Another early start, we left our rough & ready bush camp, the Litchfield Safari Camp around 9am & turned towards Darwin. Thankfully the former dirt road was fully sealed last year and a new bridge built over the Finniss River. The traffic was light and the drive was uneventful, we stopped at Berry Springs to have a look, the car park was full & we had to park in a zone reserved for bus/coaches. We had a look & the springs are very pretty, we will have to come back for a swim. We arrived at our city well organized tidy campground with a couple of swimming pools & lots & lots of other campers around midday & setup, interestingly, next to another Kimberley Karavan. Most unusual. We unhitch & headed off to find some shops as we need some bread. We found a Woolworths shopping centre & decide on kebabs for lunch before heading into Darwin City.
We are surprised that Darwin is such a large & modern city, the centre is full of new buildings and has a youthful vibrancy about it. There are some lovely parks in the city precinct. We parked next to the grassy esplanade along the harbour front. There was a Chemist Warehouse close by, we replenished our medicines before walking along the harbour front. The war memorial has a series of stories about the bombing of Darwin during the Second World War by the Japanese and is very interesting. There are so many sad stories. Back to the van by around 4pm & Tereza has a swim while I catch up on a meeting via Zoom. We meet our Kimberley neighbours afterwards & have a nice chat. Dinner is again good, I cooked tonight bacon & eggs on fresh bread rolls which really tops off another great day.
This morning we went around 9.30am to Buley Rockholes to get there before the crowd, it was already 29 degrees. Buley Rockholes is on Florence Creek above the falls and is a series of water holes with small water cascades flowing down from one to the other, it is absolutely beautiful. The smallest and shallowest holes are at the top and the largest rockhole is at the base of the cascades. We started out at the base and had the waterhole all to ourselves for a while until the hordes of people started to arrive. We stayed in the water for more than an hour before getting out & drying off. We had some morning tea. We chatted to lots of people and walked up to the top of the rockholes. There are lots of children near the top as it is a lot shallower.
We sat and had our lunch in the shade then venture into the water for another couple of hours, getting back & leg massages from the waterfall as it cascaded against our backs. We chatted with a very pleasant & knowledgeable young man on many subjects. He gave us some advice about places to go to, one place in particular very near our caravan park, called Cascades. We ventured off at around 3.30pm so that we could get to Cascades. We couldn’t help ourselves, we had to stop & take some photos of some amazing rock formations around here.
We drove back past the turn-off to our campsite and went to the Cascades. This was a long walk, about three quarters of the way it became very rocky and slippery. We had the enthusiasm to keep going but Tereza’s dodgy knees & common sense convinced us that we were not goats. We saw a couple of goannas, not at all perturbed by our presence. The Cascades had crocodile warning signs so our reluctance to enter the water also added to us to return to the car, especially when the going on the rocks got too challenging. The reflections on the still water surface were very nice.
We were hot and sweaty by the time we got back to the car. Back at camp the air-conditioning went on in the caravan and we had a pleasant afternoon tea. Dinner was again superb. Another great day.
An early breakfast then we end up talking to our neighbour for the night, Ramesh from Nepal & family. They are very friendly and ask us all sorts of questions about travelling and camping. We drive into Florence Falls and get a spot close to the path down. The sign says 135 steps, however I count 180 down to the creek that flows away from the falls. The lookout over the falls is spectacular, again a twin falls. There are lots of people going and coming up, all very friendly. The falls look even better from the base and we join the throngs in the water, I count over 50 people in the pool, the water is refreshing, not cold, everyone is enjoying themselves. Tereza swims under the falls & gets pushed away by the current, good thing she has the swim noodle to hold onto. After we get out we eat half our lunch & sit admiring the sight for a while. We decide to take the pathway out, not the stairs up, the path is very picturesque, a small creek is crossed back & forth on small bridges as we ascend back up to the top of the falls. We are in a tropical rainforest environment. The air gets warmer as we get closer to the top of the Florence Falls & we move into tropical savannah landscape. We cross Florence Creek then finish our lunch on a bench next to the creek, a very pretty spot.
It is about 1pm and as we drive out we notice the car park is overflowing. There are lots of cars on the short drive to the Buley Waterhole, our next stop. We drive around the carpark & it is overflowing as well, so we decide to continue on & come back in the morning. Our next stop is the Tabletop Swamp, a short distance off the road and there is no-one else there. This is a perched paperback swamp and we walk around it a bit enjoying the different scenery, the reflections of the paperbarks in the water is stunning. There is a fair bit of birdlife around as well.
Our next stop is Greenant Creek, again, next to the road & took a short walk to the bridge crossing the creek. The water is so clear and again, beautiful scenery. We start to get eaten by mosquitos & beat a hasty retreat back to our car.
Next we call into Wangi Falls & connect to the free Wi-Fi, this is the only place that we can call out from – we can call our son. Afterwards we treat ourselves to an ice cream at the kiosk, once again this is the only place that they sell food or drinks, I think it is because the tourist bus stops here. Back to our camp & on with the air-conditioner again, what a blessing this is, it is so hot & humid here and this is winter here. We have cheese, bikkies & wine before a game of cards. Since we left home today has been the first day that we had a nice relaxing day. Another great day.
We drove out of our Nitmilik camping spot at around 8.30am and hardly saw another vehicle during the 29km trip into Katherine. There is a bit of nice street art in Katherine on the sides of buildings. We refuelled, picked up a loaf of bread & headed north again. The river as we crossed the bridge out of town was full of water. The traffic gradually built and there is lots of oncoming traffic. It is Saturday, & we lucked it in a public holiday long weekend in Darwin. The termite mounds start to get taller and there is lots of pandanus trees around. The trees are all growing taller here and the bush has been burnt a lot. We reach Pine Creek and pass the road into the bottom part of Kakadu. The road is now climbing and twisting and turning as we travel through some escarpment country, this is a lot more interesting to see. We reach the town of Adelaide River and the oncoming traffic builds more. Before long we reach the turn-off to Litchfield National Park, our destination today.
We pass through the small townships of Batchelor and Rum Jungle before reaching the national park. Our first stop is at the termite mound parking area, around 15km into the park. The termite mounds are really tall and broad, around 6 metres tall and about 6 metres around at the base. Amazing to think that tiny termites built these from mud & saliva.
We turn off next into Florence Falls, the place we planned to camp – around 30km into the park and drove the 6km to the campground to find a spot. All full, a kind man suggested a few more possible sites. The nearby Florence 4WD only campsite was also full. The next spot is Wangi Falls campsite, around 50km into the park. It is also full, at least the drive is scenic. We continue on and another 4km down the road turn into the Safari Caravan Park, an in the bush experience. As a bonus they have some powered sites so we take one of those and set up at around 1.30pm. It is so hot & humid, the sweat is rolling off me, our air conditioner in the van comes in very handy. It seems a lot of escapees from the other states & Darwiniens take the opportunity to visit the National Parks.
We unhook the van and drive back to have a look at Wangi Falls. There are not many cars in the car park and it is a short walk to the pool and falls. Wangi Falls is actually a twin fall, the left fall is a spring fed creek and the right fall is Wangi Creek, they were pouring a fair bit of water down. Did I mention it was hot, the very large and deep swimming hole at the bottom of the falls was so inviting to swim and was closed, saltwater crocodile danger apparently. So we took some photos, talked to other visitors and walked back to the air-conditioned comfort of our car, is was 34C and very humid.
Our next stop is Tolmer Falls, a few kilometres further on and a short distance off the main road. The walk from the carpark is great, a nice wide concreted pathway with a gentle gradient to the falls lookout. The lookout is over the gorge and is a sheer drop hundreds of feet below. The fall does not have a lot of water but it is very long and drops into a deep pool below. Access to the pool is prohibited due to the risk of disturbance to the resident bat populations that reside in the caves at the falls. It is very stunning landscape looking out over the floodplains and into the gorge that has been cut so deeply into the sandstone.
We drive back to camp and turn on the air-conditioning in the caravan, what a blessing, so much better than outside. We cook outside but eat inside as the mosquitos have just started to come out, Tereza concocts another great meal to finish another great day.
We are actually fortunate that we couldn’t get into any of the other camp sites because this is the only one caravan park inside Litchfield National Park that has power & we certainly loving this roughing it with the air conditioner.
After leaving our Mataranka Springs campsite a little before 9am we drove through the very small town of Mataranka. Nothing to write home about, it is small and not very conducive to stopping. We turned into Bitter Springs to see if the springs were open so that we could have a look. We made a u-turn at the locked park gates, still closed. The drive to Katherine was uneventful, we passed Tindal Air Force base along the way, just south of Katherine. More & bigger termite mounds, taller trees, long straight roads.
We turned off in the middle of Katherine out to the Nitmilik National Park, Katherine Gorge and drove the 29 km out, hardly a car on the road. We booked in to our camp spot and managed to also book a 2pm 2 hour boat cruise of the first two of the 13 gorges in the system. We could not book in online last night, the cruises were all full, they put on another boat as there were so many people interested to go out to see the gorges, what a relief. After setting up we walked down to the visitor centre and had a coffee and then lunch. We waited in the air-conditioned visitor centre with a number of other couples also going on our cruise.
The 400 metre walk down to the river was hot and we passed lots of gum trees filled with hanging flying foxes, what a terrible smell they have and also very noisy. They are all flapping their wings trying to keep cool. The boat we were on had about 30 people, with lots of spare seats. The gorges are spectacular, high sandstone cliffs, aboriginal rock art and even some freshwater crocodiles sunning themselves. At the end of the first gorge we got out of the boat and walked about 800 metres to the 2nd gorge and a smaller boat, again we all fitted on comfortably. The 2nd gorge is narrower but just as spectacular and a little longer with a few twists and turns. Our guide pointed out the height of the river when in flood. There is certainly some water flows through in the wet season. The commentary from our aboriginal guide and boat driver is very good, interesting and informative. Well worth seeing the magnificent gorges. We drank a bottle of water each on the boat cruise, it was that hot. The 400 metre walk back up to the visitor centre was even hotter, we sat in the air-conditioned comfort of the visitor centre and indulged in an ice-cream each before they kicked us out at the 4.30pm closing time. Back to the van and we changed into our swimmers for a dip in the pool at the van park, it is very nice and very cool and refreshing. We spend about an hour in the water before heading back to the van and preparing dinner. The washing machines are free here, unusual but convenient because we needed to do the washing so we have also put on a load of washing. As the sun sets the flying foxes move into the gum trees in the van park to feast on the nectar from the gum trees. They are very noisy. Another great day.
Today we stayed at the park all day and went for a long swim after breakfast where we met a nice couple in the water that are staying in the van park at Bitter Springs. The springs are still closed because of the crocodile so they came over here for a swim. We spent at least two hours in the water.
For lunch we had a burger from the food place next to reception & it was good. While sitting there we noticed the flood height of the 1998 floods, nearly at roof level. There is a photo display of this years’ floods, not nearly as high but still substantial. Cars flooded up to the roof and phone box with only the roof out.
This afternoon we went for a walk to find were the spring flow into the river. We prepared for a long walk but the river is close and the walk only about 100 metres. The spring flows fairly fast, it is deceptive how much water flows out of the spring. So back to our van, change into our swimmers and into the pool again and talking to more people about their travels. One man we spoke to has a business in The Canberra Centre & has a person managing for him, he visits once a month for a few days to check up on the business. He pays $3,000 per week rent for 36 sq metres of floor space. We got out of the pool again as the sun is setting. We passed some peahens & peacocks that are walking freely around the park, the males certainly do have some good colours.
Tereza cooked another lovely dinner and we enjoyed the dinner as it started to get dark. Another great day.
We know it is getting to be daybreak as the traffic starts again on the highway. The morning is very pleasant and after breakfast in the bush we are once again on the road before 9am. It is only an hour drive to the Three Ways (the intersection of the Barkly Highway from Queensland and the Stuart Highway between Adelaide and Darwin) and we turn right to Darwin. The scenery is more of the same, termite mounds, grasses, small trees and shrubs. Lots of termite mounds at the side of the road are dressed in shirts, singlets, hats, sunglasses and anything in between. It helps relieve the boredom of the drive a little. We stop at Elliot, a small town, to refuel and also to eat, however, they were only selling groceries & food to the locals. We decided to keep going for another 140Kms (first place that you could buy anything) and stopped at Daly Waters for lunch at around 1.30pm. The pub and surrounds are very eclectic and busy, the caravan park is full. The pub is very old fashioned and across the road are a collection of old plane and helicopter fuselages. The pub is very busy as well, people coming and going all the time. We both have a barramundi burger for lunch, tasty and very filling. The temperature is 37, good thing the car is air-conditioned.
Next stop is Mataranka, 3 hours away. We make good time, most of the traffic is passing us and we slowly catch up to a road train and decide to stay behind it the rest of the way to Mataranka. Since Mt Isa we had no phone coverage, no radio & very little conversation between Ron & I, we ran out of saying anything. I am starting to run out of enthusiasm about this journey, it is such a long lonely drive with little change to the scenery. When we get phone coverage we try to book into Bitter Springs van park, but they are full so we turn into the Elyse National Park & Mataranka Station van park. Plenty of spots and we set up next to a nice couple that chat with us a while. Then off to the Mataranka Springs. A short walk down through the palm trees, unbelievable the change from the vista we have been driving through for days. The pools are full, but not too crowded. After a while we are joined by our neighbours and chat for a long time, we have a lot in common with them. We stay in the pool for a couple of hours until it gets dark, then chat to some more people at the pool, a German & Italian couple. They told us that Bitter Springs are closed, there is a crocodile that had been spotted in there and they were in there swimming last night in the dark. Good thing we couldn’t get in there. Then back to our van for a light bite to eat. It is a great day now that Tereza has seen that there can be something nice on the other side of the horizon.
We were away from Corella Dam before 9am and on the road again through more mountains and rocky outcrops. As we came over the rise into Mount Isa the two really tall smoke stacks from the mines are very prominent, one belching a large amount of smoke. The mine workings are prominent above the cityscape. The town is big with lots of similar shops like in any other big cities. We stopped at a shopping mall and bought a few food items from Coles. Lots of schoolkids walked past, probably off on an excursion. We gave Sue & John a call to see how Sue is going. They are nearly in Dubbo on the way home, so disappointing they are not with us.
The road out of Mount Isa is more mountains & rocky outcrops (so exciting after the days of flat grass land but this excitement was short lived) before eventually becoming long endless plains with sparse vegetation but different in some areas with larger trees & denser bush something we haven’t seen for days. There are lots of termite mounds on the red soils, looking like tombstones in a cemetery at times, there are that many of them. The road becomes endless straights disappearing into the heat haze in the distance. Outside temperature is 33 degrees. We eventually arrive at Camooweal & decide to stop for fuel & lunch, however the queue at the only fuel station is long and we decide to keep going.
At the Northern Territory border we were stopped at a police checkpoint to examine our Covid documentation and after checking it all, the nice policewoman allowed us through. We changed to Northern Territory time we are half an hour behind our normal time. We stopped at the next rest stop for lunch under the shade of a picnic shelter before continuing our journey. We refuelled at Barkly Homestead and kept going before stopping at Bore 41 rest area about an hour before sunset. Lots of caravans in here as well. We drove further into the bush before finding a nice spot & setting up camp for the night. We had dinner sitting outside. It was a beautiful balmy evening just sitting & watching a gorgeous sunset & sipping on a nice red. We sat for a while & enjoyed the huge sky full of stars, but after Ron driving 650 or so kilometres today tiredness overcame him. One realizes how big this country is & how harsh an existence is for anyone or anything to survive out here. Another great day.
A leisurely start this morning, the information centre and museum at Hughenden does not open until 9am. The museum is focused on the history of the wool industry in the region with some interesting displays and information, as well as the dinosaur fossils. Hughenden region is also rich in dinosaur fossils and there are stories and displays of the numerous finds. A skeleton of a Muttaburrasaurus dominates the display area. The displays are well laid out with short stories attached to them. An interesting museum.
The drive to Richmond is around 100km and more of the same flat endless plains. At least now we know why, the plains were formally the seabed of the very large Eromanga Sea. The road is mostly good & we reach Richmond around 11.30am and stop outside Kronosaurus corner, another dinosaur museum. The Richmond area has produced some world firsts in dinosaurs with the most notable being the very large Kronosaurus, a sea creature with a formidable toothy mouth. They have a nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur which has not been named yet. This museum is large and well laid out with lots of real dinosaur specimens on display, all from the Richmond area. We enjoyed lunch at the museum café. We drove over the bridge of the mighty Flinders River, all sand, no water.
The drive to Cloncurry through Julia Creek is more of the same flat endless plains. The monotony is eased a little with the railway sleeper replacement program being carried out on the railway line next to the road. We even saw a train on the tracks, our first in our travels in Queensland. Tereza swears that I smuggle us back to the beginning of our trip every night because the scenery is all the same every day.
As we got closer to Cloncurry the scenery changed with gum trees, termite mounds and hills starting to appear, then big hills and mountains with lots of trees and windy roads up and down hills. A vast change from the long flat roads we have been driving on. We stopped at Cloncurry for fuel before heading on to our overnight stop, Clem Walton Park on the shores of the Corella Dam. My goodness, are there ever a lot of caravans in here. We find a free spot & set up camp. After 456kms of driving we decided to go for a walk around the shores of the dam. Very pretty, especially with the sun starting to set, the colours are amazing. Every free spot around the shores has a caravan, there must be more than 100 caravans camped here, it is easy to see why, it is a beautiful spot. Back to our camp and a delicious dinner, another great day.
Up at dawn before most of the other campers, breakfast and packed for the drive to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum about 15km outside Winton. The museum is located on what is called around here a “jump-up” because the hill just seems to jump up out of the surrounding plains. The landscape is featureless for hundreds of kilometres, then this rock outcrop. The first tour is at 9.45 on the electric shuttle across to the interpretation centre that has a dinosaur footprint collection around 50 metres long that was transported here piece by piece and reconstructed. It is inside a large air-conditioned building and now protected from the elements. The guide was very knowledgeable and pointed out lots of large and small footprints which to us was a jumble of holes in the rock until he pointed them out. Outside is the sculptures of two large sauropods and more breathtaking scenery.
Our next tour is of the laboratory where dinosaur bones are being removed from their protective layers. Again, the guide Sarah was very knowledgeable. We can become volunteers here to assist the recovery process. It is very painstaking and laborious with lots of repetition using small air tools.
Back to the main building and into the main display room with our next guide Makita. Here is displayed the real bones of three different dinosaurs, a velociraptor and two different species of sauropod, all discovered locally within the region and the first of their species discovered.
This museum is world class and well worth a visit. We had a quick meal at the visitor centre before heading back into Winton and off to Hughenden, around 220 km of driving a rural backroad. Again endless plains with occasional scrub & trees. Lots of dead kangaroos and wallabies with feasting kites and eagles around them. We also saw lots of flocks of budgerigars, some very large flocks of around 1,000 birds and some small with only 20 or so. There was not much traffic on this road, mainly caravans and the odd road train.
We reached Hughenden around 4.30pm & booked into the caravan park, set up then off to the washing machine to wash our clothes. Tereza cooked a tasty omelet. We thoroughly enjoyed our shower after 2 nights of bush camping. Beautiful full moon looming over the horizon. 25 degrees and another great day.
Trekkin 