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19 February 2016

eyedunno

 

Its been so long I forget where we are (or where we’ve been), but we’re here now and that’s a fact.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Newcastle or thereabouts (cos we’re still trying to find a caravan park that will fit us in) but the last few weeks are a bit of a blur. I can’t remember where we were when I last blogged but I think it might have been around Kingscliff on the far NSW coast. Well, since then we’ve taken a lot of beach photos and whilst they all feature sand and surf they are of different places – I just forget which places they are….

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and since then there are a lot more like them.

But, we are nonetheless impressed. This northern NSW coastline is beautiful, the beaches are all pristine but whilst most of the beaches are themselves deserted, the coast is now highly developed. You can’t escape civilization. Housing estates crowd the foreshores, almost all the way down. I guess 7.5 million people in NSW choose to live by the coast.

But (again) there have been many other highlights which I still am having difficulty placing in chronological order however to attempt same..

  • we had several interactions with Ian & Wendy Gibbs in Grafton ranging from several dinners to Wendys’ guided tour of the Waterfall Way – altogether good fun. The Waterfall Way, so named because of all the waterfalls along the road running from Dorrigo basically to Armidale…..
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and to name just four of the eight we have the Newell, Sherrard, Dangar and upper and lower Ebor falls that we saw in ultimately two trips this way. The Dangar falls are in Dorrigo. So is the biggest railway museum in supposedly the southern hemisphere. Having not seen any others featuring so much rolling stock or so many engines I find it hard to dispute such a claim. However, its not open to the public. We got a guided tour by the very disgruntled general manager….
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We have the details of the Railway Society that over the last 40 or so years has collected all of this stuff with the intention of making it accessible to the public and to preserve it for future generations but has been thwarted by local bureaucracy. Its very disappointing that like most councils Dorrigo Shire is regressionist and unsupportive of business. Even the plan to operate one of the rail lines for tourism has been baulked.
There is lots more to say on the subject but I think this computer has sympathy with council cos it isn’t cooperating. I’ll have to shut …..

 

29 January 2016

It’s a new year

Tamworth was our target, our first goal for 2016. The Tamworth Country Music Festival, now our third visit and probably not our last.

We meandered our way up through Albury, Gundagai, Cootamundra, Young, Canowindra, Orange, Wellington, Gulgong, Merriwa, Muswellbrook, and Scone,  some ground we’ve covered before but some new as well. Time prevented us from any serious exploration but it became quite apparent that there are quite a few places we will have to go back to in our NSW journeys. We did however make a stopover in historic Carcoar cos the sign said “the town that time forgot”. It is a fabulous little village dating back to 1840’s as is evident from some of these shots…..

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We would have liked to have spent more time there and even walked up a few more hills but we still needed to get to Tamworth. We passed through more old NSW towns that we must go back to and explore fully.

We arrived in Tamworth on Monday 19 Jan. We were the first to the farm. Secured our favourite spot, caught up with owner Yvonne Richards, got a text from Suzie and Peter Ibbot and subsequently hit the Festival on Monday night with them. Dale and Cathy Cash along with Sue and Neville (outlaws) arrived Tuesday and Robyn on Wednesday. Dale and Cathy had organised tickets to a range of events so we were pretty well occupied then for the next few days (thanks you two). On Tuesday before the others arrived we saw The Wolverines again. Only two of the originals are still together but even with two new faces they were highly entertaining…..

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The next few days were a whirl of activity starting with a poets breakfast on Wednesday – bloody hilarious, then Kasey Chambers that night – bloody loud. Thursday started with Darren Carr for breakfast and another hilarious morning was had by all. Walked Peel Street for the buskers of which there were plenty although none that we thought were stand0uts like last time – entertaining nonetheless….IMGP4752 IMGP4753 IMGP4754 IMGP4757

Friday was for Graham Connors, an old hand and writer of many songs,  for other artists and he was good. Night was a concert in the park for the final of Toyota Starmaker (which somebody won)  followed by Lee Kernighan but we gave up when the rains came and retired for a drink back at camp.

 

Saturday started with the Cavalcade but the rains dampened most spirits but 100 odd floats still made their way through town….

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then the afternoon was devoted to Sara Storer (who was good) followed by The Bushwackers who were also good fun. Saturday night was bbq with the Richards family….

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Dale and Cathy and Sue and Neville left on Sunday and we rested until evening when we saw Murphy’s Pigs over dinner – good Irish entertainment but bloody loud.

There are some 1800 events on in Tamworth over the 10 days. A very large percentage are free, but even the paid events aren’t expensive, typically 12 – 30 dollars but still the monies disappeared quickly. The real pity is you can’t see everything so you have to keep going year after year to find what you like best. We’ll see!

We’ve covered about 1200 km to this point. Coming the back way saw a lot of uphill travel so the fuel economy of last year has dropped away a bit to 20.3 l/100km but on the plus side fuel has been cheaper again than last year – many fills at $1.10 /l

 

20 October 2015

Paynes Find – the truth

Cue wasn’t far. Just 80 k from Mt Magnet but in the wrong direction ie north, up the Great Northern Highway, back towards Newman and Meekatharra. Cue was on the radar cos Maggie said it should be and it was one of her most favourite places. And we weren’t far away. And it was on the wildflower trail. On the latter count it really didn’t work but it was certainly interesting. Plus it led us to Day Dawn, the town from whence the courthouse at Yalgoo came and Big Bell. Well Cue is good. An interesting old, reasonably well maintained piece of our history originated by gold fever back in the late 1800’s….

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This gaol around which the local caravan park is established in fact was used as the amenties block some time after its planned use was discontinued. Cue is full of historic buildings, mostly renovated and still in use. However, the Masonic Hall, now in private hands is not one ….

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described as Australia’s  oldest, largest corrugated iron structure still in use. Well not currently in use sadly. But many other buildings are…..

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and then out of town is Big Bell. Unfortunately not much left there now but if the pub can be an indicator of a towns stature, Big Bell had to be pretty impressive back in the early 1900’s….

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Not much left of the old town otherwise but the streets are still laid out and there are a few info panels around describing the occupancies. Also gold fever induced.

There is even less of Day Dawn left – really just the gold assay office….

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and these “cabins” now relocated to the Cue caravan park….

DSC08794 plus of course the courthouse now at Yalgoo. Nevertheless it was interesting to explore the old town site to find the footings and rubble of old buildings and get an overview of what was.

Well gold continues to draw us on. Back down the Great Northern Highway, back through Mt Magnet where still nothing much appeared on the streets on down to ….. PAYNES FIND. Well once upon a time a Mr Payne lodged a gold claim although he did cheat by beating his partner to it. Other claims followed and the government put in a gold stamper to process the ore. Some 70 or so years ago the Howard family bought out the Payne claim and continued fairly successfully until relatively recently. Also at some point the Howards bought the gold stamper and operated it until just 4 years ago. The current family member Elaine Howard took over operations from her father some time ago and she continued to operate the stamper till just recently. She also runs guided tours and does a bit of prospecting on the side – well travelled and now 72 years old….

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And then it was back to the wildflower trail. Continuing on the Great Northern towards Perth we pull up at Wubin and turn north again now towards Perenjori

 

27 September 2015

Blow Hole!

Quobba Station sounded like a good place to park up for the night, particularly as it was off the beaten track after taking in the Pt Quobba blowholes. By this stage we’re about 60 km north of Carnarvon on the coast….

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Young fella fishing off the rocks beside the blowholes….

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hooked a fish straight away. Got incredibly excited about the size of the fish – “biggest I’ve ever caught – look, look, look”. Played it for maybe 10 minutes, yelling excitedly all the way. Just got it to side of rocks about to clear the water as shark takes it to the gills. Rod is nearly broken with weight of fish but even with only head left he tries to clear the water again and shark takes the rest, hook, line and sinker….

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Talk about disappointed. Shark seemed contented though.

Onto Quobba Station – dirt road for 10 km – we didn’t make 100 metres. Talk about rough. OK, rethink. Back to highway and on to Carnarvon. We’re trying hard to save money so cheap/no cost accom is desirable. No such luck, had to take up residence in a caravan park…

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then off we go to see whats what in downtown Carnarvon. Well, not much really. A nice little lighthouse keepers cottage, a bit of local shearing history, an old steam train that hauled stuff down the jetty and elsewhere an avenue of honour for the 645 casualties of HMAS Sydney II.

As a matter of interest we needed gas whilst here. Tried the local Caltex SS but at $46.00 figured it could wait. Remembered that Woolies/Caltex had cheaper gas. There’s one in town – out of gas today but they charge just $25.00. Its Sunday, will have fresh delivery Tuesday but if your need is urgent you’ll get some at Mitre 10 for $36.00. As it turned out we could wait until Tuesday because we thought there was more to see in Carnarvon. Picked up Woolies gas on Tuesday. How can it be – same product ranging from $25 to $46. Rip off.

One of the items on our bucket list has been to visit each of the most extreme points of the continent. We’ve now done north, east and south so west was next and now. So, from Carnarvon we continue down the coast to Denham. This is on Shark Bay, is next to the well known dolphin habitat of Monkey Mia and is the kick off point to get to Steep Point, the most westerly part of the Australian continent.

We overnighted at a ‘free camp’ just south of Denham only to be harassed by a council ranger at 7 am the next morning. We did notice a sign on entry that specified the need for a permit but phone call to council at 5.05 pm on our way in resulted in a ‘no response’. Ranger was apologetic but insisted we still owed money for permit and ‘he had our number’ – 15 bloody dollars to park up on dirt with absolutely no facilities except a nice view. The caravan parks in Denham have the council in their pockets. We then paid $44.00 per night to stay in the ‘overflow’ area of one of the parks. Ah well!

Denham is however a nice little town…..

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nicely placed on the beach of Shark Bay.

On our way into town we stopped at Ocean Park and found one of the best tourist attractions we have yet seen – an aquarium with a tour guide, a one hour journey through the world of fishes…

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sharks, stone fish, turtles, sea snakes and Nemo fish, all described and personified in detail. Very very interesting, excellent experience.

Some consultation with VIC and other locals led us to the conclusion that Suzi wouldn’t make it out to Steep Point – insufficient ground clearance. So, to achieve our objective our only option was to pay someone to take us. Attempted to book with service provider but nothing happening until a minimum number was reached. As it turned out 3 was the minimum (at $300.00 per head) and we had to wait 3 days for it to happen. In the meantime it was out to Monkey Mia to feed dolphins. Had to be there by 7.45 am. Horrendous hour but we got there along with 100 others. Good show though….

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and Jude even got to feed one. With a bit of time now to fill in we took a drive out to Frances Peron national park to experience an old sheep station. It was mildly interesting….

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a shearing shed and shearers quarters, a house/homestead not accessible to visitors and a hot spa from an artesian bore. Could have driven further out into the park but our experience on sand in Onslow had Jude a bit nervous, so back to solid land…DSC08160

Well nearly.

Managed to fill in another day while still waiting to hear if we’ve got a tour out to Steep Point. Call finally came late on Friday to say that tour was on for Saturday – a third person had been acquired and be ready for pick up at 6.30am.

Up bright and early (well up!) and picked up in jacked up wide tyred Land Cruiser…..

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met our travelling companion Roz  and tour guide Ralf and away we goed.

100km or so to the turnoff to Steep Point then let the tyres down. Hey this is serious. Aw! this doesn’t look too bad…

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and then it became a little more testing…DSC08267 DSC08375

As it turned out there was no way Suzi would have traversed the sand dunes.

Anyway, we made the Point ….

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and went on to explore the whole peninsula. Beautiful, stunning coastline and some of the best floral displays we’ve seen so far (and since) and fun sand dunes for that real offroad experience….

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It felt a bit like cheating and there’s no doubt I would have preferred to be driving but dear little Suzi would not have covered the ground. As it was the Cruiser did get bogged down in the sand but a bit of trial and error got us moving again. But, we’ve done it – explored the most westerly point of Australia. And its beautiful and rugged and exhilarating.

This entry is getting a bit long but I am catching up – I’m now only a couple of weeks behind. Part of the problem is the poor internet coverage down the coast. TV has been virtually non-existent except in towns and even then there are few receivable channels and phone reception has also been patchy. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

11 September 2015

Gorge ous

Karijini National Park was next in line for our attention. Didn’t know what to expect but it was on the road back to the coast from Newman. We’d perhaps heard it mentioned in conversation with others along the way but best to have a look. It is/was a surprise. Like so many other parks and places we weren’t expecting what we got. Even the Visitor Information Centre was a surprise….

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beautifully blended with the landscape. We were directed to Dales Gorge Campground which turned out to be good value at $13.20 per night (National Parks standard fee). Nice spot, well laid out, new long drop dunnies, all very well kept and serviced. Of course no water or power but we were allocated a “Generators Allowed” site which meant that we didn’t run the risk of running out of power. We didn’t really need it with the new batteries running on full, but one never knows!

Well, on to the sights. Obviously close by the first chasm was Dales Gorge….

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and most notable is the tree clinging to the side wall and that it all appears to be built of bricks and pavers. In a flat surrounding landscape this is a gouge in the face of the Earth not a gorge. We caught up with a young couple riding mountain bikes down the walking trail surrounding this chasm and thought “how clever”. Then the trail became a lot less defined so they had to carry their bikes for most of the distance – as it turned out “not so clever”. Bikes get bloody heavy as you scale 1.5 km of mountain trail. We didn’t offer to help! This completed day one in Karijini.

On the advice of the camp hosts (volunteers who man the traps) we headed straight out to Hamersley Gorge the next day. This is at the far western end of the Park and can only be accessed via dirt roads so it was to be a bit of a long haul, a round trip of 200k. As it turned out we were able to travel some 70 odd k on bitumen and the dirt roads weren’t too bad so we made good time. Worth the trip – absolutely. Its stunning as a geological/geographical sight….

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As it turned out the road condition left us with more day than we were expecting so it was back into the middle of the park to attempt to see some of the other gorges and rockpools. About 2 kilometres into the centre on the track that gets called a drive we decided we needed to keep poor Suzi alive for a lot longer. This track wouldn’t pass for a goat trail – wide enough for 20 goats but they’d trip over the corrugations. So back to camp for a nosh-up. Lots of people about but the layout of the campground was not conducive to good neighbourliness so we pondered the  clear skies by ourselves for the rest of the aftern0on and the magic star filled heavens later. It gets seriously dark out here!

Next day had us in Tom Price. Another mining town albeit a little older than Newman I think. Not a lot to see here particularly after having already done a mine tour at Newman so we took ourselves up to the top of Mount Nameless along naturally enough Mt Nameless Rd. The views were spectacular (the road less so)……

DSC07708 (1024x232) DSC07711 (1024x232) DSC07714 (1024x232) DSC07720 (1024x232) DSC07724 (1024x681) DSC07726 (1024x683) DSC07738 (1024x683)Whilst taking in the views we got chatting with Chris and Ron Wellington  from Qld. They headed off before us but we caught up later when we found them stranded on the downward journey, the car stopped in the middle of the track. Can you imagine calling the RAC to tell them they were broken down on Mt Nameless – “you’re where, on what road, whats the nearest intersection?”  – “its Nameless, there isn’t one” – Who’s on first, what’s on second!  It took some time for the RAC to decipher, but it was funny along the way. In the meantime dear little Suzi winched the big bad broken down car out of the middle of the road to let the poor confused Telecom worker heading up the mountain to pass. Once clear we went back to Winnie and not half an hour later Chris and Ron turned up. Just an air lock in the fuel line from low fuel in tank bounced around too much on the track. And thanks for the bottle of wine and chokkies.

We overnighted in a caravan park in Tom Price at a cost of $46.00 for a site on which we didn’t fit. Most times we are able to get a drive through site which will allow our 16.5 metres to be housed and also allow us to take the car off the trailer. In this case we said to the lass on the counter that we were 16.5 metres long to which she responded “no problem”, allocated our site and sent us off. Of course 16.5 metres is beyond the comprehension of young women –  we didn’t fit. As we were contemplating our options on site the owner appeared and suggested that we take up two sites (the one behind us) but we would have to pay another $46.00. Or we could disconnect and park the car on a different site beside us at no additional cost. DUH! Anyway we disconnected took up two sites and the one behind us remained vacant for the night. Some people just don’t understand the meaning of service!

Anyway, Tom Price got more of our money than we wanted to leave despite not paying for two sites. On the point of costs, this trip so far has been far and away the most expensive. Notwithstanding the repair costs, the tourist attractions and caravan parks and meal costs have all been far and away more costly than any we have experienced in the prior years.

We’ve covered close on 23000 km between the Winnie, Suzi and Robyns Prado. The one saving grace is the Winnie fuel economy, now sitting on 19.3 l/100km – down from 21.8 in previous years. This represents a fuel cost saving for this trip of around $$700.00. Still not enough to make up for all the other high  costs though.

This roundabout way to get back to the coast was sort of necessitated by our desire to see Newman and Karijini – pretty much a 800km detour. So back to Karratha, Dampier, Cossack and Roeburne on the coast. One priority was to pat Red Dog at Dampier…..

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Luvved the movie had to get to the source of the story.

Got a new router today. Still working it out. Internet is incredibly slow and preparing this has already taken some hours so time to publish and go to bed. A quick rush forward, we’re in Denham and have been waiting on confirmation of a tour to Steep Point, the most westerly point of continental Australia. Its now on in the morning and we are to be picked up at 6.00am so early to bed.

20 August 2015

A New Broome

Finally departed Derby, heading for Broome. Had a call from Xavier and Brenda to tell us they were at PCYC, an overflow van park in Broome cos they couldn’t get in to a regular one. Reckoned it was OK. So we headed straight there, only to find that it was also full. They managed to fit us into the overflow overflow, out back in a paddock without power or water, so for the next few days we persevered. We had planned a two-dayer to Cape Leveque in Suzi so that minimised the pain. On return from the Cape we were able to move to a powered site. Now, an unpowered site here is still $30.00 and a powered site just $5.00 more so we were happy to move in where we were also closer to amenities. But, here’s the rub. Power is so limited we couldn’t boil the electric jug, and, if we’d had aircon we couldn’t use it. To add to our frustrations on the last night whilst still in the unpowered section our solar batteries gave up the ghost. So here we are now waiting on a new aircon, needing new deep cycle batteries and waiting on parts for the washing machine and my CPAP. This is WA – Wait Awhile. And we did!

In the meantime we did go up to Cape Leveque. I’m not sure why other than its on the map. One of the options for the trip to the Horizontal Falls was to take their 4×4 bus up to Cape Leveque via a few beauty spots so we figured we could drive it easily. Out of Broome the road is dirt for the first 9ok or so…..

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but it does improve ….

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providing you’re on the lookout for donkeys (we did only see one). First port of call is Beagle Bay and its famous church…

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where pearl shell was once the local currency. This whole area down to Broome and even lower has a history of development via the harvesting of oyster shells – naca, or pearl shell used once upon a time for making buttons and buckles and other haberdashery  paraphernalia. The church is a monument to that history. Onwards to Cape Leveque, but first One Arm Point , which is the highest point of the cape. Pretty ordinary we thought…..

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so back to Cape Leveque for lunch. $54.00 for a couple of hamburgers seemed a bit steep though….

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but the view from the al fresco area was pretty good…..

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Then to the lighthouse and the beach on the other side of the little peninsula….

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We’d planned an overnight camp-out up here but the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm wanted $60.00 for a camp site and others weren’t available so we booked Goombaragin Eco Retreat at Pender Bay, about halfway up the Cape and late in the afternoon we made our way in….

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along about 45 km of sandy track. Lotsa fun though but Jude wasn’t so sure. The couple that run the Retreat are trying to make something of it and we can only commend them for the effort but it was a bit basic, even after supplying our own tent (which I neglected to get a photo of in situ). They felt the cold – it must have got down as low as 25 but….

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for Kath and John and son Jack a fire and warm clothing fixed the problem. We sat back about 25 metres.

The scenery around is quite dramatic….

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and our campsite was quite fruitful….

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back to Broome next day via Willie Creek Pearl Farm, just for the experience….

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Didn’t buy any!

Broome is known for another quirky phenomenon, the stairway to the moon. At full moon the light reflects off the water and the city capitalises on this….

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with a market and huge attendances….

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I forgot the tripod again and Jude couldn’t (or wouldn’t) stand still long enough for time exposure shots with the camera on her head so my “stairway” shots were not real good. Suffice to say though it was a bit of an anti-climax after thousands of people turned out to see it all over Broome.

Finally got the aircon replaced, the solar batteries replaced the washing machine door handle replaced but still had to wait extra time for the bit for my CPAP to turn up. Consequentially we had to move caravan parks cos after 1 August you had to have a pet to stay in the PCYC overflow caravan park and unfortunately Jude didn’t qualify. Broome Caravan Park, a bit out of town, became home base for our last couple of nights in Broome. Cable Beach is one of Broomes famous locations and it is very nice….

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particularly at sunset with the tide out.

We had to experience what is reputably the oldest operating “garden” cinema so our last night was spent with “the Man from Uncle” at the Sun Pictures outdoor theatre…

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which we shared with passing aeroplanes.

A bit earlier in our stay we joined with a few others in the caravan park on a bus tour of Broome..

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Some of the above are Ganthaume Point where there are supposed to be dinosaur prints in the rocks exposed at low tide. We didn’t experience a low enough tide so had to be content with the imitations in concrete.

Broome was hot – 33 pretty much every day and this is winter! But, we liked it. Couldn’t live here in the summer though and nor could we afford a house – average price is over 770k for a tin house (cyclone proof corrugated iron) and some very ordinary places run over $2m.

Our last little outing took in the Willie Creek Pearl Farm town display of pearl luggers and pearling dive equipment with a talk on the Broome history. Very interesting…..

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The diver starts at 60 kg and dons the gear to end up at 180kg – the helmet alone weighs 35kg. The pearl Judes holding is 22.4mm, but not perfect so is only worth $100,000. Whoops!

9 August 2015

Fall(s) Guy

We’ve talked about it, speculated, anticipated and budgeted for our trip to the Horizontal Falls. A planned highlight of this years journey, an opportunity to see something rare, certainly unique in this part of the world. We’ve read about tides second only to Nova Scotia in magnitude, up to 11.5 metres. So when it came time to book our Falls experience we were more than a bit surprised to learn that we had to wait for a later date because the proposed dates fell on a ‘neap’ tide. In effect, no falls – no tidal movement. Well we just had to wait. I suppose this would seem to be a bit of an anticlimax and given that the tidal range following a neap tide does not approach the maximum tidal height, we did think that perhaps we’d made a bad decision time wise. But, we’re here now so our choice of timing was now limited.

So on the 29th of July we took flight. Picked up by bus from the Derby caravan park along with 38 others we went to the airport to be shepherded into a terminal packed with returnees from the Falls. Four Cessna Caravans sat out front waiting for us to be loaded in weight for balance order. After being checked in, given our name tags and assigned our respective plane we traipse with our small hand luggage out into the afternoon heat, stand by our plane while we load our bits into a pontoon, are given our buoyancy vests, given our safety instructions and  then summonsed in to sit where our respective weights balance out the plane. Our pilot is just into puberty. Surely he is just the warm up  guy.

But no, he climbs into the pilot seat and cranks up the engine, puts on the headphones and then announces that he has done this before. We’re the first plane to move off. I find this encouraging cos it means that there are three to follow and they will be able to search for our bodies. I don’t like little planes and as most of you know I never really enjoyed flying so here we are in a little plane with a kid, wet behind the ears, in control with only one engine up front and we’ve already got our life vests on. Now Judes concern that we are flying over water and crashing brings on the sharks is all too real cos one of the features of this trip is a swim with the sharks so we know they’re out there. So we’re both a bit nervous, perhaps for quite different reasons. Bugger me, the flight was fantastic. As it turned out it was only half an hour but I could have comfortably flown further. Yes, there were a couple of rough patches but my flying lesson of so many years ago sort of prepared me for this. Cruising at 5500 feet allowed a great view of some beautiful landscape (which was also distracting) but there was a bit of haze in the air so photos are not brilliant…..DSC06657 (1024x683) DSC06658 (1024x683) DSC06660 (1024x683) DSC06662 (1024x683) DSC06666 (1024x683) DSC06670 (1024x683) DSC06671 (1024x681) DSC06672 (1024x683) DSC06676 (1024x683) DSC06677 (1024x684) DSC06679 (1024x681) DSC06680 (1024x681) DSC06681 (1024x681) DSC06685 (1024x683) DSC06697 (1024x683)

A mechanical voice (or is that maniacal) reminds the pilot to retract the wheels cos we are making a water landing. And so we did . Smooth as silk. In the course of conversation the pilot tells us that he, along with his colleagues spend about 8 hours a day in season flying this route, from Derby, Broome or Cape Leveque, backwards and forwards so went the attempt to further instil confidence. I must say I had no reservations about facing the return journey next day (although I was a little more comfortable still when our next day pilot seemed a little more mature).

On arrival we were greeted by another bunch of kids. I think the oldest was 22 and we know that cos it was his birthday. They were terrific. They knew their stuff. They were great hosts.

We had met two couples in Derby who flew out with us but they were relegated to another boatel so we only managed a catch up during the shark tank experience but that did nothing to detract from the occasion. Once relegated to our quarters it was all back on deck to board the boats. Two boats from our boatel, another smaller one from the other boatel all then set out to see and experience the Falls. It was a thrill ride……DSC06710 (1024x683) DSC06714 (1024x683) DSC06717 (1024x683) DSC06719 (1024x683) DSC06721 (1024x683) DSC06725 (1024x681) DSC06729 (1024x683) DSC06733 (1024x681)

this first trip just taking us into the wider falls and the first bay, as the narrower opening to the second bay was running too high for these 900hp boats to handle. Several passes through continued to exhilarate, even though the fall was not as great as the brochures depicted (only about 2 metres). Then it was off up the creek for a bit of a look at the coastline..

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until the tide turned for a return to the falls. The dark line you see along the base of the rock walls is the tide line – some 9 – 10 metres above where it was at this time (tide going out, nearly absolute low tide).

Back to the boatel for a dive with the sharks. There are two cages set into the pontoons around the boatel and the sharks swim in open water between them. Obviously the sharks and other fish know it is feed time because even before the feeder gets into her pit they are well and truly cruising through…..

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then the young lass gets into her own little cage as others look on from outside….

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and feeds the fish. These sharks are tawny nurses perhaps not the most dangerous species but sufficiently sized and quite capable of sucking off fingers and toes. Most of these were around 3 metres, although the little flat fish were just cute.

Then, back to the boats to ride the rapids into the second bay. By now the tide has turned and the two bays are filling up so the ride in was ‘downhill’. All quite exciting and exceptionally picturesque…..

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Several runs through the falls and then back to the boatels for dinner. The kids cooked up barramundi, enough for twice the number of people and served it with salads followed by a desert. Being BYO drinks were well taken care of although soft and tea/coffee was also plentiful. The evening was only a meal and it sort of petered out early as most peeled off to their cabins by about 9.00. A couple of stalwart drinkers made it to about 10 but it was all over by then. Probably just as well cos the next morning was a 6.00am start with a cooked brekky and another tilt at the falls before flying out back to Derby…..

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and all too soon it was over. The sights are beautiful, the experience exhilarating. It was pretty well as expected, perhaps a higher tide may have been that little bit more exciting but overall a great adventure. Price is high – $1690 for the two of us for just 20 hours but its is easy to see the cost of providing the service. Just the infrastructure and its maintenance are very obvious costs, coupled with the season only being about 8 months each year.

We loved it though!

We had planned to leave Derby the day after this but as we were not expecting our new aircon in Broome for some further 10 days and we expected caravan park fees to be over $50.00 per day there we opted to stay on for a few more days at the cheaper rate. Then as we were packing to leave eventually the bedroom slide out crapped out again and we had to stay on longer to repair it. For I think about the sixth time now the slide out drive shaft bolts sheered and whilst not a huge job it is a difficult one. We discovered a neighbour from Benalla was parked up next to us and his engineering skills were eventually brought to bear. Thanks Bill and Ro.

Derby we discovered is a very isolated township of some 5000 people. On the King Sound near the mouth of the Fitzroy River it bills itself as the first town in the Kimberley. A very large indigenous population but it has everything including a couple of gaols….

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the boab used as one cell, the water trough to water 500 head of cattle, an early “swimming pool”, a newer two cell gaol but one wonders who got to use the toilet and the newer gaol next door..

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Once a port for live cattle it really doesn’t serve much else other than tourism today. It is one end of the Gibb River Road, an infamous beef road that four wheel drivers seem to like to challenge. We heard some stories of wrecked vans and campers but people still boast of taking on the challenge….DSC06991 (1024x681) DSC06992 (1024x683) DSC06993 (1024x683) DSC06994 (1024x683)

We headed for Broome. We are there waiting parked up in an “overflow” caravan park cos all the other 5 or 6 are full. Our first few nights were in an unpowered section (also with no water) and the inevitable happened – our solar batteries gave up the ghost. Only $900.00 this time and we’re further from civilization than was the case back in 2013. The aircons about $2200.00, a handle for the washing machine which we are also awaiting is just $60.00 but put them together and we’ve more than expended the fuel savings anticipated from the new engine management chip ( in fact about 5 fold). This has turned into a costly trip but what the hell – we’re doin’ it!

We are now further from home than we have ever been but we are on the downhill run. We do actually get further from home before we turn back though. Hopefully heading off down the coast by 12 August providing all our bits arrive by then.

6 August 2015

Off to the Falls

Booked our trip to the Horizontal Falls on 21 July but couldn’t get on til 29 July, mainly cos they’re not operating during a neap tide. A WHAT? I hear you ask. Well let me enlighten you doubtful Thomases. A ‘neap’ tide is effectively a period of no tidal movement occasioned by the sun and moon being at right angles to the Earth (or 90′ to each other). Not much point looking at the falls when there aren’t any. SOOOO, bottom line we have some time to spare to get to Derby for our flight.

Now it is hot up here. Some days are approaching 40′. So now the aircon finally gives up the ghost. Not much to be done out here around Halls Creek so we park up for the day and head out of Halls Creek in the Suzi  down the Tanami Road to Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater. Set out about 1.00pm expecting to travel a return distance of 240 km in 3 or so hours (maybe 4) Ha! Tanami has a bit of a reputation as a car breaker but the first 100 or so km were OK – corrugated, dusty but passable at 80 – 90 k. BUT, get to the crater turnoff and the next 20 km took 1.25 hours…..DSC06541 (1024x232)

and then you see it. It is simply amazing….DSC06560 (683x1024)

The Tanami after dark is bloody scary – you are travelling in clouds of dust hovering in the still night air, the headlights are virtually useless and the kangaroos don’t care. Whilst we left the crater in reasonable daylight, nightfall here is 5.30 so we spent most of the return journey sightless. Needless to say we were buggered when we got back to Halls Creek, the truck was locked up stinking hot and no aircon. Wow what a thrill!

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Costs are rising so we determined to free camp for a few days on the way to Derby for our falls trip. Couple of nights at Ngumban Cliff lookout sweltering in 35′ heat (twas at least cooler overnight) thence into Fitzroy Crossing. Caravan Parked here cos Jude needed power and water to do some washing and , surprise, surprise the washing machine broke down (aircon, washing machine, fridge, toilet are all Dometic – absolute crap equipment).

Anyway, we took a town tour which culminated in a river cruise through Geike Gorge on the Fitzroy River. Our tour guide was most knowledgeable about the history of Fitzroy Crossing and the Kimberleys  generally.

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One of the early crossings…

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and one of the later ones….

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still a single lane and this is Highway 1. Waited half an hour to cross.

Whilst in Fitzroy Crossing we met Xavier and Brenda Micallef who, with Martin and Mary were also waiting for the 29th to do The Falls trip so a friendship of common interests was formed. They headed off a day or so before us and we caught up again in Derby before flying out on the 29th.

We secured a site in Derby with some difficulty and headed there on the 28th. Managed to get an aircon man to check us out on the morning of 29th before our flight, only to learn that the aircon was effectively not repairable. Great start to our Falls trip which has already set us back $1690.00. Now we’ve got to add about $2200.00 to the day and wait two weeks to get a unit from Melbourne to Broome.

But, we took off for the Falls anyway. This is one of those items on the bucket list and we ain’t gunna miss it for dollars. As I think this bit of the journey is so special I’ll devote another entire entry to it tomorrow but here’s an opener

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We’re fairly sure the pilot hadn’t reached puberty.

13 July 2015

Kakadu, Kakadon’t

Edith Falls interrupted our journey from Katherine to Kakadu. Robyn had stopped there years ago and remembered it as a nice place to be. But, like so many other nice places up here, demand for sites is high. You’ve got to get in early. So, just 50 or so k’s from Katherine, we were early. Good God – not early enough. We got a site allocated to us that would take us and Robyns van end to end, manouvered the truck through some very cramped turns only to find a caravan already inhabiting the allocated site, in fact parked in the middle so neither of us could get in. Blocked the roadway and walked back to the booking kiosk only to be told that some other person had booked in the offending van and hadn’t recorded it so Robyn would have to go elsewhere and we had to negotiate with the other occupier to make space. After an awful lot of ‘negotiating’ he moved just sufficient for us to park up without blocking the driveway altogether. Didn’t have room to slide out the lounge though. No services here although there were showers and toilets of the bush variety – adequate.

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It was a lovely spot ultimately. We did go for a swim and believe it or not it was most pleasant after the HEAT of the day.

Well it was another day. On to Kakadu. Now this is one of those places that continued to appear on our bucket list. We had anticipated via the power of advertising a tropical paradise. As we drove into the National Park the expectation grew, but all we were seeing was subtropical landscape, not at all dissimilar to what we might see at home but without the usual tall gum trees. Oh it must get better as we get further north, surely. Small palms did actually eventuate, hidden between other trees of nondescript breeds but they hardly seemed tropical. Our first stop was the rangers station to acquire our National Park passes for $25.00 per head but being Sunday there was nobody home. Sign said go to the Cooinda Resort to get your pass so since we planned to stay there anyway we did. The objective being to take the Yellow River cruise to spot crocodiles in the wild one had to stay somewhere in proximity so the Resort was it for us. Queued up to get in, half hour to check in then relegated to the backblocks down near the mosquito swamp. No outside socialising this evening. Booked the morning sunrise cruise (with breakfast) @ $99.00 per person. Two hours on the water followed by brekky starting at bus stop at 6.15 am. They should be paying ME. Sat in the boat as mozzie food for 15 minutes or so whilst the sun came up. But it did and it was good..

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Then we went to see (Yellow River anyway). Like sailing on a pond with the odd ‘log’ crossing our path..

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some beautiful scenery, but is this the great tropical north? The crocs were docile the birds were plentiful but is this what we’re in Kakadu for? We’ve seen pictures of jumping crocs, people swimming in tropical pools, beautiful vistas, romantic encounters – where is all of the advertised propaganda? Well. we’re still looking for most of it.

Nourlangie  had to be it. A bit further in, a haven for Aboriginal art and a supposedly stunning rock formation….

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It was OK, but we can’t understand the ‘art’.

Overnighted in Jabiru. Quite a nice park, actually lucky to get in apparently. School holidays and of course peak season when all the southerners descend on the north, but not as busy as usual. Still a queue to get in though.

Next stop Ubirr, another repository for Aboriginal art and great rocks. This is the most northerly accessible bit of Kakadu…..

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Again some beautiful scenery, incomprehensible art work but no hot springs or tropical pools or romantic hideaways although there were a couple of hot chicks wandering about.

Next day out of Kakadu. Stopover at the Bark Hut Inn for nibblies then on to Adelaide River to tease some real live big game crocs. We were advised to take the small boat as opposed to the big cruise ship if we wanted to get up close and personal with crocs. Found the spot some 15 ks along a dirt track. A bit of a trial for the Hovel but we made it in and out in one piece. The ‘cruise’ was up to expectations – we really did get up close and personal with some seriously prehistoric beasts ……

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and our cap’n Harry in the little boat. These were all different crocs. We were continuously warned to keep body parts inside the boat. You better believe I needed no second warnings. These are seriously dangerous critters, but fascinating to see them in their own environment. One of them, I think the first, was over 5 metres long, about half the length of the boat. This is more like it – this is what we came to see. But, its outside the park. Kakadon’t

This night we pulled in to Darwin. It is/was a Wednesday 1st July. Wow, a new FY. Where’d the last one go? Found ourselves ensconced in the back yard of Terry and Mels 10 acres at Coolalinga, some 20 k out of Darwin, adjacent to Robyns nephew Mitch’s outback shack also in Terry and Mels back yard. Found the company of Mitch’s partner Danielle along with her visiting (from the UK) parents Ian and Anne and for the next week had great conversation and meals and drinkies every night. Robyn, Jude and I explored Darwin over the week and I must say found it to our liking, at least in the ‘winter’ months. Temperature hovered around 32 every day and plummeted to 23 overnight – love winter in the tropics. It was still a bit humid though.

Darwin is now quite a sophisticated city if you can get past the layabout style of the Darwinians. Every one of them reminded us that NT stands for “not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday” but you can get past this too if you accept the lifestyle. It is “outback, colonial” but is has its attributes. No hurry. Mind you slow it may be in the winter – what must it be like in the ‘summer’ when its wet and really really hot and humid and half the state is closed down cos of water over everything? The crocodile tour operator cap’n Harry probably has the right idea – he spends winter up here and summer on the Gippsland Lakes.

The Darwin Experience at the war memorial/museum is fantastic. An audio visual presentation of the air raid over Darwin of 1942 is frighteningly realistic. The facts surrounding it and subsequent activity around the top end makes for some very interesting study. Stuff that we were not generally aware of and not well known history of this part of Australias’ involvement in WWII.

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Given the ravages of cyclone Tracy in 1974 I didn’t expect the extent of high rise development around the city…

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Mindil Beach markets are a Thursday and Sunday event here. Lots of stalls with foods and clothes, all a bit like Eumundi on the Sunshine Coast in Qld but here you pick your food choices and sit on the beach to gaze at sunsets while you eat. It is quite loverly and clearly appeals to lots of people….DSC06085 (1024x683) DSC06086 (1024x683) DSC06087 (1024x683) DSC06093 (1024x683) DSC06096 (1024x683) DSC06097 (1024x683)

The remnants of WWII provide a sobering backdrop to Darwin. All along the Stuart Highway as far south as Daly Waters are remnants of airstrips. There’s probably a dozen or so. Then there’s the fuel storage tanks under Darwin a couple of which are now opened as tourist attractions. Without going back to Dr Google I can’t remember their overall storage capacity but its in the 1000’s of tons of fuel oil, all because the Japs blew up the existing facilities at the port….DSC06021 (1024x681) DSC06023 (1024x683) DSC06024 (1024x684) DSC06026 (1024x684) DSC06027 (1024x683) DSC06028 (1024x683)

These things are massive. 180metres long 4.0 wide 5.0 high but never fully completed or used. 11 planned, 6 built but only 2 used sometime after the war I think is the story. Budget blowouts back in the 40’s brought a stop to the entire project. An incredible project for the time though. Equally, the Stuart Highway was only pushed through during the war to facilitate the movement of troops and equipment to defend Australias’ northern coastline. There are still also a variety of big gun emplacements around, two of which are at the Darwin Experience War Museum although the guns themselves were sold off to the Japs later for scrap metal.

Whilst Darwin is a fairly young city it does have some historical buildings, some of which survived Tracey….

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A Darwin day was lost waiting for an auto-elec. to check a problem we still have with the fridge. He was due at 8.30am, turned up at 1.00pm. He also checked the CB to no avail but I had it fixed elsewhere, surprise, surprise for Darwin, overnight. Great service from Car Comm. Now the aircon is on the blink and we’re back in Katherine waiting for a serviceman.

After leaving Darwin we just had to take in Litchfield Park. Not only has this place been heavily advertised on Victorian country TV it was also heavily promoted up here as the forgotten cousin to Kakadu. Perhaps that should have served as a deterrent but in we went. I mean, after all, we are here. We probably won’t get back, so do everything that should be done whilst here. Well its a poor cousin to Kakadon’t. Tried the Wangi Falls camp ground first – national Park, cheap rates but gotta get in early. We did but all the sites that would accommodate our ‘big rig’ each housed one ‘wizz bang’. All of the small sites that would comfortably take the wizz bangs were empty. Back out of the National Park to a commercial caravan park, unhitch Robyns Prado and back in to see the sights. Frankly, not much to see. The Wangi Falls are OK, the ‘magnetic’ termite mounds are interesting (north-south orientation), the Lost City is a fascinating rock formation but altogether Litchfield was a disappointing experience……..

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On our way out we stopped at the Batchelor butterfly farm. Lovely little presentation by the owner then left to wander the butterfly enclosure….

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and feed the rabbits and goats….

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Daly River seemed to be the next logical destination as we turned south to get back to Katherine. Katherine is the jumping off point to head to WA, at least if you want to do it on bitumen but there were a couple of places along the return which needed to be visited. We’ll get to them next entry. This has been a big catch up, primarily because reception has been poor in most places (Darwin was OK but we had better things to keep us amused).

Fuel consumption continues to fall, albeit slowly now. We’re down to 19.5l/100km. I continue to hear stories of 200series Landcruisers towing vans getting just 22l/100km so I reckon we’re doing very well in our 10.5 tonne behemoth.

 

 

 

26 June 2015

Ever Northward

We left Alice and headed north again on Tuesday (I think). The Stuart highway is a bit like the Hume – boring, although its only two lanes. If we were driving something different it might be OK but 130 in the truck is not fun. There are also some unrestricted bits of the road. Would you believe there is no outdoor advertising in this state. But there was a bit of a break crossing the “tropic of Capricorn”……

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At some point, I think still a little south of the tropic of Capricorn latitude we passed over the highest point of the Stuart Highway between Adelaide and Darwin….

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It doesn’t actually tell you how high you are but I guess that’s cos we are so far from any ocean its a bit hard to judge how high above sea level it is! It all must be pretty flat where we’ve been over the last 8 weeks though because the fuel economy keeps improving – we’re down to 19.6l/100km. Part of that also must be attributed to the new engine management chip. Its better than a 10% improvement over last year. At an average fuel rate of $1.65 per litre we should save over $600 for this trip, however we have spent or will spend it on accommodation as caravan parks are quite expensive here ($50.00 per night at Kings Canyon for example) and the few free camps are typically full before lunchtime as we pass by.

Took a detour to a place that looked interesting on the map – Gemtree. 70 km up the Stuart from Alice and another 70km east we expected an Andamooka or even a Yowah. What we got was not any one of them. Really just a low end roadhouse with a caravan park that stood amongst rocks in which the avid fossicker could find zircon or garnet. Garnet! This is the stuff you get on low end sandpaper. Maybe all these fossickers have an axe to grind. But some who experienced the search that we met further on reckoned it was worth a night or two scratching around in the dirt. This is how attractive the place looks……DSC05065 (1024x683) DSC05066 (1024x683) DSC05067 (1024x683) DSC05068 (1024x683) DSC05069 (1024x683)

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The same people we met later did say though that the local hospitality and the billabong bistro meals were excellent. Just as well we left Alice with full tanks cos there was no diesel available in Gemtree until the next weeks delivery arrived.

Back to the highway and on to Aileron, the next spot on the map. Roadhouse, caravan park and hordes of non-reflective people milling about with slabs for deodorant (underarm that is). Didn’t appeal as an overnight so on to Ti-Tree, just a bit further up. Another roadhouse but slightly more enticing. After dinner guest from Germany, Melanie, entertained with stories of her love life, travels and mishaps. Travelling by herself now from Darwin she was in a rental campervan, going on to Alice and then back. Had already done the east coast. Tried for another sunset shot … failed again but the dusk sky was interesting….

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but a fairly reasonable spot to have parked up for the night.

We were headed for the Devils Marbles from here but made another stop along the way at Barrow Creek, the site of another historic Telegraph Station. The telegraph station was certainly interesting but perhaps somewhat eclipsed by DSC05103 DSC05105 (1024x683) DSC05106 (1024x683) DSC05107 (1024x683) DSC05108 (1024x683) DSC05109 (1024x683) DSC05110 (1024x683) DSC05111 (1024x683) DSC05113 (1024x683) the eclectic tavern…….

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Probably not the place you would choose to experience haute cuisine but the truckie that provided us shade was tucking into a plate of beans like it was his last fine meal…

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and the dogs were actually real live ones. Dunno what they did to warrant their incarceration in the sin bin.

Then there was Wauchope….

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where lots of non-reflective people and little green men have landed to spend their ration vouchers.

Well we made it finally to The Devils Marbles and found half of Australia was already there. Managed to find a couple of sites side by side after another couple moved over for us and set up shop before we went sight seeing….

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Words can’t do justice to the spectacle of this landscape…..

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and there’s not enough space on these pages to display all of our shots. You’ve gotta gotta go.

Onwards, ever onwards. Tennant Creek next, small town with shops and all, but clearly a very high indigenous population. Out to the visitor information centre east of town which really didn’t help our decision making. A mine tour was on offer at $49.00 per head if we chose to wait around for a couple of hours but having done other such tours over past years it didn’t have a lot of appeal so we moved on to the local water supply where we were attacked by a flock of killer geese (although they became friendly enough after I took their photos) and then to the old Tennant Creek telegraph station……

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I’m guessing the old batteries illustrated were eventually superseded by the plastic wrapped models above. These were used to power the telegraph line in some way which defeats my understanding.

Next overniter was Threeways. The intersection of the Stuart and Barkly Highways. It was just a place to stop after a not overly tiring day but it turned interesting as most of them do when 4 lots from Benalla pulled in beside us and then the 2015 Volvo challenge group dropped in as well. The Volvo challenge was all about trying to go the furthest distance in the cheapest Volvo any of them could buy – the average price was $800.00…..

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Some of the participants were a bit young but at  least they were learning a lesson in uniformity and durability.

The less than locked in stone agenda called for a stopover at the Daly Waters Pub. We were advised that it was unwise to arrive there late in the day as you were likely to be turned away, so popular is the place. So we chose to stop about 100km short of there to facilitate an early arrival the next day. About 2.00pm we pulled into a roadside stop near Newcastle Waters only to find a multitude of similarly advised nomads. By about 3.00pm you couldn’t fit another vehicle although a couple of small cars and wiz bangs squeezed in between vans etc. Some 35 lots parked up in a roadside stop but it turned into a night of ‘high’ entertainment with drinkies and sing songs all round….DSC05246 (1024x683) DSC05247 (1024x683)

thanks Colin!

A little further on we happened into the deserted village of Newcastle Waters, a site being preserved to retain the spirit of droving. This place was apparently something of a crossroads on the droving trails of NT back when such things weren’t done by truckies….

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but now its not much more than a collection of tumbling down sheds. There are a couple of private residences still here and it seems the little school still works but the whole place, if its going to be a memorial, really needs some TLC.

Well we still had time to make Daly Waters before lunch but it was a race and bugger me there was a bloody queue. Finally we made the head of the queue whereupon we were asked to order dinner along with our park booking and we also had to decide which sitting we required. WTFRwe. This popular?. Well as afternoon drifted on so too did new arrivals until eventually they were parked up in the roadways. We chose the 6.30 sitting cos the music started up at 6.00 but we could have gone 7.00, 7.30 or 8.00 and the crowds moved through. Our Colin from the night before was the opening act, eventually followed by another guy whose name escapes me but it was good music throughout. The pub is famous for its Barra and Beef dish but the girls went just for barra but I had to do both. Twas good tucker and absolutely worth the fare. I must add that the hospitality is phenomenal. Upon booking in and our food order taken we left the bar to return to the vehicle some distance away and the waiter came trotting after us. He had forgotten to ask how my steak was to be done! Then we were directed into our sites by Ed on his bike…..

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and theres Colin and the other guy singing for their supper

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Then who should sit down beside us but Jim Richards and wife on their third or fourth visit after returning from the V8 races in Darwin.

The food was good, the entertainment good, the hospitality good, the prices right, an altogether fun night. And I would recommend it to other travellers.

Mataranka hot tubs call us onwards. Again ya gotta get in early to savour this experience although it turned out to be not quite as critical as Daly Waters. We actually bared the soul (or is that ar…) later in the day and again the following day to partake of the aerated waters of the Mataranka hot springs. But, the highlight was the dinner show. Main meals $16.50 quickly delivered, happy hour 20% off all drinks 5 – 6, and singers and a whip cracker all beside a blazing campfire through the evening. The shows were great. The second night featured our newest best friend Colin followed again by the whipcracker….

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DSC05402 (1024x683) DSC05419 (1024x683) DSC05422 (1024x683)And here’s Colin and Ponand Robyn and Jude enjoying the show…

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Then there were the hot pools, only they were stocked primarily by grey nomads looking for a new lease on life….

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I must say this is one pool in which it doesn’t feel right to pee. The water is just too clear and probably warmer than your own pee so it might leave a cool trail.

A bit further up the road is Bitter Springs, another artesian pool and a very pretty sight…

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I’ve gotta get this up before the interwebby thingy heaves a last gasp. It is sooooo slooooow!

We’re at Katherine Gorge although due to leave am on the morrow but I’ll get to that cos there’s also a lot of photos which take ages to upload in this restricted environment and I just mightn’t live long enough to get there.