Brisbane to Darwin and back again

[Rumpig]

DAY 19: DARWIN - SHADY CAMP

After a few days resting up in Darwin we are back on the road again, this time bound for Shady Camp, we chose this spot to visit just because we saw footage of a ******** load of crocodiles there at the weir wall on a Gall Brothers dvd, and we thought we have to go see that :Wow1:
Heading out past Humpty Doo the pub was closed as i expected it to be, we continued on and were soon turning left towards Fogg Dam. Now i previously mentioned getting some local knowledge from Joe the other night, and heading here was one such suggestion from him. At the end of this road we have just turned onto is the Adelaide River, and if ever you want to see crocodiles up close, then this is one place to come to where you'll certainly get to do that. Along certain stretches of the Adelaide River, a few companies run what is called Jumping Crocodile Cruises, Joe suggested Adelaide River Cruises out near Fogg Dam was the better of the companies to go visit if we wanted to do the jumping crocodile thing. Now for those who don't know how it works, basically the operators of the boats you cruise the river on, hold food out over the edge of the boat and get crocodiles to leap out of the water to eat it. i'm not going to go into the pros and cons of such a concept, but i will say that our family and all the other people aboard our boat on that day certainly did enjoy themselves. Morgan who was the skipper of the boat we were on, went out of his way to make sure we had a great experience, even running half an hour longer then scheduled to get to all the places he wanted to visit due to the higher then normal tide in the river and be sure we saw lots of crocs.

YES THAT BOAT IS QUITE LOW TO THE WATER...KEEPS YA HANDS AND HEADS IN!!!!

ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?

THEY CERTAINLY GET OUT OF THE WATER

First up we headed down the river, the females pretty much stay in the same locations and are fairly easily found, they hear the boat coming and are usually waiting or quickly appear for a feed. There are 2 big males in the section of river we were on, but they could be anywhere and there was no gaurantee we'd see either of them today. With our run down the river complete we'd seen about 4 or 5 crocs jumping out of the water for a feed, Morgan turned the boat around and started heading back from where we had came, still in search for one of the really big boys. Passing back past the jetty we launched from we were soon treated to a pretty small croc getting almost completely out of the water, these little fellas sure could leap

THE LITTLE FELLAS GOT COMPLETELY OUT OF THE WATER

Pressing on up the river some more and we were in luck....Dominator as he is named is a large male croc of about 5 and a half metres in length (not sure who climbed on him to measure him though...lol). When i look at all the pics of i have of this croc, they don't do his size any justice, this thing was MASSIVE!!!!! It really was a treat to see a croc of this size up this close, you just wouldn't want to end up in the water with him that's for sure.

ABOUT 5.5 MTRS LONG, HIS HEAD IS ABOUT EVEN WITH OURS HERE AND HIS BODY STILL IS IN THE WATER. HE WAS MASSIVE!!! (that's it's tail in the background)

With time now up we returned back towards the jetty, Morgan let all the kids have a quick sit in the Captains chair and steer the boat on the run back, which certainly capped off a great trip for all the kids onboard.
Back at our vehicles we headed off towards the highway where we'd turn left and continue on towards Shady Camp for the nights camping. As we left the property the cruise runs from, we passed through the old Humpty Doo Rice fields, these fields apparently were abandonded i was told due to all the Magpie Geese eating the crops all the time.

HUMPTY DOO RICE FIELDS

Turning left onto the highway and soon we saw what was quite a common sight up in these parts, a 4 trailer roadtrain. These trucks are bloody huge and we were lucky that the only time we ever needed to pass one, we were on a dual lane carraige way.

THEY BREED EM BIG UP HERE

With lunch time now upon us we pulled into the Bark Hut Roadhouse, some of us made our lunches outside whilst others ducked in and grabbed some take away. With lunch eaten we pushed on and were soon turning left off of the highway towards Shady Camp, i think from memory it's about 80 klms from the turn off to Shady Camp (?) the majority of the road is bitumin with the last 15 odd klms being a really well graded (at the time) gravel road that any family 2wd sedan could have negotiated with ease.
Pulling into the campground i'm not sure why it's called Shady camp, i think someone is taking the piss, because trees are few and far between so it's mostly an open paddock. Maybe it should be called Not So Shady Camp....lol. We set up camp for the evening then went down towards the boat ramp / weir wall area to have a look for crocs. To the right of the weir wall is a tidal river, the water was completely out and nothing but a massive mud flat was to be seen, no crocs at all either. To the left of the wall is a big lagoon which most certainly wasn't somewhere you wanted to go swimming, out in front of us we could see a few big crocs, the more we looked the more we saw. Before long we were up to atleast a dozen in an area less then 100 mtrs in front of us.

THE MORE WE LOOKED THE MORE WE SAW HIDING IN UNDER TREES

Looking at the lagoon was to tempting, we raced back to the vehicles and grabbed our fishing rods, there has to be barra in there we said. With the guys about to start fishing, the ladies took the kids for a walk abit further upstream to a crocodile and bird viewing building, i'd like to tell you what it was like there but i never ventured up to it myself. When my wife returned she made comment about all the crocs up there and how she had seen a nest in the trees she thought the ants had made.

POSSIBLE NEST MADE BY ANTS?

With more important things to worry about, like catching fish and not getting eaten by crocs, we continued casting into the lagoon before Michael finally hooked up onto something. Reeling it in it was a barra but just a few centremetres under size, so it got a life and was duely returned back from where it came from.

MICHAELS CATCH

Not wanting to be out done i was soon hooked onto something myself and reeling it in, it was my first ever barra but just like Michaels it was a touch under sized and also duely returned to the lagoon to live another day.

MY FIRST EVER BARRA

With the sun now starting to set and it getting dark, we left 2 locals to continue on their fishing here whilst we went and had some dinner, we said we'd come back later and see how they were going, to which they replied "no worries just don't bring a torch near the water, it upsets the barra". Basically these 2 guys fish, standing right near the waters edge in pure darkness, a fishing style you will never ever see me copying
With dinner eaten we put the kids to bed and Glen and I returned down to the weir wall just in time to see 2 more car loads of guys arrive with their kids to start fishing. These guys had torches out and we could clearly see them throwing rocks at the crocs sitting on the weir wall to chase them back into the water so they could fish there :Wow1: :Wow1: By now the water from the river had come back in with the tide and it was flowing over the weir wall, the new arrivals chucked their kids on their shoulders and walked through the bit over ankle deep water to the other side of the weir wall, throwing more rocks and chasing crocs off as they went :yikes: :yikes:
With the no torch light request already broken by the other guys who'd just arrived, we shone our torches over the river to our right, and about a dozen sets of croc eyes lit up out in front of us, so now it was crocs to the right and lefthand sides. Turning around to the left we shone the torches across the lagoon infront of us (by now the other 2 fishermen had given up and moved away elsewhere due to the other guys arrivals), out in front of us would easily have been 50 - 60 crocodiles :Wow1: the water lit up like someone had thrown red party lights across the water, it truely was amazing and a bit scary at the same time. We watched for a half hour or so whilst the new arrivals started trying their luck at fishing, but not wanting to see anyone get eaten tonight we left them at it and returned to camp and went to sleep.

 

[charlieaarons]

hopefully they are good ones Charlie...lol.
when were you in Oz?

The truck was in Oz Sept 2010 through Feb 2012. We were there an elapsed total of 8 months on 4 segments. Yes they are good memories.

Charlie

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 20: SHADY CAMP - KAKADU

Packing up early to avoid the heat of the sun, we quickly ate some breakfast before driving our vehicles over near the boat ramp / weir wall. After having caught my very first barra yesterday i wanted another crack at atleast catching one of legal size this time, but unfortunately all i ended up doing was losing another lure in the snags in the lagoon, all up i think i lost 3 lures here, but it was fun anyway.

A QUICK FISH OFF THE WEIR WALL BEFORE LEAVING SHADY CAMP (yes i am wearing the same clothes again today ....... lol
On a side note, see that bend in the lagoon up on the righthand side, now imagine shining a torch up to that lastnight and seeing 50 - 60 sets of croc eyes between where i'm standing and about there, that was what we saw :Wow1:

THIS SIGN AT THE WEIR WALL IS HERE FOR A REASON!!! IF IT'S CROCS YOU WANT TO SEE, THEN COME TO SHADY CAMP!!!

With no luck catching anymore fish we headed off back to the highway and turned left towards Kakadu. I have no idea how far we travelled, but after a while we reached the place where you buy your permit before entering Kakadu National Park, all people 16 years of age and over need to buy a permit, and the price of the permit is $25 each, which covers you for a 14 consecutive day period inside the park. With our permits sourced and paid for, we continued on up the highway and were soon stopping to take a pic as we entered Kakadu itself.


LEAVING SHADY CAMP

ENTERING KAKADU NATIONAL PARK

As we continued on along the highway, we were doing some reading up on where we planned to stay whilst we were at Kakadu for a few days. The place we had planned on staying at, didn't allow generators apparently which Pete and Esther needed for staying more then one night somewhere, so we needed to come up with another option of where to stay. Doing the sums it wasn't that much more expensive to stay in Jabiru at a powered site in a caravan park, then it was to stay elsewhere paying the camping fee and then the cost of fuel for the genny on top of that. So with this in mind we decided to stay at Aurora Kakadu Lodge & Caravan Park and venture out to places to visit from there. Arriving at the van park we checked in and were told where the powered sites were and to just go and pick one, the park literally has 100's of powered sites and all are nicely grassed (unpowered is in the dirt by the way and not all that nice IMHO). Driving around the park the place was practically a ghost town (well not quite, plenty of people in cabins, but the powered camping area was super low on numbers), it was hard to imagine that this place is probably jam packed full of tourist camping about a month or so earlier, but being late in the season it really is low on numbers. i will mention now that the lady at reception said not to leave anything out at night, as dingos were roaming the park in the evenings and shoes and towels and anything else left out were getting eaten / chewed up by them.
Finding a nice big grassey drive through campsite, we set about setting up for a few days stay. Being that it was a few days stay, we chucked the awning up on the camper for just the second time this trip (Darwin was the first time), to give us some much needed shade. With it now being a bit after lunch time, we had a bite to eat before making our way over to the pool area, where we lazed about for a few hours cooling off, we thought about going somewhere and doing a walk, but it really was just to hot to bother in our opinions. As the afternoon rolled on, Glen decided to head into Jabiru to get some supplies from the shops and decided to park around the back of the shopping centre, he returned a while later to tell of how 2 "locals" tried to mug him and steal his wallet from him :Wow1: . Now if you look at some of the pics thus far posted, you may notice that Glen isn't a small boy, weighing about 115 kg and being atleast 6ft tall, i'm not sure exactly what these 2 guys thought they were doing. Glen apparently gave one of the guys a bit of a touch up, whilst the other one quickly backed away not wanting what his mate just copped...lol. Glen quickly made for the safety of the shops, not knowing if more guys were about to join in against him, and mentioned his encounter with a shop owner inside. The shop owner then replied that this was not uncommon, but it hadn't happened for a while now, he also mentioned that normally it's the women doing it against other women as they try and steal their handbags, so take this as a word of warning should you go here.
Back at camp and with all this behind him, we all sat back and relaxed the afternoon and night away with a few drinks and a good feed. Sure enough as warned, just as the sun started to set, a couple of dingos were seen roaming around the campgrounds. The dingos were seen each night we were here, and they seemed to be roaming the park all night, not just a quick visit, so if you have little kids you need to keep this in mind!!! One thing i did notice about the dingos up here, is how different in colour they are to the ones we are used to seeing on our regular visits to Fraser Island back at home. The Fraser Island dingos are quite red in colour, but these dingos were very Sandy in colour, i also saw one that was almost black all over aswell when we were leaving Kakadu. (sorry no decent pics of dingos from here, but i do have some later on from The Devils Marbles)

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 21: KAKADU

Today our plan was to drive out and see Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls, it was about 50 - 60 klms down the bitumin from where we were camped before you turn left, the road turns to a gravel road here and you continue on for about another 50 odd klms. When i say the road was good, it was a fair bit corrogated, nothing in comparrison to what we had already encountered on our trip already, but not something i'd want to drive along in the family 2wd sedan for 50klms. At the end of this gravel road is the Garnamarr campground, we didn't go in for a look, but from what i could see from the road,it wasn't to bad a place for a stop over if the need be required here.

DIRT ROAD INTO GARNAMARR

From here the road instantly becomes a 4wd only track of about 20 klms in lenght to the car park area of Twin Falls. Before continuing on along the 4wd track, we purchased our tickets for the boat ride at Twin Falls from a man on the side of the road (he lives here and has a table and chair set up on the side of the road where he sells the tickets from), the cost is $12.50 per adult and our kids were free (i'm not sure at what age they start charging). You need to pay for this boat ride if you want to go to the bottom of Twin Falls, i think you can walk to the top of the falls free of charge from the carpark, but we didn't do this so i'm not 100% on where exactly the other tracks go.
With boat ride tickets purchased i locked my hubs in on the fourby and we started off along the 4wd only track. The track itself is a fairly easy drive, some softish sand along the way in places, but in the main part it's just a slow going windy track through the bush. In one spot we did come across a fairly decent sized hole in the road that would have 4wd's with a standard height suspension set up testing themselves (my guess is it's not here all the time, just been created during this season), i wouldn't be surprised if this hole claimed a plastic bumper or 2 over time from the vehicles with not alot of ground clearance. Being that the vehicles in our group all have atleast a 2" suspension lift, we breezed through the hole and continued on along our way. Reaching the turnoff to Jim Jim Falls we turned right in some very soft sand and headed for Twin Falls. The advice we had been given by the man selling boat ride tickets, was to go see Twin Falls first as you can't swim there, before heading to Jim Jim Falls where you could later cool off after doing most of your walking.
Continuing on to Twin Falls we were soon at the Jim Jim Creek crossing, we'd crossed a couple of small creek along the way already but these were of no real consequence. Jim Jim Creek has a concrete base to the crossing so traction isn't real an issue, the water height here is what can make this crossing difficult at times, but seeing as it is so late in the dry season the water is down to about half a metre in depth, and of no real concern to anyone crossing it today.

CROSSING JIM JIM CREEK

It's not that much further and we are soon arriving in the carpark area of Twin Falls, we park the vehicles and grab our gear out, whack on some sunscreen and start the short walk down the track to the boat which will take us up the gorge towards Twin Falls. Arriving at the waiting boat, we climb aboard and set off on the short journey up the gorge. The aboriginal guy driving the boat is from a local tribe and gives us a run down of the area whilst we cruise up the gorge. We soon arrive at a spot where we disembark the boat and then need to follow a marked trail climbing over rocks to the falls a short distance away. Before leaving us to our walk, we are shown the uhf radio that is left in a box at the boat pick up point, so that when we return to this location, we can radio back to base and get the boat to come and pick us up for the trip back down the gorge.

BEAUTIFUL VIEW FROM THE BOAT RIDE UP THE GORGE

Starting out on the walk you soon realise that whilst it may be short in distance it is still a bit of a workout, especially if you have a 3 year old along with you, if you have any issues with your knees or the like, i probably wouldn't reccomend you do this walk at all. Some of the walk is easy going, but other sections have you climbing around the edge of rocks leaving only a small ledge for you to walk along, not hard if i was on my own, but made abit more difficult as i carried my youngest daughter to make sure she didn't fall off the edge and onto the rocks below.

ONE OF THE LEDGES YOU WALK ALONG, IT GETS SKINNIER AROUND THE CORNER

Once past the above ledge it's not long before you reach a spot where you can no longer continue climbing over the rocks. Here you will find a small section of floating pontoon to walk across, at each end of the pontoon they have installed showers that you use to cool yourself down with along the way. The showers have a handle that you lift up and down to pump the water up out of the crystal clear stream below, we used these on the way to the falls and on the way back again, they really were a great idea IMHO.

FLOATING BOARDWALK ALONG THE WAY

A little bit further on and you are soon popping out onto a beach of white sand and standing at the base of Twin Falls. The one downside to coming up around these parts so late in the dry season is evident with how little water is flowing over the falls at the moment compared to what it would of been like a month or 2 ago. Whilst the water is far from trickling, i certainly would like to return here one day and see it in full roar, especially say from the seat of a helicopter maybe

MY WIFE AND KIDS AT TWIN FALLS

Looking around the waterhole it really is a shame you can no longer swim here, the water looked super inviting until you looked over to your righthand side and saw the croc trap set up in the water. Further looking around you notice how high the massive red rock walls are of the gorge, whilst the waterfall may not be at it's peak at the moment, it still is a beautiful place to visit this time of year none the less.
With pics now taken at the falls, we sat down and had a bite to eat in the shade of the rock walls towering above, the sun may have been in the wrong place for our photos, but atleast being where it was now, the rock walls towering above were giving us a lovely shaded spot to sit down and relax at. Snacks now eaten we started the walk back to where the boat had dropped off us earlier, the boat came and picked us up and before long we were back at the carpark having some well earned cold drinks from the fridge. The original plan was to now head to Jim Jim Falls for a swim, but with the little kids being very tired after that last walk, we decided that maybe it was best just to head back to camp instead. As disappointing as this was for me to miss going there, it proved to be the right decision, when not more then 5 minutes after leaving the carpark area of Twin Falls our youngest daughter was fast asleep in her seat in the fourby.
It's here that i'll mention an elderly fella i talked to in the carpark area of Twin Falls, apparently on his way in he came across someone who had been bogged in the hole in the road i described earlier. This fella had the hide to accuse us of destroying the track as we drove in, and i'm of the belief he did so because our vehicles are lifted and modified. Not taking a backward step, i set the record straight with this tosser about how easily we drove through there, but it beggars belief the way some people think sometimes
On the way into Twin Falls we noticed quite abit of smoke about, grass fires have been everywhere along our trip so far and along the way in we noticed a few small ones still smouldering away along the route in. As we drove in i made comment about the fact we could only do 10 - 15 kph through some sections due to how bumpy it was, and that you wouldn't want a grass fire to catch you if you were in one of these locations. Well as luck would have it, after passing back past the Jim Jim Falls turnoff we noticed quite alot of smoke up infront near where we were headed. The track winds around so much we had no idea how close it was to where we were actually going, but before long we soon found out just how close it actually was. Turning a corner and just off to the side of us now was the fire, as we passed by it would have been no more then 20 mtrs off the track away from from us. Whilst pumping out plenty of heat and making lots of noise the fire itself was fairly slow moving, we took a few pics then continued on our drive back out of the 4wd track.

FIRE JUST OFF THE SIDE OF THE TRACK

Once back at the start of the gravel road, we gave the guy at the desk a heads up about how close the fire was burning to the track, he didn't seem to concerned, just thanked us for the info and we drove off on an uneventful run back to camp. Back at camp we had a late lunch followed by a few hours spent lazing around the pool cooling down, a few drinks had and some dinner aswell before we headed off to bed for the evening

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 22: KAKADU

A bit of a slow morning this morning, we slept in and then finally got up and had pancakes for breakfast. Once again we were running out of clean clothes, so we did some washing and thought about what else we could do today. Did i mention already it's bloody hot up here? Well it was hot enough for us to forget about going for a walk and we wandered over to the pool and lazed about for couple of hours. I know it's a waste seeing as we could be walking around exploring somewhere in Kakadu, but when it's this hot, walking around with a 3 year old kid and a 8 year old child in tow really isn't alot of fun!!!! Holidays are supposed to be fun, so playing with the kids in the pool was great fun for them and also for us.
By now it was lunch time and we returned to the camper for a bite to eat, after lunch i listened to the AFL grandfinal on the radio (well parts of it anyway), before we then decided to jump in the fourby and head to the Bowall Visitor Centre about 10 klms down the road. The visitor centre is well worth a look in at, the people at the information desk are very helpful and the displays inside are very well done indeed. If you've got a few hours to kill, they have a theatre room here also which runs a movie all about Kakadu, it's seasons and flaura and fauna. I watched about half an hours worth and would have loved to watch the whole doco actually (but not with the kids, the youngest wouldn't sit still).
Returning back to camp once again we started to get ready to go out and visit Ubirr, IMHO the best time to visit this place is later in the afternoon so that you can walk the track and have a look at the plethora of aboriginal rock art this place has to offer, and later on you can climb to the top of the rocky outlook, and watch over the Nadab floodplain down below as the sun sets off in the distance.
About 5.00 p.m we jumped in our vehicles and headed out to Ubirr, we stopped along the way to photograph some large rock cliff faces off to the side of the road, and listened as the thunder rolled on from a storm brewing up off in the distance. In the end we were pretty lucky with the storm, it seemed to circle where we were and continued on off in the distance around us. Anyway back in the vehicles and it's bitumin all the way out to Ubirr, there's a campground we passed by at Merl which is only a klm or 2 before you get to Ubirr itself, we didn't go in so i can't say what it's like. Pulling up in the carpark we grabbed some snacks, water and the camera bag and headed off along the 1 klm circular walk. Unlike the Twin Falls walk, this walk is along a fairly flat gravel walking track, other then the climb up to the outlook, it is very easy going and pretty much anyone could do it.

SETTING OFF TO THE ROCK ART .....The camera bag and that kid of ours start to get heavy after a while !!!

A short easy walk and your soon at your first rock art site, as with most rock art sites it is situated under a rock overhang to help protect it from the elements. Information boards explain what the artwork is about, which is handy when it comes to explaining it all to your kids, it helps me to understand it aswell though...lol

ARTWORK WITH INFORMATION BOARD EXPLAINING WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

From here it was a short walk of about 100 mtrs to the next rock overhang, which easily housed the most artwork in one spot that i have ever seen. Standing under the rock ledge we were looking left, right and up above us everywhere, each time seeing something new where ever we looked.

THE ARTWORK WAS LEFT, RIGHT AND ABOVE, IT WAS EVERYWHERE!!! ( the pic doesn't really show all the artwork, just the overhang)

From here you have 2 options, continue on around the walkway back to the carpark, or make a little bit of an effort and start climbing the 250 mtrs up the rocks to the outlook above. Now in places it is a touch steep, but take your time and i reckon most people should be able to get to the top, i did it with a 3 year old on my shoulders no worries, so it really isn't that hard IMHO. Along the way you will pass more rock overhangs and you'll be rewarded with more artwork to look at, then as you climb up out of the rocks below you find yourself standing on a bit of a plateau looking out at the Nadab floodplains below. From here you can continue up a touch higher if you wanted to (i did whilst the wife and kids remained where they were), but really the view isn't any better over the top of these rocks, and not doing the extra climb isn't a major loss IMHO. Once we had reached that plateau, we took a heap of pics, sat down and had some nibbles and continued to take more pics as the sun set off in the distance. Let me make this clear though, if you have little kids you need to hang on to them / don't let them out of your sight up here. There are no handrails or fences to stop them going over the edge to a certain death below, this of course is what makes places like this so beautiful IMHO, nothing to spoil the view between you and the horizon off in the very far distance 8) 8)

FAMILY PIC ON TOP THE PLATEAU LOOKING OVER NADAB FLOODPLAIN... Right behind us is a sheer drop down a cliff face to most likely your death, so be careful!!!

SUNSET OVER NADAB FLOODPLAIN

One thing that Joe suggested to me back in Darwin should we visit here, was to take a torch with us when we came here. Now we took that advice as we didn't want to be clambering over rocks in the dark once the sun had disappeared, but in the end the twilight after sunset was more then enough for us to safely navigate our way back down the rocks to the gravel walkway without the aid of a torch, but best be safe then sorry as they say. Returning the short walk along the gravel pathway to the vehicles it was starting to get quite dark, it was now i was really glad i was in a 4wd with a bullbar and spotlights for the 40 odd klm night time drive back to camp. In the end i had nothing to worry about, i didn't see any wildlife anlong the way, though we did pass plenty of signs warning of horses in the area. Arriving back at camp abit after 8.00 P.M i think it was, we had some dinner and a few drinks before hitting the hay and getting some sleep once again.

To be continued...........

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 23 : KAKADU - DALY WATERS

Ok here's the sad part..... we are starting our run home now, suddenly i have come to the realization that we are homeward bound. Yes we still have a few places left to visit along the way, but we know from here it won't be long and we'll be back at home. Not a lot happened today, we left Kakadu and drove straight through to Katherine where we stopped to get more groceries at Woolies and then had some lunch before continuing on to Daly Waters. About the only thing of interest that happened on the run from Katherine to Daly Waters was a massive whirly wind that looked like a mini tornado. As i've mentioned already, much of the areas we have passed through have been burnt out by fires, this whirly wind was coming through one such area and sucking up all the ash and blackened dirt along it's path and this made it look like a tornado, it really was cool to see if i can get a pic from Esther (i know she has one) i'll add it here later, but as usual our camera wasn't in the front seat with us so i don't have a pic of this event myself. As we drove past the whirly wind it passed right beside us and crap showered the fourby and rocked the vehicle sideways abit, it was a pretty close call.
With the afternoon getting away from us we turned right off the highway and were soon pulling up outside the Daly Waters Hotel, this place is one of those iconic Aussie pubs you can visit, and somewhere you won't soon forget. Walking inside to pay our camping fee for the night we noticed the NRL grandfinal was just about to start, we paid our fees and pulled the campers up around back into the campground, were we duely left them and raced back into the bar and watched the footy final. It was a bit of a dead final for me though, i hate Manly and it's pretty hard to barrack for a Kiwi team, but i watched the game none the less and when it was over i returned outback to the campground and set the camper up for the nights stay.
Returning back to the pub afterwards we sat down and ordered some dinner, the meals here were pretty nice and as with most country pub meals, you definately won't go hungry. After dinner we had a few more drinks then returned back the camper and retired for the evening.

DALY WATERS HOTEL

INSIDE THE DALY WATERS HOTEL

ACROSS THE ROAD FROM THE DALY WATERS HOTEL

GOT TO LOVE THE AUSSIE SENSE OF HUMOUR IMHO

DAY 24: DALY WATERS - THREE WAYS ROADHOUSE

I guess if you read the location we are headed to today, you'll be thinking.... why the hell would you choose that as a destination for the night?, well we weren't supposed to be there actually, it's just where we ended up
Setting off from Daly Waters Hotel this morning our destination for tonight was The Devils Marbles, but due to vehicle problems encountered along the way, we never did get there today. Anyhow......just like all the days so far on this holiday today was another cracker of a day weather wise, has anyone noticed i haven't mentioned rain yet? that's because we haven't had any since leaving home about 3 and half weeks ago.
Heading South down the Stuart Highway, there really isn't a lot to look at along the way, kilometer upon kilometer of straight highway, and i do mean straight!!! The road just seems to disappear off into the horizon in one straight line, it really does get boring to drive at times.

CRUISE CONTROL WOULD BE NICE RIGHT ABOUT NOW

With Glen needing to get into somewhere with phone reception to sort some stuff out back home, today we'd planned to press straight on to Tennant Creek and not stop anywhere along the way for morning tea. Passing through some lovely little towns like Renner Springs along the way (i'm being sarcastic by the way), we did eventually pull up about 350 klms down the highway across the road from Banka Banka Homestead, to grab a quick bite to eat and stretch our legs. Somewhere along that last stretch of highway we'd just driven, we came across the one thing i really do regret not stopping at along the way on our trip. Out in the middle of nowhere, and i do mean nowhere!!!...we came across a fella walking down the opposite side of the highway (heading South like us) with a camel as his only mode of transportation. This guy was walking along beside the camel with it fully loaded up with all his worldly possesions, and we just drove straight past him at 100 kph absolutely amazed and dumbfounded at what we were just seeing. Speaking to all the others on the trip later on, just like me they also wished they'd stopped to have a chat with this fella and see what his story was, he certainly was living the nomadic life that's for sure.
Back on the road after a quick morning tea and we were about 60 klms North of Tennant Creek when Glen came over the radio saying he needed to stop as he had vehicle problems, he could smell his brakes and the car didn't feel right to drive. i was a few kilometers back down the highway so couldn't see Glen due to him being over a hill and around one of the rare corners we'd encountered today, but before long i was pulling up off the highway behind him to see exactly what the problem was. With Glen already out checking his passenger side wheel i asked what was up, his reply "i think the wheel bearing". Pulling on the tyre you could see plenty of movement in the wheel, not good for something that Glen had specifically had serviced not more then a month before we left to go on this trip.

ROADSIDE REPAIR TIME

Just like with my vehicle last year in the main street of Coober Pedy, we set about getting out the jack and tools and removing the wheel to have a look at exactly what the problem was. With the wheel jacked up we knew it was really loose, but didn't know how bad the problem would be, we hoped the bearing hadn't collapsed inside. Putting the wheel to one side Glen asked the question... "has anyone removed an auto locking hub before?". Unfortunately for all of us the answer was a big fat NO!!!, so from here we slowly started removing allen key headed bolts, not knowing what springs or whatever else lay behind what we were removing. With the allen key headed bolts removed the auto locking hub just popped straight off, no springs about to go sailing anywhere and we were soon looking at what holds a front Patrol wheel bearing in place. With a bit of guess work we undid the 2 little phillips head screws that hold the retaining plate (or whatever it's called) into position before removing the actual nut itself that tightens the bearing into position. Wiping away the grease we found the wheel bearings still to be in one piece, so set about putting it all back together again. Before long we had the wheel bearing tightened up nicely, and the auto locking hub and wheel back on, ready to be on our way once again. Not having seen Glen already check the drivers side wheel before i pulled up, i asked the question.... do you want to check that aswell?, Glen replied "i did already and it felt tight".... but something still didn't seem right to me, but i couldn't put my finger on what it was i was thinking. Leaving it at that, Glen said he'd start off slow and we'd see how the vehicle went. Pulling back onto the highway Glen slowly started to drive away, almost immediately he was back on the radio once again...."somethings still not right" he called...."the brake pedals gone to the floor" was next, followed by "i'm going right, i'm going right" was the next thing he was calling out. Pulling up on the righthand side of the road, Glen was once again out of his fourby, he said he had no control over the vehicle and all it wanted to do was go right. Whilst we had been working on the wheel bearing earlier, he did mention his vehicle was pulling to the right as he rounded the lefthand corner just when he was pulling his vehicle up, he said he almost had a head on with the roadtrain going the other way as it didn't want to turn left :Wow1: and this was what i was sort of thinking about earlier when things didn't add up 100% to me.
This time having a better look at the drivers side wheel Glen noticed pretty much straight away what the problem was, the brand new front drivers side wheel bearing he'd had put in before the trip had collapsed, and the brakes were all out of whack due to this, hence why he could smell them earlier and the vehicle wanted to pull to the right, all was starting to make sense to me now. Being that i'm no mechanic, my guess is when he grabbed the drivers wheel earlier, all the collapsed bearings had bound up inside and that's why it felt tight when he checked it by pulling on the tyre. It was about now we knew we were in for a long afternoon, Glen said he had an auto locking hub in the back of his fourby, but unfortunately no wheel bearing, so the fourby was going nowhere fast.
With the sun beating down on us being it was after 1.00 P.M by now, we decided to chuck Amanda and the 3 kids in everyones vehicles and leave Glen here to stay with his fourby whilst we drove to Tennant Creek to phone for a tow truck. Loading everyone into the vehicles we set off and soon saw a sign saying Three Ways Roadhouse was only 30 klms up the road, much better then 60 klms to Tennant Creek we thought. Arriving at the roadhouse, Amanda called RACQ roadside assist and they promptly organised for the N.T roadside assist people to send a tow truck out to bring the vehicle into Tennant Creek. With this now sorted Michael headed back out to see Glen and tell him what was happening. By now it was about 2.30 P.M and we hadn't had lunch yet, so went inside the roadhouse and ordered something to eat. Finishing up lunch, we needed to work out where we were going stay tonight. I assumed that Glen, Amanda and the kids would be put up in a motel in Tennant Creek by RACQ whilst their vehicle was repaired, but the one thing i have been told over the years is...YOU DON'T WANT TO STAY IN TENNANT CREEK!!!....due to all the problems with the "locals" who live there. So not wanting to stay in Tennant Creek we checked into the campgrounds out the back of the roadhouse, nothing flash but atleast we knew it was a fairly safe place to stay. Some time around 5.00 P.M Glen finally pulled up at Three Ways in the tow truck with his vehicle on the tilt tray and camper trailer hooked onto the back. Michael loaded Amanda and the kids into his vehicle and they all set off the 25 klms down the road to Tennant Creek. About an hour and a half or so later Michael returned back to Three Ways, he said the tow truck had taken Glens camper into a caravan park and that's where they'd be staying whilst their vehicle was repaired. With this in mind, we had some dinner followed by a couple of drinks and headed off to bed for the evening.

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 25: THREE WAYS - DEVILS MARBLES

An early wake up call to the morning today with a roadtrain pulling into the roadhouse just before 6.00 a.m, he thought it's be a great idea to leave his truck running whilst he fueled up The roadhouse doesn't open until 6.00 a.m and it took him forever to do what he needed to do. I fell back asleep and then woke again sometime around 7.00 a.m. Dragging myself out of bed we eventually packed up and had brekky before making our way towards Tennant Creek to find out what was happening with Glens fourby.
Just as we reached the Three Ways Roadhouse yesterday afternoon we noticed a monument on the side of the highway, it's no more then 100 mtrs from the roadhouse so we decided to go have a look at it before we headed off. As you all know outback Australia is a big place, and if something happens and you need medical help, then the flying doctor service is likely to be the one coming to your rescue in alot of cases. This monument on the highway beside the roadhouse is a tribute to Reverend John Flynn, the guy who basically founded the whole idea of the flying doctor service as we know it.

MONUMENT FOR REVEREND JOHN FLYNN

To be continued.....

PLAQUE AT MONUMENT EXPLAINING HOW RFDS STARTED OUT

On the road again and just outside of Tennant Creek we turned left into the old Tennant Creek Telegraph Station, last year on our Simpson Desert trip we stopped in at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station also, so this was another great opportunity to explain to my 8 year old daughter how these 2 places were related to each other. We spent about a half hour or so walking around the grounds here and looking at the old homestead, apparently somewhere in Tennant Creek you can get a key to look inside the house if you want to, but we were happy enough to walk around the outside and verandah areas and try and imagine what it would have been like being the only people about living here in the middle of summer.

ENTERING THE OLD TELEGRAPH STATION

NOT A BAD SIZED HOMESTEAD REALLY

Back in the vehicles and leaving the telegraph carpark area, we were soon stopping just outside the entrance to have a look at another monument on the side of the highway. Just before you turn onto the highway itself is a monument sitting on a section of road that used to be the old Stuart Highway, i jumped out of the fourby and had a quick read and took a couple of pics before continuing on towards Tennant Creek.

MONUMENT ON SECTION OF OLD HIGHWAY ROAD

PLAQUE ON THE MONUMENT

A short distance up the highway and we were entering Tennant Creek, we passed through into the centre of town before turning left towards Battery Hill and drove about a kilometer down that road to the caravan park where Glen and Amanda were staying. Speaking to Glen he had little idea what was happening with his vehicle, just that the mechanic would give him a call in about an hours time to let him know if their was any wheel bearings available in town to suit his car, or whether they needed to be frieghted in from somewhere else overnight and to also let him know what else was wrong with his vehicle, either way he said he'd still be here for atleast another day or maybe more before he could continue on his way. With this in mind, we told Glen of our plans to head to the Devils Marbles (about 100 klms South along the highway), and we would return tomorrow morning and take it from there to try and plan what we would do next.
Leaving Glen and family to relax where they were, we jumped back in the fourbies and drove down the road abit further to have a look at the Battery Hill Mining Centre. At the Mining Centre is a museum and information centre you are welcome to look around at, you can stroll the grounds and inspect the battery proper and look at old mining machinery, and if you want to you can do a tour of the underground mine aswell. Speaking to the lady behind the desk at the information centre we noticed we were there just in time for the underground tour, but upon further questioning the lady we soon found out there is a minimum age limit requirement, and the 3 and 4 year old kids with us were to young to do the tour. Not wanting anyone to be left out looking after the kids, we decided to all miss out on doing the tour as it seemed like the fair thing to do, so we just strolled the grounds and had a good look around instead

OLD TRUCK AND BATTERY STATION

ANOTHER OLD TRUCK AT BATTERY HILL

Back in our vehicles we drove back past the caravan park once again and were just about to head out of town when my phone rang. It was Glen on the phone and he'd been speaking to the mechanic, as luck would have it there was a wheel bearing kit in town to suit his vehicle. Along with the collapsed wheel bearings there was also other damage done to the vehicle, the auto locking hub had been destroyed, but this wasn't a major problem as Glen had a spare one in the back of his fourby anyway. With what was sounding like all good news, there was suddenly abit of bad news, the nut that does up on the axel to hold the wheel bearings in place was buggered and there wasn't one available in town. A replacement one was being freighted up overnight from Alice Springs and wouldn't arrive until atleast 10.00 a.m tomorrow morning, luckily though it was only the nut that was buggered and the axle itself was still all good.
With this news at hand we headed North out of town to Lake Mary Ann for a spot of lunch by the water (nice spot to stop and eat), before then heading back into town and driving South the 100 odd klms to the Devils Marbles for our nights stay. Arriving at our nights destination we stopped to take a pic at the main sign and i made comment of the fire ragging off in the distance, but little did we know at the time how big a show this would put on for us tonight.

ENTERING DEVILS MARBLES RESERVE.....Notice the smoke above the roof of my fourby

From the main sign we headed into the park and stopped off to look at some of the rock formations that you find before reaching the campground. We spent some time looking around here before moving on to the campground and setting up for the night, before then spending the rest of the afternoon walking around and looking at the rest of the rock formations surrounding the campground itself.

MY WIFE AND KIDS AT A ROCK FORMATION

THERE'S SOME BIG GRANITE ROCKS HERE

With the sun having set and abit of twilight about we had a dingo walk into the campgrounds, he seemed pretty tame and was quite content to let me get fairly close and try and to take some pics of him, but with it now nearly completely dark and i didn't have much success. Returning back to the camper we had some dinner and commented on another fire, burning off in another area over behind us, we also made note of some lightning we could see off in the distance also. Dinner had and by now it was almost 8.30 P.M and we were putting the kids to bed, the lightning was getting much closer and the wind starting to pick up, so i set about pegging the camper down and preparing for should a storm hit tonight. I just finsihed pegging the camper down, when the wind picked up dramatically, exactly as it does just before you get smashed by a storm. The canvas was flapping about wildly on the sides of the camper and the kids were freaking out inside, so we got them out of bed and they sat outside with us and watched what now had become an awesome sight. The fires that we had seen off in the distance had now flared up dramatically with the wild winds fanning them. It got a touch scary and i was pondering whether or not we needed to start packing up the camper ready to escape. It was at this stage that a young lady who was camping next to us with her boyfriend in a van, walked over and asked if we wanted a hand to pack anything up, she too was obviously concerned with what was now happening around us all. With lightning arcing out above us and the fires turning night time into day (there was no moon but i could see clearly without any torches needed, just like it was daylight really), i assessed the situation and came to the conclusion, that the wind was blowing the fire away from us and that we should be fairly safe where we were, so long as the wind kept going in that direction.

FIRE TURNING NIGHT INTO DAY

Thanking the girl for her offer, she walked back to her van and we continued watching the fire in awe of what we were seeing. A short time later the wind started to die down a fair bit, but it was at this stage it started to sprinkle with rain, we hastly bid each other a goodnight and adjourned to the campers for the evening. As quickly as the rain had started to sprinkle it stopped again, with barely any rain having fallen it seemed we were just on the edge of the storm and it had passed around us. Drifting off to sleep and around 2.30 a.m i was awoken to the sound of thunder booming in the distance once again, the kids were asleep on the floor of the camper and i knew it wouldn't be long before they were up in bed with us. Sure enough as i lay there, a crack of thunder close by had the kids screaming in fright and straight up into our bed, for the next 15 or so minutes i watched out the window of the camper as straight down lightning strikes lit up the paddocks surrounding us, the wind had picked up also and the fire was once again lighting up off in the distance. This time around the wind wasn't quite as bad but alot more rain fell. Before long the storm had passed and we all tried to get abit more sleep, it was pretty uncomfortable with the 2 kids in bed with us, so i climbed down onto the hard floor of the camper and stretched out there instead, where i then managed to fall back to sleep for the rest of the night.

 

[Rumpig]

The truck was in Oz Sept 2010 through Feb 2012. We were there an elapsed total of 8 months on 4 segments. Yes they are good memories.

Charlie

great to read you enjoyed your trips here, no plans of returning back at all anytime in the future?

 

[charlieaarons]

Shipping to/from Australia is really expensive.

Maybe Europe/Russia/Central Asia/Mongolia/Siberia, China, etc. next
Shipping to/From Europe-Halifax is 10% shipping to/From Oz

Charlie

 

[4x4x4doors]

Ok... this is going to be the last of my old trip reports i post up here, so any reports i do from here on in will be new trip reports only. I hope you enoy reading this one, the last report i posted only got the one reply, so not sure if people liked it or not...lol.

Nope. We (or at least I) enjoy. Just didn't want to interrupt the story. Keep up the tales of epic adventures.

 

[Rumpig]

Nope. We (or at least I) enjoy. Just didn't want to interrupt the story. Keep up the tales of epic adventures.

Cheers mate...hopefully late this year i'll get to do a 4 week trip to Tasmania, but there's still much planning to do to make that happen. Fingers crossed it comes to fruition, i'll definately post a report up here if we get to go.

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 26: DEVILS MARBLES - BARKLY HOMESTEAD

Waking fairly early due to a bad nights sleep from sleping on the floor, i got up and went outside and grabbed the camera to try and take some sunrise shots over the rocks. Climbing one of the rock formations carefully due to them still being abit wet and slippery, i snapped away with the camera, but didn't end up taking anything too remarkable picture wise IMHO. The flies were pretty bad up on the rocks this morning also, i almost needed a fly net it was that bad. Yesterday afternoon at camp the flies were abit annoying, but nothing like they were up on top of the rocks this morning.

SUNRISE AT DEVILS MARBLES

Climbing back down the rocks i found everyone else slowly starting to get out of bed. Nobody was in any sort of rush to go anywhere as we knew Glens parts wouldn't be arriving in town until mid morning anyway, so we didn't plan on leaving here until atleast 9.00 a.m at the earliest. We all had a relaxed breakfast and then started packing up the campers ready to head back to Tennant Creek and see what was happening there. With the camper mostly packed up the dingo that i had seen lastnight had returned, he was sniffing around the camp sites where other people had already left from this morning, looking for any scraps that had been left about. With not much luck on the dingo's behalf, he layed down in the dirt a short distance away from us, so i grabbed the camera to try and some decent pics of him.

DINGO AT DEVILS MARBLES

SAME DINGO

AND SAME ONE AGAIN

By now it was after 9.00 a.m, so we finished packing up the camper before setting off Northward up the highway back to Tennant Creek. As we exited the campground we took a quick picture of where we'd just stayed the night, and continued off on our way. One thing i will note now about the Northern Territory self registration campgrounds, when it comes time to pay for your stay, they don't seem to have an option to pay with credit card (that we saw). It's all cash in an envelope, which is not real good if you don't have the right change on you at the time.

DEVILS MARBLES CAMPGROUND

On the run into Devils Marbles yesterday we saw a rest stop on the side of the road with some strange looking brick structure with timber posts sticking out of it. The rest stop was only about 20 klms up the road so we stopped off along the way and had a look at just exactly what it was we had seen the day previous. I guess if i'd looked at a map i would have seen it was a well, Bonny Well to be exact. As with most places we visited on this trip, there's a good little explanation board outlining how the well came about, and it's relevance to John Stuart and also the Overland Telegraph Line.

BONNEY WELL

EXPLANATION BOARD ABOUT THE WELL

Back in the vehicles and we were soon passing by more fires off to the side of the road, a short time later we were back in Tennant Creek and stopping off at the grocery store for a couple of items. Jumping back in the vehicles we drove around the corner and stumbled across Glen and his family walking up the road to the centre of town, they had become bored back at the caravan park so were walking into the main part of town to get a bite to eat for something to do. A quick conversation had and we found out Glen was none the wiser what was happening with his fourby, and had no idea when he'd be looking at leaving town, he thought he may still be here another night. With this in mind we left them to head into town (only about another 100mtrs up the road) whilst we headed to the service station to refuel our vehicles and plan what we would do from here.
It was whilst filling the vehicles i decided i'd drive down to the mechanics shop and see exactly what was happening with Glens fourby myself. Not knowing the name of the shop where his vehicle was located, i looked at the towns information sheet i had and headed to where the industrial area of town seemed to be. Picking a name of a mechanics shop (there was only 2 to chose from) i jagged it first go and found the guys hard at work on Glens vehicle. The part had arrived as planned and the boys were just starting to put everything back together, i asked when they thought it might be ready and they answered about 3.00 P.M this afternoon (it was now 11.30 a.m). With this news at hand i thanked them for their time and returned back to the service station where the other 2 vehicles were waiting. Back at the servo i gave Glen a ring on his mobile phone and told him his Patrol would be ready about 3.00 P.M this afternoon, we then decided that we'd (myself and the other 2 vehicles with me) head out to Barkly Homestead this afternoon to camp the night, and Glen and family would head back to the caravan park now and pack up there camper, and drive out once their vehicle was ready and meet up with us all there.
Now here i'll say, that over the years the roadhouses i've stayed at aren't the quietest places you really want to camp at, we only decided to stay here as it was about 200 klms out of Tennant Creek, and somewhere Glen was able to easily reach in the afternoon once he departed town. With a plan now in place, those of us at the servo walked into Red Rooster and had some lunch in air conditioned comfort. With lunch eaten we jumped back in the vehicles and had an uneventful run down the highway to Barkly. Checking in at reception we then headed out the back to the campground, the first thing i noticed was the massive diesel run generator that powers the roadhouse and campground, sitting ********** bang right in the middle of where you camp for powered sites, who the heck thought that would ever be a great idea i thought to myself :Wow1: If you do ever need to stop here the night,choose a non powered option if you can, there's a nice grass area to set up on well away from the generator, unlike where all the powered sites are situated.
With camp set up we sat down to enjoy a nice cold drink when Glen rolled into camp less then half an hour after we had arrived. His vehicle was ready at 2.00 P.M and he'd been sitting on about 120 kph all the way, arriving at Barkly not much after we ourselves did. What was left of the afternoon was spent having a quiet drink or 2, followed with dinner and a few more drinks before heading off to bed for the night once again.

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 27: BARKLY HOMESTEAD - CLONCURRY

Up fairly early this morning and the plan was to be on the road by 7.30 a.m at the latest, we knew there wasn't alot to look at along the way today and just wanted to make it to camp and relax as soon as possible. The title shows Cloncurry as tonights destination, but that's just where we ended up, the original plan was to stop at a free camp East of Mt Isa at a location called Clem Walton Park and Corella Dam on my Camps 6 function of my GPS.
Packing up earlier then expected and with breakfast eaten, we made our way out to the front of the roadhouse and walked inside to reception to return the key to the ablution block and get our deposit back. As i returned to my vehicle i noticed a guy checking out my camper trailer, walking up to him i said " i know you" as he looked up at me. Standing there in front of me was Barry, a fella i'd met many years ago (nearly 20 odd years) on an Endevour Car Rally, over the years we probably went on atleast half a dozen of the same car rallies all over Eastern Australia, though he went on many more then i ever did. Getting chatting and i found out he wasn't alone, he was heading home from a boys trip up in The Gulf with several other guys who used to go on Endevour Car Rallies with us also. Of all the places to run into someone i knew, it would be a roadhouse carpark in the middle of nowhere, it really is a small world isn't it...lol. Barry was looking at getting a camper trailer set up just like we had and started quizzing me about how ours worked, so i set about showing him some of the features that were easy to access. Before long 15 minutes had passed and the others were growing abit impatient to leave, i said goodbye to Barry and said to say gidday to the other guys for me (who were still in there rooms in the motel section), and we fired up the fourbies and headed out onto the highway once again.
Just like the run down the highway to Tennant Creek the other day, the highway out here heading towards the Qld border is super straight and very boring to drive at times. I guess i should mention now that this wasn't the route we intended to be taking home when we originally planned this trip. Our original plan had us heading from The Devils Marbles further South to just before Alice Springs, before we would turn East onto The Plenty Highway and across to Qld, where we would then assess how many days we had left on our trip aswell as the condition of our vehicles and trailers, before deciding on a route home from there.
Well if you look at a map, you can plainly see we are nowhere near where we first intended to be, and this is for a few reasons. When we removed Glens passenger side wheel after he first pulled off the highway with the wheel bearing problem, we noticed the exhaust pipe on his vehicle had developed a massive crack right down one side of it. Before leaving on this holiday, Glen thought about replacing the exhaust system but decided not to in the hope that it would be good enough to last the trip, and he'd replace it sometime after returning home. Looking at the exhaust system the other day, the corrugations had clearly taken their toll on it, and more corrugations on The Plenty Highway would mean the exhaust would more then likely fall off a short distance along that dirt road somewhere. Another reason for not going down that route, was that all around Alice Springs and along The Plenty Highway had bush fires burning, we'd heard the highway had been closed South of Alice at one stage due to the fires and that there was still heaps burning around where we intended to go, so though it best to avoid the area entirely.
Speaking to a guy at The Devils Marbles on the morning we left there, he mentioned he came across The Barkly Highway ( the road we were now on) the day previous, and it too had been closed at one stage due to 100's of klms of fires burning around that area also. Apparently this had been one of the worst seasons for fires in the N.T for many many years, which explained why everywhere we went we either saw a fire burning or atleast where one had been burning at some stage not that long ago. The guy said we'd be right when we went that way, as the fires would have past through, so this is partly also why we choose this route, even though it'd mean lots of bitumin pretty much the whole way home (currently we were about 2200 klms away from home).
Progressively as we continued along The Barkly Hwy the burnt out sections of land got worse and worse, until at one stage all we passed for kilometer upon kilometer was burnt fields. I'm not sure how far this burnt out land continued for away from the road, but it wasn't hard to see why the highway had been closed in the day or so previous to us passing through here.

SOME OF THE LANDSCAPE ALONG THE BARKLY HIGHWAY...BURNT OUT AS FAR AS YOU COULD SEE

WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE INSTEAD

As we came upon the one horse township of Avon Downs i slowed down to the 80kph signed speed limit, which turned out to be a very smart move indeed. The town itself consists of about 2 buildings only off of the side of the highway, one of which is a school and the other a police station. The local policeman had his radar gun out checking speeds of oncoming vehicles into town, before pulling us over and doing a licence check and random breath test aswell. Not having had anything to drink since lastnight (i hadn't drank that much anyway) and my drivers licence all up to date, i had nothing to worry about so he let me on my way. Pulling back onto the highway we crossed straight across the road into the rest area, and had a wee toilet break whilst we waited for the others behind us to catch up and have their turn with the man in blue, or khaki as the case may be here in the NT (they wear blue uniforms back home).

PETE AND ESTHER AND MICHAEL AND LAUREN GETTING STOPPED AT AVON DOWNS

Pushing on from Avon Downs and it was only about 50 odd more klms before we would be re-entering back into Queensland. Pulling up at the border line wouldn't you know it, not more then 100 mtrs into Qld and there was bloody roadworks happening. We pulled up off the highway beside the stop / go man and took a pic as we crossed back into the 6 years in a row, State of Origin winning state

YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A STATE THAT CAN PLAY RUGBY LEAGUE

A quick pic taken and we were on our way once again, passing straight through Camooweal without stopping we pressed on down the highway. It was starting to get on in the day and we started looking for somewhere to pull up and have lunch, but finding a rest area with shade or even somewhere off the road half decent to stop at was proving difficult. We continued on and ended up stopping not to far East of Mt. Isa at some old WWII aircraft field, this place had a couple of shaded tables under some patios and also a nice clean toilet block aswell. i'll add here at this stage, whilst there are heaps of rest areas / free camps like we have stopped at here along The Barkly Highway, none of them are all that nice landscape wise to make you want to stay there. Most of the rest areas are open dirt paddocks right beside the highway, and only a couple had places where you could move further back away from the road noise to try and make a decent nights sleep of it, not somewhere i'd really like to stay at, but ok if you didn't have much choice i guess.
We finished up lunch and headed off to Mt Isa, arriving around 2.30 p.m we refuelled the vehicles and grabbed some much needed alcohol supplies, and a few grocery items for some, before heading on out of town abit after 3.00 p.m. As you head East from Mt. Isa the landscape becomes very hilly indeed, you find yourself looking at beautiful views of the surrounding mountain ranges, but also find yourself shuffling back through gears at stages up some of the steep hill climbs along the way. About 60 klms East of Mt. Isa, my GPS was telling me to turn off the highway for our nights destination, i took the righthand turn and promptly found myself at a locked gate, it seems this location was no longer available for us to stop at, so i radioed back to the others to continue on down the highway and i'd catch up and we'd try and find somewhere else to stop for the night. Looking at our options and with the afternoon fast slipping away from us, we decided to continue onto Cloncurry, where we ended up staying the night at a caravan park. The caravan park certainly wasn't the flashest van park we've ever stayed at, the unpowered sites were right at the front of the park right beside the highway, so we paid the couple of $$ extra and got powered sites right down the back of the park. Whilst a slightly better location then camping up near the road, camping down the back of the park isn't exactly whisper quite away from the traffic either, add into that the domestic despute that broke out around midnight in one of the houses bordering the van park, and i'd say if you have a choice, then push onto another town for a better nights sleep. Either way, the van park was fairly clean and not really that bad a place to stay if the need arises, just like it did with us.

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 28: CLONCURRY - BARCALDINE

Waking up this morning and today was time to say goodbye to half our travelling group, Peter and Esther and Michael and Lauren were heading East from Cloncurry whilst ourselves and Glen, Amanda and family headed South towards home. With a fairly decent days drive in front of us, we packed up early and had breakfast before all saying goodbye to one and other. Jumping in the Cruiser and firing it up, the oil warning light lit up on the dashboard , shutting the vehicle back down i got out and checked the oil level, it was down abit but still showing on the dipstick. Opening up the back of the fourby i started removing gear to get to the half a litre of oil i had stored right at the bottom of my cargo area. Eventually getting what i wanted, i added the oil to the engine and rechecked the level once again, this time it was showing halfway between the 2 dots on the dipstick, so i said that'll do for now and fired the Cruiser up again ready to hit the highway.
From Cloncurry it was a pretty uneventful run down the highway to Kyuna for morning tea, a few areas along the way with roadworks but nothing that slowed us up dramatically. Pulling into Kyuna a few minutes after 10.00 a.m, we made straight for The Blue Heeler Hotel for the second time on this trip, not that there's much else to visit in this town anyway other then the roadhouse. We ordered a couple of cold drinks and sat down and relaxed for about a half hour or so whilst the kids ate some snacks out on the front verandah and ran around abit.

MORNING TEA AT THE BLUE HEELER HOTEL ON THE RUN HOME

Now as you may recall i didn't really mention The Blue Heeler Hotel very much, earlier in this trip report. Well that had alot to do with me knowing that not much happened today on this trip, and i wanted something to mention when i got to this stage of the report You see The Heeler is one of those iconic Australian outback pubs that has a pretty decent story to tell. When you walk around the inside of this pub, you'll start seeing mention of a few names you would have heard before once or twice in your lifetime, names like some guy called Banjo Paterson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo_Paterson , and some other fella called R.M Williams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._M._Williams . Rather then me copy what's written on the plaques on the walls, i took some photos and you can read for yourselves how The Heeler has been visited by a few Aussie icons over the years.

EXPLANATION OF BANJO PATERSON AND HIS RELEVANCE TO THE BLUE HEELER HOTEL

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE WASN'T THE ONLY PLACE INVOLVED WITH THE SHEARERS STRIKES

THIS TIME OF YEAR THE FIREPLACE ISN'T REALLY NEEDED

BUT YOU'D BE SURPRISED AT WHO ACTUALLY BUILT THE FIREPLACE, NONE OTHER THEN.....

As we were about to leave the hotel and head on our way, a couple of locals flew in to say gidday. They were abit different to another local who flew in when we where here a few weeks back, because back then it was a fella in his helicopter landing in the grass across the road from the Hotel, but this time it was......

A COUPLE OF LOCAL BROLGAS WHO CAME TO SAY GIDDAY BEFORE WE LEFT

Back in the fourbies and we headed off further South along the same route we had headed North along some weeks earlier. Abit more roadworks along the way was all there is to mention, before we arrived in Winton just on midday, we didn't really feel all that hungry but knew there wasn't much between us and Longreach from here, so we pulled up at the bakery to have a few pies and sausage rolls between us all for lunch.
With lunch eaten we were once again back on the black top and bound for Longreach, along the way we were debating on stopping the night at Longreach or pushing on for Barcaldine, we just didn't know how tired we'd feel, so decided to wait until we reached Longreach to decide. Pulling up on the side of the highway to get a drink out of the back of the fourby on the outskirts of Longreach, we decided to press on for Barcaldine this afternoon, with the previso from me being that we stop at Illfracombe on the way past to look at the machinery they have set up along the side of the highway in the centre of town. We grabbed our drinks and jumped back in the vehicles, continuing on straight through Longreach without stopping and soon arriving at the little town of Illfracombe some 30 odd klms to the East of Longreach. Now if you haven't been to, passed through or heard about Illfracombe at some stage in your travells, then you may not be aware of just how much machinery and other gear they have in their museum, stacked up along the side of the highway on display for the public to stop at and view free of charge. Standing at one end of the collection on the side of the highway, you can't see far enough down the road to see the end of what they have on display here, you'd be hard pressed to see a better collection of Aussie work machinery / vehicles anywhere else in Australia IMHO.

JUST A COUPLE OF THE ITEMS ON DISPLAY, THE COLLECTION STRETCHES FOR HUNDREDS OF METRES ALONG THE HIGHWAY THROUGH TOWN

Walking back to our vehicles ready to leave Illfracombe, Glen noticed his front passenger side wheel looked to be on a lean, grabbing the wheel and giving it pull, you guessed it......the wheel nut was loose once again. Walking around to the drivers side and giving it a pull it was the very same result, both sides loose...unbloody believable!!! Not real happy at this point in time, Glen made mention of specifically asking the mechanic back in Tennant creek if he needed to keep an eye on the bearings and make sure they didn't need retightening after a short drive...."nah she'll be fine, no need to check them" was the guys reply. Well apparently he was very wrong now wasn't he...Grrrr. Looking around at our limited accomodation options in town, Glen decided that he would just continue on to Barcaldine with the bearings as they were, and we'd have a look at them tonight after dinner and take it from there. So with this in mind we jumped back in the fourbies and pushed on to Barcaldine for the night. About halfway to our destination from Illfracombe we were soon coming to a stop on the highway, not for roadworks this time but for cattle, they were everywhere over the road and off to the sides of the highway. A farmer grazing his cattle by the side of the highway and hundreds of the animals had us crawling through the middle of them, before they cleared up and we could continue back on our run once again.

CATTLE GRAZING ON THE CAPRICORN HIGHWAY ROADSIDE

Arriving in Barcaldine we croozed into the showgrounds to checkout accomodation options, there was also a free camp just on the Eastern side of town we were considering camping at, but we knew this was right beside the highway, so wanted another option to consider. The showgrounds has camping allowed at a small cost, they had a couple of toilet blocks available for our use (one with hot showers), and they even have some powered sites available if you wanted to go that way. We quickly unhitched the campers in an open grassey area and set up camp for the night, before jumping into our fourbies and driving to the pub where we would have dinner....Mmmmm steak!!! With dinner eaten we drove back to camp where we set about pulling the front wheels off and tightening the wheel bearings back up. With both sides now tight again, we packed everything up and took the fourby for a quick run out of town, we didn't get more then a kilometer out of town before we spotted roos off to the side of the road. Keeping a good eye out now for skippies, we hit about 5 klms out of town before turning around and heading back to camp, we checked how hot the hubs felt and how tight the wheels felt, before deciding we were happy enough to leave it at that for the night, and keep a good eye on it tomorrow as we headed East for Emerald. Another quick can of Bundy polished off and we were soon off to bed for the night, lulled to sleep by the sound of cattle mooing away in the stock yard just over the other side of the showgrounds.

TIME TO PLAY MECHANIC

 

[Rumpig]

DAY 29: BARCALDINE - ROLLESTON

Those of you following along closely may have noticed that tonights destination is not where we planned to be staying at, but this time it wasn't due to mechanical issues, you'll have to read on to find out why it was so though
The plan for today as mentioned above, was to hit Emerald fairly early (before lunch time) and go to the visitor information centre to see about what farm stays were in the area, before heading out to camp the night at Fairburn Dam which is about 18 klm South of Emerald. We didn't have very far to travel kilometer wise today, so we slept in abit before getting up and doing the usual pack up then have breakfast routine. i hitched the trailer back onto the fourby, before we then headed off out of town bound for Emerald. About 10 klms out of Barcaldine Glen pulled off the side of the road and had a quick check of his hubs and bearings, all felt good so the plan was to now push onto the little town of Jerico where we'd stop once again, and check the bearings and hubs to make sure they were still all ok. About 30 klms out of Jerico we came across a recovery effort of a roadtrain that had rolled on the highway the day before, we'd been told of the crash by another roadtrain the afternoon previous, when i radio'd him to give a heads up of the cattle all over the road a couple of kilometers infront of him when we were West of Barcaldine. Looking at the truck as we passed by you would have thought the driver would be ok, the whole thing was abit of a mess but the cab of the prime mover was fairly well untouched, so hopefully the driver escaped that accident mostly unharmed. Getting back up to speed once again and we soon entered the tiny town of Jerico, not alot here other then a few very small shops, a couple of houses and a nicely landscaped park, that would make a nice place to pull up at and have a bite to eat if the timing suited. The kids made for the toilets whilst we checked over Glens bearings and hubs one more time, all was still good so we decided it would be right now until we hit Emerald, where we'd check it again once we got to camp.
Back on the go and sometime later Glen radio'd back to watch out for the emu on the side of the road, before i got near it, it had started crossing the road and then much to my surprise, 4 or 5 little chicks scurried out of the grass across the highway behind it. Slowing up quickly i got my wife to pass me the camera, and i tried to get some pics before they ran off into the long grass on the other side of the road. As is the case, before you can get real close they had all disappeared into the grass, i managed a few pics but nothing to write home about.

MOTHER EMU AND HER CHICKS AFTER CROSSING THE ROAD....bit hard to see i know, the chicks are just off the road in the shorter grass

Back on the go and we were soon stopping once again, this time it was for a broken down vehicle. A guy towing his Jayco Swan camper had lost a wheel from the camper about 20 klms outside of Alpha, the 2 occupants from the vehicle were walking the roadside back down the highway abit from where they had came to a stop, searching for the missing wheel and hub that disappeared at 100 kph into the bush somewhere. Having a quick chat i asked if they had phone reception to which they checked and replied yes, i asked if they needed anything and they said "no we''ll be fine, thanks for stopping anyhow". I bid the 2 fellas good luck at finding the missing wheel and hub before setting off once again. From here we had an uneventful run into Emerald, we passed straight through Alpha without stopping, then soon were climbing up and over the Drummond Ranges. We stopped off at the lookout up top of the range, but the view wasn't all that pretty due to the fires that had burnt this area out recently. When we passed through here on the run North about 4 weeks earlier, the fire was burning all around us, you couldn't see more then 200 meters up the road in front of you for the smoke that was about, and now we were seeing the blackened mess it had left behind. We continued on without taking any pics from the lookout (the view driving down the range on the highway is nicer IMHO) and a short time later we found ourselves entering into Emerald, where we pulled up at the information centre.
Jumping out of the vehicles my daughter noticed a giant painting in the middle of a park (Morton Park) next door. Emerald was once known for it's sunflower production but these days it's all mining around here, standing in the middle of the park is the world's biggest Van Gogh sunflower painting on an easel, now how many towns have a claim to fame like that....lol

VAN GOGH SUNFLOWER PAINTING IN EMERALD

Walking into the information centre we started searching for anything we could find about possible farm stays around the area. The plan was to reward the kids with a stay on a property somewhere, to say thanks for putting up with driving over 8500 klms in the last 4 weeks. We knew we wouldn't find a dairy type farm around here that we would have preferred to take the kids to, but eventually we did find information on a place just outside of Biloela that looked like it might sort of be what we were after. Leaving the info. centre we ducked into the shops to grab some supplies before grabbing some more alcohol from the pub and then heading off out of town towards Fairburn Dam, where we planned to stay for the night. Fairburn Dam has created Lake Maraboon, which is Queensland 2nd biggest lake, and situated on it's shores is Lake Maraboon Caravan & Holiday Park. We pulled up outside the van park and walked into reception to query them about pricing and availability, i asked the girl behind the desk how much for a site for the night for either powered or unpowered to suit our family (2 adults, 1 X 8 year old and 1 x 3 yr old)?. the lady replied "$50 for powered" :yikes: then went quiet, so i asked "how much for unpowered?". the lady looked at me after checking the computer and said "$50 for unpowered" :Wow1: I then asked why there was no difference for either powered or unpowered, to which she sharply replied "we're pretty busy at the moment". With abit of a stunned look on my face i looked at Glen who said exactly what i was thinking...."your ********** kidding aren't you, lets get out of here". I said to the lady don't worry about it and we both walked off in disgust at the parks attitude and pricing, we had been paying about $30 - $32 for a powered site elsewhere, so $50 for an unpowered site was just a blatent rip off in our opinions. Rather then be bent over and pay what they wanted, we decided to vote with our feet and go elsewhere instead, though the park was quiet busy so plenty of others seemed to have no problem with the cost to stay there it seemed. Personally i didn't see the fuss about this park anyhow, yes it was beside the lake, but it wasn't like you had waterfront set ups, you were set well back from the water and very few people would have a water view.
Jumping back in the vehicles we gave our wives the news of what had happened inside, we drove off a few hundred metres down the road to the dams day use area, where we pulled up to have a late lunch by the water and would then decided where we would go from here whilst eating.

LUNCH AT FAIRBURN DAM / LAKE MARABOON

I've got to say, sitting by the water was very nice indeed, Glen cooked us all up some fantastic steak wraps for lunch, and we spent the best part of an hour and a half here having lunch and enjoying the view. Looking at a map whilst eating we decided that we would head towards Biloela from here to get closer to the farm stay we wanted to visit the next day, which was at Kroombit, about 35 klms South Eastish of Biloela . Picking a town on the map it was about 150 klms to Rolleston, we thought that sounded ok as far as kilometers go from here, and we'd arrive there around 5.30 p.m at the latest. Leaving Fairburn we had a good run down the highway towards Springsure, along the way i saw my first snake of the entire trip so far which i found amazing, i would have thought i'd have seen heaps up North, but alas i didn't see a single one. The snake was a pretty big Brown by the looks of it, it wasn't quick enough to get across the road and someone had run him over, he was still alive but i wasn't going anywhere near him (actually it could have been a her for all i know, i'm not going near one of the most venomous snakes in the world to find out...lol). Not to much further down the road and we were driving into Springsure, a nice looking town that in hindsight we should have stopped the night at instead of pushing on to Rolleston (more on that later). Glen insisted that we stop at Toyota so he could look at trading in his troublesome Patrol, but he was very disappointed to realize it was a Sunday afternoon and they weren't open to do business.

GLEN WANTING TO TRADE UP

Ok maybe we just stopped outside Toyota so that Glen could ring Lochenbar Station / Kroombit Park and tell them we were coming tomorrow before lunch time, he made the call (and i took my well timed pic) and we then headed off out of town. Not far outside of Springsure we passed a sign saying Staircase Range, i had no idea what was there so didn't give it a second thought, the next morning my lovely wife would inform me whilst reading a tourist brochure as we drove along, that we should have stopped there as it was quite pretty and not very far off the road at all...Grrrr. Not knowing what we had missed we drove straight past the turnoff and soon arrived at Rolleston, turning off the main road into a back street we pulled up outside the caravan park in town and immediately thought W.T.F, the place was abit of a dump IMHO. Being that it was now after 5.00 p.m we checked in at the caravan park and set up on the small dirt area they allocate anyone who doesn't want a powered site, the van park itself is mainly demountable buildings for the miners who stay there, and caravaners / campers look as if they are a secondary business to me. With camp now set up we sat back and enjoyed a few drinks, whilst we listened to the serenity that is mine vehicles reversing beepers continually going off whilst the miners come and go from the park. Eventually it did quietened down after we had had some dinner, a few more drinks consumed and we were all off to bed once again.