Trekkin

We decided that we didn’t like Lawn Hill National Park camping ground the way we love it by the Gregory River, so we declared a rest day.

Queen Muck had to come down to reality, last night’s dishes had to be washed, I was almost sorry that I didn’t have more washing up to do – the view from my kitchen window is wow, pandanus & a flowing river.  The washing had to be done too, down by the river beating the clothes on the rocks  (poetic licence here).

Last night we heard not too far from the camp a car go fast & a bit too late for Grey Nomads. This morning when we went for our walk some of our neighbours told us that 2 very drunk young Aborigines wrapped their unlicensed Toyota Hi Lux around a tree last night, further along the river – lucky they walked away but the car and the tree is a mess.  Even in a little heaven some bad things happen.  It was such a nice day otherwise, we explored the small island from across our camp and collected wood and had potatoes in the jacket from the embers and BBQ steaks.  We think that we might just stay here tomorrow too.

Today, besides being my birthday, was off to Lawn Hill National Park.  We left the Karavan at Gregory River & drove in the 100km, the first 11km was bitumen, the majority of the rest was good dirt road until the Century mine turnoff at around 47km.  We only met a few road trains from the mines that we pulled over & stopped for, the only other dangers we had were the cattle wandering all over the road & we had to stop a few times for them as well.  As we got closer to Lawn Hill the dirt road steadily got rougher, then once we entered the National Park the corrugations really started to kick in & the last 20km was reasonably rough, I’m glad we weren’t towing the Karavan.

Lawn Hill Gorge is a pretty spot & we hired a canoe for a couple of hours & paddled up the gorge until the waterfall, ported the canoe about 40m around it, then continued up the gorge until we came to the source of the springs.  Apparently 5,000 litres a second come out of the ground and keep the Lawn Hill Creek flowing continually, it was certainly gushing fairly fast when we were there. We had our lunch at the top of the gorge then paddled back to the bottom of the gorge, all around  a bit over 2 hours.  Very pretty, Tereza took lots of photos whilst I paddled, a little disappointed we didn’t see any freshwater crocodiles as some of the returning canoeists had.  We then went on the “Wild Dog Dreaming” walk to the bottom gorge past some aboriginal paintings & rock carving.  Again the walk was very pleasant with the rugged backdrop of the deep iron red cliffs and hills adding to the beauty of the walk.

The time was getting on so we then started heading back & called in to Adels Grove, now a caravan & camping park, but formerly an experimental plant farm set up by the

government.  We bought an ice cream & had a walk around the gorge, pretty, but we much prefer our campsite at Gregory River.  Back home (the Karavan) with the obligatory corrugations & unpredictable cattle once more. We received some Telstra NextG mobile coverage on top of a hill (god knows where from) on the way & stopped to check & see how my dad was faring after his heart tests & discussed the stent the doctors put in during the tests, apparently he had a pretty bad blockage so they did it straight away.

This afternoon it was coffee time & whilst I was having a wash in the river next to the Karavan, Tereza whisked out a birthday cake she had kept hidden from me, put a candle in it & sang happy birthday to me when she brought it out.  What a sweetheart.  Whilst sitting having the coffee & cake we were surrounded by crimson finches looking for a place to camp for the night in the pandanus next to us.  It’s simply amazing the amount & variety of birdlife here.  I even spotlighted a very large freshwater prawn in the crystal clear waters of the river.

I am always amazed that you drive for 100’s of kilometres & all you see is Savannah country, no change & than a place like Lawn Hill.  It is amazing to see those enormous red cliffs.  I was paddled up and down the river like Queen Muck, lovely but I was not under any illusion – Ron didn’t want to get his camera wet.  We packed some wraps and fruit for lunch so that was our special birthday meal.  Dinner was even more special, left overs with a glass of wine and yogurt for desert, under starlight & full moon, next to a campfire & a bubbling river.

Last night we decided to back track 207 km to Burke and Wills Roadhouse rather than go through Burketown on a very rough and corrugated dirt road to Gregory Downs, it only added a few extra km.  Burke & Wills Road House is the only place between Cloncurry & Normanton (390 km).  The road was the same, same just from the other way.  A real cavalcade of caravans/motorhomes came from the opposite direction and almost no other vehicle.   We fuelled up & had lunch at the Roadhouse.  The road to Gregory Downs was flat grass land, some salt bushes and low shrubs.  This time we saw a lot of cattle grazing.  I asked Ron not to let me go to sleep because I won’t be able to sleep at night, a couple of times he poked me in the ribs and said “talk to me” I asked “what about” we are together 24/7.  Gregory Downs is a working cattle station/caravan park, from the road we didn’t like it.  We drove a little further & as we were crossing over the Gregory River we couldn’t believe our eyes, a beautiful oasis of bubbling river, green trees and about 20 other campers.  We are camping on a million dollar real estate, it is a little heaven.

We went for a walk and met most of the neighbours – a friendly lot and they all love it here.  We went for a swim – it’s fast flowing.  There is a bend in the river and it washes you around the corner – what fun!  Then it was time for our customary cheese, biscuits and wine, I have water with a squeeze of lemon (how I miss good Canberra water).

We enjoyed watching the birds bath and flitter around, there are so many here. At dusk we made a fire and had jaffles for dinner and celebrated Ron’s last day as a 54 year old.

We woke to a breezy 22 Celsius.  During the night we didn’t need very much covering.  This morning we are off to Karumba.  Ron always wanted to see it.  It’s a Mecca for fishermen.  We have been warned that it wasn’t likely we’d get accommodation.  70 km from Normanton to Karumba is nothing for us who travel hundreds of km in a day.  Just outside of Normanton is some marsh land and a lovely billabong full of water lilies, apparently a haven for crocodiles too.  The road side vista to Karumba consists of some spindly thickets of trees and then flat land with very sparse clumps of grass.  I arrived in Karumba with a city mentality, I got a shock, there is hardly any substantial building there and red dust & sand blowing strongly.  I wanted to take a photo but Ron wouldn’t let me – he said that the dust & sand would get into the camera.  We did the sites by walking on a short mangrove boardwalk then we sat in the car listening to the wind and watching the sandbars grow in the mouth of the Normanton River as the tide went out  (I don’t know who started snoring first).

The most amazing thing there is this beautiful big tavern on the riverbank – Sunset Tavern, looking out over the mouth of the Norman River & the extensive sand & mudflats.  This was about the only place to get food.  We had the best ever seafood platter – it was beautiful!!  A little bit too far to drive from Canberra though.  We were sitting next to a very interesting Swiss couple, they have been in Australia 8 times, mainly in the outback and they are loving every moment here.  They know more about Australia then the average born and bred.  The wind died down, the tide went further out and after such a good feed we went for a long walk on the beach and enjoyed watching the mud skippers.  I really warmed to the place and accepted that this is the outback.  I am so glad that we came here, Ron can die in peace without wondering.  We left with a kilo of the freshest prawns – $15

Today was decision day about my “transition to retirement” plans so I had to bite the bullet, make the decision & post the paperwork off at the Cloncurry Post Office.  We also took the opportunity to refuel & fill our second gas bottle plus buy a few spare batteries for torches etc.

The rest of the day was spent driving a fairly lonely (as in not much traffic and NO towns) from Cloncurry to Normanton, a distance of 392km. The roads were mostly long & straight, with a little bit of intermission for roadworks & some slowdowns for some of the roadkill.  The most prominent birdlife here is Black Kites & Wedge Tail eagles at the side of the road feeding on the roadkill.  I can’t remember seeing a crow at all, where previously they have been the most common. The country is mostly very poor soil with low shrubs & grasslands.  Another prominent feature is the termite mounds, there must be millions & millions of them all grouped reasonably closely together & seeming to go on for ever.

Our first stop in Normanton was the dump point, then the caravan park where we managed to grab the last powered campsite for a couple of nights.  As we were setting up a small interested crowd gathered to watch the Karavan go up.  They had never seen a Kimberley Karavan before & were fascinated by its construction, how quick it was to set up & all the features inside.  The one that impressed the ladies (and Tereza) the most was the inside toilet.

Normanton has a few interesting old buildings in the main street.  After setting up we had some cheese, bikkies & a coffee (this time not a red) then went on a walk around town in the cool of the late afternoon.  Some of the old buildings are very well preserved & still in use, the Westpac Bank is still trading in the same wooden building as originally built & is on the National Trust list.  We also came across a replica of the largest crocodile ever shot in Australia near Normanton, it was over 28 feet long & had a very large head.  I’m glad it was only the replica we came across.

We left Cloncurry after we boosted their economy with a good tail wind behind us. The vista changed from yesterday, the earth changed to red and we had some low hills but still a lot of flat poor scrubby grass land.  We had more changes of kilometre after kilometre of sameness.  For 2 days now we haven’t had radio, Elvis or salsa, just the hum of the car, the gentle sway of the grass, the long road ending in the big blue sky – it lulls you into a peaceful tranquillity.

Arriving at Normanton you’d think another small town, but NO you have got the most brilliantly painted houses, I mean like lime green, orange, red, bright yellow and purple – it’s wonderful.  We have been getting into warmer weather as we are travelling further north.

The caravan park has got everything here, even an artesian bore swimming pool with nice and clean facilities.  We caused a bit of an excitement, like a visiting circus.  We had some interest prior in the Karavan but never like today – we had at least half a dozen people watching how we set it up and they were amazed how quickly it went up & what was inside.  Ron was the acrobat doing all the work and me the ring leader explaining it all.  I don’t know if there is so little excitement around here or is it because we are all parked in cheek to jowl.  The hot water in the showers is straight out of the artesian bore, hot, smelling of sulphur & soapy.  A little bit of getting used to.

On the road again.  From A to B 540km a little bit too much but there wasn’t a lot in between Longreach and Cloncurry.  A lot of caravans were on the road and some road trains whizzed past. The scenery didn’t change very much from flat dry, poor looking grass land, very rarely a few sheep grazing, no homestead, just the railway line and telegraph poles. A lot of road kill, crows and some wedge tail eagles and black kites.  It was rather exciting when we came up to some jump ups (little mounds popping up in a dead flat land) and termite mounds as we got closer to Cloncurry.

Another amazing site was the swarms of locusts we came across.  One swarm was so large I first noticed what I thought was a dust cloud about 5km away & I commented to Tereza that it was unusual to see a dust cloud that big, there must be some farmer ploughing to create that much dust.  No, as we got closer & closer it turned out it was a massive swarm of locusts.  Driving through it we must have killed thousands of locusts, but travelling at 90km/hr they just bounce off the windscreen, rather than smear all over it.  As the day wore on & it got hotter, (up to 30C at around 3pm) the locusts flew higher than the car so we didn’t hit as many.  When we finally stopped in Cloncurry I cleaned all the dead locusts out of the grill.  We have a wire mesh screen in front of the radiator for just these occurrences so the radiator didn’t get clogged with them.

We found a little caravan park (about 20 campers), very basic bush setting (Wal’s Bush Camp) but it has good hot showers. The $10 nightly fee is paid into an honesty box.  We were immediately accepted into this community, people came and chatted to us about the usual.  We cooked our dinner with another very interesting couple from Kurunda (near Cairns) on a wood fuel stove under a beautiful huge black sky full of stars.

After breakfast we went into town, as it is Saturday the Post Office, Bank, etc. are closed & the shops  only open until lunchtime.  We went to the Travel Centre and booked a paddle boat and sunset dinner cruise bush entertainment.  After that we went to The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame – very interesting, a lot of history of the forefathers/mothers of the outback in a modern big building.  They had an entertaining man show us the skill of his two horses and his sheep dog and 6 huge bullocks.  We had a huge hamburger and chips for lunch and finished looking at the rest of the museum.

We had to stock up on some groceries – lucky IGA supermarket was open (that’s the only big supermarket here).

At 4.30pm a bus picked us up from the front of the caravan park, when we arrived we saw this little old paddle boat (the photographer for the pamphlet must have been very skilled at photo shop).  We had a shiny new bus load of people, amazingly we all fitted on and the fun began.  The captain gave us a wonderful commentary about the Thomson River and the area, a young fellow (dressed to fit into those movies, the paddle boats on the Mississippi) served very nice nibbles. Unfortunately the beautiful sun set didn’t eventuate. It was good chatting to people, where they have been and where they are going and giving us advice about what we must see.  After an hour we docked and the fun really began – Mulligan stew, apple pie and custard followed by damper and billy tea all under a beautiful big star lit sky.  Our multi-talented captain sang Australian folk songs and ballads (with a few American ones thrown in). Then a gentleman called Milton entertained us for the rest of the night by bush poetry.  A great time had by all.

We planned to stay at Longreach for at least 2 nights but I think it will be 3.  We wanted to have a leisurely look around The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and any other interest in town.  Early morning rise (beat the rush to the toilets) leisurely breakfast – everything starts after 9 am.  By 8 am everyone at the camp is awake (generators started up for cooking and hot water) we thought that we will start ours up too because we were unusually low on batteries and we needed to charge up the computer etc. That’s when my leisurely day started and Ron’s headache just began, he can tell you all about that.

Well, a little battery charging problem.  The batteries were unusually low after being on power for 3 full days at Carnarvon Gorge & I put it down to the fridge door that had swung open on our trip to Barcaldine.  Wrong.  The generator was fired up & the 240v battery charger was not doing anything.  The solar panels on the roof were working and the additional solar panels on the ground were working & charging at 14 Amps, but no 240v additional power.  So, I spent all morning poring over the manuals & wiring diagram, tracing the wiring & checking all of the electronics.  I traced through all of the additional wiring & electronics installed with the solar panels & finally discovered a switch that was not in the manual.  It needed to be turned on to connect the 240V battery charger output to the batteries.  After that the batteries were charging at 24 Amps with both solar & the generator & I kept the generator running all afternoon to boost the battery condition up.

We have so far told you all the wonderful times we are having.  I avoided the little mishaps, like we left Ron’s ‘phone charger at home (not too bad the car charges it) my camera’s charger and a cable to down load the photos (not too bad Ron’s camera is working). After Carnarvon Gorge’s well graded road the brake for the caravan stopped working, Ron had to fix it up, the nob from our brand new second gas bottle shook off (we are hoping to unscrew it from the other one when that’s empty as in Longreach you cannot buy one of those).  We wanted to bring some of our favourite CDs  (no worries we found Elvis Presley’s 72 greatest hits and a Latin American dance music in the glove box – they will be worn out or thrown out before the end of our trip).   Ron fixed the problem after lunch.   I am so glad that Ron is so handy because if it would have been up to my skills we would have been walking or on the next bus home.

We celebrated Ron’s victory by a glass of red and cheese and later on a romantic sun set walk – this place has fantastic sun sets.

A glorious morning in Barcaldine, we are the first to cook our bacon and eggs at the BBQ (the smell woke the rest).  A great rest area with lovely clean toilets, BBQs, tables, benches and quite neighbours (we are right next to the dead centre of town).  We got to talk to the young couple with 2 young children traveling around Australia in an old Toyota van (our Karavan was like the Taj Mahal with all the mod cons on wheels) told us that we will find a beaut rest area where we can camp for 4 days free at Longreach. (People have been warning us that caravan spots are at a premium at Longreach)  We only had a short drive so we were there by 9.30 am.  First we had a tour of the Qantas museum.  We went through a Boeing 747 Spirit of Bundaberg then 707 The City of Canberra – the last owner was an Arabian prince and ambassador to the United Nations – his name may not be revealed or the table he ate/drank or wrote from cannot be seen.  Most of the other furnishing and wood panelling remained, ensuite with plush arm chair leather toilet, (what I’d give for one of those on a cold Canberra night) bidet, shower, queen size bed, lounge, study, an enormous bar (those Arabs must indulge in a lot of juice and lemonade) the servants and other hanger on-ers (most likely the extra wives) in another area would be the envy of any 1^st class ‘plane traveller.  From my cattle class travel experience it sure seems like heaven.

We went to find a spot at this free APEX caravan park.  It is a big paddock by the Thomson River with quite a lot of campers settled in.  There are toilets, tables and wooden BBQs (that no one uses, we are a push button society).  We had lunch and went back to the museum.  On our return we found that the paddock was filled with about 50 campers!!!  If the refugees would have to live like this they would turn around on their leaking boats and never return.  We cooked dinner at our Taj Mahal.

We got up with the birds, put on a load of washing, had a hair wash (you just never know where the next 3 minute shower will come along) and breakfast.  The packing up is quick. On the road again.  We see quite a few caravans, there are not too many off road ones though, we haven’t come across one like ours yet.  It is flat grass land with a few low trees and scrubby bush on either side of the road, no sheep, cattle or houses to be seen anywhere.  In the far distance there are some beautiful mountain ranges.  It is all very peaceful.  We have been out of telephone and internet range – it was good to hear that we had 4 messages.  We talked to Monica and James (I got quite home sick to think that we still have 2 and half months to go before seeing them and my gorgeous Jackson and Austin.)  We got through to Dad and caught up with some friends while we could. Small towns and hamlets are very far and few in between.  We planned to stop for the night at a small place called Jericho but they didn’t have a suitable place.  No cheese wine and bickies today but another 86 km driving to the next rest area.  We have been alone on the road, it is dusk and Ron has to watch out for the kangaroos.  The bonus is that we see a glorious sun set.  It is dark when we arrived at the rest area, 2 kms east from Barcaldine. We thought that we will have it all to ourselves but to our amazement we had at least 12/14  campers.  In 5 minutes we were ready to cook dinner at the community BBQ and meld into the community.  It is amazing the people you meet on a trip like this.  A couple who live just around the corner from my brother’s place in Wagga, a truck driver knows Ron’s uncle Reg in Kiama, a young family come from Alstonville, very close to where Suanne, Ron’s sister lives.