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??