It is July already. Great aussie winter......It must be the nights that the ozzies are referring to when they say winter..... It drops down to around 13 degrees at night in this region of Oz.......during the day it certainly does not feel like winter....... roughly 35 degrees during the day.............
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
It’s becoming more and more difficult to stick to my duties when it comes to keeping our diary and catalogue the photographs we’re taking. It is so much nicer to sit around the camp fire, relax and have a glass of wine……….. but, I know it is important to keep track of what we’re doing.
Last time I wrote that we were in Mareeba. That was the 20st of May. The following morning we left Mareeba after stocking up our supplies and fuel. Fully loaded with all the gear we needed, we went to Chillagoe. Initially to spend only 1 night, but we stayed two nights at the observatory campground. We stayed in the paddock behind the camp ground, which to us was also very well equipped to be a camp ground and were the only ones there. Fantastic. No stress that someone might hear Ykki during the night, we woke up with the sun and could enjoy a peaceful evening together under a sky which was bursting with stars. In Chillagoe it was quite warm, but dry warm, so not too bad. We went up to the balancing rock in the National Park, took some pictures, saw some aboriginal rock art in the morning. In the afternoon, we joined a tour in the caves. The children enjoyed it very much. Ykki was very brave and wanted to walk most parts herself, which was at times a bit scary for us. But we all survived and enjoyed the tour. Beautiful caves!
After 2 nights in Chillagoe we took the back road to the Undarra Lava Tubes. A beautiful drive on a dirt road, nobody around and simply lovely to do.
When
we arrived at the Undarra Lava tubes we were just in time to join a tour to
visit the Lava Tubes. Nice to do, but a bit too commercialized. Great guide
though, who knew a lot, didn’t mind that the children wanted to walk most of the
tour themselves and was very relaxed with everything. The Lava tubes themselves
are interesting to see, especially when you hear how they are formed (hot lava
streamed out of a vulcano, cooled at the top and beneath the surface the lava
kept running underground for at least 65 km and when the lava stream stopped
running a tube was formed).
Because we were in time for the tour the previous day, we left the following morning to continue our journey on the Savannah Way (goes from Cairns to Broome, mainly gravel and dirt road, but those who prefer bitumen can take a different road). Savannah way is the way we like it.....
We spent a night in Croydon at the caravan park and because nothing much to do or see there except a very old type of supermarket with still the old shelves and style of the early nineteen hundreds, we continued our journey to Normanton. Half way we stopped at the Wild Bull train station and at the same time some old T-Fords stopped there as well. Guess what: they are traveling around Australia with a group of old T-Fords (some with caravans/trailers) and raise money for the Flying Doctors. I bet they do well! Of course we contributed our share.
In Normanton we stocked up some missing items and fresh veggies before heading to Kunarra Point where we wanted to spend the night. On our way the road was blocked because of a truck that had caught fire. Very scary to see that the fire brigade did not have a proper tank truck with water to extinguish the fire, so as soon as they ran out of water the flames returned again. And it took at least half an hour before they would return again…… with a bit of water pumped form a local creek that still held some water. After a long wait (2 hours), we were allowed to pass through a bush road, and we headed on to Kunarra to……quickly get out of there again. Both camp grounds were so extremely full (a lot of grey nomads kind of go there during winter to do some fishing..... and we can tell you, there were a lot of them, like canned sardines squeezed into the campground; trailer to trailer to trailer). So full that some people were not even able to put the awning out (which requires roughly 2 meters to set up), so packed were they to their "neighbours". Not for us, so back in the direction of Normanton. Because it was getting late we decided to spend the night at a rest area: Walkers Creek rest area. Nothing more than a more or less cleared area near a river, so unfortunately the children could not play outside (croc country, and a lot of dirt and rubbish left by roadworkers when they upgraded the roads in the area a few years ago). But…… no complaints when it is for free!
getting some fuel at the local workshop in Normanton
After again making sure that we were fully stocked up with groceries and fuel in Normanton, we hit the dirt road and had lunch at the Burke and Willis monument. These guys traveled around Australia when there were no roads, no supplies, absolutely nothing around. No surprise they died during their adventures!
The road was good and it was simply so nice to travel through a part of the country not many people travel. Clearly savannah type of landscape with lots of yellow grass and short trees/shrubs. And millions of termite mounds. Intriguing to see! We spend the night at the Leichhart falls bush camp. We had seen in our book that there should be a bush camp there, but very nice people showed us where it actually was. Amazing to spend the night with just two other campers around under a fantastic star filled sky.
From there we decided to take a detour away from the Savannah Way and visit the Boodjamulla National Park (Also known as Lawn Hill National Park). We heard good stories about that park, so it seemed to be worth the detour. We stayed at the campground at the National Park. Nice campground, but a bit narrow sites. Boodjamulla is a popular place to go to, which surprised us, because it is in the middle of nowhere. We stayed nights. We visited the World Heritage site called Riversleigh D. An interesting place where a lot of fossils can be seen. A rough ride, but worth the detour. Because it was rather warm, we decided to fill the bath tub with water for the children to play in. They thought it was marvelous till Ykki hurt her foot.
From Boodjamulla we took the back road to King Fisher Camp, also known as KFC. A beautiful drive which really gave us the feeling that we were alone in the world. I opened about 50 gates (and closed them again), which gave us the opportunity to really look around. Fantastic to do.
At KFC we stayed 2 nights. It is an oasis in the middle of nowhere and it is just nice to have a rest place. Facilities are minimal, but good enough for us. We decided to go to one of the private gorges of the camp. A nice drive through a beautiful landscape, through a locked gate and a walk of about 1km through a river bedding (not easy with a child on your shoulders!), which brought us to a gorge where we could swim. The feeling of being alone in the world was a bit daunting, but nice at the same time.
Back at KFC the children made some nice paintings (including giving the table some fresh paint) and they both did an attempt to use the scissors. Not completely successful, but …… practice is the important word here.
From KFC we returned to the Savannah Way. We spent the night near the Kangaroo Creek, a bush camp. Interesting enough, within 5 minutes after we pulled up at the site around 5pm, 2 other cars pulled up and asked us if we would mind if they could join us. Well, we were actually looking forward to a quiet night alone, but because there are not so many bush camp sites we couldn’t say no of course.
Quentin thought it was great to throw his shovel and bucket in the water. So we lost both of them to the crocs/wilderness. Not such a fantastic plan, because the warning signs for crocs are everywhere. Luckily one of the other campers could fetch his bucket, but the shovel was declared lost. Too far into the water……. If in 1000 years time people find a blue plastic shovel near Kangaroo Creek,…. Well, that was from Quentin!
We also found out that one of the shock breakers on the trailer was broken. Luckily Rogier was able to fix it! Glad to have such a handy man!
The following morning we entered our next state: Northern Territory! We were very much looking forward to this part of our trip, because we heard good stories about it!
Our
next stop was Borolloola. An aboriginal town thriving because of the mine
nearby. A relatively well maintained town with good facilities. We spend there 1
night at the town’s only caravan park. Stocked up on water and went to the
Medical Centre. Ykki had hurt her big toe of her right foot in Lawn Hill
National Park and it got infected. Because the doctor would only be there the
following week, the aboriginal health worker looked at her toe. Not sure how
well she was trained already, but we left with penicillin and a bag full of
goodies such as bandages etc. We were well looked after.
From Boroolla we returned to the Savannah way, where our first stop was the Lorella Springs camp ground. 30 km off the Savannah way over a not so well maintained road with lots of corrugations. But it was a really nice place (even though the facilities are very basic), so we decided to stay 2 nights. They have natural hot springs and it was delightful to just sit in the water and play with the children. Steve, Claire and Noel also stayed there and asked us to join them for a fishing tour on the property. Rogier was of course honoured and took his rod out. None of the man were lucky, but it was fun enough anyways. The children played in an almost dry riverbed and thought it was fantastic! In the evening we joined Steve, Claire and Noel for a BBQ and a camp fire. We found out that one of Claire’s best friends is Christine who happens to have been my colleague in Brisbane. What a coincidence! Claire (just like Christine also a nurse) also looked at Ykki’s toe, because she had a very high fever during the day. Not sure what caused the fever, but some paracetamol and a good night’s sleep helped already heaps. Lorella Springs was fantastic and brings back good memories already.
(looking for the trail leading to the fishing spot that Steve mentioned; we
never found the track, but we found a fishing spot; supposedly should have been
large Barra, but none of the guys caught anything)
Barbie at night with Noel, Steve and Claire; yeah the kids stayed up till 9.30pm; for us it got a tit bit late; Aussie campfire stories........
The following day we continued to Tinnan River Fisher camp. A camp site ran by aboriginals and fully packed with fisher men (read: Aussies that have one goal, fishing during their holidays in croc infested waters - strange people those aussies) …… not our piece of cake, so we only stayed 1 night. The facilities were simply lousy and very filthy!
This part of the Savannah way was much rougher than the part from Normanton to Boroloolla. But also really beautiful. We visited the Southern Lost city which is an amazing natural appearance. Silly us were there at the middle of the day when it was very hot. The walking tour proved a bit too difficult for us with the children on our shoulders in that temperature, so we did not finish it and returned to the car after a few hundred metres.
Before
we hit the bitumen we spent the night at Roper Bar at the Leichardts
caravan park. A strange caravan park and a strange place this Roper Bar. We had
to pay the camp fees at the road house, which was completely surrounded by
barbed wire! Absolutely an unfriendly place. And in the middle of the
night visitors to one of the caravans at the campsite…… maybe also not 100%
legal perhaps. Unnecessary to say that we only spend 1 night there. Unnecessary
to say that we only spend 1 night there. We did visit however the old police
station. Some idiot had wrecked the place and set fire to all the tourist
information signs and painted Jesus on all the buildings, but it was still clear
that the police in the old days did not have an easy job. We also crossed the
river a couple of times, just to take some good pictures of the car in the water
and simply just for fun.
Roper bar general store (barb wire etc)
The old abandoned police station at Roper bar
river crossings are fun, especially when they put floodways (= concrete under water to drive on) like here at Roper river
Crocs around and rather fast flowing, so remain in the car at all times.
Our next stop was Mataranka. A great little village where we stayed at the Cabins and Caravan Park. The manager at Lorella Springs had recommended this place and she hadn’t said a word too much. We had a great spot near the river. A bit far from the amenities, but the peace and quiet was fantastic. Did all the laundry, which was dry within half an hour after washing (great climate). Never had the laundry dry that quickly. We went to the hot springs, which were not as nice as those at Lorella Springs. Not only because there were much more people, but also because they were a bit too deep for the children to play in. A pity that we could not swim the 400 m down the river flowing from the springs, because that is what these springs are known for. It was simply too deep for the children. We visited the old homestead which was a bit disappointing, but still nice to see. We had a Mango Smoothie at the Stockman gallery and bought some aboriginal art. The Mango smoothie is certainly worth to return for, which we did the following day and…… the day after……J. Also the pies are really nice.
From Mataranka we went to Katherine where we stayed at the Low Level Caravan Park. A Big 4 camping. Relatively well maintained, but not as good as previous Big 4 campings. Also around 7 o’clock entertainment starts which you can hear at the entire camp ground… country music…. There are probably people that liked it…. Well, we didn’t. We did stay 2 nights however, because we wanted to stock up on supplies which were really low after the Savannah way. Funny enough when we wanted to buy a cask of wine, we could only buy 1 litre. There are limitations in Katherine to how many bottles of alcohol you can buy per day (per person). The alcohol problems in the Aboriginal community are (apparently) enormous.
The children enjoyed a swim in the swimming pool. For us also nice after all the dirt roads and hot weather. I had bought 'floaties' for Quentin which he thought were great. It helps him to float and still be able to start to learn to swim in the pool. Hopefully we can manage to teach him to swim this trip. If it works well, we’ll buy one for Ykki too. It’s constantly around 30 degrees now, some days even hotter, around 35 degrees celcius.
From Katherine we decided to head via Kakadu to Darwin. Our initial encounter with Kakadu was a bit disappointing. Not much different from what we had seen before and the people at the information centre at the south entrance were friendly but not very helpful. It seemed to us that they only wanted to send us to the camp grounds where you had to pay and where the rest of the people went. Having a mind of our own, we decided to stay 2 nights at the Maguk camp ground. A great place with hardly any people. No facilities, other than just a pit toilet, but that was good enough after our luxurious stay at the Big 4 in Katherine. In Kakadu we’ve visited some of the famous rock art sites such as Nourlangie. Massive amounts of rock art which were clearly visible. We did some of the walks (which Quentin didn’t like very much!), which were close to the rock art and to some good look outs. Our first impression of Kakadu was not very positive: thoughts like …. Is this it?…… I’ve seen similar before….., but after we’d seen the rock art we started to understand what all the fuss is about.
We tried to arrange a day tour with one of the operators, but with none of them we could follow the touring bus with our own car (tag along). Since most tours are at least a couple of hours and the more interesting ones at least a day, we preferred to use our own car. We’ve probably missed out on a couple of things, but otherwise it would have been very tiring for the children.
In Jabiru, we also organized a permit to go to Oenpelli to visit the art centre. A special permit was required because Oenpelli lies in Arnhemland, Aboriginal country.
Back at Maguk campground we built a nice fire and sat outside once the children were in bed. So nice to sit outside with a beautiful sky full of stars and no other noise than just the insects and some undefined animals.
campfire
at Maguk campground 
Rock art
Interesting......
After 2 days at Maguk we went more north and stayed at the Meli camp site near Ubir. That is also close to the Arnhem land border. Ubir, an aboriginal site, was really nice. A steep and long climb up to the top (with two kids), but definitely worth the effort. Great view over the wetlands and the Arnhemland ranges, from the top of Ubir. The children went almost to the top, but the last bit was a bit too much.
The drive to Oenpelli was beautiful. After crossing the East Alligator river we drove through astonishing surroundings. We were just in time before the 2 o’clock Saturday closure of the art centre (nobody informed us that they close at 2 on Saturday!). But the manager gave us some time to have a look around. We bought some art and have it shipped to The Netherlands. Hopefully it will arrive there!
After a night filled with mosquitoes (it was absolutely impossible to sit outside and it is very interesting to have a shower with about 50 mosquitos waiting to attack you once you’re finished showering) we drove in the direction of Darwin. Just before we left we had a cup of coffee at the Border store. Here we met Bill (Maku). He had been training the Aboriginals in Oenpelli to drive trucks. Clearly wanting to talk to someone we had a nice chat. He advised us to buy some canvas and paint after we told him that we had plans to go to Nhulumbuy. He gave us directions to find some aboriginal artists and he was sure that they would make something beautiful for us. Also gave the address of an art supply store in Parap village in Darwin.
After we finished the coffee we drove to Mary Rivers National Park. We arrived there at the Couzens campsite. There was no-one! And it was a beautiful campsite near a billabong filled with birds and other wild life. We had a fantastic view over the Billabong. We set up the trailer and decided to have a river cruise over the Mary River. It was a fantastic cruise. Very interpretative and we saw heaps of crocodiles (salties and freshies) and an abundance of bird life.
Brolga 
Croc tour in an open boat
Salty
Salty sunbathing 
sun does amazing things to the sky in Oz
Back at the camp Rogier had made a camp fire and again after the children were in bed we could sit in all peace and quietness near the fire with all the nightlife noises in the back ground. Fantastic. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there (under the mosquito net, because of course in the wetlands are very many mozzies).
Great when you’re traveling in a petrol guzzling car like ours!
The following morning we drove to Darwin. We stayed at the Lee point Village caravan park in the Northern part of Darwin. We are still surprised that in the bigger cities caravan parks tend to be near the busy roads with all the road trains and other traffic. Weird. This one was not near a busy road, but the camp ground was extremely full. The facilities were good though and for a city camp ground not too bad.
In Darwin we stayed 4 nights. Not so much because we had a lot of sight seeing to do,…. No but because we had some repairs for the trailer that needed to be fixed, the car needed to have it’s 50k service, we had to buy shoes for Ykki, medical examination for the kids and chest X-rays for us for the tourist visa and had to stock up on supplies again. Buying shoes was a big adventure, because there are no children shoe shops in Darwin. And the shops that normally do have shoes, did not have them this time of the year, because they did not want to stock winter shoes. Understandable because of the high temperatures, but we haven’t been able to figure out why they also did not stock summer shoes. The medical examination was embarrassing. Normally tourist visa are relatively easy to obtain, but we suspect that because Quentin had Down syndrome the checks are extra thorough. They will never say that, but the feeling was clearly there. We even had to hand in all the reports the Sydney doctors had written about Quentin. Not nice!
The service for the car took all day and we had to wait about 2 hours at the Toyota dealer after the time they had asked us to come back. Probably the Darwin way of doing things slowly.
The repairs for the trailer were done by Pratt NT, a Jayco recommended trailer repairer. Well,……amazing that people can make such a mess of their business. The trailer had to be there at 8 in the morning so we had set the alarm clock at 5.30 to make sure we would be in time. When we arrived it took about half an hour before they finally checked the trailer in and understood what repairs needed to be done. At the end of the day we picked the trailer up, expecting it to be all fixed. Nope, on arrival at the the camp ground we discovered that most of the repairs were not done/done only half. You can imagine the feelings we had about that!
The following morning we had to go back to them to pick up the stone guard that needed new welding, so we took the opportunity to clearly explain to them that this was not up to standards. They fixed a couple of things, but definitely not everything. And of course again waiting, waiting, waiting…….
We haven’t seen much of Darwin itself. Not many of the tourist attractions than just the Esplanade. Which is beautiful by the way. We also bought some canvas and paint in the art supply shop.
Once we finally had done all the necessary things in Darwin we could head back south. Because of all the delays with Pratt NT we didn’t quite make it to Litchfield, so we decide to stay at the Lake Bennett Wilderness Lodge. On our HEMA map it was indicated that they had camp sites, but upon arrival they told us that they stopped providing camp ground facilities. Luckily for us it was already 5 o’clock and they let us stay at the still in tact powered sites. And of course we were the only ones camping there. We think they wanted to upgrade their facilities to more lodge type ones. A good location for it we believe.
From Lake Bennett we went to Litchfield National Park. We heard good stories about it and it was supposed to be better than Kakadu. We stayed at the Florence Falls 4WD campground for 2 days. A tough ride down to the camp ground with the trailer, but we managed and because we were early we were lucky to get a spot. Because we were early at the campsite we decided to go straight away for sight seeing and visited the 4WD only accessible gorge near Sandy Creek campground. A fantastic drive through a rather deep creek (80 cm), which the car did easily! When we arrived at the parking place to go to the gorge we discovered that the walk was at least 1,5 km (one way!), which is a very long walk for the kids. So we decided to take them on the shoulders again. Not an easy walk, but definitely worth to do. The gorge was fantastic and I had a nice swim. The children and Rogier thought it was way to cold….. chickens!
Find Martine in this picture!
The
following morning we had a coffee near the Wilderness lodge and visited an
abandoned tin mine site. Dzjee, not easy living in those early days. We also
went to the very popular and thus busy gorge nearby where we had lunch. After
that we drove to the magnetic termite mounds before returning home. We packed
our swimming gear and walked to the Florence Falls gorge. On our way we say a
snake slithering away….scary stuff. Rogier and the kids had a great swim and
loved the water.
One of the lookouts was near heaps of magnetic termite mounds. Weird flat termite mounds.
The following morning we left Litchfield again and after filling up the fuel tank in Batchelor we continued our journey to Katherine again. This time we did not stay in the Low Level Big 4 campground, but decided to go to the Springvale homestead instead. Wish we knew that one the first time around! Much better and much quieter than the Big 4. Thank goodness no entertainment other than a 3 o’clock talk about the history of the homestead. We had an unpowered site near the billabong and it was simply good. The facilities are so so, but good enough.
After stocking up on groceries in Katherine we left to go to Nhulumbuy. We were hoping to stay at the Mainoru store/campground, but when we arrived there we found out that it was closed on Tuesday…….despite the fact that all information we got (HEMA map, info from the permit people etc.) mentioned 7 days service. So we had to continue our journey more north. Just before Bulman we drove through a deep dip with a very deep wash out. The trailer hit the ground very hard and all wiring was simply cut off…. which means: no electric brakes on the trailer, no lights on the trailer, no electricity to the fridge……………. Bummer! The only thing we could do was drive to Bulman to see if they could fix it. The manager of the store was very friendly and helped as much as he could, but unfortunately he was also not able to fix it. Despite that we were officially not allowed to stay in Bulman, we found a bush camp appr 30 k north of Bulman and spend the night there. The police checked us to see if we were completely kosher, and gave us the go ahead to stay there. The following morning Rogier was able to fix the damage to the wiring and some internal damage in the trailer.
Some bush repairs along Arnhem Land road after we bottomed out in a dip with a wash out; some of the cupboards needed reinforcing.
We continued our journey on the Central Arnhemland road, but because we left our bush camp rather late, we had to stay another night near the Arnhem land road. This time at Flat Rock Creek. A designated bush camp area near a lovely creek. We thought it was fantastic and were delighted that there were no other campers there that night.
Travelling on the Central Arnhemland road is fantastic. Beautiful surroundings, hardly any traffic and the sheer pleasure of feeling alone on the world. Of course traveling a road like this one is only possible with the safety equipment (satphone, Epirb, UHF radio) and enough food and water we have on board. We were even able to call Lonneke for her birthday. Amazing how things work.
The following morning we continued to Nhulumbuy where were we arrived just after lunch. We went straight away to the Aboriginal settlement Bill (Maku) told us about to ask if Jennifer would want to make a painting especially for us. Rogier was the brave one asking Jay-lo and Jennifer to do that for us and they did say yes! We left the paint and the canvas with them and hoped for the best (that they would paint something specially for us). We could pick the painting up at 8 in the morning on Sunday!
After obtaining our recreation permit (yes another permit, this time we had to pay for it) we looked around for a campground and decided that the Goanna lagoon campground sounded nice. Well,………it took us 1 hour for the 6 km from the main road to the campground. The track was extremely narrow and not maintained at all…. Thanks to Rogier’s excellent driving skills and here and there bending a tree (no not breaking, just bending) no damage to car nor trailer. The campsite itself was lovely near a creek and the locals assured us that we could safely swim there.
Kids enjoying Goanna Lagoon campground (shallow water, so no crocs): I still
do not know how we got the trailer in and out of this place (such a tight road
through the bush with turns and mud pools as well as a lot of trees that were
planted on the road, well road.......
The following morning we had to take the same track back again, because we had to stay the obligatory night in the Peninsula lagoon Motel. As part of the permit to travel the Arnhemland road you have to book commercial accommodation at one of the 2 hotels in Nhulumbuy. The motel itself was okay with a nice swimming pool and a good shower. But it is a bit of a hassle to have to stay in a motel and spend a lot of money ($165) and carry all you stuff out the trailer whilst the beds in the trailer are much nicer! Nevertheless we slept well, the children slept amazingly well on their makeshift beds on the floor and we all got really clean in the shower. Before checking in at the hotel we went to Yirkala and visited the art centre there. It took a while before we found it (directions were not really clear from several local Aborginals and only when we asked the European taxi driver we could find it… talking about cultural differences J), but it was definitely worth to see. Fantastic artwork for good prices. Because we already bought art in Oenpelli and because Jennifer was painting something for us, we only bought a small stature. You can only buy so much art before it gets boring we think.
Because of our experience with the Goanna lagoon track we decided to check some of the other campgrounds without the trailer which we left at the Motel parking lot. The ones we saw were not really suitable for our trailer, so Rogier asked at the court house where else we would be allowed to camp. They did not know, and the police was not there and the locals mentioned that we could camp anywhere……..Cape Wirrawuy looked good to us, near the beach, so we decide to spend the night at the Alkan carpark at Cape Wirrawuy. Definitely not as quiet as we hoped for with locals spending the afternoon and early evening fishing and walking there and during the night the local youth checking out if they could do some naughty things there. Also the mozzies were a real plague. The following morning someone from Dimuru came by and said that the Traditional owners did not really appreciate it that we camped there, but that it was not illegal to camp there. We convinced him that the previous day we tried everything to find out where else we could camp and he was satisfied. We showed him the HEMA map which mentions that it is a campground up there and that that caused the confusion.
The following morning we went back to the Aboriginal settlement at East Woody Beach where we left the paint and where we asked Jennifer to make a painting. We were there at 8 o’clock in the morning, but….. the painting was not yet finished. They asked us to pay, which we did, and asked us to come back around 10 o’clock. With a bit of a weird feeling: paying and not getting anything yet,… we left again to return at 10. Hoping they woud not do a runner on us. The painting was nearly finished and they showed us where Jennifer was painting: in their ‘house’ which was a real mess. Absolutely nothing can compare with that mess. But they were happily living there and Jennifer was painting on the floor. She must be at least close to 60 and is a really friendly woman. Jaylo invited us to sit under the tree whilst waiting for the painting to finish and dry. Jaylo is one of the elders in the community and it was an honour to spend some time with him and his family. Definitely intriguing. Jennifer’s daughter also made a painting (on ‘our’ canvas and with ‘our’ paint) which they tried to sell us, but enough is enough. We politely said no. A bit disappointing for them we think.
Jennifer, Jay-lo and Jennifers daughter
After we had the beautiful painting, we had a cup of coffee at the local golf club. People stared at us….. who are those strangers…….but we still kind of enjoyed our coffee.
The first night back on the Central Arnhemland road we spent again at Flat Rock Creek. A good place the first time and a good place the second time.
The
following morning we did the 500+ km in one go. On our way out of Arnhemland we
almost hit a water buffalo! Or did it almost hit us? It came suddenly rushing
out of the bush. With good steering from Rogier, both the buffalo and ourselves
had no damage. So we arrived safely around 5 in Katherine where we set up
camp again at the Springvale Homestead campground. Same campground, same spot,
nice and quiet again.
What a car, what a setup..... the perfect mix for the perfect trip around Oz
Tuesday July 15th, 2008, so what did we do over the last week
In the mean time we are in the Kimberley’s. We had a great week full with great camp sites, fantastic surroundings, lots of flies, good walks and just good feeling.
We stayed a couple if nights in Katherine. Just to stock up, some repairs to the trailer, do the washing and swim in the pool. We stocked up again on meet. This time we chose the butcher in the main street. And his meat is simply divine. Fantastic. Much better than the butcher in the shopping centre. We also bought a douna for Ykki at Target country. Her baby douna was getting a bit too small for her, so she was freezing part of the night. And we certainly noticed that because she would wake up several times a night crying.
Because everyone we met said that Katherine Gorge/Nitmiluk National Park was so amazingly beautiful we decided to give it a shot, even though it promised to be very touristy. After we had a coffee at the Jurassic gardens again, we continued to the Gorge. And boy it was busy. Nevertheless we booked the breakfast cruise the following morning so we could see the gorge properly.
The alarm clock went off at 5.45h, we quickly dressed the children in warm clothes (again a very cold night, so freezing in the morning) and whilst it was still dark we drove to the gorge. Finally we could use our big head lights on the car. Very useful I can say.
We arrived just in time for the start of the cruise and we joined a crowd of at least 40 others on the boat. The guide was a nice guy and as promised they provided breakfast. Thank goodness we took our own breakfast for Quentin, because even though they called the chef to check if everything was glutenfree, we didn’t trust it. They said that everything was gluten free. Since ‘everything’ also contained croissants, we did not really trust it. The cruise was nice and relaxing. We saw two of the gorges, had brekkie, took some pictures and were back early in the day. Si plenty of time to enjoy other things in the Canyon and have lunch at a pretty stretch of grass in the park.
Katherine gorge
After we did all the necessary things we left Katherine via the Victoria Highway. Our first camp was in Gregory National Park. A rough road led us to a good camp site near the Bullita homestead. We visited the homestead which had a good display about life at the homestead some decades ago. We liked Gregory, but really had enough of the flies after 2 days. We even spend part of the day in the trailer! We have to visit Gregory park again, but without trailer and perhaps without small children. A lot of the tracks in the park are very rough, remote and definitely 4WD. It gave us a bit the feeling that we could only see bits and pieces of a very beautiful park.
Homestead next to a Boab tree
The children though loved to play and after a full day of play in the sand, it was definitely necessary to have a shower. In the picture below, Ykki is not (!) wearing a long sleeved shirt, nor trousers! Just a tank top and a skirt.
Sand, dirt, bucket.... you guess the rest
Our next stop was at Keep River National Park. Amazingly beautiful park with good facilities, very good road condition and lovely walks. We stayed 2 nights simply because it was good. The ranger talk on Tuesday gave us some insight in the diversity of the park, it’s wildlife and it’s geographic features. On Wednesday we did the early morning walk near the camp site. A 2 km walk through a Bungle Bungle type landscape. The children had a ball and loved to walk most of the walk themselves. Great to see them help each other over ‘difficult’ parts of the track!
Debating the next steps
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Page last updated: 15-8-2009