Cape Leveque, Broome, Port Hedland, Karijini NP, Exmouth, Ningaloo Reef

Photos also updated

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Tracker

Thursday 11^th September

Today we had a relaxing start to the day as we counted back and worked out we’d had 11 single stop nights in a row. Packing up and then setting up at the other end of the day does get a bit tiring so it was nice to not have to do it and we’re all possibly a bit run down as three of us have a bit of a cough and runny noses. We just mooched around the shelter and swam in the sea until around lunchtime when we went for a drive to the Ardyaloon Trochus Hatchery situated right at the end of the peninsula. It’s a small affair with about 12 tanks each about 3m in diameter and 1m high. Only a handful of the tanks have the trochus in, starting from very small to quite large. They can sell the shells unpolished, polished or even make them into bangles or other jewellery. It is a community run business and they are finding it very tough to make ends meet.

Next stop was Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. This is a very professionally run business and also make a very nice mango smoothie.  We were too late for the last tour but booked in on the 10am tour the following morning.

We headed back to the beach shelter to make dinner and relax before crashing.

Friday 12^th September

This morning we were up and packed to get to the Pearl Farm tour. There are two levels of tour, one land based only and one which includes a boat ride to see the lines. We did the land based which was very interesting. Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm is the oldest Australian owned pearl farm and was started in 1946.  Before then only the Japanese had perfected the art of culturing pearls, but Dean learnt how to “seed” the pearl and that’s how the business started.  The farm is involved in a lot of research, both marine (they provide facilities for marine research) and also pearl based.  It was really very interesting to see the amount of work that goes into getting a pearl from a shell and we can appreciate a bit better the cost involved.  The tour ended in the shop with a overview of pearl quality and a try-on of a $30,000 strand of pearls.  Trish, Emily and Keira thought they looked good on!  Sadly (for the girls) we left empty-handed.

We then started making our way back towards Broome but did stop into Beagle Bay to check out the Church there. The church was built in 1917 and uses many shells as decorations on nearly everything you can see, altar, windows, floor, walls etc. It was very impressive to see the work that had gone into the decorations. 

The drive back to Broome was pretty uneventful however we did stop and talk to Scott and Tanya who were just making their way up the Dampier Peninsula.

When we got back to Broome and after the tent was up, we headed down to Cable Beach and had a drink while the sun set. Cable Beach is a very nice beach and when the tide is out there is a lot of it and watching the sun go down into the Indian Ocean is really very nice.

Saturday 13^th September

Every Saturday and Sunday there are markets at the Courthouse near town. We headed on down there for a look around. The temperature has been warming up so was about 35 at around 9.30am. The markets provided your usual fare, jewellery, fruit and veg, food stalls and also a bit of entertainment. There was a young woman called Laura Hill singing and playing guitar and she was very good so we bought a CD. There was also a very good display by the current (or previous) Australian whip cracking champion from Northern NSW who entertained the crowd.  He was very impressive to watch.  We did have some Kimberley Coffee which we really liked so had some ground for our plunger.

We then went for a wander around Chinatown. We had expected it to be a bit  like Chinatown in Sydney (restaurants) however it was more “normal” shops although there did seem to be an abundance of shops selling very nice pearls.  This is the oldest retail area of Broome and still has a lot of the original buildings in it.

We then headed off to Matso’s Brewery for lunch. Matso’s are becoming more and more popular throughout Australia. Their main range includes a very nice Ginger Beer, Mango Beer, Pale Ale, and Chilli but we found several other varieties including a stout, Bishops brew, Chango (mixture of mango and chilli) as well as a lime and ginger cider and a mango and lime cider. Both Richard and Trish liked the ciders but Richard thought he’d be quite happy to drink almost anything there! The food was also very good, Richard had the swordfish and Trish had the tuna pie, both very very good.

We then headed back to the campground and Keira and Trish went for a swim and Emily and Richard played mini-putt before heading down to Cable beach to watch the sun disappear again, they really are very good.

Sunday 14^th September

After a quick visit to the market to pick up another bag of coffee, oh, and for Trish to buy a nice pearl ring, we headed out for a drive to the lighthouse and checked out the replica dinosaur footprints that are found in this area. We then drove down to the wharf for a quick look to see where they load all the live export cattle onto ships but sadly there was nothing happening today.

We then headed back into Chinatown to the Pearl Luggers for lunch before doing a bit more shopping in one of the pearl shops.

We then headed down to Cable Beach for the kids to go for a camel ride, one of the iconic things to do in Broome.

For the last 10 days, Broome as been celebrating Shinju Matsuri or festival of the pearl. There have been many events on with final concert and fireworks on tonight which we got to see. This was a very nice way to end our stay in Broome.

Monday 15^th September

Today we were looking forward to a big drive (perhaps not) towards Port Hedland. We did manage to pack up most of our gear after the fireworks so were on the road early. Every weekday, there is a caravan which sets up near town which sells coffee and basic breakfast. We availed ourselves of both these items before going very far.

First stop was about 320km away, around halfway, at the Sandfire Roadhouse. The roadhouse was set up by a man who had worked on the road which ran from Port Hedland to Broome and he thought it was a perfect halfway station for fuel, food and accommodation.  So, in the early 70s, at the ripe age of 60, he started bringing in fuel in 44 gallon drums and pumping it by hand. The roadhouse was destroyed in 2007 in a cyclone but rebuilt to what it is today.

We then got back on the road towards Port Hedland. The scenery has changed quite a lot, we have lost the boab trees, the soil has become even redder and there are plains of low lying scrub rather than smaller trees.

Not far from Port Hedland, we started seeing roadtrains carrying mostly iron ore. We also came across the rail line which heads into the port. We arrived into Port Hedland at around 4pm, set up the tent and Richard and Emily went for a drive towards the port itself. Stating the obvious, there is clearly a lot of money around here to make things work. We couldn’t really get down to the wharf but did manage to see a mountain of salt from the Dampier Salt Company. Emily wasn’t real happy there was a bulldozer pushing the salt about, however I did let her know they probably cleaned the bulldozer every now and then.

We did learn from one of the locals that BHP Billiton have eight mines operating here and are the largest in this area. The others are Rio Tinto, Atlas and FMG but are a fair bit smaller. A few years ago, BHP built their own rail line to transport the ore to the port and FMG took them to court because they wanted to use it. Don’t remember the full details however FMG lost the court case so BHP use their own rail line and FMG continue to roadtrain their ore. Rio also have their own rail line.

Some rail stats;

• 2.5km average train length
• 250 carriages, average number per train
• 120,000kg of iron ore per carriage

According to the local we chatted to, one of the big chiefs of BHP wanted to get his name on a plaque. He had the longest train ever assembled which had 682 carriages, was 7.3km long and required 8 engines each with 6,250hp. It did earn him a place in history and the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest and heaviest train ever (82,262 tonnes of iron ore) for having it built.  The chap we were talking too said this particular CEO wasn’t remembered for anything else other than his mission to get his name known.

Tuesday 16^th September

This morning we awoke to what looked like rain over all the tent, kitchen and table. The previous night after we’d set up, there was water almost immediately on all surfaces. The humidity here is something else. Our little gauge was telling us it was 98% and within 5min of wiping a surface, it would be wet again. One of the locals (as well as Richard’s sister) had mentioned “build up” which is a term used for nearly the entire top end of Australia for the build up of weather prior to the stormy/wet season when it gets hot and humid and there’s not much relief. Hardy people who put up with this carry on and there is a term called “going tropo” which I imagine happens from about now onwards.

We had a quick drive through town to show Trish and Keira the highlights before hitting the road towards Karijini National Park. On the road, there are a few mines which meant there were non-stop roadtrains. As the road is pretty flat for the first part, we didn’t have to endure the embarrassment of being overtaken but one as we could sit on 100kph and they would also be on that. We did however come across some oversized crane looking things going about 60 and before we knew it a roadtrain had pulled out to pass us as well as the two oversized trucks. We did work out that the van following the trucks would indicate to tell you it was safe to pass which is why the roadtrain passed us.

We stopped into the Auski Roadhouse to fill up on fuel. The roadhouse and surrounds (including plantlife) are completely covered in red dust. Everywhere you look, everything you touch, is covered by red dust. As the wind was blowing also, we all decided this should have been called Hells Gate (instead of the roadhouse we’d come across a few weeks ago). It was perfectly fine inside, the toilets cleaned regularly etc but outside it was like a windy wild west movie, well, apart from the monster trucks about the place.

Anyway, we drove onto Karijini NP and visited the Info centre before heading down to the campground to put the tent up and having a couple of hours relax and catch up on some journal and blog writing.

Wednesday 17^th September

This morning we headed off on a walk from the campsite. You can walk into Dales Gorge which has three swimming holes where you can complete a loop to bring you back to the campground. It was going to be another hot day so we got away earlyish and started the walk down into the gorge. The walking trails have classifications which start at one and end at five, five being the hardest. This was a Class 4 but the walk down was fairly steep and there was also a ladder in the middle but everyone coped with it well. The cliffs and rock formations are unusual here. They look like they’ve all been cut with some sort of saw as they’re all so straight and square. The layers of rock are also another unusual feature. Hopefully some of the photos will show this. They are also very red which is the iron content.

We got to the first pool (called Circular pool) but since there was very little sun on it, it was a bit cool, however everyone got in and had a swim. There was a small waterfall on the far side although you had to clamber over some very slippery rocks to get to it. Once there though, the water cascading down was really nice and warm, so warm it was hard to get back into the pool.

We then carried on through the gorge to the next swimming hole called Fortescue Falls. This had a really nice waterfall running into it and was nice and deep for swimming too. On the side, the rocks looked like many terraces going up. Next up was the Fern Pool. It was only about 5min walk past Fortescue Falls and was larger and deeper and also had a small waterfall running into it. Our pick of the swimming though was the Fortescue Falls.

The walk out wasn’t too bad, probably a bit easier than the walk at the other end of the gorge so we headed back to the campsite and had a bite of lunch. It had taken us a lot longer than we thought so it was around 2.30pm by the time we’d eaten and had a bit of a relax. We had thought we’d head over to the other part of Karijini and do some of the walks there so off we drove. This walk had been recommended to us by some other travellers and sounded interesting as you have to do a spider walk between the rocks to get in. It was however a Class 5 track so we did wonder how we’d get on.

We started down into the gorge and it was fairly steep with a couple of ladders but wasn’t too bad. We then had to walk along the bottom of the gorge and a couple of times had to sidle along the walls until we came to a pool we had to wade through. We’d previously (in Broome) bought some wet shoes so we could do this so we put these on and waded on through. The gorge then get’s narrower and you have to either wade or try to clamber/sidle along the rocks. There was really only one point where you could touch both sides at the same time and since the water was so low we really didn’t have to do the spider walk. The walking was made very tricky though because all the water running over the rocks was extremely slippery and even out of the water the rocks were so smooth they were slippery too. At one point Trish nearly put a stop to the whole escapade however we pushed on until we got to Kermits Pool at the end. We hopped in for a swim however it was fairly cold. On the other side of the pool you could hop out and there is a rope strung up so you couldn’t go any further. There did look to be some really nice pools further on although we think they’ve stopped people from going further as it is probably too dangerous. We decided, the way the world is going, in the not too distant future, they’ll probably stop people even going into Kermits Pool.

We headed back out of the gorge and just in time really as it was quite dark by the time we reached the top. We drove back to the campground and didn’t arrive until around 7.30 and since no one was really hungry, had banana on toast for dinner.

Thursday 18^th September

Today we had a big drive to Exmouth ahead of us. Before we got started we headed into the Visitors Centre as the kids had picked up a junior rangers book and completed enough tasks to receive a junior rangers badge.

It was then onto Tom Price to fill up, some basic supplies and then hit the road. Driving out of town is the Tom Price mine. The iron ore from the mine site is put onto a conveyor belt and then um, conveyed to another site. Not sure where to but it looked pretty extravagant with a little corrugated roof over the belts.

We then had about 40km of gravel, which was fine, before hitting the asphalt. While the scenery does change in the Pilbara, it might take 3-400km to do it. We both agreed this was the longest most boring drive we’d encountered so far. Early on, the hills about were unusual, some looked like layers of rock had been pushed up or they were some sort of flying saucer which had crashed at a 45 degree angle. There were also plains which are flat and featureless but then every now and then there’d be a hills breaking up the view.

We arrived into Nanutarra roadhouse and filled up with fuel and true to fashion, had an ice cream. We finally got into Exmouth at about 7pm and had to push the after hours button to get someone in to let us in. While setting up, a nice man next to us saw we’d arrived in late and since he had ordered too many fish and chips dropped them off with us so that was dinner taken care of.

Friday 19^th September

After doing a big load of washing we headed into the visitors centre to see what was about. At the visitor centre there is a very large krill which we had to take a photo of. We got the lowdown on where to go for our quick trip to the Ningaloo Reef so headed off there. We stopped at the lighthouse for the 360 degree view and while there spotted 5 or so whales which was great.

 We then carried on to the Jurabi Turtle Centre which tells you a bit about the three main species of turtle found in the area. It’s not laying egg season so we couldn’t see that but they still hang around on the reef.  Wandering around outside the centre was an adult Emu and baby.  They were very unconcerned about people watching them and carried on eating until the camera carrying people got a bit too close then the adult started walking towards them. 

Next stop was the Milyering Discovery Centre where we watched a short video on the wildlife on the reef, mostly about the turtles and whale sharks. The whale sharks are in this area much earlier in the year so we wouldn’t be likely to see those but the snorkelling on the reef looks very good.  Next stop was Turquoise Bay where there are two areas you can snorkel.  We were here at low tide so was easy to swim out to the reef from the beach. There were many colourful fish and sea life.  The water was fairly clear and warm and we all saw lots of fish.

Next we went to the other side of the bay where you “drift snorkel” which means float along with the current to see the fish.  Trish saw two sharks while we were snorkelling here but didn’t say anything to the family while they were out in case of freaking people out.  The sharks were probably reef sharks which are apparently harmless but still a freaky experience!

Before heading home the kids stopped for one last snorkel when Trish and Richard spotted a turtle in the water.  Then we all got back in and swam alongside the turtle for a good 10 minutes which was fantastic and a great way to end the day.

We stopped in town for takeaways before showers and bed although while the girls had showers, Richard did the dishes and while there got talking to a Swiss author called Rudolph Bader who had just completed his first novel. Richard bought one and had him sign it so will be interested to read it. He’s an interesting man who lives in both Switzerland and England and has studied Australian literature and gives regular talks at the Universities here. He finds it ironic that a Swiss man can come to Australia and give talks on Australian literature to Australians. 

Photos and tracker updated. Photos now in reverse/backward order so you don't have to scroll to the end to seem them.

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Tracker

Lake Argyle, Kununurra, Bungle Bungles, Gibb River Road, Derby and Cape Leveque

Saturday 30^th August

We had to turn our clocks back when we crossed into WA but we were all still running on Australian Central Standard time so it was an early start today.   Probably the earliest the kids have been up all trip!  Trish took pictures of the sunrise and updated the blog – a nice way to start the day. We went for a drive down to the Lake Argyle Dam this morning. It’s a very interesting dam and development so that Lake Kununurra further downstream is able to supply the surrounding farmland with water year round.

Some Lake Argyle stats (in no particular order);

• Largest man-made lake in Australia
• 21 times the size of Sydney harbour
• Contains around 25,000 fresh water crocodiles
• Holds an annual 10 and 20km race!
• Has many different species of birds
• Was built over 2 years in stages to endure the wet seasons when no work could be completed
• Brainchild of Kimberly Durack who did not quite live to see it completed
• Involved the largest non-nuclear explosion in the world to that date to break up the rock in the quarry
• Around 42km in length and 480km of coastline (not including the islands which were created)

We had a swim in the infinity pool at the campground today.  The pool has an amazing view however it was the coldest water we’d swum in to date which seemed a bit odd since it’s so hot here. It does cool down at night but the days are nearly always low to mid 30s.

We also did a Sunset cruise which left at around 2.30pm. Greg, our tour guide had been doing it for 15 years and was full of good information. He took us to see some rock wallabies which are on an island in the middle of the lake. The thought of wallabies on cliff faces sounds unusual and you’d think they wouldn’t be very agile on the rocks however they were hopping around the steep rocks without a care in the world. We then cruised down the lake a bit further to see quite a number of freshies, many different kinds of birds and spiders and also got to feed some fish. Some of the fish, the Archer fish, would spit water at you as if they were hitting insects from the sky. Greg then took us out a bit further and said the lake then continues for another 33km in that direction. We couldn’t see land in that direction!

Greg then took us to the buoys where the 10km race starts and tied up so we could have a swim while he handed around some bubbles and beers (including to those in the water if you wanted!) for the setting of the sun which was a fantastic way to end the day.

Sunday 31^st August

Today Richard was up early (around 4.30!) to set up the GoPro for a time-lapse sunrise. Once packed we headed into Kununurra which was only around 45min away. We had run out of breakfast stuff for the kids so headed to the Ivanhoe Cafe after dropping the trailer off at the campground. Breakfast was a bit so-so however the mango smoothie was fantastic.

We then headed off up the road to Ivanhoe Crossing which is a closed ford not too far out of town. Not sure why it’s closed however there did seem to be a lot of water going across it so maybe it’s too deep and fast flowing for vehicles to cross safely.

Next stop was the Sandalwood Factory. Sandalwood is one of the largest exported trees in the world. The Indian Sandalwood is mainly used for incense however oil can be collected and made into many different healthcare products as well as used in perfumes. Several billion incense sticks are burnt all over the world every week. There is also a large poaching racket going on in the rest of the world. The sandalwood tree is unusual as it requires a host or it will not grow so another tree has to be planted beside it which has to be a good nitrogen fixing species such as wattles.

Next stop was the Hoochery Distillery. While neither of us drink rum, we did have a taste of 3 different ones which ranged from 40% to around 80% alcohol. The best part though was the bowl of chips which were the best we’d had on our travels so can highly recommend these if you visit. Oh, better not forget the infamous rum cake too, it was very moist and wasn’t overpowered by the rum as we thought it may be.

We then headed up to Kellys Knob which is a large hill just on the edge of town where you can get a good view of the city before heading into town to load up on groceries.

Then it was back to the campsite as we were meeting a niece of one of our neighbours who was going to drop by. Narelle’s family (along with another couple of families) came to Kununurra from Sydney in the 60s in a double decker bus (and a couple of other cars) loaded up with equipment to build a shop. Having been over some of the roads they would have travelled in a 4WD we know that this was a big call to drive all that way with very non-4WD vehicles! Narelle was 6 months old at the time so doesn’t actually remember but obviously learnt later. We talked quite a bit about the area and it was great to get the gos from a local.

Monday 1^st September

Today we headed out to Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park.  It was a quick pack up and reshuffle of the trailer and car as we were leaving the trailer at the campground as we’d heard the road in was rough.

It’s a bit of a hike from Kununurra and while the first 200km is sealed, the 50km into the park is not and took almost as long as the first 200km. We did also have to have a stop as Keira wasn’t feeling well as it was not only very corrugated but tight and twisty.  They do not allow double axle trailers or caravans in because of the rough and twisty road. There were also six creek crossings in but all would almost be negotiable by 2wd.

We stopped into the Ranger Station to register and sort out our campground. National Parks in WA seem to be extremely well organised. We arrived into our campground and set up the tent and then drove up to a nice spot which is great for viewing the sunsets on the Bungle Bungle ranges. The red colours are just amazing and it’s hard to imagine getting bored by seeing them every day.

Tuesday 2^nd September

Today we were up earlyish to do a couple of walks. The first walk we did was into the Domes and Cathedral area. We chose to do the Cathedral walk first as it was further away and it was going to be hot. We did have some respite from the heat because we had to walk up a valley which was fairly narrow and as it was early the sun had not made it in there. It wasn’t too long, around 30min but at the end of the valley there is a very large amphitheatre which is all sand underfoot with rock overhead. It is an impressive sight and every whisper can be heard on the other side.

On the way back to the car we did the Domes walk. The Domes are shaped like beehives with alternating red and black stripes and are very interesting rock formations and are believed to be around 350 million years old. These domes are made up of rocks which in turn are made up of smaller pebbles and boulders cemented together with finer material. Over millions of years, fault lines as well as wind and rain have created the formations we see today.

We then jumped back in the car and drove to the northern end of the Bungle Bungles to check out Echidna Chasm. This is about a 25min walk up a dry creek bed of largish rocks which was quite hard going but interesting enough. It gets narrower and narrower the further you go and there are also 2 – 3 points where it looks like it stops however when you get there you find it heads off at 90 degrees left or right then curls back to the same direction. There are also a number of boulders to hop over which look impassable until you walk right up to them and find either a narrow opening or you can clamber over it. It kind of reminded Richard of some sort of Indiana Jones adventure.

We then headed back out to the main road and then onto Kununurra to set up the camper trailer. It was a bit late at this point so we ordered some Chinese takeaway and then crashed after a big couple of days.

Wednesday 3^rd September

Today we decided we’d have breakfast at Wild Mango as it had a very good reputation for good food and coffee. We weren’t disappointed however one thing we’ve noticed is food seems expensive in Kununurra as a fairly basic breakfast was around $20 and then it just went up. The previous nights Chinese also started around $18 a main also. The coffee was worth it though.

After a quick shop at Coles and filling up all fuel containers (almost $300!) we headed out to the Zebra Rock Gallery. Zebra rock is found near Kununurra and is thought to be around 600 million years old.

As we were close to the Ord River, the Gallery supplied some bread for us to feed the fish. There were many catfish here as well as a few spotted Archer fish. The Gallery also have some parrots who talk but all we could get out of them was Hello, Goodbye and bye bye. There are also some Peacocks and Pea hens there.

After yet another very nice mango smoothie, we headed out to start the trek along the Gibb River Road (GRR). The GRR has had a reputation of breaking cars and trailers due to the rough corrugations so it was with a small amount of trepidation we turned left at the sign.

We weren’t heading far this day and headed off the GRR (which is still sealed to this point) to El Questro Resort. As we learnt, the resort is managed by an American company, Delaware North, who own a number of resorts around the world but originally the company catered for large events such as large gridiron games and the like. You can swim in the river but as it is still a running cattle station both Richard and Trish could smell the cows in the river. There is a Homestead here which is set up as a posh resort but you cannot even visit as you have to be a paying customer to go there. We believe room rates start at around $1,500 a night, perhaps another day. Happy hour was from 5 until 6 and Richard enjoyed a Matsos Ginger beer which is made in Broome and thinks he will need to visit the brewery when we make it there.

Thursday 4^th September

This morning Richard bumped into a young family we had camped beside at Carmila Beach about 8 weeks ago. These guys were from Hornsby Heights so not far from us in Sydney.  They recommended a visit to Zebedee Springs so once we’d packed up we stopped there for about an hour or so. These are spring fed pools which are around 34 degrees and sit at the bottom of a large escarpment. The springs are a bit different as they come out the side of the escarpment and then run down past some very large boulders and create small pools. There are several different levels and we had the top pool to ourselves for quite a while.

We then headed back to the GRR and back tracked a bit to Emma Gorge. There is another resort here although no camping and is also owned by the same company as El Questro. It did look very nice. From here you can walk up to Emma Gorge for a swim which we did at a fairly relaxed pace as the kids weren’t feeling very well and weren’t really happy about going. It was very hot, in the mid to high 30s and it was a bit of a scramble over some rocks for the second part but the last third or so was in the shade so much more pleasant. Once there it’s a fantastic sight with high walls surrounding you and water trickling down and dropping off the sides. It’s quite a large deep pool and was very, um, refreshing I think you’d call it. On the right hand side though, under the sheer cliff, was a spring fed stream which was warm so the three girls spent a lot of time sitting in there. It must be quite a sight in the wet season and we must google it when we get some internet access to check it out. The kids did brighten up after the swim forgetting they had not been feeling well and fair raced back down to the resort car park. Perhaps it was the promise of an ice cream?

We then jumped back in the car to head out to Home Valley Station. Before getting to the station, we had to cross the Pentecost River. This river is can be quite high but since we are travelling during the latter part of the dry season, it was quite low. We drove through, Trish hopped out, Richard drove back and then Trish videoed us driving back through with the Cockburn Ranges in the background.

Home Valley Station  is another large station which has several levels of accommodation and both Trish and I immediately liked the look and feel of the place and we’d only seen the pool, restaurant and the bar area! We decided to forgo the luxuries though and headed down to the Pentecost riverside camping area. We got down there just in time and decided to setup a chair and have a beer watching the sunset on the Cockburn Ranges before setting up the tent.

Friday 5^th September

Today we headed out towards another station called Ellenbrae. This station is owned by the Grollo family from Melbourne who own one of the largest construction companies in Australia.

Ellenbrae is well known for its scones so it was compulsory we stopped and saw what all the fuss was about. The scones did not disappoint and were wonderful although everyone thought they deserved both homemade jam and cream. They also have a very large boab tree there which is thought to be around 1,000 years old.  This station has the smallest homestead on the GRR.  The “homestead” consists of the kitchen (no outside walls that we could see) and one other room they used as an office and a store room.  The caretakers who live there fulltime sleep in a donga (portable room) out the back.  Very quaint to see but must present its challenges to live in!

We then travelled on to Mt Barnett Roadhouse to top up on fuel and book in for camping by the Barnett River. We drove down to the river and found it was a large spacious area with lots of shade. After much discussion as to where the sun was going to come up in the morning, we set the tent up.

Saturday 6^th September

Upon waking, the generator comes on at 5.30am, we found we’d got it all wrong as to where the sun came up and found we were in direct sunlight. After that laugh, we discovered Keira wasn’t feeling well and was very pale and didn’t really want to get up. We decided we’d leave the kids there and walk into Manning Gorge. The first part of the walk involves jumping in a tinnie and pulling yourself across so you didn’t get yourself wet unless you really wanted to. The walk itself is a bit of a trek across country, up and down gulley’s and takes around an hour and since it was in full sunlight, was very hot. We were both looking forward to a swim at the end.

The gorge itself is very nice and while much more open than Emma Gorge, is still a fantastic spot. There are a number of rocks you can jump from into the water, some easily 10m although Richard did manage to get to about 3m before losing his nerve.

After walking out, it was time again for a swim at the campsite before packing up the tent and then having another swim to cool down. We didn’t have a big drive today as we were going along to a National Park campsite called Silent Grove. On the way we stopped in at the Imintji Roadhouse which has some high recommendations on the phone app we’ve been using called Wiki Camps.

 (Just as an aside, this app is downloadable for iPhone and Android and gives you a fantastic amount of information, not just camping (and a list of free camps and facilities), but also all the attractions etc in particular areas. It is a very useful app if you’re doing any kind of travelling around Australia as people can also rate and comment on all points of interest. We found it particularly useful when travelling some of the gravel roads as to which ones had been recently graded and which ones to avoid).

The Imintji Roadhouse is a well stocked little shop for all those essential supplies as well as some very nice non-essential supplies like , you guessed it, ice creams. They also boasted the cheapest diesel on the GRR although that didn’t help us much with petrol. We then carried on to our national park campsite at Silent Grove, where we learnt the ranger who is stationed there has been there for the past 15 years which is a good record.

Sunday 7^th September

Today we packed up early (managed to get the tent up to avoid the early sun this time!) and headed down to Bell Gorge. We’d heard a bit about Bell Gorge and that it was one of the best gorges on the GRR so were looking forward to it. By the time we got to the car park though, it had already hit around 30 so was going to be a warm walk in and out. The walk in was ok, you get to the top of the falls (which actually had a bit of water flowing which was nice) and then you have to clamber down over some rocks to get to the pool at the bottom for a swim. We managed to get down ok and even into the water without too much problem but getting out of the water was tricky as it was very slippery with all the algae on the rock surface. Once in though, the water was really really nice and we probably spent the best part of 90 minutes here swimming and jumping off rocks. Trish did manage to slip and cut the bottom of her foot here though. It was quite hot getting out and as we’d run out of battery power for the fridge/freezer, we decided to head back to the Imintji store for some ice to help keep the fridge cool so the batteries didn’t have too much to do as we still had another night without a powered site. After our ice cream J (and real coffee and apple, pear, raspberry and blueberry slice), we headed on to Windjana Gorge NP campground. Once again, it was a really nice little campsite and if it weren’t for a nice man walking past, we’d have got the morning shade all wrong again too. The ranges/escarpments here are amazing, great large “fingers” of black rock reaching to the sky. We had read it was very nice heading into the first part of the gorge to check out the sunset so after setting up we grabbed a beer and headed in. While the river is not running, you pass a couple of large pools which are occupied by lots and lots of fresh water crocodiles. There were around a dozen or so in the first one and the kids thought that was pretty exciting. We headed further in to watch the show and it was very nice with all the colours on the rock faces as well as watching the full moon come up over one particularly prominent rock formation. We bumped into some folk from Melbourne who had been told when it was dark, the bats would fly low across the water and the crocs would leap up to try and catch them. We didn’t hang around to see though as we didn’t think the bats would be that stupid.

Monday 8^th September

Up early, we chatted with the couples from Melbourne and found that the bats didn’t fly out over the water and they thought whoever told them that was “having a lend” of them. We donned our camelbak (water backpacks) and headed into the gorge to see how far we could get. Part of the walk had been closed so it was around a 5km round trip, or so we thought. We started out ok but as it got hotter and hotter, Richard looked at his phone which told him (Strava) that we’d travelled almost 4km and hadn’t reached the closed sign. The kids stopped for a sit down and a break which Trish and Richard pushed on to see how much further it was to go however after a while we both thought we shouldn’t leave the kids there for too long so since Trish’s foot was a bit sore she headed back while Richard headed off at a quicker pace. He did come across the sign however it was at the 4.6km mark rather than the 2.5km mark. Track markings, to this point, had been almost spot on so the only thing we could think is this is “as the crow flys” but even then we thought it was a bit of a stretch. We did manage to see many more crocs, they reckon up to 100 will get stuck in here during the dry season. We were a bit hot when we arrived back to the campsite and since we’d left early we still had to take the tent down and pack up.

Once packed up, we headed towards Tunnel Creek but on the way we stopped at the Lillimooloora police station where Jandamarra was held.  The story of Jandamarra is an important one in the Aboriginal history as he started the first resistance to Europeans taking the Aboriginal land.  Up until this point the Europeans had taken whatever land they liked and employed strategies to keep the local folk under control.  Jandamarra was the first to fight back.  There were terrible casualties on both sides but this meant it was big news and as such people started to take notice of both the controlling strategies and the land use.  Jandamarra was killed in the end but he hid out for a couple of years in Windjana Gorge and Tunnel creek.

We got to Tunnel Creek, emptied a couple of jerry cans into CJ, had a bite to eat for lunch then headed into the caves. You can walk right through from one side of the Napier Ranges to the other and this is how Jandamarra evaded capture for quite a long time as the authorities were not aware this existed. There was also a cave there which he would hole up in. You have to wade through several pools of water which is interesting in the dark and Keira wasn’t real happy about it, especially since the last pool we waded through had three freshies in it! I have to say, I think we all had a bit of extra speed to get through that pool. The caves are quite big and part way through there are a colony of bats which of course meant it didn’t smell so good for a few minutes. There are also a colony of ghost bats in the first part of the cave which are Australia’s only carnivorous bats.  They are tiny little bats which hide away in the top of the caves.

We got back to the car, changed out of our wet footwear then headed towards civilisation in Derby. One the way though we came across a lady who’d stopped by the side of the road and had run out of petrol. She had had a repair done to fix a crack in her petrol tank but they’d somehow broken the fuel gauge and while it read ¼ full, it was completely empty. She was travelling with a friend and the friend had taken two jerry cans, got a lift into Derby and had made it part of the way back but not all the way and still had 80km or so to go. As we’d just emptied the last of our spare fuel into CJ earlier we couldn’t help and after making sure she had food and water drove on only to stop about 2min later and try to siphon some petrol from CJ. There must be some sort of anti-siphon doodad in the fuel tank as we just couldn’t get the hose into the fuel. Thankfully we hadn’t tried to do it when we were with her to get her hopes up. We drove on to where her friend had last been but figured she’d managed to catch a lift as she had gone from the spot.

We arrived into Derby, set the tent up and raced on down to the fish and chip shop recommended by the campground staff. It didn’t disappoint and the barramundi was very nice although the burgers were just ok. We had dinner down on the pier which is an interesting place to go at low and high tide as Derby gets the second highest tides in the world, something like 10-11 metre high tides, something to check out tomorrow.

Tuesday 9^th September

Today we packed up, grabbed some fuel and headed back down to the pier. It is quite impressive as it is quite high off the sand and there were folk dangling crab pots over the side ready for the tide to come in. We visited the Derby prison where many Aboriginals were held awaiting trial or sentencing. It was a reminder of how tough things were and reminded us a bit of being at Auswitz in Germany and how the prisoners were held and even executed.

On the edge of town there is an artist called Mark Norval who paints and also does iron sculptures. The art is quite different with lots of emus, aboriginal faces among other interesting items. He also has a love of old British music and has a very enviable collection of some hundreds of vinyl records.

Next stop was an Aboriginal Art gallery which was very interesting as there was a short video on the local people and their belief in the Wandjina which is the being the three local tribes hold as their creator.

About 5 minutes outside of town on the way to Broome is a boab tree which is where they would hold prisoners on their way to or from the Derby jail. The tree has a very large trunk which is hollow and has a narrow opening through which the prisoners would go in. Rumour had it they would put up to 30 people in there at one time. Just near the tree is also a cattle trough which was supposed to be the longest in the world at the time it was built. It is 120m long and could water up to 500 head of cattle at a time. Cattle were brought this way from inland to be loaded onto boats for overseas markets.

On the road to Broome, we had been told the Willare Roadhouse had good cryovaced meat so we stopped in there for a look and also a bite of lunch. We bumped into the family from Hornsby Heights again who were also on their way to Broome. Neither of us had chosen a campground yet, but would do so on the remainder of the drive. So, as we pull into the Palm Grove Campground, who should pull in just behind us but the guys from Hornsby Heights, Scott and Tanya. We’d obviously read all the same reviews etc on Wiki Camps and figured this was the one for us. We set up camp beside each other and before long the kids were all playing together.  Our kids are a bit older but it didn’t matter and they had a quick play before we all headed off to the market. In Broome, when the moon is full and the tide is low, there is an effect called “Staircase to the Moon”. When the moon rises above the horizon and you look from a particular angle, it looks like there is a staircase along the sand and water rising up to the moon. The market was held near one of the viewing spots so they had food stalls and live music and a handful of stalls selling the usual market gear. Then at around 6pm, everyone heads to the top of a bank (which just happens to be in the middle of a cemetery) to watch the moon come up. It was quite spectacular to watch with the naked eye however our cameras (our phones!) didn’t really capture it very well so we figure we may have to buy a print done by a professional.

Once the moon had risen enough, we headed back to the campground and had dinner and a couple of drinks with our neighbours. As it turns out, Scott (the dad) rides mountain bikes and works at one of the upper north shore boys schools as a PE teacher. His job is to take a bunch of kids up to the Blue Mountains to stay at their (what I would call) lodge which is called The Grange. For some of you this may be a familiar name as we go up there with a number of other families every year as you can rent it for a long weekend when it’s not in use. It’s on a few acres of bushland and Scott had made a nice little mountain bike track which Richard had ridden a couple of years ago. There is a phone app (called Strava) where you can log your rides (and compare with your mates) and Richard had done this here and to his surprise had the KOM (king of the mountain) on this track, although, this had happened by default as he was the only one to have put it on Strava at the time. A few months back Richard remembers seeing an email come through saying his KOM was no more           and someone else had claimed it. It was none other than Scott who had done this and at the time, he’d wondered who Richard Noah was. So, we come all the way to Broome, bump into another family a couple of times prior and find out we have a whole raft of things in common.

Wednesday 10^th September

Today we packed up to head to Cape Leveque. We had heard the road was pretty rough and had thought about leaving the trailer behind but thought we’d risk it. Once we’d swapped details and said goodbye to our neighbours, funny how quickly kids become attached to each other, we headed out to a drive through coffee van (parked in a small car park and you just drive through and order through your window, which of course means Richard has to open his door as his window is still not working!) did some grocery shopping, fuelled up and hit the road. The first part of the road is sealed and even the first 20km or so was fine however the road did deteriorate shortly after and our speed was right down to around 20kph or so. After about an hour and a half of that, the road is sealed again so fine thereafter. We arrived into Kooljaman which offers unpowered camping through to 4 star (still in a tent but with beds, your own toilet, shower etc). We chose one of the beach shelters which put us down on the beach which was nice. We did have a bit of an issue getting in on the sand and had to let the tyres down to around 20psi to get the trailer in beside our shelter though. The shelter is a large thatched affair with 3 walls and opens to the sea so you can sit and look out however it is not water proof. The shelter has a cold water shower in the corner to rinse off after a swim. As our kitchen can slide right out of the trailer we removed it and put it onto the picnic table inside the shelter.

Once we’d setup the tent, we headed back over to the other side of the hill to watch the sunset. The kids had volunteered to make dinner tonight and had drawn up a four course menu which started with nibbles and a drink while watching the sun go down over the sea. We then headed back to our shelter so the adults could sit and relax while dinner was being made. We had a lovely entree of baguette with ham, cheese and tomato, followed by spaghetti bolognaise and dessert which was ice cream with salted caramel topping and wafer all in a waffle basket. It was just wonderful.

Darwin, Kakadu, Katherine and Lake Argyle

Links to both sets of photo's and exploreoz tracker.

Friday 22^nd August

Richard had to collect CJ in the morning so also did a bit of shopping for car parts on the way back. He also dropped off the wheel which was flat. We then headed out for some shopping at Casuarina Square, about 15min up the road. This is a big mall with all the usual shops and we could have been in any mall in Sydney.  While the girls finished shopping, Richard headed out to get a replacement antenna for the UHF radio we had broken a few days ago. It’s always interesting solving those little problems which are easy to do at home because you know where to go or who to talk to. Richard had called 2 different companies and visited a 3^rd before he found who stocked the antenna.

We also made it back just in time for happy hour around the pool while the kids had a swim and since it was pizza night at the campground, we enjoyed that too.

Saturday 23^rd August

We were up early to head into Parap Markets for breakfast this morning. There are more food stalls than fruit and vege stalls but plenty for us to check out. There is a very large Asian population here and over half of the stalls were Asian based, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Malay among others. Many of these stalls had been at the Mindil Beach markets a couple of nights ago too.

We met a man here who was selling a book who looked very familiar to us. It wasn't until we got chatting and worked out it was Monte Dwyer who was spruiking his own books. Monte is a retired TV weather man and really did have the gift of the gab. So much so, he talked us into buying his first two books as “talking books” and his most recent book. His first books are tales of how he had been given a motor home to travel about Australia gathering stories for a radio station he was working for. We thought we’d listen to this once we’d left Darwin.

 After a number of different dishes (including Laksa, Pork balls, crepes, paw paw salad among other yummy goods) and a very good coffee and smoothies, we headed into Darwin CBD for a wander around.

Our first stop was the Crocosaurus Cove attraction right in the heart of town. We arrived just in time to see them feeding three different crocodiles which was very interesting. They look so placid in their tanks however they are very big animals and most here were around 5m long and ranged from 500kg up to around 900kg. The biggest thing you realise though is for all their size, they move a lot faster than they look like they should. Somewhere on our travels we heard their reaction times are about 40 times quicker than ours and when you add all that muscle and the clamping force of their jaws, well, let’s just say it’s no wonder we don’t stand a chance if we get within striking distance.

Trish and the kids also got to feed some of the smaller crocs. There is a platform you walk out onto which has a perspex wall around it and you hang a piece of meat over the side on the end of a fishing rod. The crocs then jump up and take the meat. I think everyone enjoyed the feeding. They also have a number of other animals there, snakes, lizards, skinks, goannas and turtles which they feed. We also attended a live feeding of an olive python named Spartacus. This was done in a presentation room and involved a dead rat. It was very very fast and hopefully we got it on video.

After the presentation we got to hold a bearded lizard, a Stimpson python (small snake) and a blue tongued lizard.

We then visited the info centre however it was 2:50pm and it closed at 3pm so didn't get much info!

Richard then dropped the girls off at the Palmerston Water Park.  This is a free park which has different water activities (but no pool for some reason in this one – we've seen others with pools).  The main attraction for the big kids was the water slide where you lie on a rubber mat and slide down a very big slide – great fun!  They have Life Guards and a kiosk there – very well set up for a free park.  I think Darwin has three different types of water parks.  I guess it’s like playgrounds in Sydney but it’s too hot for biking/playing on the swings etc so they have water activities.   Richard raced back to the campground, whipped off a trailer wheel and hub to check what type of bearings he needed to buy for the next bearing replacement if required. He then raced on down to Super Cheap Auto and bought the bearings and other parts as well as a brush to wash CJ when the opportunity presents itself. While at the shop he received a phone call from the tyre people who told him the tyre was buggered and could not be repaired as the steel belts had been broken. Richard is beginning to think the tyres (which were reasonably cheap) aren't really made to do what we bought them for even though they are rated as such.

Sunday 24^th August

This morning after a bit of a sleep in we headed into town to visit the Museum and Art Gallery. Richard thought he’d probably enjoy the Military Museum more so after dropping off the girls headed over there.

The Military Museum was amazing. While the actual building was quite small, there was so much information there as most of it was interactive on touch screens about all aspects of WWII and how it affected Darwin and the rest of the top end.

In short, the Japanese had invaded neighbouring countries to the north of Australia and on the morning of 19^th February 1942, launched an air strike on Darwin. Several hours later they launched another. There had been a certain amount of lethargy in Australia regarding the invasion by the Japanese even though there was a strong military force in and around Darwin. This, of course, changed everything. In total around 240 people, both military and civilian, were killed. The majority of the military bases were effectively neutralised for differing lengths of time and many planes and ships, both Australia and American were destroyed. The military set up bases further south (some at the campground we stayed at near Adelaide River) to regroup and regain control of the sea and air. There were around 100 air raids on Australia during the following 20 months however around 90% of them were on Darwin and surrounds.

We did learn later that large numbers of aboriginal settlements were also bombed (due to them being on the coast which was bombed extensively) but no-one knows how many people were killed there since aboriginal settlement numbers weren't known.

Outside the actual museum building were many items of memorabilia, jeeps, trucks, large and small mobile guns, histories of rifles and pistols used among others. One of the most interesting was one of two massive guns which were built into the hillside in a huge concrete bunker which you could go down into where they had displays of the Vietnam War as well as being able to see how the gun was moved from side to side and up and down and where the shells were stored.

The NT National museum is also really interesting.   They had an art exhibition of aboriginal art on display with stories of all the artists and what the paintings meant.  One of Trish’s fav’s was a Toyota made primarily of grass and other recycled materials.  One large croc caught was on display (he was stuffed).  “Sweatheart” was a 5.1m, 780kg male croc who lived in a river on a local station and started attacking tinnies on the river.  His name comes from the name of the river rather than any romantic tendencies he had!  The theory was he thought the sound was like another male croc in his area challenging him so he went out to fight it.  While he never actually chomped on any people,  his boat attacks were getting more and more frequent and he was tipping people into the water so it was decided he needed to be relocated. During the relocation he was dosed with a tranquiliser before being tied up and towed back to the jetty.  During the move he got caught in a branch under the water and had to be freed.  Unbeknownst to his captors the tranquiliser had shut down his “anti-drowning” system which all croc’s have.  This meant that, sadly, he drowned whilst being moved.   The capture was on video and it made for interesting watching, but the general consensus amongst the kids and Trish, and indeed all the other people watching the video at that time, is that we won’t be croc hunters when we grow up!

They also had a fabulous display on the cyclone Tracey which occurred Christmas 1974.  This is the biggest natural disaster in Australia’s history.  Before the cyclone, housing regulations in Darwin were very loose meaning most houses weren’t built for such wind.  They had a sound room where actual recordings of the cyclone were played.  It made for eerie listening.  One of the loudest sounds was of corrugated iron sheeting being dragged along the ground and hitting other objects.  This was actually one of the biggest obstacles and causes of damage as the sheeting would crash into other objects and damage them, or in some cases embed themselves in trees.  After the cyclone, a number of people got sick or died due to infectious diseases carried by inadequate sanitation due to the fact that water and sewage systems were damaged.  The building codes were tightened up post the cyclone, but over the years have relaxed a little.

We then went and visited a friend’s mum and husband who have been coming to Darwin to escape the winters for 10 years. They have a caravan here which they take too and from Sydney when coming and going from Eastern Victoria.  It was good to catch up and learn a bit of info about Darwin and Kakadu. We also learnt a couple of nights ago, Darwin had experienced it’s coldest August temp ever! Believe it or not, it dropped right down to 13 degrees and we had to put a jumper on first thing in the morning. Although, as soon as the sun hits you, it’s warm again and we reckon in around 30 minutes it can add about 10 – 15 degrees taking it from coolish, to quite warm in no time at all. At least at this time of year you can escape the heat in the shade but it must be uncomfortable building up to the wet season.

There are a large contingent of people who move up here for the winter, from all over Australia and New Zealand.  They either leave their caravans here or tow them up and all go back to the same place each year.  They all do the normal things they’d do at home – bowls, golf, fishing, bingo etc – they just do it in a warmer place.  They have gardens and lawns (they water and mow them) and have a very comfortable life.  It was great to catch up and see them and we even got some fresh fish to take away!

We then headed to the supermarket to stock up on items for our departure from Darwin tomorrow and headed back to the campground for some dinner where they were playing a movie for all the kids which included a free paddle pop which was a fine way to end the day.

Monday 25^th August

We headed out towards Kakadu National Park this morning although prior to that we had to stop into the tyre shop to collect the wheel and see what the actual problem was with the tyre as Richard was a bit sceptical. Sure enough, while the hole wasn't that large, when you pushed through the hole you could see the steel belts coming through which, while Richard is no expert, he didn't think was a good thing to happen. We also sent off the broken driving lights as they have a 12mth warranty but of course that’s not much good to us now.

We had also put Monte’s first CD in and listened and he was very funny so we were looking forward to hearing the other CDs.

On the way we stopped at Fogg dam to look through the information centre.  This is twitching (bird watching) heaven up here and whilst we marvelled at the brightly coloured and interesting birds we didn’t really appreciate the diversity and numbers of the birds.

We then carried on to Adelaide River to do a Jumping crocodile cruise.  These cruises hang meat off fishing hooks off the side of the boat and the crocodiles propel themselves half out of the water (they don’t really jump, they just swim up really fast) to get it. The smaller crocs are the most exciting as they can get almost all of their bodies out of the water.  The boat we were in wasn’t very high out of the water and we all had a great view of the action.  This is natural behaviour for the crocs as they can leap up to get birds from trees or the odd unsuspecting animal from the river bank.  Sadly one also leapt up into a boat and dragged a man overboard not so long ago (the man wasn’t hanging over the boat at all – just standing at the back of it whilst it was moored at the jetty).  This started a lot of talk over the jumping croc cruises and are they changing croc behaviour.  It was a very interesting cruise and a bit scary in places since we were so close to the action!

We stopped just outside the National Park at Mary River Resort and Campground. This was a really nice place to stay, first of all they had very nice grass, a fire pit (although it is now in the low 30s during the day) happy hour which ran until 6pm (which we made by about 10min after setting up) and a nice little pool. It looks like they make most of their money from tourist groups in coaches as they have a nice little restaurant which is also set up for breakfasts and sure enough, a coach of tourists arrived at around 6.30pm, two of the women heading straight to the bar with their luggage, before even going to their room!

We had some very nice homemade hamburgers for dinner and sat around the fire reading for a while before turning in.

Tuesday 26^th August

We headed into Kakadu National Park and visited the Bowali Visitor centre just before you get to Jabiru. Most of the visitor centres have some really good information and also many photos and artefacts from around Kakadu. They were also showing a short film which had been made in 2013 which followed the different seasons of Kakadu. According to the local people, there are six seasons, Gudjewg (Monsoon Season, Dec – March), Banggerreng (Harvest/Storm Season, April into May), Yegge (Humid Season, May into June), Wurrgeng (Dry/Cold Season, June into August), Gurrung (Hot Dry Season, August into October) and Gunumeleng (Pre-Monsoon Season, October – December).  These seasons are defined by the weather rather than a calendar and relate to what the animals and plants are doing.  It was very interesting and made sense.

After a quick stop in Jabiru at the Kakadu Bakery for lunch and to get some fresh bread we then headed out to Ubirr to check out some rock painting. There are many stories told on the rock walls and we were lucky enough to get there when a guide with 4 young ladies in tow was giving a talk on the first handful of paintings so learnt a bit there. We did have to move on as it was very hot and we were really feeling the heat. We drove around the corner to Cahills Crossing as this was one place a few people had mentioned was great for croc watching. We did take a wrong turn and ended up driving across the crossing but thankfully the water was low at around 40cm so we got to drive past the crocs on either side without having to stop on the causeway to let one pass. We did see a photo somewhere of the water level being high and a group of people trying to cross in their Landcruiser only to get washed off the edge and being stuck there and having to climb out onto the top of the truck to avoid the crocs.

We then headed back to refuel at Jabiru before travelling onto our National Park campground at Murdagal. The campgrounds are very well run and have a ranger stationed at most for the dry season. They come around at about 6pm and collect the camping fees but for this you get hot showers, flushing toilets and some also have drinking water so you don’t have to carry your own. At most campgrounds they also have a talk on a number of different topics about the area. After dinner we took our chairs along and listened to a 60min talk and slideshow on the 6 different seasons experienced in Kakadu and what happens during each which was very interesting after learning some of this from the info centre. The rangers name was Christian and he was very passionate about the whole area and what was happening and went onto explain that to the Aboriginal people, the six seasons are everything and everything which happens in them are all related. Examples given were when particular flowers appeared, different types of animals were good eating or some plants were ready to be harvested.

Wednesday 27^th August

Today we were up early to visit the Nourlangie Rock art sites which also had three different talks on. Again it was Christian giving all three talks which were all very good and he talked about the land and how it was viewed both spiritually as well as physically, about kinship and the laws of the land and also about the rock paintings and how and why they were done. The kinship one was very interesting as he attempted to explain how this worked. While from the outside it looked fairly simple, it was incredibly complex however what it did mean was that if a traveller went into another land (or estate), they were able to work out just from their skin name who in the visited tribe were their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews etc etc so that while the Aborigines are from different clans, they are all one people. Along with knowing who was who, there were also some very strict rules around obligations and avoidances. For example, you could not even look at your sisters (avoidance, if broken, could end in your death) and you had an obligation to your mothers, however, your uncles (and fathers) had an obligation to you to show you where you could and could not go, what you could and could not hunt etc etc and so it went on. At least we think that gives a basic summary.

Some of the rock art at this site is the oldest in the world and it’s possible some of this art is over 30,000 years old. Much of the art has been lost due to age and weathering however there are still some amazing pictures telling stories of hunting feats, cultural celebrations, rules for men and women and many other tales.

We headed back into Murdugal to pack the trailer up and as it had been so hot, we drove to Gagudju Lodge in Cooinda where there is a public swimming pool which was very nice. A quick top up on fuel and we carried onto the Warradjian Cultural Centre. This was interesting enough however we had already learnt much of the info from the ranger talks so we didn't spend too much time here and left after having an ice cream.

We drove onto our next campground at Gunlom Falls. It was our first visit back to gravel for a couple of weeks and the last 11km in (total of around 40km) was very rough. However, after setting up camp and having some dinner, we headed over to another talk on the area around Gunlom. There are a lot of minerals in the area including uranium. Not far from the campground there was a uranium mine which was abandoned when Kakadu become a National park. There are also other mines which were also abandoned in the park, the largest a BHP mine which had been just left with machinery about everywhere as well as radioactive soil and the like. In the 80s, the Government had BHP clean it up.   However there is a working mine within the confines of the National Park (which isn't a National Park at all, but a Commonwealth Reserve) called the Ranger Mine.  Weird concept.

The ranger also told a story of a Dutch man who had driven in to this campground a few years ago during the wet season despite all the “campground closed” signs he had to drive around to get there.  The campground was mostly under water so he decided sleep in his car for the night on high ground before driving out.  He woke in the middle of the night to find the water was starting to come into the Landcruiser so he hopped out, taking his sleeping bag and pillow, removed a couple of the doors from the toilets in the toilet block, put them flat across the rafters (the water was about toilet seat height through the block) and slept there. Some days later as the water was still up, he heard a helicopter so had to dive into the water, swim out through the door and then climb onto the roof to wave. He was very very lucky someone in the helicopter was looking as they saw him, came around to pick him up but couldn’t from the toilet block roof so he had to swim about 30m to the water tower so they could get him. This might all sound fine, only when the water gets this high, as it can do more often than not, the saltwater crocs take the opportunity to spread out all over the plains looking for food. The ranger thought this man must lead a very charmed life.

Thursday 28^th August

Today we were up early for a walk to the top of the falls with the ranger. We got a running commentary about the falls and the local area and we also saw where the river runs and how the whole area changes in the wet season. We decided it must be quite interesting coming back after the floods have disappeared as things must have changed a lot but it would also be a lot of hard work as the toilet blocks etc have usually been flooded and they also have to check for saltys and remove if any are found. There is nothing really to stop them from coming up the creek to the base of the falls all year round, well, except for the 5.2m croc whose territory is right at the mouth of the creek and he has no interest in coming up as he’s too big to find any decent food. It is possible that a smaller male might come up though as he might enter the big crocs territory and be chased up here by the big croc. We didn't swim in the bottom pool.

It was fairly hard going up the hill clambering over the rocks but once at the top, the view was brilliant. Oh, and the “Infinity Pool” was also pretty good too. We had seen photos of the falls during the wet season and while it was a trickle today, you could see where the water had worn away the rock over time.  We splashed around here for at least 2 hours and got some great photos. Thankfully we’d come up in the early morning which meant the climb had been in the shade, however, it was pretty warm on the way back down to pack up the trailer.

Once packed up, we headed out on the rough road, back to the Kakadu Highway and headed towards Pine Creek where we turned south and drove the hour or so to the Big 4 campground in Katherine.  We had enough time to set the tent up and grab a beer during happy hour while the kids had a swim before having some dinner and turning in.

Friday 29^th August

Today we packed up and went for a swim in the Katherine hot pools. These consisted of a number of pools along a small river that were nice and warm.  A very nice way to start the day!

Then we headed off on the road towards Kununurra in WA.  The drive was all on the tarseal and including coffee breaks took about six hours.  We listened to some more of Monte’s stories which were great because he’d been to some of the same places as us. During the drive the scenery had changed a bit, there were many hills around which looked like they were made from lego. There were also more and more Boab trees.

The border crossing into WA involved a quarantine checkpoint to stop possible contaminated fruit and veggies coming in.  Each car gets checked and we had to open our fridge, freezer and storage area’s to prove we didn't have any contraband.  We knew about the restrictions so didn't have anything we shouldn't but we have heard stories of people who had stocked up before leaving Katherine who had to throw all their fruit and veggies out!

It was then a short drive into Lake Argyle campground which looks over Australia’s largest man-made lake. They have a fabulous infinity pool here (although Trish liked the natural one at Gunlom Falls better) which looks over the lake.

Borroloola, Lorella Springs, Mataranka, Katherine, Adelaide River, Litchfield, Darwin

Links to both sets of photo's and exploreoz tracker.

Saturday 9^th August

Today we headed off towards Hells Gate Roadhouse. The track said it was around 70km of 4wd track but it was the best 4wd track we’d driven to date and I reckon we averaged around 60-70kph. While driving this track, we came across two 2wd cars going in the other direction. While the track was pretty good, there was one relatively deep river crossing which I think may have stopped these cars so we wondered how they were going to get on there. After finishing the track we were back onto the blacktop just before Doomadgee when we had our first, and hopefully only, flat tyre. We have two spares as well as a repair kit however looking at the gash it didn’t look like the repair kit would fix it so on with the spare. This is the first time we have had to use the highlift jack but it all went to plan. We arrived into Hells Gate and topped up on fuel and had an ice cream. We had thought about staying there however it wasn’t really far enough on our way to our next stop so we carried on for another 130km or so to a free camp beside the Calvert River. We did however cross over into the Northern Territories so had to take a photo of the border as it was the only State or Territory none of us had visited. One thing about this part of the world, they have brilliant sunsets. We took a couple of photos through the trees however they won’t really do them justice. After a quick spag bol it was time to hit the hay as there’s another big day of driving tomorrow.

Sunday 10^th August

Most days Richard has been checking under the trailer for any damage, the springs and the wheel bearings. This morning, the wheel bearings were a bit loose and being a good boy scout he did have some spares so thought he would change them at our next stop which was to be Butterfly Springs. However, some things just don’t go to plan as we found there is also something going wrong with CJ.

We got into Borroloola where we eventually decided to stay so we could change the trailer wheel bearings and check to see what the problem was on CJ.

The wheel bearings went without a hitch however try as he might Richard could just not find the problem with the car. It had just started a weird clonking noise (he thinks from the front right) and also pulling to the right and feeling a bit wallowy.

Anyway, managed to get blog uploaded and some of the pictures as well (although not published as yet) so not a bad night after all.

Unfortunately there was no pool at the (one and only) campground so the kids did what all kids do without a pool – played under the sprinkler for the afternoon!

Monday 11^th August

Richard tried to get hold of the NRMA however with no public phone and no Telstra phones with us he decided to head to the local mechanics. Talking with one of the guys there he said if there’s nothing obviously broken or cracked then we should be ok but also said to check the rear air bags.  Richard had done but thought he’d let the air out and put 20psi back in. This didn’t help at all but we decided to push on towards Butterfly Springs anyway. We had been thinking of going into Lorella Springs also which was a turn off before Butterfly Springs but had read and heard some not so good reports. The road in is 29km and while the first 6km were ok, the remaining 23 were not and were slow and painful being rough and corrugated. While the trailer handled it well, CJ ended up with the unusual clonk getting louder and more frequent.

We got into Lorella Springs to find we had to watch a video of the station which was quite interesting. The station is approx. one million acres and most people come in to camp at the base camp and then drive, walk, fly out to other destinations on the property. There are a number of gorges which have swimming holes that are river fed and a number of other swimming holes which are hot springs. The main camping area is like a island with a moat as they pump hot water from a spring on a nearby hill to a small creek which completely surrounds the “island”. You can swim in any part of this creek as it is around 30 degrees. You can also camp at some of the more remote spots and there is also a 30km stretch of beach which is part of the property however I think you need to take the chopper for that one. While it doesn’t seem too busy at the moment, there are many keen fishermen who come here with their boat/4wds or hire the chopper to fly them to more remote areas to catch that ever elusive big fish.

Anyway, while Trish and the kids took a swim in the hot springs, Richard took the spanners to CJ and tightened everything he could find, double checked for any breakages but still couldn’t find anything so joined in the swimming.

Happy hour runs around 5 til 6pm so from the hot pools it was to the bar to swap some stories with other folk. Beer is usually $8-9 but it’s a dollar cheaper at happy hour. Fuel is an astronomical $3/litre with a big sign apologising for the price and to only take as much as you might need to get to where you’re going!

Tuesday 12^th August

After recommendations from the office we headed out to Nannies Retreat. It’s about an hour and a half drive through some of the property and then a 1km walk. We arrived out there and found it was a lovely swimming hole. It was around 30 degrees outside but probably low 20s in the water which was very nice and refreshing. Some of the rock formations are amazing in this part of the world as you may see in the photos. There is also a cave which you can walk through and come out the other side. We stayed here for about 3 hours and sat in the sun and had lunch. Amazing to think NSW and Victoria are having snow!

We headed back to the campground surprisingly arriving just in time for happy hour and to swap some more stories. Even ran into a young couple from Oamaru who have been living in Aus for the last 3 years and are on their way to Darwin to look for work.

Wednesday 13^th August

This morning we headed out towards Mataranka however we thought we’d have a few stops along the way so might stop in at a free camp before getting there. Once we’d negotiated the 29km out from Lorella Springs, which took almost 45min because it was so rough, we had a short drive to Butterfly Springs. It was a nice little camping area and we were looking forward to having a swim in the water hole however the water looked a bit stagnant so we only had a short dip. On the right hand side of the pool though were some rocks which are home to thousands of butterflies. It is just amazing seeing all these on the rock walls and even more so when you disturb them and they all fly off. Once we’d left here the road got quite rough and corrugated and was slow and painful however we came across the graders at work and from then we more than doubled our speed to at least 90kph. We made the decision to push on right to Mataranka as the road then turns to asphalt which meant we could get in at a reasonable time rather than stop for a night before getting there. Once we’d set up the tent, we headed back into town for something to eat and to get some beer. Richard had a Mataranka Burger which he reckons is the best one so far. We then stopped in at the local pub (bottle shop closes early) for some take out beer. Richard went in by himself and reckons it was the roughest pub he’s ever been to. There were no tables and chairs and everyone in there was very drunk, so much so if that had been Sydney or Melbourne they would have been turfed out hours before. There weren’t that many people in their however he had to negotiate his way around the staggering people to get to the bar. Once at the bar there were 2 young white girls serving and he noticed one of them handing over 2 x 30 can packs of VB to one of the aboriginals who could barely stand. You hear about the alcohol problem in this part of the world but seeing that makes you think the republicans aren’t helping at all and are just after money.

Thursday 14^th August

Today we drove into town to see some Barramundi feeding at another campground. The fish there were around 1m long and have been trained to be fed by hand.  They are unable to be released into the wild again as they will not get their own food. Trish got into the water and fed one of the fish which don’t have teeth but rather eat the fish whole. We then had a very nice coffee and Mango smoothie with scones, cream and jam at the local Stockmans Cafe. There is also a small aboriginal art gallery here which was also very good.

We then headed out to the Mataranka Homestead Tourist Resort where they have a replica of the Elsey Station homestead which was used in the movie “We of the Never Never” which is an autobiography of a woman who married a man who was a partner in a cattle station on the Roper river and decided to move to the station with her husband. They play the movie every day at midday however while you could sort of understand what was going on, the sound was pretty bad and while there is a dedicated smoking area, it’s only separated by a painted line on the ground. We did manage to see it to the end. There are also hot pools here but while Richard was booking CJ in for a service in Darwin, Trish and the girls walked down and had a look and decided it was too busy and we’d be better going to the hot springs back near where we were camped.

The hot springs near our campground are called Bitter Springs and they are about a 10min walk from the campground. They are not really hot pools but a flowing creek so you can hop in at one point, float down to some steps, hop out, walk back and do it again. There are small turtles here but we didn’t manage to see any. The water is around 35 degrees which is very very nice.

Friday 15^th August

Today we had a short drive to Katherine so after a quick dip at Bitter Springs after packing up, we hit the road. We arrived into Katherine at around 1pm, dropped into the info centre and Woollies (was amazing to see such a large supermarket as we hadn’t seen one for a few weeks) then onto the Big 4 campground just outside Katherine. It was also nice to set the tent up on grass rather than rock or dirt and dust (or all three!)

We then had a swim in the pool, the first swim in a “normal” pool for weeks and it was a bit odd as it tasted of salt and wasn’t very warm at all. Happy hour was at 5 and we enjoyed a beer beside the pool before calling it a day.

Saturday 16^th August

Katherine has a community market on every Saturday so we headed there for breakfast. It was fairly small but did have an amount of fruit and vege, some good coffee and a selection of breakfast foods. After a bacon and egg sandwich we headed back to camp to hang out some washing before heading out to Katherine Gorge or Nitmiluk as the locals call it. There are 2 boat rides you can do, one which does the first two gorges and one which does the first three. Being on a bit of a budget we chose the 2 gorge option which was still $240 for all four of us. We would have liked to take the helicopter rides however these started at $99 for 9 minutes! The boat cruise was fantastic and the commentary was well polished and very funny. It’s about a 25min ride up to the first point where you get off and walk about 400m to get on another boat to cruise on up to the actual Katherine Gorge. The walls to the gorge are very high and impressive and Richard wonders what happens in the wet as some of the rocks must come down into the water. We did manage to see 3 fresh water crocodiles on the trip. You can also hire a canoe and paddle up and jump in for a swim.

We headed back to the campground to get the washing in and then headed off to the rodeo. Neither Trish nor Richard had been to a rodeo for around 30 years and things have become a lot more professional in that time, well, at least in Australia and probably in NZ too. The kids really enjoyed the whole show and the bull riding was the favourite event for the night. Richards phone ran out of battery about 5min prior to the Bledisloe game so had to wait until he returned to the campground to find out the score.

Sunday 17^th August

After packing up we headed north to Edith Falls. Emily has another cold and wasn’t feeling very well but we did manage to get in for a swim after a quick bite of lunch. The water wasn’t too bad, it can’t have been as Trish got in, and the view was very nice too. So, after an ice cream we hit the road again to Adelaide River and setting up camp on Mt Bundy Station which is a working cattle station of around 4,000 acres carrying around 1,000 head of stock. The cows are all Brahman and mainly go to live export to South East Asian countries. There are a number of horses here as well as a large Brahman bull called Nigel who loves bread. Most of the facilities here were built by American soldiers during WWII when they had to move south after all the bombing in Darwin. The Adelaide River area played a large role in WWII housing thousands of soldiers when they were evacuated during the bombing.

Every night at 5pm they have a “happy hour” around the campfire at Mt Bundy however it’s more of a meet and greet and swap some stories. There are around 30 odd people here and it was great cause both Trish and I felt very young amongst the grey nomads. Although, I do have to say we are quite envious of them being able to stay in one place for more than 3-4 days and not having to move on because they need to get home. Some folk we talked to work on the BDM principle, that is, they will only go home for births, deaths and marriages. Earlier in our travels we did come across a couple in their 70s who have not been home for 6 and a half years as the kids and grand kids prefer to come to them where the weather is nicer during winter.

Monday 18^th August

Today we headed towards Darwin as we had to see the service guy as well as get some fuel and groceries. It was around an hours drive but when we got there we found there were other things we needed to do also. Emily had run out of Flixotide (asthma preventer) and as it’s a prescription drug we had to go to the medical centre, see a doctor, then go to the chemist. One of the iPods had a shattered screen so we also had to drop that in for repair. Richard is still on the look out for a drivers side window control box but the only one the parts place had was almost $300 and he had seen them on eBay for around $60. On the way back to Adelaide River, we stopped into Crazy Acres which was advertised as having one of the best mango smoothies. They also make their own ice cream and while the banana flavour was nice, the lime one was a bit waxy and left an odd after taste. The mango smoothie however was the best we’ve had so far.

We then headed back to Adelaide River and checked out the War Cemetery. It has been extremely well maintained and looks very good. It’s such a sad memorial as there are over 400 headstones and a number of these are for unnamed people.

Tuesday 19^th August

We headed into Litchfield National Park today. First stop was the nearest town to the National park called Batchelor. When in the grocery shop, we saw the headline that someone had been eaten by a crocodile while fishing from a bridge on the Adelaide River. Of course this is the river we are staying near (not that near though) and there is a bridge in the Adelaide River township so we thought it odd we hadn’t seen anything. We had to buy the paper and found it was further downstream where there are tour operators who take boat loads of people up the river and hang bits of meat over the side so the crocs jump up for it. The last person to be taken had been taken somewhere in the NT and had been in a boat and had not been leaning over so there’s lots of talk about teaching the crocs to jump for their food.

Anyway, we then headed into the National park and stopped to check out some info on the two main termite mounds we see on the side of the road.  These are the magnetic and cathedral termite mounds.  There was also a photo opportunity beside a huge termite mound.

We then drove onto Buley’s Waterhole and had a wonderful swim. There are about 5 different pools in the rocks, some around 4-5m deep so you can easily dive in from the rocks beside them. While the water was coolish, it wasn’t too bad.

Next stop was Florence Falls, which had two routes down into the pool area, one just steps, and the other a 1.1km walk. We chose to head down the 135 steps on the way down and jumped into the pool with about 50 other people. You could swim out and then get behind the waterfall itself which was fun. The kids chose to walk back via the steps and Trish and Richard walked back via the alternate path. The alternate path was very nice and a lot of work had been put into it, we think to make it able to weather the monsoon season rather than having to rebuild it after every wet season.

It had been very hot there and after visiting The Lost City, a walk through many stacked rocks resembling a city, we headed back to Batchelor for a burger and fish and chips before driving back to our camp at Mt Bundy Station.

Wednesday 20^th August

Today we had a look at the Railway information in Adelaide River.  There was also a lot of information on the bombing of Darwin in WWII.  The volunteers had collected and displayed an amazing array of WWII and railway relics and Richard and Trish spent a good hour and a half wandering around.  It was very interesting to see the details on the role that Darwin and Adelaide River played in the war.  Adelaide River was used to farm the food that supplied the troops in Darwin.  It was also used as a recreation area for the troops and then later when Darwin was bombed was used as the hospital.

We headed back into Litchfield NP and visited Wangi Falls. It’s the largest of the falls in Litchfield which means there’s a lot more people and also a campground and cafe. We had a swim here and it was much easier to get in and out as there were steps down to a large sand bank rather than the rock climbing we had to do to get into Florence Falls. You could also sit under the waterfall however it was like needles into your head and shoulders. Once again, we hit the road after an ice cream heading towards Darwin. We did have to negotiate about 20km of gravel corrugations which we hadn’t missed at all. We arrived into the Free Spirit campground in Holtze which is enormous and possibly the largest campground we’ve visited so far. While having dinner, there were about 8 fighter jets flying laps above us. It was very loud but thankfully it stopped about 8 so we could all get to sleep.

Thursday 21^st August

Today Richard had to drop CJ in for a service and have a few things repaired so we decided we’d have a catch up day on the washing, photos, swimming, blog and organising other things we need to do tomorrow.  That afternoon we headed into Darwin for dinner at the Mindil markets.  These are held twice a week and feature mostly food stalls.  Everyone goes down to the beach to watch the sun set (it was pretty nice), then go back up to get dinner.  We wandered around, trying different foods – Richard had a crocodile hamburger (tough), and a bit of shopping..

Thursday Island, OTT, Morton Telegraph Station, Musgrave, Normonton, Boodjamulla NP

Quick note: we are having issues getting reliable internet so are struggling to get the photos up to the internet however there should be loads in about a week all going to plan.

On with the story.......

Thursday 31 July 2014

Today we enjoyed a trip to Thursday and Horn Islands. Thursday Island (or TI as the locals call it) is the centre for business admin for the Torres Strait Islands with around 3,500 people living there. The Torres Strait people are of Polynesian/Melanesian decent rather than of indigenous Australian decent. There is however a group of TI people who are recognised, and recognise themselves, as Australian indigenous and as you can imagine this has caused problems over the years.
Thursday Island replaced Somerset (on the mainland) as the business centre because of its deep harbour, closeness to the shipping lanes and the fact it is sheltered from much of the weather which happens in these areas. The harbour is tricky to negotiate and still requires pilotage where a pilot is put onto any vessel coming into port.
The majority of the people living on TI are government employees, Defence and Quarantine being the main departments. House pricing is almost as bad as Sydney house prices as an average three bedroom house is around $700,000 so the government have had to build many housing estates to accommodate the folk who are unable to afford the average home.
TI has a rich history in defence and played a major role in the second world war. We did a tour and visited the Fort where the 3 guns commissioned remain and a maritime and war museum have been set up.  The guns have been fired once during the war when a boat didn’t advise who they were so the gun fired warning shots.  The boat identified itself as a “friendly” and all was well.
In the 19th and 20th centuries there was also a very large pearl harvesting industry as well harvesting of beche de mer (sea cucumber) and trochus shells. Pearl harvesting is still done on a small scale but since the invention of plastic buttons the demand decreased. There were many Japanese men working in the pearl industry here and as time went by there were many deaths as the pearls had to be found at deeper and deeper depths .
TI as several primary schools, one high school and a tafe (polytechnic).  There are three pubs and 13 churches on the island!
Horn Island is larger than TI and has a small village with small resort and shop. A ferry goes between TI and Horn fairly regularly and takes about 20min to get across.   Horn also supplies water to TI from several large dams and also receives all of TIs rubbish which is used as land fill.
 We did a tour here with Heritage Tours and were bussed around and looked at many different areas of WWII significance.  Horn Is played a large part in WWII as an airfield which was home to many bombers and fighters and was also the 3rd most bombed town or city in Australia. TI strangely did not receive as any bombing raids as there was a rumour that a Japanese princess was on TI but this is only a rumour and has never been confirmed.
It was a big day out and we were all happy to get back to Loyalty Beach.
We did have a stop in at the wreckers to borrow some wire to “fix” the LPG tank guard. While there, the guy mentioned they had pulled out 45 cars from the OTT to date.

Friday 1 Aug

This morning we returned the wire to Bamaga Wreckers, filled up with fuel and headed south having ticked off one of the “must-dos” of our trip in visiting the tip. On the way back to the Eliot Falls camping area, we stopped into one of the more notorious OTT crossings which is called Nolans Creek. We arrived in there to find about 5 other cars camped in there, one of which had been pulled out and was just drying out before they carried on. They had set up some camp chairs down near the water to watch people go through. The main problem with Nolans Creek is that it is quite deep, over most bonnets as you drive through which is why the local wrecker in Bamaga has his phone number on a tree nearby. Rumour has it he charges $2,000 to recover your car! The water is very clear and the young kids there were swimming in the shallow part. As we were talking to some of the people there, four young blokes pulled up in their Hilux and Landcruiser. They were very dirty and had obviously been camping up and down the track so they did the walk through the creek to check depth and line etc (after jumping in from a bank a couple of times) then promptly drove through without any drama at all.
We wussed out of doing the crossing (still a long way to go you know!) and back tracked the way we’d come in and headed to Fruitbat Falls for a swim which was lovely. We then continued onto Eliot Falls where we set up camp once again then jumped into the water which was fantastic. Our vote was Eliot Falls over Fruitbat Falls because of the big rocks to jump off.
Dinner that night was sausages and “squeaky cheese” (haloumi) cooked on the fire.

Saturday 2 Aug

After packing up we headed back down part of the OTT and came upon a tricky looking river crossing across Cockatoo Creek. We stopped and had a bite to eat for lunch and Richard walked across and wasn’t really too sure how to attack it. After 10min or so, some folk turned up on the other side and after the obligatory walk through, drove through it no problem. A few minutes later, another car turned up and also had no problem so we headed on down to the creek. The river did have some big holes but in the end it wasn’t too bad and less deep than some of the other rivers we’d already crossed getting to Eliot Falls. There was also a quite steep bank to get out once you’d left the river but with the guidance of another driver on the other side it wasn’t too bad either. While talking to this driver, he mentioned of all the tracks he’d been on so far, this was the only crossing to have a croc warning sign on. So, all four of us had been walking around in the river and Didge and Trish had crossed to take some GoPro footage as well!
We then drove further along the OTT to a crossing called Gunshot. This is one of the notorious crossings because the entry to the river is so steep. We think there are about 8-9 entries into the river, only one of which Richard thought we would attempt (not that we did as there is a bypass road back a bit) and even this one was fairly steep. Going South to North would mean you’d come down the bank and would have gravity on your side, however, North to South would mean you’d have to have a winch. When we parked up, I had a chat to the 4 young blokes we’d bumped into at Nolans the day before. They’d camped here the night waiting to see some action before they attempted it themselves. We found out they’d done the entire track from South to North and were now heading back down the entire track again. They both had winches and knew they had to use them but they were just deciding which bank to tackle. A couple of the banks were near vertical and unless you’ve a dedicated 4wd for that sort of thing, we couldn’t see how you could even come down most of them!
We did hear a story about a family that got stuck in one of the crossings (Palm Creek – the first crossing of the OTT) overnight.  They had a camper trailer on and got stuck going across.  There was no-one around to pull them out so their truck & camper had to stay there the night!
Richard thinks we may well have to visit the OTT again but CJ might have to have a bit of new gear to tackle some of the tricker crossings.  Trish thinks she is busy for this holiday so some of the boys might have to go with Richard.
We drove onto Bramwell Junction to collect the trailer (which was thankfully still there!), then onto Morton Telegraph station for the night. Morton has a very nice grass camping area which was a welcome change after dust and sand.

Sunday 3 Aug

We spent some time rearranging the trailer and car, did some washing ($6 per load – most expensive so far!) and changing fridge connection as it had fallen out a few times over the rough, corrugated roads. (Note to Dave T, you know how you were talking about changing to Anderson plugs? Well, the fridge end has been done for you! Happy to sort out your car when we are back).
We found out Morton has a runway which has a plane come in once a week to deliver a mail bag which they deliver for local folk. The station also caters for many large coach tours.
We had packed up and were on the road to Musgrave Roadhouse around midday. It was a big drive and the road was the roughest of the lot so far, some of the corrugations you could really only do about 30-40kph. You need to experience how rough these roads are, we did manage to see a fairly new 200 series Landcruiser which had just speared off a corner on the corrugations and there are many, many stories of suspension failure and trailers falling apart. One couple we ran into mentioned a trailer failure which had the A frame on one side of the road, the tray part on the other and all their belongings strewn across the road between the two earlier that day.
Got into Musgrave (the last remaining telegraph station house) fairly late and had dinner there at the restaurant, once again, nice hamburger however not as nice as the Archer River one.

Monday 4 Aug

We had parked up beside a young family who were travelling for 12 months (3 kids are all under 5!) and decided to have a mini convoy to Normanton. We got an hour or so into the drive and found them parked on the side of the road with what looks like a bent chassis as the tray was bent up although it wasn’t obvious where the bend was so weren’t sure that was where the problem was. We travelled together crossing the Mitchell River which used to cause all sorts of problems to cross as it is very sandy and wide and the local station landowner would charge $1,500 to pull you out. Thankfully there is now a causeway so it wasn’t a problem. We stopped on the other side of the river and had a sandwich for lunch and this was the first time on the entire trip we’d actually felt it was hot.
Thankfully the road wasn’t as rough as the previous day but there were still some rough and corrugated patches and was a fairly long day arriving into the Normanton camp ground around 6.30pm.

Tuesday 5th Aug

We had tried to figure out what the problem was with the other car which meant there were a lot of other folk coming around and offering advice/help also. Great thing about this travelling thing, generally there are many other folk offering to lend a hand if they can. There wasn’t much we could do so we’re not sure how they got on but when we have some phone reception we’ll give them a call as it would be good to meet up again.
We had a look around Normanton, checked out the statue of the largest official crocodile shot (Krys is his name and he’s just over 8m long!), did a big grocery shop, bought some oil to do an oil and filter change and then hit the road to Burke and Wills Roadhouse. While we don’t know that much about Burke and Wills, we believe they were the first two to go overland from Adelaide to Darwin (or there abouts). The road to the roadhouse was sealed all the way which was excellent for a change. After a quick fill up and an ice cream we headed out for Adels Grove campground right next door to the Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park. We arrived in the dark so found it a bit tricky to find a spot but did manage to find a lovely shady spot in the aptly named Grove.

Wednesday 6th August

Today we explored the park to find a great swimming spot in the river.  There are freshwater crocodiles in the river but these are timid and will stay out of your way (unless provoked).  The swimming spot has a pontoon and swing rope so was a great place to spend the afternoon. We were a bit nervous about the crocodiles for a start but there were lots of people coming and going in the river and none of them got eaten so we figured it was ok!

Thursday 7th August

Today we went into Boodjamulla National Park to canoe up Lawn Hill Gorge.  The gorge is amazing – steep red walls and amazing views.  Along this first section we found our first freshie (Freshwater croc) in the wild. The freshie is not as big nor aggressive as the salty and is much more timid however it’s not unheard if he gets annoyed to have a go at people so it’s not a clever thing to get too close. The canoe trip goes up the first gorge then you have to drag the canoes over the pass to reach the top of the gorge.  This takes you up to the source of the river (spring and run-off fed) which is where there are many fish waiting for tasty morsels to come in from the springs and run-offs. It looks like the fish might also be fed from the canoes the way they were following us. On the way back we stopped at the pass and had a swim where the falls are. It was nice for a swim however in the back of your mind is the fact just a few hundred metres away there is a croc sunbaking on the bank, at least there was when we paddled up! When dropping the canoes off we were told the croc had actually disappeared for around an hour, just about the time we were swimming but he was back there when we came back again so must have found some food elsewhere thankfully. Emily did say she didn’t think he was very big but we figured at around 3m if that was hanging onto your leg it’s plenty big enough.
We then travelled down the road a bit further to visit the Riversleigh fossil site which is open to the public. At the bottom of the small hill, there is a large manmade rock which doubles as an info centre and a toilet. It fits really well into the whole view as it’s not obviously out of place. The walk takes about half an hour and it was very hot (mid 30s) so with hats and sunscreen on we took a wander looking at fossils of large fresh water crocs, large flightless birds, carnivorous kangaroos (who knew!) and turtles.
Back at camp we jumped into the water and had a swim and the kids met 2 girls almost exactly the same age as our two so they had a ball and it was fairly dark when we managed to extract them from the water. Dinner was a “stove top Pizza” cooked on a fire on the cast iron fry pan which Emily stated was “the best meat lovers pizza” she had ever had.

Friday 8th August

Today we had planned to head off however the kids had found a couple of friends, we had to at least write the blog (if not upload!)  as well as change the oil in CJ so we figure it would be a while before we can do all of those things so we’d do it today.
The Kids had arranged to meet up at the river at 9.30 so Trish sat in the shade beside the river and updated the blog while Richard went in search of firewood. With both morning tasks accomplished we had to drag the children out of the water at 12.30 to have lunch but shortly after lunch they were quickly back in the water while Richard changed the oil and filter and Trish added more to the blog.
After coming back from the oil change, Richard thought it was time for a swim so wandered down to where the kids were. They weren’t there however as there was a freshie about 5m away from where they had been swimming all morning. He was well hidden in the bamboo and obviously hadn’t been bothered by all the noise and commotion. The kids had moved down to a much safer spot however it was too shallow and not in the sun so they came back to the pontoon where the croc was only to find he was no longer there. While it didn’t stop the kids jumping in for another 15min, I could tell it was on their minds.
We had enough firewood to cook a sausage stew in the camp oven so this we threw in a whole heap of vege and some sausages and viola, our first use of Cath and Pete’s camp oven completed successfully.
We had a social evening with the other family the kids had made friends with which was a wonderful change from just ourselves.