditioned cabin while we tried to sleep in our caravan with all the windows open, no 240v here, and his generator going full bore. I calmly said to Stephen: “GO AND TELL HIM TO TURN IT OFF” to which Stephen replied: “HE’S A TRUCKIE!!”. Then we agreed that he might just sleep for a couple of hours then take off again. No, he left just as we got to sleep around 5am.

After a sluggish start to the day we headed along the Wills Development road to Gregory Downs arriving around 10am. We unhooked the van and gathered our supplies for a day at Boodjamulla NP, otherwise known as Lawn Hill, then Adel’s Grove. The road in wasn’t too bad and we made good time arriving around noon ……. with a flat tyre. It must have happened as we drove into the parking area because we hadn’t noticed that anything at all was wrong. Poor Stephen spent the next 30 minutes changing the tyre. After a deep breath we had lunch then hired a canoe to quietly paddle down Lawn Hill Gorge to the small falls at the end. I must say it was very relaxing, apart from the paddling stuff. We had a swim then returned thankfully with the current assisting. We drove to Adel’s Grove and walked around to have a look. It is a lovely place to camp but you probably need to stay a week to really enjoy the walks and the serenity. Unfortunately we were unable to do justice to it on this occasion as it had been a last minute decision to go.

When we got back to Gregory Downs around dusk and we rang the WA covid hotline and found out that we would get into WA after all. We had a quick dinner sitting on the back of the blue lux. Frankly we were too tired to get the chairs out. A very quiet setting with NO ROADTRAINS.

Now that we can go to WA we once again headed for Mt Isa (the Isa) to continue with our original itinerery. A trip to the tyre repair man and some shopping for food completed the day. A strange thing did occur overnight while here, it rained. There was no sign of it when we went to bed so we had left the chairs outside which meant they were nicely soaked the next morning and the dust which we had all around us had turned to mud. Ahhh..... We love caravanning.

With our NT passes on our phones we headed for the boarder. Not a soul in sight when we got there. Where were the anti Victorian police? A pretty boring drive although we did see lots of eagles along the way which of course means lots of road kill. Our destination today, Barkly Homestead. I must say there have been quite a few improvements since 2009 when we last visited. The park was full which is becoming a regular thing as every man and his dog is travelling. Whilst there we made use of the phenomenal Telstra network coverage and spent time on the G2G website lying to get our pass into WA. All because of Smirk McGowan (moniker thanks to Steve via PH). For anyone that doesn’t know, my Stephen worked for Telstra for some years.

Friday we ventured along the Tablelands Highway to Cape Crawford. We travelled this road in 2009 and had the most wonderful day. We only saw one other caravan for the day although we did see a small number of roadtrains in the afternoon. The scenery was constantly changing and there were flocks of birds rising from the grasslands. There were little white wooden bridges where the cows and the birds would gather and provided many a photographic opportunity. 2021 was nothing like that. There were 9 cars, 12 vans and 5 roadtrains exactly because I counted (I even recorded the time of passing). One of those roadtrains covered our car and van in cow shit to add insult to injury. No birds and it was as dry as a dead dingoes donger. The little bridges have all been replaced by modern metal and safe bridges, no fun at all. The grasslands were spectacular but the lack of wildlife was disappointing. All in all a disappointing day and a difficult road to drive. We did enjoy music by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and the Hilltop Hoods. However, at the end of the day we did arrive at the Heartbreak Hotel where there was once again grass under our feet, and prickles. Stayed away from the pub food this time and had a lovely meal of crumbed vela instead. In the morning Stephen went to have a shower and ran across a guy on the pub verandah having a quiet beer at 7.30am!!!  We hope he was winding down from night shift.

Another development is that I now have a new name, Alexa. Stephen tried to change the radio at one point while steering the 6 tons of hurtling metal and we all know that men cannot do two things at once. After strong words from me he decided that when changes needed to be made to the temp, audio etc. he would simply announce, “Alexa, 24deg, or Alexa, USB”. God help him if he tries this at home.

From Cape Crawford we drove along the Carpentaria Hwy to Daly Waters. We had to have an early start because we knew we had to arrive early at Daly Waters or we wouldn’t get a spot. This funny little well decorated pub (thongs, bras, coins) is very popular with the travelling folk. Stephen walked to the WW2 airfield just for something to do during the afternoon. We tried to book into a park in Katherine as there are so many vans on the road we were getting concerned we might struggle to find accommodation. The lovely lady asked where we were from and as soon as she heard we were from Melbourne turned into the Covid Nazi. “You can’t come here unless you have a negative Covid test result”. So we were 2 days out of Katherine with no place to have a test unless we waited to have the test when we got there but: Where would we stay in the meantime? Crazy woman!! Stephen hung up and rang another park “sure no problem”. The Daly Waters pub is famous for its Beef and Barra (fillet steak and barramundi) dinners so we made sure we put our order in when we arrived. Finally a pub meal that didn’t disappoint. A great night with some good musicians and some good company.

Sunday took us to Mataranka, the land of the Never Never. We were feeling a little frayed today so chilled out for a while then went for a swim at the thermal pool, along with a bunch of others. There doesn’t seem to be any chance to get away from people on this trip.

Monday morning provided us with a sleep in. Stephen got a chance to wash his cow pooed car and van. During the afternoon a van pulled in next to us. Long story short, it belonged to Jeff Mears who was a teenager living next door to us when we moved into First Avenue. We hadn’t seen Jeff for more than 40 years. There was quite a bit of reminescing and catching up. There is an old pub in the main street of Mataranka that Stephen was keen to have a beer at so we took a walk in the hot sun to the pub only to find it shut. Who ever heard of a pub that was shut at 5pm?? Don’t know what was going on there. Anyway so ended the week again.

What will the next week throw at us??

Week 2 May 25-31

After a great knees up at the opera last night today we headed to Aramac and the start of the Lake Dunn sculpture trail. Milynda Rogers, the sculptor, has created over 40 pieces using mainly barbwire and metal of every shape and size. These are situated along a 200 km trail on both bituman and dirt. We started out as early as we could because it was a 68 km trip to the start of the trail. There are no distances marked between pieces and it became a game trying to spot the sculptures. We found all 40 but it took us 4-5 hours in all. We took our lunch and sat under a tree by the side of the dirt road to eat it. All in all we did 330 kms for the day, and that wasn't a travelling day. Well worth the effort. Unfortunately we were back in time for happy hour again and had to endure Ken and Annie again.

Leaving Barcaldine we headed toward Longreach then Winton where we stopped at the Age of Dinosaurs exhibition. The fly count was off the scales as was the cost of a tour $75 per person. Last time we were there it was a minimal amount and only one other couple and ourselves, this time there were hundreds. We gave it a miss as we had seen it before. From Winton we drove onto our overnight destination, Middleton, population 2. Literally out in the middle of nowhere, there is a pub that was run by an elderly couple for all their married lives. Unfortunately 8 days before we arrived, the man had a heart attack and was airlifted to Longreach and his son and wife and their two children had arrived to run the pub. He was 82 so we'll let him off the hook this time. The population of Middleton had literally doubled overnight. There were probably 6 vans camping across the road from the pub that night. We had dinner there, which was forgettable, and a chat to the other travellers before we sat back to watch the total eclipse of the moon and the resultant red moon in the clearest of skies.

We drove along the Kennedy Developmental Rd to Boulia, the land of the Min Min lights. It was here we saw our first eagles, truly magnificent birds. The way they spread their wings and literally lift off the ground is a sight to see. It was also on this road that I had a 10 minute fight with a fly, yes a pesky little sticky fly that refused to be expelled from the car. It was happy to try and crawl up my nose or sit behind my sunnies but everytime I got it near the window it would lull me into a false sense of security then take off and bother Stephen. Finally man beat the insect and I shoved it out of the car. A nice camping ground at Boulia that became very busy as the day wore on. Spent the afternoon at the Min Min Discovery Centre hearing all about the strange phenomenon where lights appear in the night, from seemingly nowhere, to follow you. There is no science that has been able to define these lights but the guide in the encounter centre guaranteed that she had seen them as a young married woman. Her family had been to a party at the Middleton pub and drove home well after dark. Her story was that as she drove into her property two balls of light followed her and bounced on top of the gate posts. She promised that she was a non drinker???? It was about now that we became aware that Melbourne was going into lockdown.

Great!!!!! As we only left Victoria on 18 May we have only been out of the state for 9 days, not the obligatory 14 days for crossing state lines, so we were pretty worried about what that could mean. Stephen has had his vaccine but I wasn’t able to have mine and was planning on having it in Broome. The lockdown has given me the boost to organise an appointment for the jab in Mt Isa. We arrived in the Isa on Friday around 1pm and I rocked up at the hospital for my 3pm vaccine. Must say we have been very lucky with neither of us having any reaction to the vaccine at all. Mt Isa is, well, a mining town (the home of Bob Katter) so, of course, Stephen went on a 3 hour mine tour. I gave no thought at all to doing such a thing and caught up with my bridge buddy online and played for a couple of hours. We spent the afternoon taking a drive out to Lake Moondarra, a pretty picnic spot frequented by the locals.

So, Mt Isa became decision town ….. what to do?? In order to enter NT we have to have been clear of Victoria for 14 days, which means we can cross the border on 1 June. All good and well for NT, however, no way says Mark McGowan. WA’s border is closed to ALL Victorians and they require 14 days of no new cases before they will change that decision.

After much discussion we have decided to explore northern Queensland more than we intended and then spend some time in NT. We have cancelled our booking in Kununurra and also the 2 days that the kids bought for Stephen’s birthday in Cygnet Bay. Very disappointing but it is no good worrying about what we can’t control, so it is what it is. We are hoping at some stage we might get into WA and, let’s face it, we’re not in a hurry.

After a brief look around Cloncurry, where we had intended to stay for a night, we decided to drive to Four Ways, a roadhouse pub on the way to Normanton in FNWQ.  Had a chat to some Taswegians who were going to Gregory Downs then for a daytrip into Boodjamulla NP aka Lawn Hill.  I have been really wanting to go here and they managed to convince Stephen that we should give it a go. Yay for the Taswegians.  We had another very ordinary dinner at the pub, think we'll be skipping outback pubs for meals in the near future, then home to watch Masterchef and our first really warm night without AC.

That concludes Week 2.  We have now been 14 clear days out of Covid plaqued Victoria without symptoms, so I think we are in the clear.